PARTY IN J-VILLE: Bulldogs take down Florida 24-20

Jacksonville has not been kind to the Georgia Bulldogs. Since 1996, the Bulldogs have beaten the Florida Gators three times with the last time being in 2007.

But in this year’s version of the Georgia-Florida game, the Bulldogs did just enough on offense and defense to take down the Gators 24-20 in a slugfest.

The Bulldogs got off to a rocky start and were trailing 17-3 at one point. But Aaron Murray threw two touchdown passes and Richard Samuel scored the game-winning touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

As good as the offense played in the later stages of the contest, the Bulldog defense was the story of the game. The Bulldogs were led by Jarvis Jones who tallied five tackles, four sacks and forced one fumble. Shawn Williams, who sat out the first half of the game, recovered one fumble which set up a score and so did Bacarri Rambo, who recovered a Chris Rainey fumble in the second quarter.

Florida quarterback John Brantley, who was playing for the first time in over a month, looked out of sync all game. He did throw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Reed on a fourth-and-long play in the first quarter, but could not do anything afterwards. Brantley finished the day 12-of-34 with 245 yards and one touchdown.

The running game for the Gators was a nonfactor because the Jones and company were swarming to the football all game long. Overall, the Gators only rushed for -19 yards on 22 carries.

Murray ended his day completing 15 of his 34 passes for 169 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. His first touchdown pass came in the second quarter when threw 20-yard strike to Michael Bennett on a fourth down play to put the cut the Gators lead 17-10. The second touchdown pass came early in the third quarter when Murray threw a 14-yard pass to Tavarres King, which was also on a fourth down play, to tie the game at 17.

Samuel shared the carries with Isaiah Crowell because Crowell suffered a shin injury. Samuel carried the ball 17 times for 58 yards and scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game which they would not relinquish.

The one area the Bulldogs have to improve is the special teams. Blair Walsh missed two field goals and has now missed 10 field goals this season. Before the 2011 season, Walsh had missed only five field goals the last two years. The kickoff coverage for the Bulldogs struggled as well. After Walsh made a 32-yard field goal in the second quarter to cut the Gators lead to four, Jeff Demps returned the ensuing kickoff for a 99-yard touchdown. Andre Dubose also had a big kick return for the Gators in the third quarter, as he returned a Walsh kick for 63 yards to set up a Brad Philips 20-yard field goal to give the Gators the 20-17 lead.

Regardless, the Bulldogs kicked and scratched to earn the win over the Gators and have now won their sixth consecutive game. They are now 6-2, 5-1 in SEC play. They are still tied with South Carolina for the top spot in the SEC East, which the Gamecocks hold the tiebreaker because they defeated the Dawgs last month. The Bulldogs will be back at home next Saturday to face New Mexico State which will start at 12:30 p.m.