AUBURN, Ala. - The Georgia Bulldogs scored the opening touchdown and the closing touchdown Saturday afternoon against Auburn inside Jordan-Hare Stadium.
It's what transpired in between that altered the landscape of college football.
With quarterback Jarrett Stidham throwing touchdown passes of 42, 32 and 55 yards, and with running back Kerryon Johnson pounding out 167 yards on 32 carries, the 10th-ranked Tigers blistered the No. 2 Bulldogs 40-17 before a frenzied sellout crowd of 87,451.
Georgia, which has spent the past two weeks atop the College Football Playoff rankings, managed just 230 yards against Auburn while allowing 488.
"If you lose the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, you don't have a great chance at a good outcome," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said after his Bulldogs fell to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in Southeastern Conference play.
The SEC now race is quite simple. Georgia is the Eastern Division champion, and its Western foe in Atlanta on Dec. 2 will be the winner of the Alabama-Auburn game on Nov. 25.
This year's Iron Bowl will be at Jordan-Hare, with the host team having a slew of momentum after improving to 8-2 overall and 6-1 in league play. Auburn has posted double-digit whippings of Arkansas, Texas A&M and Georgia after blowing a 20-0 lead at LSU on Oct. 14 and losing 27-23.
"Our goal was to win the SEC championship, and here we are November 11th and we are right in the middle of it," Tigers coach Gus Malzahn said. "Our dreams are still alive. After the LSU game, I said it wasn't the end of the world, and what I meant by that is that we still controlled our own destiny.
"We just beat a very good team, handily, and I think we are healthy right now. I don't think there is anything that is keeping us from moving forward."
Nothing kept Johnson from moving forward Saturday. Building on last week's 29-carry, 145-yard performance at Texas A&M, Johnson now has 1,035 yards this season and is a Heisman Trophy candidate according to his coach.
"I've never thought I would get to that level, but it would be pretty awesome to see," Johnson said.
Saturday's first quarter was tight, with Nick Chubb's 1-yard touchdown run to cap Georgia's 8-play, 70-yard opening drive countering a pair of Daniel Carlson field goals. Carlson made attempts from 54 and 37 yards for the Tigers, who had 82 offensive yards to Georgia's 80 through the first 15 minutes.
A third Carlson field goal, this one from 30 yards out, with 12:03 to go in the second quarter put Auburn up 9-7 and handed Georgia its first deficit during an SEC game in 26 quarters this season.
The two teams started exchanging three-and-outs until Bulldogs outside linebacker D'Andre Walker was flagged for roughing the kicker, which resulted in a 15-yard penalty and a first-and-10 for the Tigers at their 46. Two plays later Stidham passed to Darius Slayton for a 42-yard touchdown and a 16-7 advantage.
A 30-yard Mecole Hardman punt return to Auburn's 26-yard line gave Georgia a chance at some points with 22 seconds left in the half, but Smart opted for a Sony Michel run with no timeouts left. Michel gained just a yard, and Bulldogs quarterback Jake Fromm had to spike the ball.
Rodrigo Blankenship's 42-yard attempt sailed wide right as time expired.
"That was not a good decision there," Smart said. "If I had to do it over again, we would have definitely thrown the ball. We didn't want to get knocked out of field-goal range, but we should have thrown the ball."
Auburn had a 201-105 edge in total yardage at halftime, with Hardman having totaled 169 all-purpose yards for the Bulldogs.
Hardman's brilliant afternoon turned disastrous early in the third quarter, when he fumbled a punt at his 23-yard line. It took Auburn four running plays to make it 23-7, Stidham reaching the end zone on a 7-yard keeper.
The Tigers will host Louisiana-Monroe this week before hosting Alabama.
Georgia, meanwhile, will be back in Sanford Stadium on Saturday for its home finale against Kentucky. The game will be televised by CBS at 3:30.
"The season is not built on one game," Smart said. "This team will be defined by how they respond, not by what they did tonight. They're going to be defined by how they respond, and we've got a lot of leaders in that room.
"Things didn't go our way. We got our butts kicked. How are we going to respond?"
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.