Georgia left Tuscaloosa with a 20-17 win over Alabama, but the snap judgment that lit up the night wasn’t about the scoreboard. It was the no-call on a deep ball late in the fourth quarter, the kind of sequence that instantly takes over every conversation around a heavyweight game.
With 3:28 remaining and Georgia protecting a three-point lead, Keelon Russell lofted a pass down the right sideline to Rico Scott. KJ Bolden was credited with the breakup, but Alabama and Kalen DeBoer wanted pass interference. Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler, working the ABC broadcast, also sounded doubtful about the decision.
Rules analyst Matt Austin put it bluntly during the telecast: “4 is not playing the ball,” rules analyst Matt Austin said during the broadcast. “He gets there early.
The ball hits him in the back. It should have been a pass interference.”
The play immediately set off a storm online, with plenty of people siding with Alabama fans and calling the miss a costly one. Georgia got the next break it needed anyway, as Bolden sacked Russell on the following snap and pushed Alabama out of field-goal range.
From there, the Bulldogs closed it out.
Dwight Phillips Jr. led Georgia on the ground with 120 yards, while Bo Walker added 69 as the Bulldogs piled up 206 rushing yards even without leading rusher Nate Frazier. Gunnar Stockton did the scoring damage, accounting for both Georgia touchdowns with one passing and one rushing.
Stockton finished 18 of 22 for 249 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Russell went 16 of 30 for 185 yards, threw a touchdown, and added 41 rushing yards.
The result gave second-ranked Georgia another marquee SEC win and its third victory over Alabama in the last 11 meetings. It was also Georgia’s first regular-season win over Alabama since 2007.
Alabama, now 5-1 and 3-1, still had a chance to get the ball back after the controversial sequence, but cornerback Dijon Lee was flagged for a personal foul, and Georgia used that to run out the clock.
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Alabama still had a chance to escape with a signature win before the finish turned messy. Instead, the closing sequence left the Tide staring at a controversial no-call on potential pass interference and a personal foul on Dijon Lee Jr. that kept Georgias final drive alive, a brutal ending in a game decided by the smallest margins. [Read more 🡒]