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ESPN staff
For much of the past decade, Alabama has been the elephant-sized obstacle standing in Georgia’s way of ending what is now a 41-year drought without a national title.
The 2012 SEC championship game ended with the Bulldogs catching a pass at Alabama’s 5-yard line as time expired in the Tide’s 32-28 victory. Alabama went on to crush Notre Dame in the BCS national championship.
In the CFP national championship at the end of the 2017 season, Georgia had a 13-0 lead at halftime, but lost 26-23 when freshman Tua Tagovailoa threw a touchdown to DeVonta Smith on second-and-26 in overtime.
Then, in the 2018 SEC championship game, Alabama rallied from a 14-point deficit in the second half. The Tide won 35-28, thanks in part to Georgia’s botched fake punt with 3:04 to go.
So, is this finally the year in which the No. 1 Bulldogs take down the No. 3 Crimson Tide? We’ll find out Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Handing Alabama its second loss of the season might knock it out of the playoff, which would give Georgia perhaps its clearest path to ending that frustrating national title drought.
“Do you talk about it? We talk about the opponent every week we play somebody, right?” Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said. “But we focus on ourselves. We focus on execution. We don’t focus on history. I think every team is independent of the previous. So I mean, it is what it is. Our guys have got to go out and play well.”
Georgia, which is 12-0 for the first time since winning its last national title in 1980, is a 6½-point favorite to win, according to Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill. Alabama had been favored in 92 straight games.
One SEC assistant coach said he likes the Bulldogs to win.
“I think it’s their year,” he said.
The coach said he didn’t put too much weight on what happened to Alabama’s offensive line in last week’s 24-22 victory in four overtimes at Auburn because it was a rivalry game. But he believes the Tide would struggle to block the Bulldogs, who…
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Source : espn
