The National Championship That Will Be
Georgia vs. Alabama for all the marbles...just like we could have guessed four months ago.
For the Year: 44-39-1 (.530) ($50) ATS 57-27 (.679) SU
After a brief flirtation with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Cincinnati, Iowa (hahaha) and my gosh, Oregon, we have finally reached the day and match-up that most of us saw coming all along…
Georgia vs. Alabama.
Again.
The last time I wrote something, I was writing about how surprised I was that most were picking Georgia to defeat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, when Kirby Smart has never beaten Alabama (0-4), and the Georgia program hasn’t beaten Alabama since Nick Saban’s first year in Tuscaloosa, 2007.
Three of those losses for Kirby Smart were in postseason games, and three of those losses came after Georgia blew a double digit lead. There was the 2017 National Championship Game where the Bulldogs held a 13-0 halftime lead and a 20-7 lead deep into the third quarter before Jalen Hurts led the Tide back. There was the 2018 SEC Championship Game, 11 months later, where the Bulldogs jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the second quarter and extended that to 28-14 in the third quarter – and never scored again the rest of the game, eventually falling 35-28.
And then, of course, there was the game just a few weeks back, where the Bulldogs raced out to a 10-0 lead just seconds into the second quarter…and then proceeded to give up 41 of the next 55 points in the game.
You can say that they are due. You can say that Georgia is better than they showed in that game. The program with the most excuses for how they keep losing big games will tell you that it seeped into their minds that they could lose to Alabama and still make the playoff – but there is a mental block there – will they be able to erase it?
That is the biggest question of this game.
Between the lines one thing Georgia will have to do better in this game than they did in the game last month is get pressure on Bryce Young. Young has shown a propensity to panic a little bit under pressure, but the Bulldogs and their vaunted front tallied zero sacks in the SEC Championship game. They left their secondary out to dry – and most that have scouted this Georgia defense will say – that is not a good thing.
The Bulldogs played the Alabama rushing attack well in the first game, only allowing 115 yards on 26 carries, but when they let Young throw for 421 yards – it doesn’t really matter.
The Tide were able to rush for more than 300 yards against Cincinnati, perhaps they have figured out their running game, or perhaps they just attacked a weakness and will come out throwing the ball 44 times like they did in the first game.
Defensively Alabama was able to hold Georgia to 3-of-12 on third down in the first meeting, and a Georgia running back didn’t have a run longer than 12 yards. The Bulldogs only had a running back rush for 100 yards twice this season, they will need to rely on more of a running attack in this match-up. Stetson Bennett had more attempts than Bryce Young in the first match-up (48 attempts).
No sir.
And that right there is the crux of this game to me – do you rely on the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback on one side, or do you put your marbles on the former walk-on to finally slay the giant for his head coach and for his program?
And then you are going to give me points?
Not much of a call for me.
Alabama 35 Georgia 26
For entertainment purposes only. Save your money for a Quinn Ewers jersey.