This Saturday night, two of the nation’s top teams will square off in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Georgia has actually won its last two meetings in Tuscaloosa (2002, 2007). Alabama is one of two schools that Georgia has a losing record against (LSU being the other). The same could have been said about Tennessee a few years ago, but not anymore.

Georgia improved to 3-0 on the season after taking charge of Tennessee and winning 44-21. The Bulldogs’ defense shut out the Volunteers in the second half, holding them to just 71 yards of offense in that time. Winning against the Vols wasn’t always that common for the Dawgs. That's true for all three of Georgia’s first three opponents, as you can see.

Georgia’s rush defense leads the nation in yards allowed per game, yielding only 38.3 yards per game on the ground. Last season, the Bulldogs were third in the nation and led the SEC, allowing 74.6 ypg (Utah and San Diego State allowed fewer). Last week, the Dawgs "D" was even more dominating, as the Vols were held to (-1) yard rushing—the first time holding an opponent to negative yards rushing since last season vs. Texas A&M. Georgia has certainly taken care of the run game in the Tennessee series the last four meetings, which all resulted in wins for the Bulldogs.

Georgia’s rush defense has not allowed a rushing touchdown this season, and has not allowed a rushing touchdown to a running back since Josh Jacobs scored for Alabama in the 2018 SEC Championship. Jacobs may be gone, but the Crimson Tide has Najee Harris, who scored five rushing touchdowns last week against Ole Miss and currently leads the nation with ten.

The Bulldogs have never led the nation in rush defense, though they've led the conference four times (1971, 1981, 1985 and 2019).

Monty Rice led the Dawgs last week by notching eight tackles. He scored a touchdown, recovering his first career fumble and darting 20 yards for the score. That's the second defensive touchdown scored by the Bulldogs this season (Eric Stokes). Check out the fast start Georgia’s defense has made in these two categories, through the team’s first three conference games under Kirby Smart.

The ten sacks are second in the SEC behind Mississippi State; the five interceptions second in the SEC behind Kentucky.

Thirty-four individual players have a tackle for the Dawgs, including nine that have at least a half of a tackle for a loss. Six different players have a sack; five have either an interception or a fumble recovery.

Switching to offense, the Mailman delivered once again as Stetson Bennett went 16-of-27 passing for 238 yards and two touchdowns. He added another touchdown running the ball. It was the second career game in which he had at least a touchdown pass and a touchdown rush in the same game (last season vs. Murray State being the other occasion). So far this season, Bennett has looked really sharp, especially on third downs— as you can see here.

On the receiving end, Kearis Jackson led the Bulldogs last week with four receptions for 91 yards and added his first career touchdown. In fact, nine different Dawgs caught at least one pass in the game. Center Trey Hill had an oddity: receiving yards without a reception, after the heads-up play recovering the fumble on a downfield block and adding three more yards. Georgia's been sharing the wealth this season, as you can see here.

One of those players receiving the ball last week was Jalen Carter. The 305-pound defensive lineman has shown up on offense as a blocker, but last week hauled in a one-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. He was the heaviest Bulldog to score a touchdown since the 325-pound defensive lineman Jason Ferguson scored on a fumble recovery in the 1995 Peach Bowl against Virginia (although bowl game stats are not officially counted until 2002). In the 2002 season, 297-pound offensive lineman Jon Stinchcomb recovered a fumble for a touchdown against Auburn. Carter did play some tight end at Apopka High school, and as of now, appears to be the heaviest Georgia player to score on offense on a designed play.

Georgia ran the ball 50 times last week for 193 yards (which includes (-30) yards for the team on the high-snap fumble). Freshman Kendall Milton led the way, punishing defenders for 56 yards on seven attempts. Zamir White added 50 yards and his fourth touchdown of the season. Wide Receiver Jermaine Burton chipped in another 43 yards on a nice reverse.

Here's how Georgia’s five main backs have fared this season in each quarter.

Kenny McIntosh did a little bit of everything last week. The sophomore had 45 yards rushing, 36 yards receiving, and added 42 yards on a kickoff return. This season he's averaging 42.8 yards on his four kickoff returns. He's currently leading the SEC, and is third in the nation in that category. Since 1959, only three Georgia players have ever led the conference in kickoff return average, and its been more than 30 seasons since the last one.

The way Alabama has scored this season—it leads the nation with 51 points per game—it seems they'll be kicking the ball off a lot. The Crimson Tide scored 63 points last week against Ole Miss, including scoring 42 points in the second half. Georgia has only allowed six points in the second half in three games combined. Georgia’s scoring defense currently is tied for fifth in nation after leading in that category a season ago.

Georgia has defeated Alabama twice when the Crimson Tide has been ranked in the top 10. The first time was the 1965 season-opener, when the famous "Flea Flicker" helped lead unranked Georgia and Vince Dooley to a victory over No. 5 Alabama and Paul "Bear" Bryant by the score of 18-17. The last time was in 1976, when No. 6 Georgia, led by Matt Robinson and Ray Goff, defeated No. 10 Alabama 21-10. Goff and George "Kid" Woodruff are the only people to defeat Alabama as a Georgia player and also as a Georgia head coach (Kirby Smart was 0-1 as a player, so he can't join this list if the Dawgs win).