Georgia is a great team, but its one loss came to the wrong team in the wrong season
ATLANTA — The day started with Greg Sankey quoting a “Sesame Street” feature, which seemed like comical desperation and appropriate foreshadowing for the situation the SEC and Georgia find themselves in now.
Don’t look at those minor imperfections on our resume. Look at our championship history. Look at who we are. Look at what you KNOW will happen if we played ANY of those lesser beings from other conferences.
“Let’s go back to like ‘Sesame Street’ — one of these things is not like the other,” the SEC’s commissioner said, daring others to compare his conference to others, like Godzilla staring down a field of sheep.
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Here’s the problem. Georgia is a great football program. It had won consecutive national championships and 29 games in a row, going 12-0 in the regular season and rolling through the conference unbeaten for the third straight season. Most would consider the Bulldogs one of the nation’s four best teams and therefore a College Football Playoff participant.
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But the Bulldogs lost a game Saturday. They lost the wrong game in the wrong season to the wrong opponent. We could forecast a week ago where that might leave them. If they had lost to Ole Miss, or Auburn, or Tennessee, and still won the SEC East and then beaten Alabama in Saturday’s conference championship, they would be fine. They wouldn’t have to sit around and wait until Sunday afternoon to see if the CFP rankings committee would hand them a hall pass.
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But they lost to Nick Saban and Alabama (again). They lost the SEC championship game. They lost in a season with enough Playoff-worthy teams that even just one stumble can cost you.
Because, Mr. Commissioner, to use your “Sesame Street” analogy, this 2023 season is unlike any other in the playoff era. The Count will assist you with the math.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart shifted into full lobbying mode after Saturday’s narrow 27-24 loss to Alabama, as he should. He quoted CFP executive director Bill Hancock saying, “It’s not the most deserving (teams) — simply it’s the best four teams.”
And then, “So you’re going to tell me somebody is sitting in that committee room, and … doesn’t think that Georgia is one of the best four teams? I don’t know if they’re in the right profession. …”
The Georgia Bulldogs have lost a football game for the first time in 728 days pic.twitter.com/Q9tk9jf0Pu
— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 3, 2023
Smart said his team passed the “eye test.” He referenced the four wins over top-20 teams. He pointed out that no No. 1-ranked team has ever lost one game and fallen out of the playoffs (but playoff history stretches back only to 2014). He said, “Go ask NFL talent evaluators” about Georgia, but even he knows it’s about results, not talent. If we’re ranking three teams with potential arguments of a crowded field of contenders, you can’t put Georgia ahead of Alabama, given this game, and you probably shouldn’t put Alabama ahead of Texas, given the Longhorns’ head-to-head win in September.
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Smart said he was “100 percent” convinced Georgia is one of the nation’s four best teams — and they probably are. But wouldn’t he agree that this season is unique, and others can make a similar claim?
“I guess that does make it unique,” he acknowledged. “I don’t know the history of the other years. The fifth team probably always feels like they didn’t (deserve to be out). Seems like this is the year that it should be the four best teams because you can make a case for deserving for everybody. It’s unfortunate that these kids who give so much and play so hard, not just at Georgia, all these schools, they don’t get to decide it really on the field.”
That is the unfortunate part. This is the last year of the four-team playoff. Next year, maybe this loss is a speed bump. Next year, Smart wouldn’t have to worry about Saban rolling through Atlanta like Sherman. Georgia is 45-2 in its last 47 games. Both losses came to Saban and Alabama. Both losses came in the SEC championship. In 2021, it didn’t matter because the Dogs were voted into the playoff field anyway and won the rematch in the national title game. Saban has now won 17 straight games and 18 of 19 in Atlanta, covering playoffs, SEC championships and bowl games.
The old man ain’t done yet.
Georgia came out flying, driving 83 yards for a touchdown on its first possession. But it struggled to run the ball, rushing for a season-low 78 yards (2.5 per carry) and struggled in short-yardage situations.
“Golly, we went backwards on two of them, I think,” Smart said. “Only thing we can say is they whipped us up front.”
That made things harder on quarterback Carson Beck, who made a few too many mistakes (a fumble to set up a field goal, missing an open receiver in the end zone, taking a couple of sacks). Alabama scored 17 points after falling behind early and led by 10 points three times (17-7, 20-10, 27-17). The Bulldogs drove for a touchdown late to close to within a field goal. But only 2:52 remained and they couldn’t stop Alabama from running out the clock.
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Georgia players and coaches will watch the rankings show Sunday. There may seem like a sense of inevitability to this from the Georgia perspective, but this committee does seem to make up its criteria as it goes along.
“I mean, to go through an SEC schedule, 12 games, and to win each and every one, it’s not something easy to do,” Beck said. “Obviously, to come into this game and not finish the way that we wanted to, and kind of leave the destiny of our team in someone else’s hands rather than ourselves, that’s hard. At this point, it’s out of our control.”
One loss. But it came in the wrong game to the wrong opponent and in the wrong season. The designation of One Of The Four Best Teams may not carry the vote.
(Photo of Georgia coach Kirby Smart reacting to a play in the fourth quarter: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
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