Brock Bowers makes pair of important catches in career-day vs. Florida
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — To say that somebody had a “quiet five-catch, 154-yard day” might seem ridiculous to you, but that’s exactly the kind of day that Brock Bowers had for Georgia in its 42-20 win over Florida. It included everything from ‘How did he do that?’ touchdown grabs to clutch catches late in the game for the Bulldogs on their way to a rivalry victory.
We’ll start with the touchdown grab since it’s probably the most spectacular play of the day for Georgia in the win. Bowers ran a wheel route on 1st and 10 early in the second quarter, watched the ball bounce off of Amari Burney’s hand as he turned back to the ball before having it bounce his way, having Burney fall down, finally securing the ball and having nothing but green grass between him and the end zone.
“It was kind of just bouncing around and I snatched it out of the air,” Bowers said in so simply describing the play.
“I immediately thought it was karma for the other one — the one to Darnell. It was just like, we didn’t get the Darnell one, but we got that one and it bounced back our way,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart added.
Just like calling somebody’s career-best receiving day to top a previous high of 150 yards “quiet” sounds crazy, so too does saying that a 73-yard touchdown grab wasn’t even said player’s most important play of the day. However, once again in the case of Bowers, it’s true.
Georgia faced 4th and 7 from the Florida 33 and decided to go for it instead of kicking a 50-yard field goal. Stetson Bennett drew former Georgia Bulldog Brenton Cox offsides only to take the free play and find Bowers downfield for a pickup of 29. Georgia would of course decline the penalty and score on the next play to make it a three-score game.
“They jumped, so we knew we had a free play,” Bowers recalled. “I just took off, was hoping he’d throw it to me when I saw it was man and he did. I just jumped up and grabbed it.”
“He got touches, he got opportunities, he made the most of them,” Smart added. “He makes a lot of contested catches. That catch on fourth down, I don’t think that was going to be a first down. I think it was going to be fourth and two and we’ve still got to convert. Well, it didn’t matter. He went and got the ball. He makes a lot of plays on the ball. He is the ultimate competitive excellence guy. (Todd) Hartley talks about it all the time. Competitive excellence is when it’s 50-50 or when you’ve got to go make a play, can you make it? We’ve seen him do it over and over again.”
Bowers and the Bulldogs have their biggest test awaiting them this coming Saturday. No. 1 Georgia hosts No. 3 Tennessee at Sanford Stadium in a game that’ll go a long way towards deciding the SEC East. Kickoff time is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
