Seth Williams' monster game overshadowed by controversial call

By all accounts, Seth Williams had a monster performance against Georgia in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The sophomore racked up 121 yards on 13 catches, the latter of which marked a career-high.

But it was what could have been catch No. 14 that's on Williams' mind, as well as the collective conscience of all Auburn fans after a 21-14 loss to Georgia.

“Everybody saw it was a catch," Williams said. "... They took it away from me, but I’m not going to be mad about it. That wasn’t a crucial part of the game. We had more chances than that, but it was a catch. I think it was a catch.”

On Auburn's penultimate drive of the game, having just scored on its previous drive to get within a touchdown, Bo Nix found Williams along Georgia's sideline for a 17-yard completion and a first down into Bulldog territory as Williams dragged his foot along the green grass.

With 3:06 left, the play was reviewed and ruled that Williams did not have complete control of the ball while still in bounds. He made the catch and possessed the ball, but it was one after the other, not at the same time.

"It just hurts when you see games being taken away by refs," defensive end Marlon Davidson said of the play. "You have to beat the refs and the team. That’s very hard to do, no matter what team you are.”

After the overturned call, which would have put Auburn at Georgia's 22-yard line, Nix scrambled on third-and-7, then threw behind a wide-open Harold Joiner, who couldn't hang on and make the grab, on fourth-and-2.

"We got down to the, what, the 22-yard line?" Malzahn said. "And we thought we had a completion. They overturned it. Looked like a NFL catch to me. That was a tough one. That was a real tough one."

Prior to the overturned call, Auburn had been cooking on offense for the first time all evening, averaging 7.2 yards per play in the fourth quarter. After the incompletion, the Tigers ran six more plays for 0 yards.

"We had a few mishaps, but we just have to execute, get down past the 50," Williams said. We have to learn to execute, and get points on the board.”

Williams was effective on slant routes early Saturday, and as Auburn's offense stalled out in the first half, those passes were the only thing that seemed to be working. As Georgia "keyed into" that game plan, Nix and the passing game opened up more in the second half as the freshman quarterback slung the ball around the field, completing 30-of-50 passes for the night with 245 yards and two scores from scrimmage.

No matter what situation he or the offense found themselves in, Williams remained the No. 1 option with 20 targets on the night. He battled through a "stinger" first-half injury and continued to produce.

But it was another example of Auburn's defense playing lights-out most of the night, and the offense not coming through until it's too late.

“It’s pretty frustrating knowing that the defense is always fighting hard," Williams said. "But we fight hard too on offense, we just have to find ways to put points up.”