Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno, center, leads his team in a victory dance after defeating Auburn 17-13 in an NCAA college football game in Auburn, Ala., Saturday Nov. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

AUBURN, Ala. — The Georgia Bulldogs may be out of championships as far as the 2008 football season goes, but they’re not out of excitement.

Georgia rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit for a second consecutive Saturday, using Matthew Stafford’s 17-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Green and a late defensive hold to turn back Auburn 17-13 before a crowd of 87,451 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The 13th-ranked Bulldogs used the same formula last week to defeat Kentucky 42-38 in Lexington.

The fourth-quarter comebacks are the first the Bulldogs have produced consecutively during the regular season in Mark Richt’s eight years at Georgia.

“These last two weeks, the games have come right down to the last play of the game,” Richt said. “We are thankful for the victory. Either team could have won. It was another close game and another SEC brawl. I didn’t have a lot of energy to jump up and down at the end.”

Georgia (9-2, 6-2) improved to 30-4 in opponents’ stadium under Richt, which includes a 5-0 mark this season.

The Tigers, meanwhile, dropped to 5-6 and must defeat Alabama in Tuscaloosa in two weeks to be bowl-eligible for a ninth consecutive year. Auburn lost for a third time this season at Jordan-Hare, with each defeat by five or fewer points.

Stafford and Green won the Kentucky game with an 11-yard connection with 1:54 left. It wasn’t as dramatic against Auburn, as 8:24 remained when the Bulldogs went ahead for good, but the play was familiar.

Green’s winning catch came on the same route he ran during the first half against Tennessee, when he was all alone at the goal line and dropped the ball.

“This was redemption,” Green said.

Stafford completed 15 of 24 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns, while tailback Knowshon Moreno rushed 22 times for 131 yards. Auburn is the only team in which Stafford is 3-0 in his career, but this one didn’t come as easily as the 37-15 and 45-20 whippings of the past two seasons.

“We beat them,” Stafford said. “That’s the way it is. They’re a good football team. I don’t think you escape wins. I think you earn them.”

Down 17-13, Auburn drove to Georgia’s 21-yard line but lost the ball on downs when Kodi Burns overthrew Montez Billings on a fourth-and-3 attempt. The misfire occurred with 4:07 remaining, but the Tigers got another chance with 1:44 left at their own 20.

Burns had runs of 14 and 17 yards to get into Georgia territory, and a pass-interference flag on Bulldogs cornerback Asher Allen set the Tigers up at Georgia’s 23 with 33 seconds left. The Tigers got to the 14 with seven seconds remaining, but a fourth-down Burns pass for tailback Ben Tate in the back of the end zone went off Tate’s fingers as he stretched to stay in bounds and pull it in.

“We are not there yet on offense in terms of being able to make the play at the crucial time,” Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. “They made one and we didn’t.”

Auburn took a 6-0 lead with 14 seconds remaining in the first quarter on a 52-yard touchdown pass from Burns to Mario Fannin but botched the extra point. The touchdown came one play after Georgia’s Prince Miller fumbled a punt.

Georgia was sloppy throughout the first half but took a 7-6 lead with 3:08 left in the second quarter on a 35-yard pass from Stafford to Moreno. The one-point lead was preserved when Auburn’s Wes Byrum missed a 42-yard field-goal try with 23 seconds left in the half.

The Bulldogs took the game’s opening possession 79 yards on nine plays but came away empty when Tez Doolittle blocked Blair Walsh’s 20-yard field-goal attempt. They had moved 53 yards from their 6-yard line on their second drive but stalled when receiver Mohamed Massaquoi was flagged for pass interference.

Through two possessions, Georgia had 142 yards but no points.

“It’s a rivalry game, and you never know what’s going to happen,” Stafford said. “The wind was a factor on any kind of deep ball today, but it wasn’t too bad on the intermediate ball because I could try to drive that through the wind. Anything I was trying to hang deep, I was lucky to get near the guy.”

Walsh accounted for the third quarter’s only points to give Georgia a 10-6 lead, but that quarter wasn’t dull. Richt called a timeout with two seconds left in the quarter to make for Auburn to punt into the wind, so Tuberville decided to go for it on fourth-and-1.

Burns got the yard on a sneak.

“I knew he was going to go for it,” Georgia defensive coordinator Willie Martinez said of Tuberville, “because that’s him.”

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