The No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs are a slight underdog to the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2018 National Championship Game but here are five keys to victory for Georgia.
What a fantastic New Year’s Day it was during the college football bowl season. The UCF Knight stay perfect by beating the Auburn Tigers in the Peach Bowl. With a perfect bowl record heading into Monday, the South Carolina Gamecocks were able to hand the Big Ten its first bowl loss of the season to the Michigan Wolverines in the Outback Bowl. Those games were awesome, but not as awesome as the two College Football Playoff semifinals. Advancing to the Southern Super Bowl will be the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide and the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs.
Georgia defeated the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners in a Rose Bowl for the ages. It was the first Rose Bowl that went into overtime, with the Dawgs winning 54-48 in the second overtime period thanks to a Sony Michel scamper. Alabama won The Trilogy over the No. 1 Clemson Tigers in the Sugar Bowl effortlessly, 24-6. Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant had no chance against the Alabama defense.
While the rest of the country outside of the Southeast may hate it, yes, we are getting another All-SEC National Championship Game. Fate would have it that it would be in the college football capital of the world in the Southeastern Metropolis of Atlanta. On Monday night, Atlanta will be in rare form, as nothing this big has happened to the city sports-wise since the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
Though Alabama is a four-point favorite at the neutral-site Mercedes-Benz Stadium, there are so many reasons to believe this is the Year of the Dawgs. This has already been the best season in Georgia football history since Herschel Walker won the Heisman Trophy back in 1982. Though Nick Saban is Kirby Smart’s mentor, here are five reasons Georgia can win the 2017 National Championship over SEC foe Alabama.
5. Don’t fret if you get behind Alabama
Did Oklahoma choke on Monday? Yes, maybe a little bit. For many Atlantans, that’s sort of on par with 28-3, but not really. Then again, the Rose Bowl is the Grandaddy of Them All, basically the Super Bowl of college football. While Georgia proved victorious over the Sooners, the most important takeaway from that game is that the Dawgs can finally know for certain that they can win coming from behind.
To be fair, it had been smooth sailing for most of the year for Georgia. Losing Jacob Eason to a knee injury in Week 1 versus Appalachian State was terrifying, but true freshman Jake Fromm has been nothing short of a quarterbacking godsend in the Peach State. Though he struggled down on The Plains to cross-divisional rival Auburn, his team not only beat Auburn for the SEC Championship but learned how to play from behind on the biggest of stages.
Will Alabama take a two-score lead at some point in the game? That’s totally in play, as that defense is menacing and the Crimson Tide rarely turn the ball over on offense anyway. Even if Georgia falls behind by 17 points again, there is no reason to think that the Dawgs can’t flip the script. They already did it against the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Baker Mayfield’s Sooner at the Rose Bowl.
Though the last time Georgia played Alabama in Atlanta didn’t go so well for the Dawgs, none of the players remain from that 2012 SEC East Championship team. This year’s team is better and won’t be afraid of the big moment. To win a Rose Bowl in overtime against probably the most talented offense in college football cannot be taken lightly. Simply put, Georgia has the confidence to overcome a multi-score deficit. Trailing Alabama at any point in the game isn’t a huge deal, as it’s just football.