As we continue our series breaking down the biggest plays for Georgia during the Bulldogs’ national championship run, let’s examine the SEC Championship.
While doing so, let’s take a different route.
While there were certainly some exciting plays, when you lose 41-24, those few bright spots obviously were not going to make a difference in the outcome.
That does not mean some good did come out of the game.
As the Bulldogs trudged off the turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it was the lessons learned during this loss to Alabama that would ultimately propel Kirby Smart’s squad to the national championship just over a month later.
Losing to Alabama certainly qualified as an eye opener for the Bulldogs.
It was a game that saw Alabama quarterback Bryce Young clinch the Heisman Trophy by completing 26 of 44 passes for 421 yards and three touchdowns, torching Georgia’s secondary in a manner no one saw coming.
From the Georgia perspective, the game was not pretty. However, losing like they did served a purpose for the Bulldogs.
It showed players that perhaps they were not in quite as good of shape physically as they might have thought. Also, it showed the entire team they couldn't simply roll their helmets on the field and expect to win.
Jamaree Salyer’s words after the game summed up what the Bulldogs needed to do.
"I think more than anything, we’ve just got to come together as a team. It’s all about how you respond. I think, you know, me looking at it personally, I think for our team it was a wake-up call. I think we needed one,” Salyer said. “We got a wake-up call from a really good team. If we get a chance in the playoffs, I feel like that wake-up call will help propel us forward. It’s all about how we respond at this point. To me, that’s the biggest thing.”
Looking back, that’s exactly what the Bulldogs were able to do.
On Sunday in a teleconference to promote Georgia’s upcoming Orange Bowl date with Michigan, Smart revealed his Bulldogs were already taking steps to ensure history would not repeat.
It started with a “players meeting” where several of the team’s leaders got up to speak.
“Sometimes, you can only see that through a loss. You hope you can see it through a victory, but these guys were great today,” Smart said on Dec. 5. “They wanted to have a player’s meeting, so a couple of guys got up and spoke on their own. They were in a really good space.”
If anyone was moping around following Saturday’s 41-24 loss, Smart said he could not tell.
“The players had unbelievable energy, communication, talking about moving forward. A lot of them wanted to know what the schedule was going to be so they could get back to work. I look at it all the time, you have to be brutally honest with yourself at time like this,” Smart said. “You have to be willing to say who are we, what are we doing well and maybe we aren’t as good as we thought we were in some areas, where can we improve.”
History would ultimately prove, that’s just what the Bulldogs would be able to do
