AUBURN, Ala. - While the scoreboard may indicate Auburn was locked in a tight struggle with Georgia the entire game, it wasn’t. For three quarters, the Bulldog defense had Gus Malzahn’s offense in a stranglehold.

What led to Auburn’s fourth-quarter success?

“They just got hot,” said head coach Kirby Smart. “They got in a rhythm. It wasn’t like we went conservative. We didn’t call different calls, we didn’t bend-but-don’t-break. They hit some plays; they hit tempo—I thought Bo [Nix] got a little more confident. We had a couple of busts, and when you combine those things, guys get hot.”

After Auburn brought the contest within a score, Georgia’s defense clamped down. Auburn had two possessions with a chance to tie the game and was unsuccessful on both. The Tigers’ first chance was halted after Harold Joiner dropped a pass in the flat on fourth down, saving Georgia from potentially being backed up in their own red zone.

“The next-to-last one, I don’t know if we stopped them; they stopped themselves,” said Smart. “The guy just missed the ball, it looked like to me; he was wide open. I can’t say that we stopped them. We got them to fourth down, and they gave us a gift.”

Auburn’s final possession saw them fail to get the job done once again, the main difference being it was Georgia who stopped them. Junior safety Richard LeCounte broke up a third-down pass intended for Seth Williams that would’ve given Auburn the first and ten. The play that followed secured the victory for the Bulldogs. Freshman defensive lineman Travon Walker brought Nix to the ground and Dawg fans to their feet.

Smart shared a chest bump with the freshman and raved about Walker in his postgame press conference.

“We’ve got to find more ways to play the guy. He’s probably one of our better overall football players,” said Smart. “And he’s playing on third down—he plays quite a bit. We’ve got to find ways to use the kid. He’s talented. And we’ve got to do a better job as coaches of finding avenues [for him] to help us because he’s extremely athletic.”

Did Smart regret the chest bump, considering it threw him down on the turf?

"Hell no. I'd chest bump Travon all day. I thought I might lose an ACL, but I was committed to it,” said Smart.

Of Note:

Georgia fans hoping for a season without an opponent rushing for a touchdown will have to wait for next year. Nix’s two-yard score ended Georgia’s run as the only school in college football not to allow one.

Georgia is the first team to hold Auburn to under 100 yards rushing this season. Bo Nix was the Tigers’ leading rusher with 42 yards.