The college football season doesn\u2019t have a lot of showcase games left to play, but one of them is the 2021 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta between Alabama and Georgia. Alabama managed to fend off all contenders to win the SEC West this season, while Georgia cruised to the SEC East title, having wrapped up the division at the end of October. Georgia is pursuing its first national championship since 1980. The team which has most consistently gotten in the way of the Dawgs is Alabama. The Tide beat Georgia in overtime in the 2017 season\u2019s national championship game, the closest Georgia has come to winning the national title since 1982, when it lost to Penn State in the Sugar Bowl. In 2018, Georgia took a lead over Alabama in the SEC Championship Game but faltered down the stretch. The Tide made a furious comeback to win the game and capture the SEC title. Alabama went to the College Football Playoff and lost to Clemson in the national championship game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does Georgia need to do to win? Why will Georgia make the final outcome different this time? Let\u2019s look at four key components of a Georgia victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia\u2019s Defensive Line vs. Alabama\u2019s Offensive Line Is A Georgia Mismatch<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Alabama offensive line easily handled Georgia\u2019s defensive line last year when Alabama beat Georgia in the regular season. However, this year, Georgia\u2019s defensive line is the best in college football, and Alabama\u2019s offensive line has not shown an ability to match up with Georgia. Alabama rushed for just six yards against LSU a few weeks ago. The Crimson Tide cannot dominate the line of scrimmage. They don\u2019t have as good a crop of offensive linemen as they did a year ago with Landon Dickerson and Alex Leatherwood, two studs who went to the NFL this year. Georgia has a nasty defense which has been making quick, easy work of every opponent. Alabama might put up more resistance, but the Tide do not appear ready to withstand Georgia\u2019s defensive front for 60 full minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alabama\u2019s Lack Of A Running Game<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Crimson Tide were so good last year, when they won the national championship, because they weren\u2019t just a passing team. Yes, Mac Jones throwing the ball to DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle was lethal, but Najee Harris gave balance and toughness to Alabama\u2019s offense. Defenses couldn\u2019t just focus on the passing game. Alabama has no such rushing threat this year. The offense is a lot more vulnerable because it is a lot more one-dimensional. Georgia\u2019s defense is the best in the country. It will feast on this lack of diversity from Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgia\u2019s O-Line Will Smash Alabama\u2019s D-Line<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The trenches are where Georgia will win this game. It\u2019s important to note that Georgia\u2019s trench advantage isn\u2019t just on defense; it applies on offense as well. Alabama just allowed 35 points to Arkansas. It allowed 41 points to Texas A&M in its one loss of the season. Alabama just isn\u2019t a physically imposing team. That\u2019s why the Tide have been so inconsistent and shaky this year. Georgia has not been shaky at all. That\u2019s because the Dawgs dominate up front, including on offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alabama Hasn\u2019t Earned The Benefit Of The Doubt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nick Saban is the best coach in college football history, so it\u2019s natural to give him the benefit of the doubt. Yet, Georgia has been relentlessly and regularly excellent this year, while Alabama has struggled most of the way. Alabama hasn\u2019t put together a dominant game against a really good team. Without evidence that it can truly curb-stomp good teams, Alabama just doesn\u2019t deserve the benefit of the doubt. Georgia does. It\u2019s different, but it is the reality of this game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The college football season doesn\u2019t have a lot of showcase games left to play, but one of them is the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":13507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20098,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20093\/revisions\/20098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}