Georgia wins tank job of the week, and it isn't close. Alabama got stomped 26-10 by Tennessee, and a beating is ugly, but a beating is also what happens when a better team shows up and you don't. That's a loss. What Georgia did to itself at Sanford Stadium is a tank job. The Bulldogs had to work to lose this one.
Look at the setup first. Georgia was the No. 1 team in the country, at home, favored by 20.5 points against an unranked Auburn side. They went out and built a 14-0 lead, exactly the game everyone expected. Then they handed it back. Auburn ripped off 24 unanswered points and led 24-14 heading into the fourth quarter. The No. 1 team in the sport got outscored 27-10 after going up two scores on a 20-point underdog.
The ending is what earns the trophy. Gunner Stockton coughed up his third turnover of the day, this one by running straight into the back of his own center, Drew Bobo, on a keeper with under a minute left. Auburn's Sylvester Smith-Reed fell on it at the Tigers' 44. Cody Sigler got credited with forcing it, but you can't force a quarterback into his own lineman. Stockton also threw two interceptions, the first multi-turnover game of his college career. Then Gabe Harris Jr. put a late hit on Byrum Brown after an incomplete pass with 15 seconds to go, a 15-yard roughing gift that walked Auburn into Alex McPherson's range. He drilled a 34-yarder as time expired. Final: Auburn 27, Georgia 24.
A team beat itself three separate ways in the last minute: turnover, turnover, dumb penalty. You can't script a collapse more self-inflicted than a quarterback tripping over his own center with the No. 1 ranking on the line.
Alabama has a case too. The Tide never looked like they belonged on the field, got dominated on both sides, and lost by 16 to a Tennessee team ranked well below them. If the award were for worst overall performance, Alabama wins it. But a tank job isn't measured over sixty minutes of being outplayed. Having a game won, or as good as won, and throwing it in the river, that's the whole category. Alabama was outclassed. Georgia was in total control and chose violence against itself.
Texas losing a second straight game deserves a mention, and Saturday was a historic pileup, with five of the AP's top seven teams going down on the same afternoon. But Texas has been sliding for two weeks. This is a weekly prize, and it goes to the biggest fall from the highest perch in the shortest span. Georgia was No. 1, up 14-0, laying three touchdowns, and found a way to lose on a last-second kick set up by its own mistakes. Nobody did more with a worse situation of its own making. Give Kirby Smart the belt.
