Jake Fromm, Georgia Top Baylor 26-14 in Sugar Bowl; Charlie Brewer Exits Injured

The No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs' return trip to the Sugar Bowl went their way this time around as the SEC runners-up defeated No. 7 Baylor 26-14 in Wednesday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

Freshman wideout George Pickens carried the Georgia offense with 12 catches for 175 yards and a touchdown on this perfect 27-yard pass from quarterback Jake Fromm:

That score gave UGA a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter. A Rodrigo Blankenship field goal and a 16-yard touchdown toss from Fromm to Matt Landers made the score 19-0 at half.

Baylor fought back in the final two quarters.

A 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Charlie Brewer to wideout Denzel Mims and a Brewer one-yard touchdown run buffered a 13-yard touchdown rush from UGA running back Zamir White.

The Brewer score helped bring Baylor within 26-14 after the extra point. However, the Bears were unable to come any closer as the Georgia defense stiffened in the second half.

Unfortunately, an awful moment occurred in the fourth quarter as Brewer appeared to have suffered a head or neck injury after a late hit following a nine-yard run sent his head slamming into the turf. He was immediately taken out of the game for Jacob Zeno and surrounded by team personnel checking him out on the sideline.

Thankfully, head coach Matt Rhule provided some more encouraging updates on Brewer postgame.

Brewer has suffered three concussions, including two this season.

The Bulldogs, who lost last year's Sugar Bowl appearance 28-21 to Texas, finished with a 12-2 mark and an SEC East title.

The Baylor Bears, who were the Big 12 title finalists, ended their campaign 11-3. Under head coach Matt Rhule, Baylor improved by 10 victories in two seasons after a 1-11 mark in 2017.

Notable Performances

Baylor QB Charlie Brewer: 24-of-41, 211 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT

Baylor WR Denzel Mims: 5 catches, 75 yards, 1 TD

Baylor RB Trestan Ebner: 7 catches, 70 yards

Georgia QB Jake Fromm: 20-of-30, 250 yards, 2 TD

Georgia WR George Pickens: 12 catches, 175 yards, 1 TD

Georgia RB Zamir White: 18 carries, 92 yards, 1 TD

Shorthanded Georgia Bulldogs End Season on High Note

Georgia came into the Sugar Bowl on the heels of a crushing 37-10 SEC Championship defeat to No. 1 LSU, ending their regular season just on the outside looking into the College Football Playoff picture.

They also arrived in New Orleans shorthanded. Offensive tackle Andrew Thomas, who is considered a top-five NFL draft prospect by some, missed the Sugar Bowl to focus on his professional preparations.

The same goes for offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson, who Brooks Austin of Sports Illustrated noted could be a day-two pick per conversations with NFL scouts and analysts.

On the injury front, Georgia was without defensive back J.R. Reed (54 tackles, seven passes defended) for the first time after 42 straight starts.

Freshman wideout Dominick Blaylock (fourth on the team with 310 receiving yards despite playing just nine games) suffered a torn ACL in the SEC title game.

And running back D'Andre Swift, the owner of a team-leading 1,432 scrimmage yards, only had one carry Wednesday while suffering from a sprained AC joint in his shoulder.

Every so often, a team that just misses out on a national title or College Football Playoff berth comes out flat in what amounts to a consolation bowl game. Couple that with Georgia's absences, and it wouldn't have been shocking to see the Bulldogs fall short here as well.

But that never really came close to happening as Georgia held a 19-0 advantage at halftime and never led by fewer than 12 points in the second half.

All the Georgia offense needed apparently was freshman wideout George Pickens, who dominated the Baylor defense en route to a career-best night.

ESPN Stats & Info provided a notable stat:

Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm was responsible for finding Pickens 12 times. He's been the object of criticism in the past, but Maria Martin of 11Alive defended the signal-caller after one of the best throws you'll see all bowl season:

And then the defense largely dominated a Baylor offense that came into the night averaging 32.6 points per game. They didn't get half that amount as Georgia held the Bears to less than half that total.

UGA is undoubtedly disappointed that a promising season didn't end with a College Football Playoff berth, but a strong Sugar Bowl win is a nice consolation prize as the team looks to return in 2020.

Baylor's Loss Shouldn't Obscure Excellent Season

It never felt as though the Bears were really in the Sugar Bowl after the beginning of the second quarter despite a second-half charge that saw them cut the Georgia edge to 26-14.

Baylor trailed by two scores or more for nearly all of the three final quarters and eventually fell by 12 points.

But looking at the bigger picture, how much does that really matter considering where Baylor was three years ago to where head coach Matt Rhule has taken the program today?

A horrific sexual assault scandal occurred at the school in the 2010s, with numerous football players accused of rape and former head coach Art Briles, as well as other athletics department officials accused of covering up the sexual assault allegations.

Nicole Chavez and Jay Kroft of CNN provided the investigative findings of the Pepper Hamilton law firm regarding the scandal: 

"An investigation conducted by the Pepper Hamilton law firm says the school response to sexual violence was inadequate and the school "failed to take action to identify and eliminate a potential hostile environment.

"The firm also found problems within the athletic department, 'including a failure to identify and respond to a pattern of sexual violence by a football player and to a report of dating violence.'"

President and chancellor Kenneth Starr resigned, and Briles was fired.

In response, many players and recruits decided to head elsewhere to further their collegiate careers, per Andy Hutchens and Bud Elliott of SB Nation.

Rhule came in from Temple to lead the program, and the first year's results were understandably filled with growing pains. The Bears went 1-11, with its lone win coming against last-place Kansas in a battle of the Big 12's worst teams.

Baylor wasn't given a chance in 2018, with the team ranking ninth of 10 Big 12 teams in the preseason poll. But Rhule's Bears had other ideas, finishing in a fifth-place tie at 4-5 in conference play, earning a 7-6 record overall and beating the Vanderbilt Commodores in the Texas Bowl.

The preseason expectations were low once again in 2019, with Baylor projected to finish sixth. However, the Bears steamrolled the conference competition to the point where they and the Oklahoma Sooners were the only two teams left standing.

The 9-0 Bears led the Sooners 31-10 in the regular season but ultimately fell 34-31.

They had another shot at OU in the Big 12 Championship Game, which served as a de-facto play-in for the College Football Playoff. But OU was slightly better there as well, winning 30-23 in overtime.

The season ended with a Sugar Bowl loss, but even then the Bears impressed in defeat, refusing to quit despite falling in an early 19-0 hole.

The credit goes to Rhule, his staff and the players who stuck around and helped rebuild the Bears.

Rhule is a hot coaching candidate now, with the New York Giants reportedly very interested, per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.

However, he would leave Baylor in a much better place than he found it, when the Bears were gutted following one of the worst scandals in the sport's history. One bowl game loss wouldn't change his legacy.