ATHENS, Ga. — No. 2 Georgia spent the first month of the season burying opponents before they could score. Vanderbilt made the Bulldogs take a punch. Georgia still left Sanford Stadium with a 38-14 win and a 5-0 record.
Gunner Stockton completed 25 of 32 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Georgia scored on its opening drive for the fourth time this year when Stockton found Landon Roldan from 2 yards out. Backup quarterback Blaze Berlowitz answered with a 60-yard touchdown to Junior Sherrill, tying the game at 7. It was the first first-quarter points a Georgia opponent had scored all season. The Bulldogs had outscored teams 63-0 in the opening period through four games.
Chauncey Bowens and Jaden Redell added rushing touchdowns before halftime, the second set up after Georgia blocked a Vanderbilt field goal. Sedrick Alexander’s 2-yard run cut the lead to 21-14. Georgia then used an 11-play, 75-yard drive in the third quarter and shut Vanderbilt out the rest of the way. Peyton Woodring added a field goal, and Dwight Phillips Jr. — pressed into a larger role with Nate Frazier and Bowens banged up — caught five passes for 75 yards and a score. Bo Walker added a career-high 71 rushing yards, including a 59-yard run late. Ellis Robinson IV’s interception early in the fourth put the game away. Georgia finished with 471 yards to Vanderbilt’s 293.
Coach Kirby Smart said SEC football is about taking as many punches as you give, and that his team needed a hard, physical game before facing Alabama next Saturday. Vanderbilt fell to 3-2 and 0-2 in the conference. Berlowitz was 12 of 23 for 190 yards with a touchdown and an interception, and Sherrill had seven catches for 107 yards. The Commodores host Ole Miss next Saturday.