After losing so many times to Alabama, Georgia wins ‘for the seniors’

Right.

This Georgia team doesn’t fold when things get tough. This Alabama team doesn’t explode for points when deficits get big. The Bulldogs won 28-7 to end their losing streak to Alabama at three games. They earned only their second victory in the past 12 games against the Crimson Tide.

The fourth-ranked Bulldogs are SEC champions. They will carry a nine-game win streak into the College Football Playoff, where they’ll have a bye into the quarterfinals. Those are the most important things about this victory for the Bulldogs.

But they also got the Alabama elephant off their backs. If losing to the Crimson Tide had gotten in their heads, then they had to get it out. Smart said Drew Brannon, a sport/performance psychologist who works with the program, addressed the issue Friday night.

Smart said Brannon gave a presentation in which he asked coaches to talk about the team’s seniors. Brannon showed a graphic with the days those players had spent together, and how many they potentially had left.

“Before he finished he said, ‘Stand up if you’ve beaten Alabama in a game,’” Smart said. “And none of them stood up. It was a very moving piece … I thought it hit them right between the eyes of doing it for the seniors. And so many of them have been through heartbreaking losses (to Alabama) that they wanted to do it.”

The Bulldogs did it with suffocating defense. The Tide didn’t score until their ninth full possession. They punted seven times and turned it over on downs twice. Safety Daylen Everette’s interception set up Georgia near midfield, and the Bulldogs turned that turnover into a touchdown for a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

It was a turnaround from Georgia’s 24-21 home loss to Alabama in September. The Tide ran to a 14-0 lead early in that game and scored 24 points before halftime. In the rematch, the Bulldogs were ready for a physical tussle with the team that had beaten them so many times by being more rugged.

“It was a domination on that side of the ball, and lot of it came with a chip on the shoulder from the last one,” Smart said.

Georgia’s defense is on the come. The unit was elite in late-season victories over Texas, Georgia Tech and Alabama. The Bulldogs are playing championship-level defense at the right time.

Georgia’s offense benefited from short fields all night against Alabama. A blocked punt set up a 21-yard touchdown drive. The Bulldogs needed to drive only 57 yards after Everette’s interception.

Alabama tried to make a game of it late. Germie Bernard’s 23-yard touchdown catch from Ty Simpson trimmed Georgia’s advantage to 21-7 with 12:33 to go. Georgia ran a little more than three minutes off the clock before punting. But the Bulldogs stopped the Tide after just four plays, then put them away with a 12-yard TD drive.

There would be no Tide comeback this time. Georgia’s losing streak against them was over.

“That’s just part of the history of two great teams going at it,” Bulldogs quarterback Gunner Stockton said. “I’m glad we just kept it the same thing, just approach this week like it was a big game and didn’t make it bigger than it was.”

But it was bigger than just any big game. Smart has built Georgia into an elite program. His Bulldogs have won two national championships and three SEC titles before Saturday.

So, why did they have so much trouble beating Bama? The answer used to be simple: Nick Saban. Hardly anyone beat Saban’s old boss on a regular basis.

Yes, Smart’s Bulldogs coughed up leads four times but, again, it was Saban. Plus, Smart beat Saban’s Crimson Tide for a national title.

But then Smart lost his first two games against Saban’s successor, Kalen DeBoer. DeBoer is 17-6 against all other teams. He loses regularly to lesser programs than the one Smart built using Saban’s formula.

Georgia’s defeats against Alabama were because of a combination of blown leads, bad luck and bewildering decisions by Smart.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa replaced Jalen Hurts at halftime and beat the Bulldogs in the 2018 CFP championship game. They reversed roles in the next season’s SEC title game. Hurts replaced Tagovailoa with 11 minutes left and threw a TD pass to tie and ran for the winning score, after Smart chose to try a risky fake punt that was doomed from the start.

In 2020, the Crimson Tide routed Georgia 41-24 in Tuscaloosa. Smart finally defeated Saban in the 2021 CFP championship game, but the Crimson Tide blew out top-ranked Georgia later that year in the SEC championship game. Saban beat Smart again for the 2023 SEC title, then retired after the season.

DeBoer won his SEC debut, 41-34, over Georgia in Tuscaloosa. Alabama ran out to a 28-0 lead, gave the advantage back with 2:31 to go, then got it right back with a 75-yard touchdown pass. This season, the Tide won 24-21 in Athens even though the Bulldogs made more big plays.

It was starting to seem as if Smart might never beat Bama again. That feeling surely creeped into the minds of some Georgia fans when Bernard scored his touchdown on Saturday night. There was no way it would happen again, right?

There was no need for Bulldogs backers to worry. Smart stared down the Bama bogeyman and sent him back to Tuscaloosa with a loss.