The edge finally proves too slippery for Georgia’s Bulldogs

ATHENS, GA. — Teams that live on the edge — such as the Georgia Bulldogs — eventually find themselves faced with only two options.

They can fall off, or they can step back from the brink.

For a few brief, shining moments on Saturday it looked as though Mark Richt and his team wouldn’t have to concern themselves with such weighty issues.

Taking a lead against the No. 4 team in the nation with only 69 seconds left was surely the happiest moment of another happy ending.

The Bulldogs would still be unbeaten in the SEC, enjoying a four-game winning streak and set to prove the doubters wrong once again on another Saturday down the road.

However, Georgia didn’t step back from the brink against LSU.

While the offense’s late heroics were, well, heroic, they came too late.

With the UGA defense playing as well as it has all year — maybe in a couple of years — all the guys in charge of moving the markers had to do was put a few points on the board early and keep the momentum moving forward.

But this time there would be no wriggle room.

They wouldn’t be let off the hook by an incomplete fourth-down pass or a blocked field goal.

They had relied on Lady Luck for so long that Lady Luck decided to take them for granted, at least on this sun-kissed Saturday in Athens, U.S.A.

As exciting as the Bulldogs’ last three wins were, this 20-13 loss was brutal to the Red and Black faithful. LSU stole a script Georgia had already written thrice, improving the plot each time.

If there was going to be an unlikely comeback then it was only fair that the football gods ensure it would be the Dawgs making that comeback — especially at home.

Ah, but the edge is high — and it’s slippery and sometimes scary.

Stand there too long and eventually something will tip you over.

That something was a Tiger team that really doesn’t look like a top 10 club but whose 5-0, 3-0 credentials are hard to argue with.

They not only beat Georgia, but they brought back unwelcome memories of the season-opening loss to Oklahoma State.

Most people had forgotten that one – the game against a top 10 team that the Bulldogs lost.

On Saturday they played another top 10 team.

And they lost.

Mark Richt and his guys are unbeaten against the unranked, but they’re winless against teams pollsters consider top-notch.

That’s a cause for concern.

Georgia won’t return to Sanford Stadium until Nov. 7 when little Tennessee Tech comes to town for a well-paid beating.

In the meantime, the Bulldogs must go to Knoxville, then Nashville, then Jacksonville to face the defending national champions.

On Saturday, Georgia finally fell off the edge.

The next three games will help determine if they can climb their way back up the mountain.