They did it again.

Georgia (3-1, 2-0 SEC) made it tough for itself, then found a way to get the victory again Saturday, this time topping Arizona State 20-17 on a last-second field goal.

“I don’t know what to say other than we did it again,” said coach Mark Richt. “We found a way to win a close one. Well, we found a way to make it close and then found a way to win it.”

More precisely, A.J. Green found a way to win it.

On a rain-soaked field in Sanford Stadium, Green, Georgia’s sophomore sensation at receiver, found more than one way to impose his will against a Sun Devils team that launched his career last season.

After setting a career high with a 56-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, Green went on to post 90 yards receiving in the first three stanzas.

In the game’s final five minutes, he really turned it on.

With the game tied at 17, Georgia went for it and failed on a fourth-and-short on the Arizona State 28-yard line. A few possessions later, Georgia quarterback Joe Cox threw his second interception of the day, setting up what looked to be the go-ahead field goal for the Sun Devils.

Enter Green, who got his lanky arms up and knocked the kick down with his left elbow. He would go on to reel in a 36-yard pass from Cox to set up the first last-second field goal of Blair Walsh’s Georgia career, giving the Bulldogs another tight win.

But a win nonetheless.

“It’s not good, but we’re coming out with wins,” Green said of the Bulldogs’ turnover problems. “We’re just trying to work on it each day, just turn it around. It’s fun when we’re winning right now, but we’ve got a lot of things we need to work on.”

The soft-spoken receiver from Summerville, S.C., is right.

The 21st-ranked Bulldogs are 3-1, and perfect in the conference heading into a home game with LSU on Saturday. But with three more turnovers against Arizona State (two Cox interceptions and a Caleb King fumble), the Bulldogs now have 12 on the season, compared to forcing just three themselves.

While that has certainly made for some edge-of-your-seat entertainment, Georgia players know that their record and turnover ratio won’t stay so disproportionate very long as they head into the meat of their conference schedule – one of them is going to have to change.

“If it keeps happening like this I won’t complain, but obviously we don’t believe that it’s something that can continue,” said Cox, who was 17-of-31 for 242 yards.

“It’s crazy, because we talk about it every week, we need to cut out turnovers and penalties, but it just seems to be something that happens anyway. It does get frustrating, and I’m glad our defense bailed us out tonight.”

Added Richt: “I keep saying that we need to stop these self-inflicted wounds. We’re not doing a very good job of that. I’m not getting my point across very good. So I guess we’ll have to get a little more drastic I suppose.”

Continuing what looks to be an identity crisis on both sides of the ball, the Georgia offense struggled in the rain, and the defense picked them up, allowing just 202 yards of total offense.

This after a high-flying Bulldog offense rescued a struggling defense in back-to-back games against South Carolina and Arkansas.

“We were focused, and we know that we’re going to face adversity,” Green said. “It was a sloppy game, it was raining, Joe probably couldn’t get his hand on the ball half the time because it was so wet. We kept fighting. We’re just a fighting team.”

The Bulldogs average margin of victory this season is just six points, and without Green? Well, there may not be a margin at all.

“These guys are pretty tough. They’re very resilient,” Richt said. “They do have a fighting spirit about them. They’ve got some pretty good leadership. Still, as many times things have happened that one side of the ball might get mad at the other side or start to squabble a little bit, there have been no signs of that . We’ve got a lot of great things going for us, just again we have to stop trying to give an opponent gifts.”

And hope that Green continues to give the Bulldogs gifts of their own.