The College Football Championship Game will re-launch the SEC Championship Game: The Alabama Crimson Tide will face the Georgia Bulldogs in the finals on January 10th. For Michigan, as well as for Cincinnati, one of the big stories of this college season, it was not enough in the semifinals.
As the first team that does not come from a Power 5 conference, Cincinnati had made the jump to the playoffs with a season without defeat. The reward for the Bearcats was a date with Alabama at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas – which Bama won 27: 6.
One of the central questions leading up to the game was whether Cincinnati would be able to stop Alabama’s explosive passing offense; In the SEC Championship Game, Alabama and star quarterback Bryce Young had torn apart the historic Georgia Defense with a firework of big plays through the air.
The Bearcats with their highly acclaimed secondary around top cornerback Ahmad Gardner did a better job in this regard, Young (17/28, 181 YDS, 3 TD, INT) and the receiving corps led by Jameson Williams (7 REC, 62 YDS) dominated nowhere near as impressive as it was against Georgia four weeks ago.
However, it was the front that couldn’t keep up. Bama, who was not as dominant on the ground this year as in previous seasons, ran the ball 47 times for 301 yards; Brian Robinson’s 204 rushing yards set a bowl record for Alabama.
Robinson: “Proved We Are More Physical”
“We have proven that we are the more physical team,” said Robinson afterwards, although he was somewhat surprised: “We knew we would have the opportunity to run the ball. But I did not expect me to in the spotlight. “
Cincinnati’s head coach Luke Fickell, whose defense had only allowed 137 rushing yards per game to date, agreed with Robinson’s first statement: “We knew the duels on the line of scrimmage would be very important. Then the game was won.”
Young’s qualities were particularly important in third down and in the red zone: Two of his three touchdown passes to Slade Bolden (8 yards), and Cameron Latu (9 yards) came within the opposing 10-yard line. The most explosive play of the evening for the Crimson Tide was the second touchdown, a 44-yarder to Ja’Corey Brooks, who made the preliminary decision before halftime.
With his first touchdown pass – number 44 for this season – Young broke Tua Tagovailoa’s record from 2018. The third nine-yard touchdown pass brought Young to over 4,500 passing yards for the season, breaking Mac Jones’ school record from the previous year.
Bearcats-Offense finds no answers
Cincinnati’s offense, on the other hand, could only keep up with the first drive of each half: a 13-play 60-yard march at the start of the game, as well as an 11-play 56-yard drive at the beginning of the third quarter. However, both drives were stopped in the red zone and only yielded field goals.
Quarterback Desmond Ridder (17/32, 144 YDS), who will also be an issue with a view to the upcoming draft, never found a rhythm and the offense as a whole found no answers to the inferiority on the line of scrimmage.
In the middle of the third quarter after Young’s interception – an overthrow under pressure at third down – Cincinnati had a real chance to get back into the game at 6:17. But the Bearcats drive ended after three plays and 16 yards of loss of space. Bama responded with a touchdown drive and the last two drives in the game for Cincinnati ended Alabama’s defense on fourth down.
“We wanted it to end differently,” said Ridder. “I wish it could have ended differently. I hope that other Group of 5 teams can get into the playoffs from some conference and show that they can compete with the best of the best.”
The two semifinals in the box score overview:
| 1st quarter | 2nd quarter | 3rd quarter | 4th quarter | Final score | |
| No. 4 Cincinnati | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| No. 1 Alabama | 7 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 27 |
| 1st quarter | 2nd quarter | 3rd quarter | 4th quarter | Final score | |
| No. 3 Georgia | 14 | 13 | 0 | 7 | 34 |
| No. 2 Michigan | 0 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 11 |
Georgia vs. Michigan: Bennett shines at the right time
Georgia’s triumph over Michigan in the second semifinals, meanwhile, did not have as much potential tension as Alabama v Cincinnati after Young’s interception. The Bulldogs were too dominant on their way to an undisputed 34:11 win over Michigan.
Georgia led 14-0 after the first quarter and 27-3 at half-time. And not just on the back of a dominant run game (35 ATT, 190 YDS) and its outstanding defense, but above all worn early in the game by quarterback Stetson Bennett (20/30, 313 YDS, 3 TD), who during this Season had been criticized more often.
Bennett played one of his best college games ever on the big stage, running back James Cook praised: “Stetson is a leader on our offense, he doesn’t let the negativity get into his head. He’s not on social media, he has a clamshell phone. He lets the noise go by and just plays football. I love that about him. “
Michigan’s pass rush never found its way into the game: Aidan Hutchinson, for many experts the upcoming number 1 pick in the draft, and Co. were left without a bag and had just two quarterback hurries.
Georgia cancels Michigan’s run game
Bennett’s 57-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Burton shortly before half-time cleared any last doubts, in return an overwhelmed-looking Cade McNamara (11/19, 106 YDS, 2 INT) threw his first interception. The second pick followed directly on the first drive after half-time, when Michigan had reached the Red Zone for the second time.
Georgia’s dominant front controlled the dreaded run game of the Wolverines, Michigan (27 ATT, 91 YDS) didn’t reach 100 rushing yards. Coach Jim Harbaugh’s team had poured Ohio State 297 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in the last two games, and then dominated the Big Ten Championship Game Iowa with 211 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground.
The mood in the Georgia team after this game was noticeably not geared towards a celebration. The aftertaste of the 24:41 defeat by Alabama in the SEC Championship Game should still be too clear – for which Georgia can now return the favor in ten days in the National Championship Game.
“I’m not interested in celebrating that,” emphasized head coach Kirby Smart. “We will look back on this victory and we will do it nicely, but we are focused on the task that lies ahead of us. That is the goal.”
Linebacker Nakobe Dean added, “Our job is not done. We didn’t do any of this to win the Orange Bowl.”
Outlook: do the college playoffs need reform?
Georgia will now try to win its first National Championship since 1980, while Smart is aiming for its first win over his mentor and Bama coach Nick Saban on the fifth attempt. Alabama, on the other hand, has the chance to claim its seventh title since 2009.
The dominance of individual teams – with Alabama in the lead, of course – as well as the clear semifinals are also a trademark of the College Football Playoffs; a development that does not exactly fuel national interest in the playoffs. And also a development that could give additional fuel to the desire for further reforms.
There have been 16 semi-finals since the playoffs were introduced in this format. Twelve of them, including the two yesterday evening, were won by at least 17 points.
Cincinnati had no chance this year as in the past “large” schools such as Oklahoma, Clemson, Notre Dame or Ohio State. All of these teams have suffered significant defeats over the past three years. Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State have won 20 of the 23 college playoff games played so far.
Expanding the playoffs has been discussed for a while, and while that doesn’t affect the dynamics at the top, it would make for more interesting, competitive playoff games – instead of a multitude of bowl games, as is currently the case, in which teams without theirs compete with the best players who are instead preparing for the NFL.
The current format seems to work only to a limited extent for both the playoffs and the top bowl games outside the playoffs. The voices after reforms are likely to get louder.
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