BORDER BATTLE
My dad is a South Carolina Gamecocks fan, so when I asked him who he was pulling for Monday night, he told me another snowstorm inside the stadium. And to be frank, that’s exactly how I felt about this game, too.
I didn’t care to see two teams from the same conference battle it out to see who is the best in the nation.Â
But I have to say that that was a heck of a game.
Anyone that will ever read this column already knows that Alabama won 26-23 in overtime, but the game was more than that. It was home-field advantage for Georgia, it was true freshmen taking over the matchups, it was the Tide benching their starting quarterback in the second half.
Long story short, I’m glad I decided to tune in.
I do have to say that I’m still sick of seeing Alabama either in the National Championship or winning, but I’ve come to realize that if other teams in the country don’t like it then do something about it.
Nevertheless, if you only watched the first half and then went to bed, you would’ve woken up this morning assuming that the Bulldogs won the game, but rarely do these things work out as such. Bama benched quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second half (something that ESPN analyst Desmond Howard predicted by the way) to make way for freshman and Hawaiian native Tua Tagovailoa.
Now at the time, most people probably would’ve said that was not a good move seeing as how he hadn’t taken a meaningful snap all year and just last season was still in high school. But now we know why Nick Saban makes all the big bucks.
The Crimson Tide just seemed like a completely different team with the freshman under center and immediately scored a touchdown. Of course fellow freshman Jake Fromm said “anything you can do I can do better” and turned around and scored his own touchdown to keep Georgia ahead.Â
In the next two possessions, Tagovailoa threw a pick, but once again Fromm said the same phrase and threw one of his own.
Fast forward to the end of the game and the Tide have tied it up at 20-20 with the clock running out. Saban elects to kick a field goal to hopefully put an end to the game but lucky for us, the party continued when kicker Andy Pappanastos missed a close field goal to send it into overtime.
So, for Georgia’s second playoff game in a row, it went into overtime. As we know now, the Bulldogs defense broke down on Alabama’s offensive turn and Nick Saban now has six championships, tying him with Bear Bryant in the poll era. Think about that for a second.
I guess the moral of my column this week is an age-old adage; don’t judge a book by it’s cover. It could be a best seller.
