It was more than 11 minutes into the game before Nagy completed his first pass, to Jackson. By then, the Crush led 10-0.

“Giving up big plays, quick scores, it puts pressure on your offense,” said Force coach Doug Plank, who took Georgia to the league championship and became the league’s coach of the year in his first season.

Colorado never gave up the lead — although Georgia came back to tie the game three times late in the fourth quarter.

Nagy completed a 34-yard jump-ball pass to Lee in the Colorado end zone, and kicker Nelson Garner made the extra point to tie it at 34 with just over 9 minutes left.

Marshall answered 1:22 later, taking a 45-yard pass up the 50-yard field. He avoided a defender at midfield and angled into the end zone to break the tie.

Nagy hit Lee again with a 27-yard pass to knot the score at 41, but Dutton hit Harrell with a 30-yard scoring strike to pull the Crush ahead. Nagy then threw a 20-yard scoring pass to Jackson to tie the score at 48 with 18 seconds left.

The game attracted a crowd of 10,822 at the 15,621-seat Thomas & Mack Center, but Plank said the noise inside the arena made it impossible for him to call a timeout before Rush’s kick.

“I was trying to call time out at the very end,” the Georgia coach said, “but I just wasn’t able to get that done.”

Rush, who missed a long field goal try in the first half, called the last-second kick the most pressure-packed of his career.

“I’ve been around seven years and I’ve been in crucial situations, but this is the top one,” he said.