ATHENS — Well, at least Nick Chubb’s streak is alive.
That’s about the only good thing that came out of Georgia’s game against Alabama on Saturday. The sophomore tailback busted loose for an 83-yard touchdown run with five seconds remaining in the third quarter. That run gave him 146 yards on 19 carries and enabled him to tie the school record held by Herschel Walker.
Walker, as it turned out, was in attendance to see it. He established the previous record between the 1980 and 1981 seasons. Chubb can break his record with another 100-yard game next Saturday against Tennessee.
It was tough going for Chubb and all the Bulldogs’ backs before that. He had just 63 yards on 18 carries — a 3.5-yard average — before his TD scamper. He broke through the line untouched at right tackle and simply out-ran the pursuit to the West end zone. Georgia still trailed 38-10 after the score.
The run gave Chubb 746 yards rushing in five games this season.
Before that run, almost everything went wrong for Georgia’s run game in its embarrassing loss to Alabama. Quarterback Greyson Lambert, who was pulled during the game, actually got off to a good start, completing 5 of his first 7 passes. But as the game went on, and it became evident there were no running yards to be had, Alabama pinned its coverage back and Lambert had no receivers to throw to. Brice Ramsey didn’t find any either when he replaced Lambert.
Chubb was held to 29 yards on his first nine carries. By the time Chubb did start churning out some yards, it was too late to do any good: There was a 10-yarder in the final minute of the first half, by which time it was 24-3.
Sony Michel had only 26 yards on six carries in the first half. Fifteen of those yards came on one carry.
At one point, late in the first quarter, Lambert was Georgia’s leading rusher, with 13 yards.