The idea that Alabama would lose in the SEC title game? Now that’s funny

ATLANTA – No. 3 Alabama defeated No. 1 Georgia 41-24 on Saturday in the SEC Championship Game and details are below but, really, they’re a formality. Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young won himself a Heisman, and Tide wide receiver Jameson Williams confirmed he accelerates like he came off Elon Musk’s assembly line, and the Bulldogs’ quarterback named Stetson had a night of all hat and no cattle, and we’ll get to all that.

Alabama spent November moving in reverse, beating three SEC opponents by a total of 15 points, beating mediocre Auburn last week in four overtimes on guts and survival instinct, and now the Crimson Tide has locked up its seventh College Football Playoff invitation in the eight years of the format.

All of which is to say, everyone who thought Georgia would win this game, including the guy typing these words, is a dope.

Georgia has lost seven in a row to Alabama – games in the regular season and the postseason, games like the SEC championship and the national championship, games in October, December and January. The Dawgs came into their past four games against the Crimson Tide ranked third, fourth, third and, on Saturday, first. They led by 13, 14, 7 and 10 points in those games. Didn’t matter.

They concluded their most successful regular season in 41 years. The Dawgs steamrolled 12 opponents without being in a close game. That may be the one streak they kept going Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

This game wasn’t close, either.

Georgia came into the game with the cushion of knowing that, win or lose, it was likely to receive a playoff invitation. The way that the Tide knocked the Dawgs around, they needed every bit of that cushion. The game looked to us experts as if it would be a Georgia onslaught. There was an onslaught, all right. Georgia, the undisputed No. 1 team in the nation, got slaughted on, passed on, and scored on, one possession after another, five in a row over the second and third quarter.

“You guys gave us a lot of really positive rat poison,” Alabama

coach Nick Saban chortled Saturday night. “The rat poison that you usually give us is usually fatal, but the rat poison that you put out there this week was yummy.”

If ever there were a season when Georgia would beat Alabama, it was this one. Georgia had given up 83 points all season. Alabama scored about half that Saturday. Put another way: Georgia gave up seven offensive touchdowns all season, then gave up five Saturday.

A Heisman-winning performance

Young threw for 421 yards, a shade above the average of 151.6 yards that the Dawgs have allowed this season, and three touchdowns. The unflappable sophomore came into the game as the Heisman favorite and left it looking like Alabama’s second winner in as many seasons.

“I’m super, super excited,” Young said. “Super happy for the team. … We know there’s a long road ahead. We’re hoping to get into that two-game season.”

Williams got behind the secondary for touchdowns of 67 and 55 yards, finishing with 184 receiving yards on only seven catches. The offensive line that allowed seven sacks against Auburn seven days ago gave up none.

“The offensive line did a very, very good job of allowing us to get the ball down the field and our receivers to be able to work,” Saban said.

Saban has remarked throughout the season on the youth and immaturity of this team. It showed in a 41-38 loss at Texas A&M in October. It showed last month in the way they stumbled through narrow victories against LSU (6-6), Arkansas (8-4) and Auburn (6-6). That team came out all grown up Saturday.

“The big thing I like about these guys is they responded the right way when they got beat,” Saban said. “. . . Having respect for winning and what it takes to win and what it takes to prepare to win are all things that are really important. Sometimes when you win 19 games in a row, you lose a little respect for that.”

Good start, bad finish for Georgia

Georgia’s winning streak ended at 16 games Saturday. The Dawgs started this game out like the previous 12, taking a 10-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter. At that point, Georgia had outgained Alabama 164-46, and held the ball more than 11:30.

Three plays later, Williams, who came through the transfer portal from Ohio State, took off from the Tide 33. At Georgia’s 41, he performed a little hitch-and-go that left Georgia cornerback Kelee Ringo in Williams’ backwash. Nobody gets from zero to top speed like this guy. Williams ran under Young’s pinpoint pass and scored easily.

“I think that changed the momentum of the game a little bit for us,” Saban said.

Georgia had allowed seven points in the second quarter all season. When Alabama scored again on its next possession, a 13-yard pass from Young to John Metchie, the Tide went ahead 14-10 with 9:46 left in the half. That was three seconds short of the latest that Georgia had been behind in any game this season.

Alabama added 10 more points in the second quarter, putting up 24 in one quarter against a team that hadn’t allowed any opponent more than 17 in a game. The Tide then took the second-half kickoff and went 75 yards in five plays to go up 31-17, and Georgia never got closer than 14 for the rest of the game.

“Obviously, we didn’t play very well,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “I’m just disappointed in how we played.”

Stetson Bennett, the former Georgia walk-on who took over for injured quarterback J.T. Daniels early in the season and refused to give the job back, threw for 340 yards and three touchdowns. But he also threw two interceptions, one a pick-six that Jordan Battle returned 42 yards for Alabama’s final touchdown and the other in the red zone.

Bennett proved Saturday that he’s not effective throwing when trying to avoid a sack. It’s not easy for a righthanded quarterback to move to his left and throw accurately. It’s really not easy when linebacker Will Anderson, the nation’s leader in sacks (15.5), or Battle is bearing down on you.

That’s what happened on the last play of the Dawgs’ two trips to the red zone in the third quarter. Their pressure forced Bennett into an interception and, on the next possession, an incompletion on fourth-and-9 from Alabama’s 19.

“We move the ball and just (make) mental lapses,” Bennett said. “When you do that, they make you pay.”

Good news, Kirby. Our crack research team at on3.com has determined that the actuarial tables are in your favor. Saban, your former boss, is 70. You turn 46 this month. Someday, you won’t have to coach against him.

In the interim, as in the upcoming College Football Playoff, there’s a decent chance that Alabama and Georgia will play again. Anyone wondering who will win?