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INDIANAPOLIS — With sandbox plans, pyrotechnic attacks, and analytics dictating that the fourth inning isn’t for punts or field goals, if this is the new era of college football, the sport has been pushed back to an earlier time Monday night.
Going back to football’s prehistoric era, coaches who value a reliable hitter, where championships are won with jaw-dropping defenses, offenses are simply dust-clouds 3 yards.
Georgia defeated her old foe Before a supporting capacity crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday night, Kelee passed the 33-18-year-old Alabama in a bare-knuckle-white-knuckle game of an unsafe game until Ringo returned 79 yards for an interception. goal at the last minute.
This was Georgia’s first title since the 1980 season and their first win over the Crimson Tide since 2007, a string of defeats that included a heartbreaking defeat in the 2017 title game.
“I can tell you that some property is going to be smashed in Indianapolis tonight,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said later on the field, nodding to the goal call of former Georgia broadcaster Larry Munson, who died in 2011. Buck Belue-to-Lindsay Scott goal pass against Florida, which kept Georgia’s undefeated season alive 41 years ago.
If Monday night was celebrated in some quarters as a commemoration of Southeastern Conference supremacy—Georgia has become the conference’s third distinct team to win in the past three seasons—the field goal fest may have been another reason for those outside of the South to start clicking. Their televisions were turned on long before the confetti landed.
This season’s semifinals were the second- and third-lowest-rated broadcasts in eight seasons of the playoffs, and more could come if that’s partly due to SEC fatigue. Earlier on Monday, the College Football Playoff governing committee was once again unable to reach an agreement that would widen the field and perhaps spice up the tournament.
But if you’re an old-school purist who appreciates battle in the trenches and doesn’t mind getting quarterbacks dirty, this was your game. The teams teamed up for seven sacks, 14 knockouts behind the scrimmage line, and lots of staggering hits. Neither team breached the finishing zone until Georgia’s Zamir White gave the Bulldogs their first 13-9 win with just over a minute to go in the third quarter.
This score seemed to open the game.
Alabama batsman Will Reichard hit his fourth for 21 yards early in the fourth quarter, and then defender Christian Harris turned into what looked like a quarterback game, piercing quarterback Stetson Bennett IV deep into Georgia soil. The ball bounced out of Bennett’s hand as he threw it, and a bouncing awkwardness was commanded into Brian Branch’s safe hands as his foot was millimeters away from the out-of-bounds line at Georgia 16.
Five games later, Alabama – assisted by a pass interception penalty, one of 10 violations against Georgia – took an 18-13 lead as Bryce Young took a 3-yard touchdown pass for a tight end, Cameron Latu and Alabama failed in 2 – point attempt.
Bennett, a former flip-phone-using walk-on with a patrician name and a pedestrian game, saved himself by throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass to Adonai Mitchell, who made a leaping catch in the end zone to put the Bulldogs ahead, 19-18, 8 minutes 9 seconds left.
When freshman Brock Bowers turned a short reception into a 15-yard touchdown, he added another player, giving Georgia a 26-18 lead with 3:33 remaining.
“I wasn’t going to be the reason we lost that game,” said Bennett, who has a football origin story that comes close to his grandfather, who hitchhiked to South Carolina in the late 1950s after Stetson University dropped out of football and immediately became football’s most important name. Gamecocks’ quarterback debut. .
Ringo sealed the victory when he made a faulty pass deep inside his home zone and zigzagged across Alabama, being shadowed by Smart along the sideline and leaping into the finish zone.
His ride was confirmation that Georgia would receive a long-coveted title.
However, the game ended aptly enough when defender Nolan Smith sacked Young.
From September to November, the Bulldogs were the college football class with a throwback team: a bruised, debilitating defense and a steady offense, driven by enough dexterity by Bennett.
Georgia chained Clemson early and then ran hard in the SEC until her aura was pierced by a familiar bogeyman: Alabama, who beat them 41-24 in the conference championship game.
Saban has only lost once to a former assistant—five of whom are currently coaching with the SEC. Yet none of them had ever been as close to him as Smart or suffered such a crushing defeat against Saban. He spent 11 seasons at three locations, Louisiana State, Miami Dolphins, and Alabama. And those losses included Georgia’s double-digit lead in two SEC championship games and another in the 2017 season’s national championship game.
This championship game was the most unbearable: Coming off the bench in the first half, Alabama’s first-class quarterback Tua Tagovailoa took DeVonta Smith to the sideline in the second and 26th to score a goal in extra time.
Having not beaten Alabama since 2007, the Bulldogs had spent the last 10 days answering questions about their record against the Crimson Tide. “This is the truth,” said senior left team Jamaree Salyer. “You really can’t really escape.”
Georgia started the night as if she was only frightened by the sight of the Tide.
Bennett was sacked on his first inning and dropped (saved) the ball while floundering on the second inning. The Bulldogs failed the next shot before game time expired – the first of seven penalties in the first half. The team that slashed Michigan from the opening moment of the semifinals netted a 1-yard net on their first two drives, which seemed like a good indication of why Smart delayed it when he won the coin toss.
While Alabama is a regular in the playoffs, missing only once, it’s remarkable how close they are to winning their seventh championship since 2009.
But for its starburst performance in the SEC championship game, this wasn’t the same Crimson Tide team that stormed last season with a cavalry of offensive stars, from Najee Harris to quarterback Mac Jones and a star-studded welcome troop led by Smith. , Heisman Trophy winner – worked behind the best offensive line in the country.
This team was talented, of course, but it was also young, inexperienced, and lacked leadership to begin with.
Quarterback Young was the most valuable player in the country two years ago, but has only made 13 passes before this season. The corps running back was weak and the offensive line had to replace three marches. The defense delivered eight starters, including star pass shooter Will Anderson, but it was a union that experienced hiccups in 2020.
Saban was concerned enough about the leadership he brought last summer to appeal to his team over the dangers of repeating Alex Rodriguez as champion – something the former Yankees star had never done in his long career. It also explains why the coach with a reputation for toughness was more courteous and courteous when his team was upset by Texas A&M and emerged with upsetting wins against Florida, Louisiana State and Auburn.
“I don’t want to call it nurturing,” Saban said after the semifinal victory over Cincinnati. But I felt we had to do it with this team, just fighting these guys all the time wouldn’t help their confidence, it wouldn’t help the young players develop.”
This improvement eventually came – but it also resulted in a host of injuries.
Among them was receiver John Metchie III, who tore his knee ligaments in the conference title game. Then on Monday, the other elite passer Jameson Williams, who fired Georgia for two touchdowns last month, came out early in the second quarter after bending his left knee after catching a long pass from Young.
Perhaps a solid Williams could make a difference for Alabama, whom Georgia knows so well, that will have to wait until next season to recover from disappointment and regret.
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