The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly From Alabama’s 41-34 Win over Georgia

Heavyweight Fight between Alabama and Georgia

Good

Alabama came out of the gate quickly with 21 first-quarter points, if anyone had any doubts about Kalen DeBoer and his offense being elite. This game should silence the doubters. In my eyes, Jalen Milroe played the best game in his Alabama career, the old verbiage that I heard Nick Saban say a thousand times was, “Take what the defense is willing to give you’. Milroe did that for the majority of the game and his passes were thrown in a position that kept the offense running on all cylinders. Ryan Williams is special, after 4 games of his young collegiate career, I am out of words to describe his play-making ability. Saturday night he added more acrobatic catches to his resume. His composure is incredible and something you do not expect from 17-year-old young men. Jalen Milroe and Ryan Williams have a special connection that has only brushed on what the 2+4=6 combination will be able to accomplish. The tight ends also had a huge role on Saturday vs. UGA, anyone who watched Washington games knew that DeBoer loves to feature the tight ends. I always thought that would be a part of the gameplan here at UA and last night was an appetizer for what is to come from that room. I would also like to highlight the performance of the offensive line, that group was solid most of the night. The Bulldogs did not record a sack during the game vs. the Crimson Tide.

Another good was watching the Crimson Tide bounce back after Georgia took the lead, the composure and never hitting the panic button was a sign of maturity for a young football team. We will discuss the Georgia comeback a little later in this article. Also, the game would provide DeBoer and his coaching a useful tool to explain to so many young players that you have to play all 4 quarters. I think this lesson will be a good thing for this team. I have had the privilege of attending a lot of big games throughout my media career. Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium was one of the best atmospheres I have ever experienced in Tuscaloosa, energy around campus all week was electric and Saturday evening was on another level. Many well-known celebrities were there to witness this incredible environment, you start with President Trump attending the game, but on the sidelines, it was a who’s who list of celebrities, AJ McCarron, Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, John Daly, Kid Rock, Herschel Walker, Katie Britt, Tommy Tubberville, and avid Crimson Tide fan, Hank Williams Jr were all there to see this heavyweight fight.

Bad

We could go several directions on the bad, but I think the Crimson Tide went too conservative in play calling in the 2nd half. Some of that was due to Georgia's halftime adjustments, Kirby Smart is one of the best halftime adjustment coaches in the business. Penalties were a problem for the Crimson Tide with 10 penalties for 90 yards, several of those penalties kept scoring drives and taxed the defense with the number of plays they had to defend in the 2nd half. I would have liked to see the secondary play a little better in some moments of the games, in other moments they played up to the standard that was expected for a Crimson Tide defense.

Ugly

I have done this in previous Good, Bad, and Ugly articles and I am going to do it again in this article. Every weekend I watch a lot of college football and I like to compare the quality of officials around college football and then compare them to the SEC. I understand that they are human and mistakes are going to happen. I think SEC officials are some of the worst in the Power 4 conferences, very inconsistent and lack confidence in many areas. Other times, I feel like they are trying to keep the game closer for the benefit of the TV ratings. Let’s hypothetically say Alabama beats UGA 58-7, the 2nd half ratings would drop rapidly. There is a lot of money at stake for the conference and for the TV partners based on if the game stays competitive. Let’s go back to the last drive in the 2nd quarter, Georgia was guilty of pass interfere however, the SEC official who was super close could not find his flag. One of the worst missed calls I have seen in a couple of years, Kalen DeBoer was not happy about it either and voiced his unhappiness to every official who would listen. These are the moments where bringing an official into the media room and doing an interview to explain why that was not called would be helpful. One of the few things that I liked about the PAC-12 conferences is the accountability placed on their officials by making them do a media availability. Each week, schools in the SEC have the option to send in certain plays and the SEC will provide feedback on why a penalty was called or not called. Let’s add some transparency and make that a public release. I enjoy watching the XFL/USFL in the spring, one of the things I like about that league is how much they let the viewers hear what the officials are discussing both during a replay or just a simple call. The transparency helps me understand than leaving the fans in the dark.

These are just some of my comments on the Alabama vs. Georgia game, I will share more TODAY starting at 2 pm on The Game with Ryan Fowler on Tide 100.9 and online at Tide1009.com. I am always excited to hear your opinions and analysis every Monday as we present the Good, Bad, and Ugly sponsored by Daniel Moore Art which creates some great conversations.