Home was not as sweet as it has been recently for Tennessee against Georgia.
    
The Volunteers (3-2, 0-2 SEC) fell behind in the second half, losing 20-12 to the Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on Saturday for the first time since 2005, while Tyler Bray fractured his thumb and is out for about six weeks.
    
“Real good first half, two teams going at it toe-to-toe and we came out in the third quarter and had a little meltdown there for a couple possessions,” UT coach Derek Dooley said. “We lost our composure a bit. Pressed, got anxious, frustrated, and that was disappointing.”
    
Georgia (4-2, 3-1) has won four straight games and is tied with South Carolina for first place in the SEC East, while Tennessee is in fifth after its five-game home win streak dating back to last year’s Nov. 13 victory against Ole Miss was broken.
    
Similar to many times last season, the Vols were in the thick of it at halftime after Michael Palardy hit a 43-yard field goal to tie the game at 6-6 as the second quarter clock expired. But two Isaiah Crowell rushing touchdowns in the third quarter were all Georgia needed to give coach Mark Richt his 100th career win.
    
“It would have been real big,” said defensive back Prentiss Waggner, who had a career-high 11 tackles. “That could have been our signature win of the season.”
    
If the loss wasn’t tough enough, the Vols also suffered a huge blow to the offense late in the game.
    
Bray, who was 18-of-33 passing for a season-low 251 yards, left the game with under three minutes to go after he hit his right hand on a pass rusher’s helmet on a throw.
    
Senior Matt Simms, who started seven games last season, took over at the Georgia 23-yard line, completing 4-of-5 passes and scoring on a 1-yard run for Tennessee’s only touchdown of the game.
    
“You have to be prepared in this position, no matter what,” Simms said. “I was just ready to go. Hopefully Tyler’s O.K.”
    
In the second half, Tennessee shot itself in the foot a few times.
    
On its first possession of the third quarter, James Stone snapped the ball over Bray, leading to a 15-yard loss, forcing UT to punt on fourth-and-23 from its own 22. Matt Darr’s punt, Tennessee’s first of the game, went just 31 yards.
    
In Georgia’s ensuing drive, it looked as if the Vols stopped the Bulldogs on the UT 9, but linebacker Daryl Vereen was called for his second pass interference penalty of the night, giving the Bulldogs a first-and-goal at the 2-yard line. Three plays later, Crowell rushed one yard to give Georgia a 13-6 lead.
    
Georgia forced Tennessee to punt on its following possession, and put together a three-play, 93-yard drive, capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run by Crowell to extend Georgia’s lead to 20-6.
    
“We were feeling really good (out of halftime),” said middle linebacker Austin Johnson, who also had a career-high 11 tackles. “I thought we prepared well and we came out with the same intensity. They just had some big plays and put us down, I guess, and we didn’t respond as well as I wanted us to.
    
“The whole time we’ve been preaching big plays, so we’ve just got to cut those big plays out.”
    
The Vols squandered a 50-yard kick return in the third quarter by freshman Devrin Young, UT’s longest of the year, when they couldn’t pick up a first down.
    
Marlin Lane appeared to tie the game 13-13 for UT with a 66-yard touchdown reception when he rolled over a tackler to avoid hitting the ground, but he was ruled down after a review.
    
“We weren’t really grooving right then,” Dooley said. “It would have been a big momentum boost had it turned out for us, but that was when we were kind of out of sorts. We needed something to happen to get us back in rhythm. And that usually does it — a big play like that. That was third-and-long, ended up being fourth-and-3, and you have to punt it.”
    
Three straight penalties put Georgia in a 4th-and-58 situation in the fourth quarter.
    
“I think that’s a first,” Richt said. “It’s got to be in the top 10 in the history of college football.”