auburn bryan harsin

ATHENS — Bryan Harsin knew what his Auburn Tigers were up against on Saturday between the hedges.

“We knew there would be ebbs and flows in this game and momentum changes,” Harsin said Saturday night in the bowels of Sanford Stadium, his weary football team loading up for the 3-hour bus ride home from Georgia.

“It was just too much throughout the game, and some of the big plays they made in the second half, the score got out of hand.”

The No. 2-ranked Bulldogs asserted themselves in the fourth quarter, pulling away for a 42-10 win after the offense sputtered most of the first three quarters.

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett was held without a touchdown pass for the third straight game, but he took matters into his own hands with a 64-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“The run that Stetson had, that was big, that QB draw was a huge, explosive play,” Harsin said. “That was really the one that hurt us the most on defense.”

Auburn kept Bennett and the UGA pass game under wraps in the first half, limiting the sixth-year senior to just 25 yards passing through the first 30 minutes.

But Georgia’s power and depth began to take a toll in the second half, and Harsin could feel it on the sideline.

“I thought our guys in the first half did some good things defensively,” Harsin said. “But the second half, the physicality of Georgia showed up.”

Nearly half (233) of Georgia’s 500 yards of offense came in the fourth quarter after Bennett’s career-long run.

“We’d played hard up front, so we were able to slow some of the run game down, and they were throwing a lot of quick throws today, some screens,” Harsin said, explaining how Auburn held Georgia to 14 points through the first half.

“Overall, I thought the coverage was pretty good, the front was pretty good,” he said. “But the big play was Stetson’s draw play, that was the one that really opened it up.”

The Tigers’ offense, meanwhile, sustained eight of its 10 penalties in the first half, six of them on false starts.

It was enough to keep redshirt freshman Robby Ashford off balance, as he struggled through a 13-of-38 passing performance that netted 165 yards and a touchdown.

“We knew that could hurt their defense, if they covered everybody and Robby was able to take off and get some scramble yards, and he did that tonight,” Harsin said, referring to Ashford’s team-high 52 yards rushing.

“He competed, (but) he had plenty of things he had to work through. They got pressure on us, which we knew they would do.”

Auburn moves on to play at Ole Miss next Saturday, Harsin’s SEC future very much uncertain.

The Tigers’ head coach, however, made sure to tip his cap to Kirby Smart on his way out of Sanford Stadium.

“All credit to Georgia, those guys are well coached, really good players,” Harsin said, and they play with confidence at home.”