With a 28-7 victory, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart rewrote the entire narrative surrounding him and Alabama. With a dismal 1-7 record against the Tide on Saturday, Smart deployed a combination of speed, trickery, trickery and brazen football to not only beat Alabama, but also humiliate them. This is the kind of victory that galvanizes a program for the rest of the year, the kind of loss that leaves scars that last throughout the seasons.
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Georgia is now headed for, at worst, a bye and second place in the College Football Playoff. Alabama, on the other hand, is going nowhere quickly. There will be a lot of talk in the coming days about whether it’s fair to penalize a team for playing an extra conference championship game while other playoff contenders remain inactive, but this much is indisputable: Even knowing they had to put in a good performance, the Tide didn’t look, act or perform like a playoff team on Saturday night.
Smart’s mouth was watering for this game, but many others in Bulldog Nation weren’t as enthused, as there was no playoff advantage for Georgia either way, and the possibility of a tired team getting injured loomed large. Georgia, seeded No. 3 entering the game, would not drop out of the playoff bracket no matter what happened.
Alabama, on the other hand, has effectively been on a win-or-no-win sequence since its loss to Oklahoma to keep its playoff hopes viable. The Tide saw a potential roadblock turn to dust about an hour before kickoff, when Texas Tech swept BYU in the Big 12 championship. That cleared up any chance that a convincing BYU win could have propelled the Cougars into the hunt for a CFP berth. With this cleared up, Tide had its destiny in its own hands.
And he quickly threw it away.
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Georgia: ruthless and fast
Both teams spent the first couple of series hitting each other softly, testing defenses and waiting for the right moment to attack. That moment came with 6:37 left in the first, when Georgia’s Cole Speer swallowed Alabama’s Blake Doud’s punt, giving Georgia the ball at the Alabama 21. Four plays later, Georgia’s Gunner Stockton made the first of multiple big plays on the night, rolling right to find a wide-open Roderick Robinson for the first touchdown of the night.
The ease with which Georgia took advantage of all the momentum early on was evident. Alabama could survive a close loss and get into the CFP bracket, but a crushing loss? That would clear the way for both Notre Dame and Miami to beat Alabama and keep the Tide out of the playoffs for the second straight year.
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On the ensuing possession, Simpson threw the ball almost directly into the chest of Georgia’s Daylen Everette, sending the Georgia half of Mercedes-Benz Stadium into a deafening frenzy. Georgia drove down the field, surviving a fourth-and-one attempt as Stockton put together a 14-play scoring drive that consumed nearly eight minutes of clock…the first of many.
Alabama: ineffective and inaccurate
Meanwhile, Alabama spent virtually the entire game looking ineffective, inconsistent and inaccurate. The Tide was missing two major offensive weapons in Jam Miller and Josh Cuevas, but Alabama could have equipped Julio Jones and Derrick Henry for one more run and still would have struggled against a relentless Georgia defense that made the Tide see ghosts.
For every pass Simspon connected on for a lot of yards, he threw another three out of reach of his receivers. Four of Alabama’s five first-half drives lasted no more than four plays for 13 yards, and the fifth covered just 30 before Simpson ended it with an interception. Alabama finished the half with just 70 yards of offense, just 17 on the ground. Simpson was just 5 of 12 with the interception. Meanwhile, Georgia feasted on the Tide, claiming a 2-1 lead in time of possession in addition to that two-touchdown advantage.
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Given a chance to take advantage with the ball early in the second half, the Tide quickly gave it back after a third-and-long sack by Simpson. And then Stockton engineered another efficient beauty (six plays, 40 yards) to put the Bulldogs up by 21 and effectively seal the game and Alabama’s last hopes.
Saturday marked the first time in SEC championship history that a team was shut out for the first three quarters. Even Alabama band He flew out of the building. As the Million Dollar Band played “Basket Case,” Alabama’s traditional rallying cry in the fourth quarter, the thousands of Georgia fans in attendance drowned them out with chants of “UGA!”
Needing to show even the slightest hint of a pulse in the fourth quarter to have any sort of CFP hope, Alabama finally got on the board with a heavily penalty-enhanced drive that ended with Germie Bernard shaking off most of the Georgia defense for a 23-yard touchdown that was, rightfully, helped by a referee:
And then Georgia did what Georgia does: surround and smother with brutal efficiency in the fourth quarter. After its only touchdown, Alabama forced a Georgia punt, but Simpson again failed to move the ball, and Georgia closed out a desperate fourth-and-2 attempt at Alabama’s own 12-yard line. Three plays later, Zachariah Branch burst into the end zone to put Georgia up 28-7 and shake off years of frustration and disappointment.
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The last 12 SEC championships have featured Alabama, Georgia or both. Over the past decade, these two programs have been the class of not only the SEC, but college football as a whole, racking up titles and conference championships like firewood.
But now there is a clear divide between the two, regardless of what the rankings say. Georgia simply throttled Alabama on Saturday with ruthless efficiency, leaving the Tide no room for argument, protest, or even hope.
Georgia can now rest and prepare for a bye to start the playoffs. Meanwhile, Alabama will have to hope for mercy from others, as the Tide couldn’t handle business on its own.