Auburn Dents Georgia Defense A Smidge, But No. 2 Bulldogs Still Dominate

No. 18 Auburn became the first team to take a lead against Georgia this season and the first to score a touchdown against the Bulldogs from the red zone.

But that's where the story ends. No. 2 Georgia still dominated for a 34-10 victory in front of 87,451 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama. The Bulldogs (6-0, 4-0 SEC) wore down the Tigers (4-2, 1-1), rushing for 201 yards on 49 carries and holding Auburn to 46 on 29 rushes.

"We got down there plenty of times," Auburn center Nick Brahms said. "We just didn't punch it in. That's the unfortunate part. That's the story of the game."

Auburn drove 68 yards in 17 plays on its first drive and reached a first-and-goal at the 9-yard line, but had to settle for a 24-yard field goal and 3-0 lead. Soon, Georgia took a 17-3 lead on a 3-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Stetson Bennett to wide receiver Adonai Mitchell with 9:10 left in the second quarter.

Auburn drove to a first-and-goal at the Auburn 7-yard line, but four straight incomplete passes by quarterback Bo Nix followed. And the half ended with Auburn down, 17-3.

"You need to score in the red zone," Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said.

Auburn reached Georgia territory again in the third quarter, but Nix threw incomplete on fourth-and-eight from the Georgia 40. On the next play, Bennett threw a 60-yard touchdown to Ladd McConkey for a 24-3 lead with 6:01 to go in the third quarter.

"Our run game is working, and the play-action stuff worked," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said.

Auburn tailback Tank Bigsby became the first player to score a touchdown from the red zone against Georgia this season on a 6-yard run to get the Tigers wihtin 24-10 with 4:01 to go in the third quarter. But Georgia put the game away with 10 unanswered points.

"There were things we could've done better," Harsin said. "Georgia is a great team. We want to be that type of team."

Auburn receivers could have caught passes right in their hands for one. Nix completed 21 of 38 for 217 yards with an interception off a pass off the hands of tailback Shaun Shivers. There were at least five other drops.

"You can't leave points on the board," offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. "And you've got to be able to catch it. We've got to learn from this."

Bennett completed 14 of 21 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns as regular starter J.T. Daniels again did not play because of a lower back injury.

"Our run game is working, and the play-action stuff worked," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said.

And that was not all.