SEC Championship: Georgia vs Alabama prediction, game preview, how to watch: Saturday, December 4
SEC Championship: Georgia vs Alabama How To Watch
Date: Saturday, December 4
Game Time: 4:00 ET
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA
How To Watch: CBS
Record: Georgia (12-0), Alabama (11-1)
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SEC Championship: Georgia vs Alabama Game Preview
Why Georgia Will Win
Okay, Georgia defense. It’s time to show just how good you really are.
The Alabama offensive line has talent – lots and lots of talent. It has future NFL players, all-star skill, depth, and all the guys you’d expect a Nick Saban team to have at this stage of the program’s consistent dominance.
It also doesn’t provide a lick of pass protection.
QB Bryce Young is talented and savvy enough to overcome the issues – for the most part – but no matter how many ways you want to spin it, if you’ve scored three points for the first 58ish minutes and you need to go 97 yards to save your season against a very-good-not-Georgia Auburn D, something isn’t quite right somewhere on your O.
Georgia’s defense has been a brick wall all season long.
It allows just 79 rushing yards per game, it’s the best in the nation in pass efficiency defense, No. 2 in pass D, and it leads the country in total defense.
This isn’t the team to go against when your offense is still trying to figure some things out.
Best of all for the Dawgs, it’s not like they’ve had to tax their top players in a whole slew of high pressure situations. No one doubts that this group can rise up when needed – it did that in the opener against Clemson – but it’s been so good at getting the job done early that this is about as fresh a team as you’ll find this late into the year.
However …
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Why Alabama Will Win
That team that’s coming out of the tunnel as the SEC West champion has guys, too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the pass protection hasn’t been great, the offensive line hasn’t been consistent, and the defense has a weird way of checking out for long stretches from time to time, but the team is here.
Auburn could’ve taken care of business for everyone by just staying in bounds, or coming up with a stop when the Tide offense had 1st and 97 to go, but nope.
Does Alabama have the talent to hang around with Georgia? Of course.
Can it run with the Dawgs? Does it have the athletes? Does it have the We’re Alabama And Georgia Isn’t arrogance/confidence? Duh.
Georgia might be playing at a dominant-high level, but it also hasn’t had to deal with anyone that amazing for a while.
Tennessee is fine, and Kentucky is good, and Auburn and Arkansas are solid, but Georgia didn’t have to play Alabama in the regular season. It didn’t have to face Ole Miss, and it didn’t deal with the Mississippi State curveball.
No, of course there’s no dogging the Georgia schedule against nine bowl bound teams – no, there’s NO dogging 12-0 from the SEC – but it’s going to need to find a gear that it hasn’t had to use since early September.
To be kind, let’s just say Alabama is battle tested.
Yeah, Alabama has the guys, and it has …
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What’s Going To Happen
Bryce Young.
Really, do you believe that Stetson Bennett is ready to deliver an SEC Championship against an Alabama team has it on Georgia in one key area – pass rush.
Georgia’s pass rush is fantastic. Alabama leads the SEC in sacks and tackles for loss, and Bennett’s not going to have the 19 days to throw he enjoyed throughout the season.
However, this is going to be a LONG game.
Alabama will have the early energy. Young and company will score on its first drive, the charged up D will get off the field after a sack, and Bama will get a field goal off of its second drive.
For about a half, Alabama will play like the team that needs this to stay alive for the College Football Playoff, and Georgia will play like the team that’s in no matter what.
Social media will have handed Young the Heisman, Cincinnati fans will start freaking out as their team – playing Houston at the same time as this – struggles through its own start, and then …
Georgia will settle in.
The running game won’t take over, but it’ll be effective enough to take the pressure off of Bennett. The defense will start to stuff everything the Alabama ground game tries to do, it’ll hold firm on a deep Tide drive, and everything will slowly turn before a turnover leads to a late lead.
Young will march the Tide down the field with one last shot to pull it off, but his fourth down pass in the final moments will be broken up in the end zone to give Georgia the national – uh, er, sorry – SEC championship.
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SEC Championship: Georgia vs Alabama Prediction, Lines
Georgia 27, Alabama 23
Line: Georgia -6.5, o/u: 49.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2
Must See Rating: 5
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