Bulldogs bitten by one too many mistakes

ATLANTA - Kirby Smart summed it up perfectly after the game. When you gift-wrap opportunities to good teams, you make it hard on yourself.

Georgia did just that against Alabama on Saturday afternoon. Too many mistakes ultimately doomed the Bulldogs in a 27-24 loss in the SEC Championship Game.

"I think just simple execution," center Sedrick Van Pran said of what was missing for the Bulldogs. "I think at the end of the day, we had one too many stall-outs. I think we had one too many mistakes. Sometimes that catches up to you."

The most obvious mistakes stick out like a sore thumb.

Georgia missed a field goal in the first half that would have tied the game at 10. That came after two runs that lost two yards, a sack, and a false start following a first down at the 19.

The bigger miscue came in the second half. Trailing by seven late in the third quarter, the Bulldogs attempted a reverse, backed up deep in their own end. Quarterback Carson Beck and receiver Dillon Bell bobbled the exchange, leading to a fumble recovered by Alabama. The Tide turned that into three points to regain a 10-point advantage.

"We've obviously practiced that play a ton," Beck said. "It's a simple flip back. I'm not exactly sure what happened. I'll have to go see it on film. I wasn't able to see the replay. I flipped it. Next thing I knew all the guys were running, the ball's on the ground. I really don't know what happened on that. Just go back and obviously hope to fix it if we ever run that play again."

The offense as a whole just didn't seem in rhythm all day. Runs were stopped for short gains. Beck had a couple of throws that could have been intercepted. Georgia had little success in the red zone, stalling out on a couple of drives and spending costly time inside the five late in the fourth quarter.

"I think it definitely had some things schemed up, a couple plays they kind of knew what was coming as far as, I think they kind of called it out," Van Pran said. "At the end of the day, I think there were a lot of times when they didn’t know what was going on, and we just messed it up, plain and simple. It’s football. Sometimes you watch film and you can figure some things out."

Georgia still had its shots to win on Saturday. But in the end, a team that has found many ways to win came up empty against Alabama.

"We found a way to kind of mess it up a little bit," Van Pran said. "I think it’s just wins and losses, and I think we had a little too many losses tonight."