For the Georgia Bulldogs, the last National Championship was quite a while ago. In 1980, after 42 years, they finally managed to win the longed-for title again. Now, 42 years later, Head Coach Kirby Smart’s team is reaching for the college football crown again. However, successful coach Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide stand in the way. In 2018 the “red elephants” defeated the Bulldogs in the final. In the night from Monday to Tuesday, however, everything should be different when the two powerhouses from the Southeastern Conference meet in the Lucas Oil Stadium of the Indianapolis Colts.
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Georgia and Alabama have played against each other once before this season. The victory in the SEC Championship Game at the beginning of December with 41-24 clearly went to the Crimson Tide, whose head coach Saban is in his 13th year for “BAMA” for the ninth time in the final of the National Championship. Georgia coped with the alleged slip and rolled over the Michigan Wolverines in the semi-finals in an almost usual manner. So both teams go into the final with a big chest.
National Championship Game
Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Georgia Bulldogs
When: 02:15 am on Tuesday, January 11th, 2022
Wo: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
TV: ESPN Player (original commentary), ProsiebenMaxx (in German)
Georgia Bulldogs oder Alabama Crimson Tide
This has been the case since 2014 College Football Playoff Comitee with his ranking at the end of the season, the participants for the semifinals are determined. The winners will meet in the final one week after the playoffs around the New Year. Before 2014, many experts, coaches, alumni and journalists voted for the two finalists in a joint vote.
In the current College Football Playoff era, the Alabama Crimson Tide reached six of the eight National Championship finals. The powerhouse was able to win three titles in this time. The Georgia Bulldogs are in the final for the second time. For a long time this year they looked like the undisputed number one, but that should have changed after the recent loss of the season to Alabama.
Alabama can no longer dismiss the role of favorites
Nick Saban loves to motivate his young team by fooling them into believing they are underdogs. He even managed to do that in the semifinals against the much smaller Group of Five College of the Cincinnati Bearcats, as star linebacker Will Anderson showed.
Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr. on the reversal of roles from an underdog in the SEC title game to a heavy favorite in the Cotton Bowl: “I still feel like we’re the underdog in this game. All year we have been disrespected.”#RollTide #Bearcats #CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/X2xU05fxAi
— #WVTM13 (@WVTM13) December 28, 2021
But the dominant win over Georgia five weeks ago can no longer be got out of the mind. Saban won’t be able to swear his boys back in this form again. If he liked to do this in the past because his high-class team otherwise tends to be arrogant, he will run into a problem in the National Championship Game.
How Georgia wins
Against Georgia, the Crimson Tide won’t find it nearly as easy to run with the ball. If running back Brian Robinson scored 7.9 yards per run in 25 attempts against Cincinnati, this would be an impossible undertaking against a run defense by the Bulldogs, who only allowed his opponents three rushing touchdowns during the season.
Now Alabama already had problems in the semifinals to protect quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young from the impending pass rush. Georgia, on the other hand, barely gave Michigan’s signal caller Cade McNamara time to breathe. Linebacker Nolan Smith and Butkus Award winner Nakobe Dean recorded 15 tackles, two sacks and three tackles for loss.
If Georgia gains better access to the Alabama’s passport attack, they will not be able to stage their playmakers as usual. Wide receiver John Metchie III will be sorely missed anyway. To what extent Jameson Williams can carry the receiving game on his shoulders, especially in the matchup with cornerback Derion Kendrick, remains to be seen. In the last meeting after the failure of Metchies in the second half, not too much came together. Slay Bolden has not been able to close the gap, at least so far.
Georgia, on the other hand, relies on the great hope George Pickens. The receiver is still undervalued due to a prolonged injury-related failure in the draft process. Pickens is one of the biggest playmakers in college football in recent years. His recovery comes at just the right time for him and his ambitions for the upcoming NFL draft. If his star shines one last time on the largest possible stage in college football, his Georgia Bulldogs have a great chance of winning the National Championship.
George Pickens shushed the Michigan sideline, tossed their DB, then shushed them again ???? @ESPNCFB @SECNetwork pic.twitter.com/1CLf4rXczT
– SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 4, 2022
How Alabama wins
That’s all wasted in case Bryce Young strikes up another Heisman-worthy performance. Against Georgia, Young scored 421 passing yards, three air touchdowns, and one over the run in early December. Against Cincinnati, the sophomore wasn’t nearly as effective, even threw an interception and had to escape the Pass Rush more often than he was used to before.
Maybe Georgia is using the Bearcats game plan as a blueprint for her own defense. However, if Young continues his last game against Georgia, the mass should be read by half time.
Because despite various playmakers in the offense, the Bulldogs do not have the firepower to take part in a shootout of the currently best college quarterback. Georgia’s playmaker Stetson Bennett is a walk-on who initially didn’t even get a scholarship to his school.
Against Michigan, Bennett was able to pull out the best performance of the season. Unfortunately, the probability is much higher that this was a one-off affair. Although the stories in the wake of the National Championship Game would practically write themselves if Bennett, who grew up in southern Georgia and even played at junior college in Mississippi, suddenly became the hero of the final. Hollywood is looking forward to this script template.
National Championship
Alabama will not be able to play its running game against Cincinnati as it did last week. Georgia’s Offense has taken an important step in the development in preparation for the playoffs and is finally trusting Stetson Bennett completely. The additional reps in training seem to be of use to this.
The Bulldogs want to impress the star ensemble of the Crimson Tide early this time and then control the clock with their running game. Georgia’s defense is too well-manned to allow another 40 plus point performance from their rivals. Despite or because of the crushing defeat in the SEC Championship Game, the Georgia Bulldogs can prove to the football world that they are the best team of this season and win the National Championship.
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