Georgia overcomes more weirdness in Nashville

NASHVILLE - Georgia football teams have experienced plenty of bizarre afternoons and evenings inside Vanderbilt Stadium over the last few years.

Saturday was no exception, but Nick Chubb's 189 yards on 19 carries was enough to power the No. 10 Bulldogs to a 31-14 victory over the Commodores before a crowd of 37,185. It was the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams, with Georgia improving to 2-0 overall and Vanderbilt dropping to 0-2.

"We just haven't been able to finish things up here very often," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "We've had one game out of the last five times we've been here where we didn't have drama. We've had drama here just about every other time."

Georgia was fortunate to escape Vanderbilt 33-28 in 2011 and stumbled to a 31-27 defeat two years ago. Another close call didn't seem remotely plausible with the Bulldogs up 24-6 with five minutes remaining, but that's when a strange sequence began.

The Commodores scored their first touchdown on a 7-yard pass from Johnny McCrary to Latevius Rayford with 4:33 left and made it a 24-14 game when McCrary scrambled in for the two-point conversion. Vanderbilt then had a successful deep pooch kick bounce its way, recovering the ball at Georgia's 17-yard line and getting to the 8 when the Bulldogs were flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Any chances of Vanderbilt making it a one-possession game were snuffed, however, when McCrary had a tipped pass intercepted by Jake Ganus.

"The moral of the story is to never relax, because you never know what is going to happen," Ganus said. "I was glad to get the interception, but whoever tipped it made the play."

Vanderbilt got the ball back down to Georgia's 28-yard line with a little more than a minute remaining, but McCrary was then intercepted by Dominick Sanders, who raced 88 yards to cap the scoring.

"Every time we come here, there is always some weird stuff that goes on," Bulldogs outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins said. "Stuff just doesn't go our way when we play here."

The Bulldogs lost sophomore outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter to a targeting penalty early in the game, but the steadying force again was Chubb. He had a 68-yard run in the first quarter go to waste when Marshall Morgan shanked a 37-yard field-goal attempt but routinely pounded away at the Commodores.

Chubb averaged 9.9 yards per carry in his 10th consecutive 100-yard game.

"We had a hard time stopping Chubb," Commodores coach Derek Mason said. "We had guys try, but you have to make plays."

Vanderbilt finished with 400 total yards, with 231 in the fourth quarter. McCrary wound up 24-of-50 passing for 295 yards and a touchdown but threw three interceptions.

Georgia finished with 422 yards, with quarterback Greyson Lambert completing 11 of 21 passes for 116 yards in his second start for the Bulldogs. Lambert did not complete a pass in the first half out of five attempts.

"A win is a win, and I'm really happy to be 2-0 right now," Lambert said. "The first half was a little rough because we couldn't find a rhythm. I feel like we got it going through the air in the third quarter a little bit, but the run game was keeping us in it and the defense played a great game.

"We know we can't find the rhythm that late. It can't be until the third quarter for me to have a completion."

Georgia this week will host South Carolina in a game televised by ESPN with a 6 p.m. kickoff. The Bulldogs have lost four of the last five meetings to Steve Spurrier's Gamecocks.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.