Joel Klatt feels better about Georgia than Alabama despite Bulldogs loss in Tuscaloosa in Week 5

Alabama was the winning team in their top-five matchup on Saturday. However, coming out of the weekend, Joel Klatt thinks that Georgia could still be the better team despite the loss.

Klatt gave that opinion on his show on Monday. He prefaced that he knew that the take would be an unpopular one but, in the end, he feels much better about the Bulldogs than he does about the Crimson Tide.

“This is why I did not want to start with this because what I’m about to say, I think, is more controversial than what I just said,” said Klatt. “If you ask me about the two teams coming out of the game, we get over the emotional high of the game, and we sit down and we think to ourselves, okay, let’s put ourselves in Kirby Smart’s shoes, let’s put ourselves in Kalen DeBoer’s shoes, Carson Beck’s shoes, Jalen Milroe’s shoes? To me, to be quite honest, it’s actually a pretty obvious conclusion. Now, it might not be obvious to everybody. To me, it kind of stood out as I’m evaluating this game. That is that I feel better about Georgia than I do about Alabama coming away from that game.”

The way that the game played out is why Klatt feels that way about UGA. ‘Bama did get out to that 28-0 lead by the second quarter. However, from there, the ‘Dawgs went on a 34-5 run to take a lead with under three minutes to go.

That was enough to show Klatt that Georgia is better overall. They just happened to play Alabama in a game where, at least in the first half, they were at their very best.

“I get it. Alabama won, which is why I have rewarded them with that top spot in my rankings. But I also believe, in this sport, and candidly in life but in this sport in particular, the cream generally rises to the top,” Klatt explained. “So, if you asked me about any sort of game, I would tell you that, the more snaps that are played, the more times that you play, the more opportunities that you get? Generally speaking, the odds are going to favor the better team. As time goes on, what you will see is one team start to become a better team or reveal that they are the better team than the other. I believe that’s what was starting to happen in the second half.”

“Now, if you’re an Alabama fan, you’re going to be incensed that I have this opinion. Absolutely, you deserve to feel that way because you won the football game. Keep in mind what I said. If Alabama plays well at their ceiling, there is no doubt that they can win the national championship. There is no doubt in my mind,” added Klatt. ‘However, as the game went along, what you got was you got over the emotion of, you know, the first quarter and a half. You got over the emotion of the environment. What I saw in the second half was a defense in Georgia figure out the offense in Alabama. What I saw in the second half was a team in Georgia start to pick apart the weakness that I actually talked about that Alabama has, which is their secondary.”

With that, Klatt knows exactly which team would be wanting a rematch between the two of them.

“If I’m Carson Beck, I’m sitting here on Sunday and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Please get me another chance at that game. Please! Just get me ‘Bama. I don’t care. I’ll play them in the parking lot. I just want one more quarter, one more snap. We just ran out of time,'” said Klatt. “That’s what I’m feeling if I’m Carson Beck and Kirby Smart, for that matter.”

“If I’m Alabama, I’m like, ‘Man, we kind of escaped. They had us, they had us. They were coming back, we couldn’t do anything,'” Klatt said. “Now, all of a sudden, you’re starting to think to yourself, like, I don’t want to have to do that again. Can we beat them again? I don’t know, man.”

After their latest matchup, college football would welcome another edition of Alabama vs. Georgia sometime in the postseason. In that game, though, Klatt already has an idea of who he’d favor based on what happened this past weekend in Tuscaloosa.

“That’s why I feel a bit better about Georgia coming out of that game then I do about Alabama.”