The SEC Championship live blog: Dawgs get complete revenge and punch Playoff ticket

Georgia 28, Auburn 7, final. A total reversal of Round 1. Auburn again missed scoring chances, but they wouldn’t have even mattered. With a 240-yard rushing day against Auburn and an efficient day by Jake Fromm, Georgia again looks like the most complete team in the country, if not necessarily the best. At the moment, I’m projecting UGA to meet Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl. The last two Power 5 title games matter here, though.

Georgia 28, Auburn 7, 4:59. Oh, that glimmer of hope got snuffed out, BTW. Dawgs are going to the Playoff.

Georgia 28, Auburn 7, 8:34. The Tigers’ last glimmer of hope: UGA threw on third-and-2 and missed, stopping the clock and forcing a punt.

Georgia 28, Auburn 7, 10:34. D’Andre Swift, 64 yards, bounced out to the sideline. Playoff just about clinched.

Georgia 21, Auburn 7, 12:20. Auburn looks helpless on offense again, with two hurried incompletions. Expect the Dawgs to lean on the clock.

Georgia 21, Auburn 7, 13:06. The Dawgs cash in quickly, with a fade from Jake Fromm to Terry Godwin for the TD, followed by another fade to the other side to Godwin for the 2-pointer. Auburn’s two missed scoring opportunities look massive right now.

Georgia 13, Auburn 7, 14:49. The difference in the game so far: Auburn had a turnover. Make that two, as Lorenzo Carter knocks the ball away from Kerryon Johnson and into Dawg hands.

Georgia 13, Auburn 7, 1:26. A 31-yard throw from Jake Fromm to Terry Godwin and 20-yard Nick Chubb run were the highlights of a seven-play drive that gave the Dawgs a little breathing room. UGA maintaining control up front, ever since a rough start.

Georgia 10, Auburn 7, 4:48. I’ve typed that score many times now! Auburn passed four times in five plays before punting, which isn’t exactly the Auburn brand, though the run game is still only managing 4 per carry.

Georgia 10, Auburn 7, 6:23. You’re not gonna believe this, but a penalty ruined the latest Georgia drive before it got rolling. This was ruled an illegal block on the lunging RB, Elijah Holyfield.

Georgia 10, Auburn 7, 8:56. An eight-play Auburn drive dies in the red zone when UGA blocks the field goal try.

Georgia 10, Auburn 7, 12:11. The Dawgs open the second half with a couple Sony Michel runs for a first down, then a punt for a touchback.

Georgia 10, Auburn 7, end of half. Just about even so far. Each QB has hit an explosive play and otherwise been harassed, neither running game is moving all that efficiently, but Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Jarrett Stidham, and Kerryon Johnson each have runs for double-digit yardage. The score should be 14-7 in favor of the Dawgs, if not for a bad flag on the goal line.

Georgia 10, Auburn 7, :49. A Jarrett Stidham arm punt to a wide-open Deandre Baker (who plays for Georgia) was nullified by a facemask penalty against Baker during the route. The eventual punt put it right around where it would’ve been anyway.

Georgia 10, Auburn 7, 5:45. Georgia’s found something new that’s working: quick throws to the outside. Sony Michel demonstrates here ...

... leading to what appeared to be a TD pass, though it was called back for what the officials felt to be a pick play, even though the defender shoved the WR into contact. Dawgs settled for field goal.

Tied at 7, 8:33. It’s UGA’s turn to own the trenches, for a change! The second quarter’s belong to the Dawgs so far, with Jarrett Stidham facing pressure throughout a three-and-out.

Auburn 7, Georgia 7, 10:14. Mecole Hardman, UGA’s lone ball-mover during long stretches of Round 1, converted a first down and then took another catch for 34 yards to finally get the Dawgs into Auburn territory. The Dawgs didn’t waste the chance, with Jake Fromm finding Isaac Nauta at the goal line to tie it up.

Auburn 7, Georgia, 0, 13:13. Jarrett Stidham held onto a ball in the red zone a little bit long, and a forced fumble by Davin Bellamy turned a sure field goal into UGA ball.

Auburn 7, Georgia 0, end. An Auburn drive has been prolonged by a foul for driving Jarrett Stidham into the ground. Nobody really liked the call.

Auburn 7, Georgia 0, 4:30. Georgia won its first drive, snuffing out a Kerryon Johnson screen and getting the punt at its own 30.

Auburn 7, Georgia 0, 7:15. Well, UGA’s opening drive looked like a fifth quarter of the first game between these two. Tigers were in Jake Fromm’s aura repeatedly, sacking him twice and forcing a punt from midfield.

Auburn 7, Georgia 0, 9:54. Auburn spent most of the first half in Round 1 kicking field goals. Not this time. The 10-play drive involved five first downs, one via penalty, and eded with a six-yard zap up the middle from Jarrett Stidham to Nate Craig-Myers.

It all began so well. When Auburn and Georgia played at Jordan-Hare Stadium three weeks ago, the Bulldogs got the ball first and drove 70 yards in eight plays for an easy touchdown. They faced only one third down, and freshman quarterback Jake Fromm completed passes of 28 and 26 yards. Sony Michel and Nick Chubb took it from there.

It was easy to see the first battle between these teams as a race to 24 points or so. Georgia’s offense had been inefficient but more than productive enough to hand a decent point total over to a defense that had only once given up more than 19 points.

Auburn’s offense had been all-or-nothing, having averaged 40 points per game in wins and 17 per game in losses since the start of 2015. In losses to Clemson and LSU earlier this fall, they scored zero second half points.

When Georgia scored so easily out of the gates and Auburn could manage only three field goals in early scoring chances, it was easy to feel like the Dawgs had the game where they wanted it. In theory, Auburn was only going to be able to create so many chances.

But then Jarrett Stidham connected with Darius Slayton for a 42-yard score to make it 16-7 late in the first half. And Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship missed a 42-yard field goal. And Mecole Hardman fumbled a punt return early in the second half. Auburn scored to go up 23-7, then 30-7, then 33-10, then 40-10.

After starting 3-for-3 for 56 yards, Fromm completed just seven of his next 21 passes for 103 yards and four sacks. Chubb and Michel finished with 48 yards in 20 carries. Once the avalanche began, the Dawgs had no idea how to stop it. They lost their composure and got blown out.

Because there are no best-of-seven series, we think of single football games as referendums. Auburn beat Georgia; therefore, Auburn is better than Georgia and will therefore beat Georgia again.

Luckily for the Dawgs, that doesn’t have to be the case. We don’t get many rematches, but when do, the second result is often quite different than the first.

And how likely are they to find a solution?

You never know when it will happen; you just know that it will. Fromm has been incredible for most of the season. He has a 185.5 passer rating on first downs, when opponents are distracted by the run, and he has a 187.0 rating on third downs.

On third-and-four or more — semi-obvious passing situations — he’s 37-for-64 for 656 yards, eight touchdowns, three interceptions, and a 175.8 rating. That’s impossibly good.

And there was bound to be some regression to the mean. Against Auburn on third-and-four or more, Fromm was 4-for-10 for 100 yards and two big sacks for a loss of 21. And honestly, gaining a net 79 yards on 12 pass attempts against Auburn in those situations isn’t bad. But 28 of those yards came on the first third-and-long of the game. His next five produced one completion and two sacks, and by the time he found a rhythm, the Dawgs were down 23.

It’s easy to say a key is him improving in those situations. But really, the key will be avoiding them. Auburn ranks second in FBS in Passing Downs S&P+. Maybe Fromm can do a little better, but the Tigers are only going to give you so many mulligans. To move the ball, the Dawgs are going to have to get much better on first down. That might be the only way to keep pressure off of him — he was pressured on nearly 40 percent of his attempts.

UGA gained 34 yards in four first-down plays on the opening scoring drives, then gained 33 yards on six first-down snaps in a late garbage-time TD drive. In between: 14 plays, 15 yards. Every drive basically began on second-and-nine.

That’s not going to cut it. Be it either with better early-down passing — Fromm was sacked on first downs, too — or, simply, better run blocking, Georgia has to avoid second-and-longs if it wants to avoid its QB running for his life on third-and-long. That might not mean a complete overhaul in tactics, but it will definitely have to involve better execution.

Johnson took the headlines with his 32-carry, 167-yard performance against the Dawgs, but Auburn’s masterful creation of space for its receivers was, to me, what won both the Georgia and Alabama games.

Versus UGA, it appeared the Dawgs were very much preoccupied with the run, so Gus Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey constantly used their momentum against them. They are in an incredible play-calling rhythm right now, showing exactly how you can use one advantage (in this case, Johnson’s strong running) to create three more.

Perhaps Johnson’s shoulder injury gives the Dawgs an opportunity. He is listed as probable, so one would expect him to play. But perhaps he will be in less shape to carry 30-plus times (or at least do it well), so maybe Georgia plays a little wider, willing to give Johnson some early yards in the name of stopping the deadly short passes?

Kirby Smart’s coached in a lot of huge games in his lifetime; he’ll come up with something. But Malzahn and Lindsey might have the answer to that, too.

A tennis player who drops the first set 6-2 sometimes wins the second.

Georgia looked lost in the second half of the loss at Auburn, but in Atlanta, the Dawgs will have a chance to atone for their worst performance of the year.

It’s hard to forget that Auburn caused that performance, though.

Here’s your reminder that analytics look at the whole season. They don’t care how overwhelmed Georgia’s offensive line and quarterback became against Auburn’s defensive front. For that matter, they don’t care about Johnson’s shoulder injury.

All S&P+ sees is that, over the course of 12 games each, Georgia graded out as the slightly better team. We’ll see how much context ends up mattering.