ATLANTA — It was the old familiar sting for Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs.
After a 12-0 regular season that saw them ascend to number one in every significant poll and amass the top-ranked defense statistically in the nation, it all came crashing down in the SEC Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta against the same team that has ended their championship hopes year after year: the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Third-ranked Alabama took down Georgia, 41-24, to capture their second consecutive SEC title and virtually guarantee their spot in the upcoming College Football Playoffs. Georgia will now have to wait and hope that the selection committee will keep them in the top four when they unveil their rankings Sunday.
"I'm disappointed how we played. Give Alabama a lot of credit. Give their defense and Bryce Young and their offensive skill players a lot of credit. They played really well, very accurate, explosive, and he's hard to get down on the ground, which caused us a lot of problems defensively," Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart said after the game "But we can't turn the ball over and give up 60 and 70-yard passes and expect to be successful."
Smart said his team will have to refocus.
"(Alabama's) greatest thing is when they lost their game against Texas A&M, they garnered some focus and some attention. To me, that's an opportunity for a wake-up call, if anything."
For Alabama, it was vindication after a regular season that drew a lot of doubters with a loss to Texas A&M and close calls against Florida, LSU, Arkansas and Auburn.
"I'm extremely proud of our coaching staff, our players, the entire organization. We've probably had to overcome more adversity than this team has had to endure and have more resiliency from a competitive standpoint than probably most of the teams we've ever had. I'm really proud of them for that," Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban said.
After a nearly perfect first quarter, Georgia took a 10-0 lead on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Stetson Bennett to Darnell Washington on the first play of the second quarter.
After that, Alabama took total command.
The Crimson Tide scored 17 unanswered points on the back of a phenomenal performance from sophomore quarterback Bryce Young, who threw for an SEC Championship Game record 286 yards in the first half. After touchdown passes to Jameson Williams and John Metchie, Young provided the key sequence of the half on Alabama's final drive of the second quarter. He recovered his own fumble on a scramble to give the Tide a first down at the Georgia 11 and then took off on another scramble for an 11-yard touchdown to give his team the lead back after Georgia had tied it at 17 on a 32-yard screen pass to Ladd McConkey.
It was a change of pace from the previous three Georgia-Alabama meetings since Kirby Smart took the reigns in Athens, as the Bulldogs had led at the halftime break in all three previous matchups.
Alabama had 24 points in the first half, which was already more points than Georgia had allowed in a game the entire season. They extended that lead early in the 3rd quarter on a 55-yard touchdown pass from Young to Williams.
One of the keys of the game to that point may have been a lack of pass rush, as the Bulldogs did not sack Young in the entire half.
"I think you've got to affect their quarterback. You've got to get to him and finish, and he's so good at avoiding rush that he buys time with his mobility to make plays downfield. Give him a lot of credit. He did a tremendous job," Smart said.
While they still did not sack Young, they did pressure him on three straight plays to force Alabama's first punt since the first quarter. Another pass rush ended the Tide's next possession.
From that point, however, it was the Georgia offense that found itself struggling. After Georgia threatened inside the Alabama 20, Bennett threw an interception at the 11-yard line. Georgia then drove to the Alabama 19, but a blitz on a fourth-and-nine forced an incompletion by Bennett on the final play of the third quarter and ended another scoring threat. The next Georgia possession ended in a back-breaking pick-six by Alabama's Jordan Battle to put the Tide up, 38-17.
Bennett ended the game with 340 yards passing and three touchdowns on 48 attempts.
"We just didn't play our best game today and they did. Can't turn the ball over. Just little mental lapses and that can't happen. We're going to work on starting tomorrow and hopefully get ready for whoever we play next," Bennett said.
Georgia finally got back on the scoreboard with 9:42 remaining in the game on an incredible catch and run by tight end Brock Bowers, who broke several tackles on a screen for a 19-yard touchdown to draw within 14 at 38-24.
Bowers, a freshman, was one of the few bright spots for Georgia as he set an SEC Championship Game record for a tight end with 139 yards receiving and a touchdown on 10 catches.
While Georgia would force a three-and-out to get the ball back again, a false start penalty on a fourth-and-ten led to a punt and ended any comeback hopes the Bulldogs may have had left.
The loss snapped a 16-game winning streak by Georgia that dated back to the final four games of the 2020 season, leaving them one win shy of the school's all-time record for consecutive victories.
Young's performance was a historically great one. He threw for 421 yards, an all-time SEC Championship Game record and accounted for 461 total yards, also a championship game record previously held by Auburn quarterback Jason Campbell.
After the game, Young instead directed all the credit to his teammates.
"I think we all stepped up, and we all answered the bell. We all understood what was at stake. We all understood that we needed to step up. So I'm blessed to have the teammates I do, that when our back's kind of against the wall, we understand we need to have the type of situation, and we kind of got our spark and started moving," Young said.
For Smart, it was his fourth loss to his former mentor in Saban. He said he expects there to be plenty of talk about the Bulldogs' shortcomings against the Crimson Tide in the coming days and weeks.
"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. I think, when you've got that, you've built the right kind of kids," Smart said.
