ATHENS, Ga.—Following an average passing performance last Saturday at Vanderbilt, including a poor first half when he missed on all five of his pass attempts, quarterback Greyson Lambert came under some fire during the week. There were those Bulldog enthusiasts who questioned whether he should be Georgia’s starting signal caller, or not.
How did the graduate transfer from Virginia respond against South Carolina tonight in Sanford Stadium?
Lambert was near-perfect, completing 24 of 25 passes against the Gamecocks for 330 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in a 52-20 rout by the seventh-ranked Bulldogs.
“Can you believe [Lambert] had an incompletion–what’s wrong with him?” head coach Mark Richt joked following the win. “It was one of those days where you just leave him alone. … We were good offensively and Lambert was just so hot.”
The Bulldogs were indeed good offensively—remarkably good.
Georgia had 32 first downs for the game, 576 total yards, averaged 9.1 yards per play, didn’t punt for the first time until there were just mere seconds remaining in the third quarter, and scored on its first six possessions of the game. Yet, the Bulldogs and the Gamecocks were knotted at three at the end of the opening quarter as two long drives—one for each team—settled for field goals.
By the mid-point of the second quarter, Georgia had tacked on two touchdowns—scoring runs by sophomores Nick Chubb and Sony Michel—to take a 17-3 lead. However, South Carolina answered and pulled within seven points following a touchdown run by quarterback Perry Orth. Otherwise, Orth was rather limited in making his first career start for the Gamecocks, completing just 6 of 17 passes for 66 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
The Bulldogs answered Orth’s scoring run with an 8-play, 78-yard drive which took less than two minutes, capped by a 5-yard touchdown pass from Lambert to Malcolm Mitchell. Mitchell had a stellar performance as Lambert’s primary target, catching a game-high 8 passes for 122 yards.
Leading 24-13 at halftime, Georgia came out in the second half, again moving more than 70 yards in less than two minutes to a touchdown. Three plays later, Dominick Sanders, who scored on an interception return at Vanderbilt, almost did it again tonight, intercepting Orth and returning it 33 yards before being tackled at the Gamecocks’ 11-yard line. Both early-second-half possessions ended the same for the Bulldogs: an 11-yard touchdown pass from Lambert to Michel.
Michel finished the game with 51 rushing yards on eight carries, three receptions for 32 yards, and scored three touchdowns.
Georgia extended its lead to 45-13 late in the third quarter following a 7-yard touchdown run by Chubb. As always, Chubb was spectacular, rushing for 159 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns. And, like always, he was rather humble, giving praise only to others, following the win.
“It was a great night,” Chubb said. “South Carolina stacked the box and our line did good as always.”
Early in the fourth quarter, South Carolina backup quarterback Lorenzo Nunez scored on a 7-yard run. In true Steve Spurrier fashion, the head coach of the Gamecocks routinely rotated Orth and Nunez, while seemingly having a difficult time figuring out which quarterback to settle on. Rushing for 76 yards on 10 carries, Nunez was impressive running the ball but, like Orth, struggled passing, throwing for only 18 yards on five pass attempts.
After yielding 231 yards of offense to the Commodores last week in the fourth quarter alone, the Bulldogs were also impressive defensively tonight, allowing just 258 total yards and 20 points to a team which had averaged 37 points per game against Georgia their previous four meetings.
Midway through the final quarter, tailback Keith Marshall capped the game’s scoring, and the Bulldogs’ 32-point blowout win, with a 3-yard touchdown run.
Notably, Lambert’s 24 of 25 passing night set an NCAA record for Best Completion Percentage at 96.0% (minimum of 20 completions). Also, he completed his last 20 passes in a row, also a Georgia record, which topped Mike Bobo’s mark of 19 straight at the 1998 Outback Bowl against Wisconsin.
When asked about the records he broke following the game, Lambert was grateful, but brief: “It’s just a huge blessing. I had no idea this was going to happen.”
Honestly, no one could have possibly knew Lambert’s near-perfect passing performance was going to happen. In addition, some Bulldog enthusiasts—the same ones who questioned only hours ago whether Lambert should be Georgia’s starting quarterback—might reconsider, acknowledging Lambert is now a “huge blessing” to an already lethal offensive attack.
