KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Reggie Davis was having the best game of his Georgia career: He had scored touchdowns on a 70-yard punt return and a 48-yard catch, and he would finish with 101 receiving yards and 244 all-purpose yards.
But he wasn’t thinking about any of that after the game Saturday.
He was focused on a pass he dropped with Georgia trailing Tennessee 38-31 with about four minutes to play: a long throw from quarterback Greyson Lambert on third-and-9 that would have been a game-tying 56-yard touchdown if an open Davis had held on to it.
Instead, his drop forced the Bulldogs to punt on the next play. And they wound up losing 38-31.
“Playing football, you really beg for plays like that, and it was handed to me,” Davis said. “And I really let the team down with that one.
“If I didn’t make another play for the rest of the season, I wish I had made that one. I’m just running and just knew I had it. And as soon as it came down, I took my eye off of it at the last second.”
His two touchdowns earlier in the game “don’t matter because we lost,” Davis said.
“I don’t even care about what happened earlier in the game,” he said. “When you get that type of chance to make a play, you’ve got to make those. That’s the difference between good and great right there.
“If I had made that play, we would have been going to overtime or possibly kicking a field goal at the end (to win) rather than wishing for a touchdown.”
Told of Davis’ comments, teammate and fellow receiver Malcolm Mitchell said Davis shouldn’t take the blame for the loss.
“If it wasn’t for him, we probably wouldn’t have been as close as we were,” Mitchell said.