The loss to Bama was disappointing, given a few key plays/calls changed the game.
But while there are a lot of reasons for UGA fans to be dismayed by the Tide’s 27-24 SEC title game win, we should be enormously proud of what we’ve seen from Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs over the past three seasons — back-to-back national championships, an SEC championship last year, an SEC-record 29 victories in a row and 45 wins in their past 47 games.
Still, this one really hurts — especially since a couple of those key plays that didn’t go Georgia’s way were self-inflicted.
There was, of course, the false-start penalty that pushed a field goal attempt back 5 yards, costing Georgia 3 points. And then there was the botched pitch on a Dawgs end-around play that was recovered by the Crimson Tide, giving them an easy 3 points. (The Georgia defense actually had a pretty outstanding stand there since Bama got the ball deep in Georgia territory.)
The Crimson Tide’s first touchdown pass on an uncovered wheel-route also was the result of a mistake by a freshman defender, Smart said after the game.
There are plenty of hypotheticals for UGA fans to grouse about, too. If several of the Dawgs’ offensive starters had been fully healthy … if Georgia’s defensive coaches hadn’t gone with a bad plan for trying to contain Alabama QB Jalen Milroe … if UGA’s offense hadn’t disappeared for the middle portion of the game and hadn’t concentrated on the run too much (not taking advantage of the fact that the Dawgs had the better passing quarterback).
The list of ifs goes on, and that’s without considering the questionable calls or noncalls by the officials, including a key fourth-down Bama “catch” that should have been reviewed but wasn’t, and a horse-collar call that clearly was in error. Bad calls or missed reviews are a fact of life in college football.
And the Dawgs’ own mistakes were much bigger factors in their loss to the Tide. While the fact that the questionable fourth-down catch by Bama wasn’t reviewed was a crucial moment in the game, the receiver in question was wide open. And the previous play had seen the Tide complete a 17-yard pass on third-and-21 to set up that fourth-down effort.
Overall, there’s no denying that Bama was the best team that the Dawgs had faced all year — on both sides of the line of scrimmage. For much of the game, the Tide dominated in the trenches — with Bama’s very physical offensive line opening huge holes against a Georgia defensive front that isn’t at the same level as its two immediate predecessors.
Where most teams that have run on the Dawgs this season have had their greatest success on the perimeters, the Tide also gained a lot of yards running straight up the middle.
And the Dawgs never did really come up with an answer to Milroe. That three-lineman, two-spy defensive formation was a total bust; while it might have limited some of the Alabama quarterback’s runs, it left too much of the field open. Also, despite the fact that Georgia registered four sacks, that reactive defensive scheme allowed the Alabama QB to stand in the pocket for extended periods as he looked for (and found) open receivers.
The Georgia defense did play better in the second half, but, in general, it didn’t feel like the Red Elephants (as they once were called) got Georgia’s best effort Saturday in Atlanta — certainly, the Dawgs didn’t play as well as they had earlier this season against Ole Miss and Tennessee.
The biggest problem was that Georgia’s offense disappeared for way too long in the game. Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo called a brilliant opening drive, mixing run and pass to great effect, but then he went ultra conservative for much of the game until the fourth quarter, with too many wasted possessions stymied by Bama’s aggressive defensive front, which ran frequent run blitzes.
You might wear down most teams on Georgia’s schedule continuing to pound with the running game, even when it’s not getting much, but not Alabama, the only team in the country with a more talented roster than the Dawgs.
In a reverse of its usual practice this season, Georgia started out the game looking very sharp on both sides of the ball.
The Dawgs’ defense forced three-and-outs on Bama’s first two possessions of the game. Meanwhile, Georgia took a 7-0 lead on the basis of a precision drive that superbly mixed run and pass, with quarterback Carson Beck hitting tight end Brock Bowers for 23 yards, wide receiver Dominic Lovett for 18 yards and receiver Ladd McConkey for a 15-yard gain. Tailback Kendall Milton ran the ball in from the 17-yard line.
Unfortunately, the Dawgs then went cold offensively as Bama adjusted its defense, and the Georgia D had trouble dealing with the best offensive line they’d faced all season.
It certainly didn’t help that the Bulldogs were banged up. Bowers, McConkey and offensive lineman Tate Ratledge returned to action, but the OL lost Amarius Mims early in the game.
Despite both Bowers and McConkey still being gimpy, though — with Ladd limping off the field at times —Bowers wound up with 5 catches for 53 yards and McConkey caught 3 for 38 yards.
Bowers moved up to third all-time in school history with 175 receptions and is fifth in receiving yards with 2,538 yards.
“Those guys are warriors,” Smart said after the game.
Beck finished 21-for-29 for 243 passing yards and also scored on a run. But after Georgia’s opening drive, its receivers struggled to get separation from the Tide defenders.
Overall, Georgia’s rushing attack looked pretty feeble against the Tide. Milton was the leading ground-gainer, with 42 yards on 13 carries and 2 TDs. His first score was Georgia’s longest running play of the game. (He also scored late in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run.) Daijun Edwards had 38 net yards on 10 carries.
While the Dawgs tallied 321 yards of offense to Bama’s 306 yards, Georgia gained only 78 net yards on the ground. (Bama had 114, once you subtract the 38 yards lost in sacks.)
The Dawgs were 4-for-12 on third down (not up to their usual showing) while the Tide was 3-for-13. Both teams were 2-for-2 on fourth down.
Georgia did rally to score 2 TDs in the fourth quarter, with the first of those scoring drives sparked by a 28-yard punt return by freshman receiver Anthony Evans III.
Defensively, the leading tacklers for Georgia were Smael Mondon and Malaki Starks, with 8 apiece. Jalon Walker had 2 of Georgia’s 4 sacks.
On special teams, Peyton Woodring missed a career-long 50-yard field goal attempt (after the false start pushed the Dawgs back), which snapped a streak of 16 straight he had made, ranking second in school history. He made a 34-yard FG and all 3 of his PATs. Brett Thorson punted 4 times for a 50.3 average (with a long of 60 yards) and no returns.
To its credit, Georgia fought back furiously, pulling within 3 points with 2:52 left in the fourth quarter, but Bama was able to run out the clock.
In the end, costly mistakes in first half, some defensive whiffs and the offense disappearing for a long stretch doomed the Dawgs. Bama probably is the only team with the depth and talent to do this to Georgia, and they ended up winning by just 3 against the depleted Dawgs.
Saturday’s loss was Georgia’s first since falling to the Crimson Tide in the 2021 SEC Championship Game. But while that loss did not keep Georgia out of the College Football Playoff (and they exacted revenge on the Tide by beating them for the national title), the circumstances unfortunately were different this year.
The Dawgs finished sixth in the final ranking, the first time that the team that was No. 1 in the penultimate ranking fell completely out of the final top four.
For most of the four-team playoff era, a one-loss Georgia probably still would have made the post-season tournament. But there was a surfeit of teams considered playoff-worthy this year, and when a committee has too many possible choices, the decision it makes almost always is a poor one.
As Beck put it after the game: “To not finish the way we wanted to and kind of leave the destiny in someone else’s hands, rather than us handling it ourselves, that’s hard.”
And so, despite Smart’s argument that the playoff spots should go to the four best teams — and that his Dawgs rank among that group — Nick Saban’s continued mastery of Georgia in Mercedes-Benz Stadium made Atlanta the place where the Dawgs’ dreams of a possible national title threepeat went to die.
Still, as I said earlier, Georgia fans should be very proud of what Smart’s teams have accomplished over the past three seasons.
It’s been a helluva run.
