Ole Miss Rebels at Georgia Bulldogs

Stockton throws 4 TD passes as No. 9 Georgia rallies in 4th quarter to beat No. 5 Ole Miss 43-35

This comeback preserved the Bulldogs' championship hopes.

Gunner Stockton passed for 289 yards and four touchdowns, including three to tight end Lawson Luckie, and Georgia overcame Trinidad Chambliss and No. 5 Mississippi's powerful offense to rally for a 43-35 win over the Rebels on Saturday.

Georgia (6-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) charged back after trailing 35-26 at the start of the fourth quarter. Stockton's 7-yard touchdown pass to Luckie with 7:29 remaining gave Georgia a 40-35 lead.

The Bulldogs have trailed at halftime in four of their five SEC games. They now are 3-1 in those games. Georgia trailed Tennessee 21-17 before winning 44-41 in overtime on Sept. 13. They trailed Auburn 10-3 before winning 20-10 on Oct. 11. The latest comeback may have been the most dramatic.

“I feel like we played hard," Stockton said. “We are never out of it.”

Added Smart: “The one thing we are, we’re hard to kill. We won’t go away.”

Ole Miss (6-1, 3-1) was denied its first road win over a top 10 team under coach Lane Kiffin even though the Rebels scored touchdowns on their first five possessions.

Stockton shines Stockton completed 26 of 31 passes and added a 22-yard scoring run in the crucial SEC showdown. He was 12-of-12 passing for 135 yards with three touchdowns in the second half.

“You always want to pick the defense apart,” Stockton said. “We were executing well today. It was a great game. ... “We just played for each other and that's the best part of our team.”

Stockton and the Bulldogs had no turnovers.

Stockton delivered perhaps his best performance and added to his reputation for toughness despite missing most of practice this week with a sore oblique from the Auburn game.

“He was beat up,” Smart said, adding “I was concerned he couldn’t go. I said ‘OK, we won’t use you in the quarterback run game’ and he said ‘No coach, I want to run it.’”

Stockton had 10 carries for 59 yards.

One step back In previewing the game, Kiffin said winning at Georgia would mean the Rebels have taken “another step” in their move up the SEC. That looked likely when they scored touchdowns on each of their first five possessions, taking a nine-point lead in the third quarter.

Suddenly, the Ole Miss offense lost its magic as Georgia did not give up another first down.

Following the first punt of the game by either team with 12:44 remaining, Stockton led a nine-play, 67-yard drive capped by the 7-yard scoring pass to Luckie that gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the second half.

Fourth quarter meltdown Georgia outscored Ole Miss 17-0 in the fourth quarter as the Rebels couldn't hold the 35-26 lead.

“In the fourth quarter, they made a lot of plays, both sides of the ball,” Kiffin said. “I told my guys this is exactly what you want. Going into the fourth quarter you are up two scores at Georgia. ... You have to keep scoring. We did not do that in the fourth quarter.”

Trusting the defense Following another stop by Georgia’s defense, Stockton led a 10-play drive to set up Peyton Woodring’s third field goal of the game, a 42-yarder, to stretch the lead to eight points with 2:06 remining. Smart said he sent Woodring onto the field instead of going for the first down on a fourth-and-2 play because of the suddenly inspired play by his defense.

“The stops the defense had gave me faith that whether we got the field goal or not we could stop them,” Smart said.

The takeaway Ole Miss: When Georgia’s defense found a way to deliver stops on back-to-back possession in the fourth quarter, the Rebels defense couldn’t make a similar stand with the game on the line. The Rebels’ first loss likely won’t cause a significant drop in the AP Top 25. ... Chambliss completed passes to eight targets in an impressive distribution of offense. Chambliss had a 16-yard run on a fourth-down play in the third quarter.

Georgia: The Bulldogs can be expected to move up in the Top 25 following the important home win. ... The secondary had to overcome the loss of free safety Kyron Jones, the team’s fourth-leading tackler who is out indefinitely with a foot injury. Georgia lost receiver Colbie Young to an ankle injury after his 36-yard catch on a flea-flicker on the opening drive. Smart said Young suffered a fracture.

Up next Ole Miss: The Rebels visit No. 14 Oklahoma, which won 26-7 at South Carolina, next Saturday.

Georgia: The Bulldogs are off before playing Florida on Nov. 1 in Jacksonville.