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What a weird half of football that one was. Alabama’s offense ground out some first downs with some nice smash mouth football on the first drive, but a fumble from Keelon Russell when a helmet his ball right as he was about to throw ended that possession. Georgia drove down the field, but the Tide defense forced a holding call and ultimately held them to a field goal. After a couple of plays from the Bama
offense, suddenly the 1st quarter was over and we were only a couple of drives into the game.
The second half got a bit more wild. After trading some punts and then Alabama backing the Bulldogs up to the 4 yard line, the Dogs ripped off two massive throws down the seams to score in quick fashion, and Alabama was down two possessions and looking a bit lost on offense.
Until it wasn’t. Trae’Shawn Brown ripped off a 70-yard run, and the very next play, Russell hit Marshall Pritchett for a score.
Then, as soon as UGA got the ball back, Bray Hubbard jumped a slant route and got an interception. Unfortunately, Alabama’s offense went backwards and had to punt. Ultimately, the Tide got the ball back with a minute and a half to go, and they marched down the field, converting multiple 3rd downs. At the end, the Tide was faced with a 3rd and 1 at the goal line with 3 seconds to go. Do you take the the field goal and tie it up, or risk it all for a TD?
Kalen DeBoer went for the latter, and Ryan Grubb called a weird fake jet, HB dive to EJ Crowell that UGA stuffed…. Except Crowell broke out, reversed field, and raced the UGA defenders to the pylon to take the lead as time expired.
Overall, the Alabama passing game and Keelon Russell really struggled – more than he has all year aside from the first half of the Kentucky game. But the run game was excellent and made enough plays and Keelon hit a couple of important passes, giving the Tide a couple of scoring drives – which is all you can really ask for against an elite defense.
The Alabama defense was hot and cold, too. They made some excellent plays, but UGA gashed them a few more times through the air and on the ground than we should be comfortable with. Ultimately, this is two elite football teams that are getting the better of each other in both ways on any given play. We need Keelon Russell to play better (more accuracy, less happy feet), but otherwise you have to be encouraged at how Alabama has shown up ready to go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in football. The physical play from the defense and the offensive run game is super encouraging. The Tide belongs.
The worst news of the day is that Ryan Coleman-Williams went down weird right before half time, and it looked like a non-contact injury to his knee. We’ll see what happens, but it doesn’t look good.
Hope for the best on the second half. Roll Tide!
