Georgia shows the most fight yet against Alabama in pre-halftime skirmish

It couldn't have been a worse half of football for the Georgia Bulldogs in the nightmares of everyone in Athens. The trip to Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday to face the rival Alabama Crimson Tide started out poorly and only got worse with each passing minute.

Then it got just plain ugly just before halftime when Kirby Smart was likely just hoping to get into the locker room and lay into his team. But hey, maybe he can shout out Georgia for finally showing some kind of heart, even if it was the wrong kind at the wrong time.

After forcing an Alabama punt with less than a minute left and trailing 30-7, Georgia ran a trio of plays that culminated with a screen pass to the speedy Arian Smith in hopes that he could break one open to end the half and make the score a little less lopsided. It went for 30 yards but no points. However, after Smith was tackled near the Georgia sideline, things got heated in a hurry.

Georgia, Alabama get into end-of-half skirmish amid beatdown

Alabama and Georgia players had to be separated from a shoving match that lasted nearly a half-minute. There weren't any punches or anything of that ilk but it was a fiery scene as the visiting Bulldogs were clearly not in a good headspace after the way the first half transpired.

The only flag that resulted from this was on Alabama redshirt freshman offensive tackle Miles McVay, who was called for unsportsmanlike conduct, a penalty enforced on the second-half kickoff.

But there's a reason you can call that the most fight that Georgia had shown on Saturday night to that point. Carson Beck looked completely rattled and lost, throwing two picks in negative territory and taking a safety for intentional grounding in the end zone. Oh, and let's not forget the vaunted defense that had precisely zero answers for Jalen Milroe or really anything Kalen DeBoer threw at them in the first 30 minutes.

Maybe the scuffle before halftime is something that Smart can get the Dawgs to feed off of. Or maybe it was a last gasp desperation effort from the team to try and show some life. The one thing that's for sure, though, is that the skirmish was a sad exclamation mark on the worst half of Georgia football in recent memory.