Nov. 24, 2012
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia Tech out-gained No. 3 Georgia and held the ball for nearly 40 minutes, but the Bulldogs scored on their first three possessions and handed the Yellow Jackets a 42-10 loss Saturday at Sanford Stadium in Athens.
Aaron Murray threw two touchdown passes, Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall each ran for a pair of TDs, and No. 3 Georgia stayed right in the thick of the national championship race with the victory.
The Bulldogs (11-1) beat their state rival for the 11th time in 12 meetings, although Tech ran 88 plays, rushed for 306 yards and controlled the ball for 39:56 — its second-highest time of possession this season.
The Jackets were without big-play senior A-Back Orwin Smith, who missed the game with an injury, and had a number of others suffering from the flu, including junior LB Jeremiah Attaochu, who was a game-time decision.
Murray completed 14 of 17 for 215 yards, becoming the first quarterback in SEC history to pass from more than 3,000 yards in three straight seasons.
Gurley finished with 97 yards on 12 carries and now has 14 touchdowns on the season, one shy of Herschel Walker’s school freshman record set in 1980. Marshall, also a freshman, piled up 66 yards on just seven carries.
Bacarri Rambo and Alec Ogletree came up big for the Georgia defense. Rambo stripped the ball away at the Georgia 1 to stop the Yellow Jackets’ first possession, as well as grabbing his 16th career interception to tie Jake Scott’s school record. Ogletree had 15 tackles, the highest total by a Georgia defender this season.
Georgia Tech (6-6) still has a chance to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title next weekend and earn a BCS bowl bid when they battle No. 10 Florida State next Saturday in Charlotte.
Malcolm Mitchell returned the opening kickoff 47 yards to the Georgia Tech 44 and four snaps later, it was 7-0 when Gurley ran it in from 3 yards out. The game was 63 seconds old.
Georgia Tech appeared to be moving for a tying touchdown on its first possession. With nine straight runs, the Yellow Jackets ripped off five first downs and had the ball at the Georgia 20. Robert Godhigh tried to take it in from there, breaking tackles and staying on his feet all the way to the 1. But Rambo snatched the ball away before Godhigh got to the end zone, returning it 49 yards to midfield.
This time, the Bulldogs needed less than 3 minutes to put another touchdown on the board.
Gurley had runs of 15 and 10 yards, Murray passed to Mitchell for a 16-yard gain, and Gurley made it 14-0 with a 1-yard plunge.
Before the half was done, Georgia tacked on two more scores: Marshall’s 15-yard run and Murray’s 11-yard pass to Rhett McGowan. The Yellow Jackets ran for 220 yards in the first two quarters, but all they had to show for it was Chris Tanner’s 38-yard field goal.
Junior David Sims carried 14 times for 71 yards and a touchdown, while Laskey had 56 yards on 15 carries for the Jackets, who out-gained Georgia 306-164. But Tech was snake-bitten by the two critical first-half turnovers and a holding penalty that erased a 17-yard TD pass from Vad Lee to Laskey early in the fourth quarter.
