ATLANTA – The big surprise was not that Alabama was able to stress Georgia’s top-ranked defense during Saturday’s SEC Championship.
What did raise some eyebrows was how easy the Crimson Tide did it.
Alabama rolled up 536 yards of offense against the vaunted Bulldog defense, most coming on the right arm of quarterback Bryce Young. Young could not be stopped. The redshirt freshman potentially wrapped up the Heisman Trophy by completing 26 of 44 passes for an SEC Championship record 421 yards and three touchdowns.
So, what happened?
“I'd like to review the tape and see it. The first answer would be, don't leave people uncovered, you know what I mean? Like that's the first objective. Let's cover them, and then try to win some one-on-ones and get balls down,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “Because look now, they're going to throw and complete balls. They're really good at doing that. At the end of the day, you have to put a body on a body and cover them. Some of the plays we gave were gifts.”
That was not all.
Georgia came into the game second in the conference with 41 sacks and going against an Alabama offensive line that allowed 36 coming into play.
Against the Tide, the Bulldogs did not record a single sack in a game for the first time all year. As a result, Young was able to pick apart the Bulldogs' secondary, with Jameson Williams catching seven passes for 184 yards and two scores.
“They did a lot of naked bootlegs, quick passes and stuff,” outside linebacker Nolan Smith said. “He made some great plays. But we’ve just got to hit home. He played a good game, but as a pass rusher, it’s my job to affect the quarterback, and I did not do that.”
Linebacker Nakobe Dean said that Young and the Crimson Tide offense did not do anything that caught the Bulldog defense off guard.
“Well, yeah, of course we prepared like every other week. We took it in stride, tried to trust the coaches, trust the plan and everything,” Dean said. “They got great players, and they made great plays. We just didn't play our best game today.”
Smart agreed.
“I would reiterate what he said. We actually went into this game all week. We didn't work on run much, because we didn't feel like with the backs, it was coming. It was going to be a pass game. Felt like we'd get a lot of empty, which we did,” Smart said. “I really feel good about the things we worked on, but our ability to execute them—we had two or three third downs where we have a bust and cut a guy loose, and we haven't done that all year. When you're in man coverage and you cut a guy loose, that's not typical of us.”
Unfortunately for Georgia, there were too many examples of that.
Running back Brian Robinson was left wide open out of the backfield, allowing Young to complete some easy passes. The same happened with wideout John Metchie III, who was left all alone for a big gainer in the first half.
“Now, they may beat you,” Smart said. “They beat us on several man coverages, and I can take that, but when you cut a guy loose, you can't do that. When you get these guys in third down, you've got to get off the field.”
Smart was asked what changes he might make should the Bulldogs (12-1) face the Crimson Tide (12-1) again in the College Football Playoffs.
“I don't know that I could answer that right now,” Smart said. “The outside noise begins now. We've heard it before. But these guys are so solid. We've got such great leaders in there. I didn't have to say a lot in there, because the leaders spoke up and talked about what they wanted and how they wanted the next couple weeks to go.”
