georgia football bill o'brien alabama

Dan Lanning knows something has to change with the Georgia pass rush. Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien expects something different when the two teams play on Monday night.

And he knows Alabama’s offensive line is going to have to play even better than it did the first time around.

“It’s a tremendous challenge. Coach Smart, Coach Lanning, Coach Muschamp, those guys are at the top of their game when it comes to defensive coaching,” O’Brien told reporters via Zoom. “And then they have the players that can make it happen. So we’ve got a big challenge. We’re excited about it.”

The Bulldogs finished the game with zero sacks, though O’Brien saw Georgia get a number of pressures. That’s where the elusiveness of Bryce Young became a big factor. It’s an elite trait of his, one of many that gave Georgia problems.

“I think Bryce does a really good job of understanding and processing,” O’Brien said. “But it’s a whole different ball game on Monday night.”

While the Alabama offensive line shined in a way it had not all season in the SEC championship game, this group once again faces questions entering the national championship game. Starting right guard Emil Ekiyor and starting right tackle Chris Owens both left Alabama’s win over Cincinnati with injuries.

Their status for Monday’s game is unknown at this point. JC Latham replaced Ekayor at guard and Amari Kight came in at right tackle.

“The depth that we have, the younger guys, how locked in they are,” Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal said. “I believe they really have a next-man-up mentality. All of our guys prepare as if they’re starters. When their name or number is called, they’re ready.”

Lanning didn’t reveal how Georgia planned to pressure Young this time around but stressed the importance of impacting the Alabama quarterback. Georgia’s defense did rack up 45 sacks this season, including 4.0 in the win over Michigan.

Georgia’s pass rush also isn’t overly reliant on a single player, as the Bulldogs have four players with at least 5.0 sacks and 10 players with at least 2.0 sacks.

“Ultimately we want to create pressure. We want to be able to get after Bryce,” Lanning said. “As far as how to do it, I don’t want to give away our secrets yet, but wait until the game to figure that out. We want to generate pressure. We have to attack it a little bit differently, but how we do that, there’s a lot of different ways we can do it.”

Helping the Georgia defense is the fact that Alabama will be without one of its top weapons in John Metchie, as the wide receiver tore his ACL in the first matchup between the two teams. The talented wide receiver had 6 catches for 97 yards and a touchdown in the first half before exiting with an injury.

Georgia will still have to cover Jameson Williams and slow running back Brian Robinson. It’ll have to get Young into obvious pass-rushing situations and then get Alabama off the field, something it didn’t do the first time these teams met.

“We say all the time here the best rush is the best coverage, and we’ve got to get to the quarterback. There’s nothing else about it,” linebacker Nolan Smith said. “It’s our job as pass rushers to get after the quarterback and we didn’t do that. The difference between this game and that game is we just have to do it. We have to find a way. I believe in our coaches. I trust in the plan that we now are talking over still to be able to do that.”

Nolan Smith discusses importance of Georgia pass rush against Alabama

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