The very first top-five match of the 2024 season revealed why college football is a remarkable and extremely disorderly sport.
No. 2 Alabama looked well on its method to a simple win over No. 4 Georgia as the Crimson Tide hurried out to an early 28-0 lead. The Bulldogs in some way clawed their method back into the video game throughout the 2nd half and took their very first lead of the video game when Carson Beck struck Dillon Bell for a 67-yard TD with 2:31 to go.
Sound judgment would determine that Beck’s bomb to Bell would function as the emphasize of the night. College football is not bound by the guidelines of typical sense. Freshman Ryan Williams captured a 75-yard TD pass from Jalen Milroe on Alabama’s very first offending play after Bell’s TD to provide the Crimson Tide a lead they understood they would not give up after freshman corner Zabien Brown selected off Beck with 43 seconds to go and seal a 41-34 win.
Alabama’s win was available in the Tide’s very first home video game as an underdog in 17 years and snapped a 42-game regular-season winning streak for Georgia that went back to Nov. 7, 2020. The only group to beat Georgia throughout that streak: Alabama, as the Tide beat Georgia in both the 2021 and 2023 SEC national championship.
Both of those contests acted as quasi-College Football Playoff quarterfinals in the four-team period. Given that there was simply another one-loss power conference group, the Bulldogs had the ability to still get in the playoff in 2021 and got their vengeance on Alabama in the nationwide title video game. A season back, Alabama’s win over Georgia knocked the Bulldogs out of the playoff completely and Georgia needed to secure its aggravation on an undermanned Florida State group in an Orange Bowl blowout.
This year, the 12-team College Football Playoff is upon us. Thanks to the broadened field, Georgia still has an outstanding possibility to make the postseason even with another loss. Saturday night’s video game wasn’t established to be the playoff obstacle that it might have remained in years past.
Which’s simply great. Absolutely nothing from Saturday night’s video game was cheapened due to the fact that the loser had a fantastic shot of making the playoff. Bryant-Denny Stadium was still offered out and tickets were opting for 4 figures on the secondary market. Do you actually wish to attempt to inform a Georgia or Alabama fan that this video game didn’t matter as much merely due to the fact that the playoff field is larger?
There was still plenty at stake when it pertains to the playoff. The win offers Alabama a huge benefit in the race to get to the SEC title video game and the opportunity for a first-round bye. While Georgia requires to most likely win at both Texas and Ole Miss to return to the SEC title video game, Alabama might now have the ability to pay for a loss at Tennessee or LSU and make the national championship.
Yes,