Florida Crushes Georgia in First Cocktail Party Overtime Game

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Maybe Florida and Georgia should be unranked every year. Playing the first overtime game in World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party history, the Gators and Bulldogs dueled through the afternoon and into the night before Florida pulled out a 34-31 victory on Chas Henry's 37-yard field goal.

In a fitting moment, the kick split the uprights where the two fan bases join, red on the left, blue on the right. You didn't even need to watch the football to see whether the kick was good. Georgia fans sank to their seats in defeat while Florida Gator fans leapt for joy.

It was the duality of fandom writ large, the latest loss in a string of Georgia cocktail party losses that seem like they will never end.

And this one may be the cruelest of all.

Trailing 21-7 at the half, the Bulldogs stormed back and tied the game at 24 early in the fourth quarter. Maybe after the 1-4 start, after the suspension of Georgia's top player for the first four games of the season, maybe, just maybe, this would be the Bulldogs year in the end. Just in time for Halloween, maybe the Bulldogs could dress up as cocktail party victors for a change.

But it wasn't to be.

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The Gators are now 18-3 in the past 21 contests, the most sustained dominance of one top-25 program over another top-25 program in the country. In a year turned upside down in the SEC East, some things remain the same.

The Gators own the Bulldogs and The World's Largest Cocktail Party is still a "Peanuts" cartoon drenched in liquor. Florida plays the role of Lucy, encouraging Georgia's Charlie Brown character to run as fast as he can in the direction of a victory. And then at the last possible moment, the football is swiped away, leaving bedraggled Georgia fans staring up at the dark night sky over Jacksonville, Fla., wondering why in the world they keep coming down here to watch a damn football game.

After the winning kick, Urban Meyer did the Gator chomp in the direction of Georgia fans -- he would later decline to comment about the gesture -- but Meyer, whose wife was brought to tears after the win, did say, "This is the biggest win I can remember." On its face the claim appears ridiculous. This is a man with two national titles and two SEC championships. Weren't those games definitely bigger? This has to be hyperbole, right? Then again, maybe not, for a man who is used to always winning. After three humbling losses in a row, Meyer had to deal with an obstacle he hasn't faced much as a coach -- self doubt.

Asked why he sank to his knees on the field in the immediate moments after the made field goal, Meyer joked, "That was Chas Henry making a damn field goal!" For his part, Henry, the man who missed two field goals down the stretch against Mississippi State, referred to his winning kick as "the week of my redemption." In the latest cruelty to Bulldogs fans, Henry is a native of Georgia.

"I heard from them all last week," he said, "It was unbelievable (to win the game this way). Just unbelievable."

Florida may have lost three games in a row to SEC opponents, but the silver pants of the Georgia Bulldogs continue to cure what ails the Gators. Now all the Gators have to do is beat Vanderbilt and South Carolina and they'll be back in Atlanta playing in the SEC Championship Game for the third year in a row.

On the other sideline, Mark Richt's roller coaster of a season hit its latest perilous dip. "We'll be back," Richt said. Later, in a somber tone, Richt acknowledged that his team needed to win two of three games to be bowl eligible.

Now 4-5, the Bulldogs have two big games remaining in their season, rivalry games against Auburn and Georgia Tech. Richt needs to win both to avoid the first six-loss season for the Bulldogs since 1996. As night descended on Jacksonville nearly 30 minutes after the game, some Bulldogs fans, the final remnants of the 84,444 fans who watched the game, couldn't bear to leave their seats. They'd officially seen it all, had their hearts ripped out while still beating and fed to a Gator while they watched. I don't believe they trusted their legs to work.

It was just a few hours until Halloween and Bulldogs throughout the expansive city of Jacksonville were already wearing the same old costume they'd been wearing for the better part of two decades -- red and black defeat. Walking back across the parking lot, I got a text from Georgia fan Chad Crews. His text spoke for Bulldogs everywhere.

"Let's go drink," he wrote.

Follow Clay Travis on Twitter here. With All That and a Bag of Mail returning for the football season, you can e-mail him questions at Clay.Travis@gmail.com