Q. This is for Coach Saban and Jordan: What did you guys do to really fluster Stetson Bennett tonight and obviously force him into a couple of huge mistakes?
JORDAN BATTLE: I think the main thing in this game was our disguises. We put in a lot of disguises this week. That was the big thing. Just have his eyes wandering around before the play. I think we did a good job on the back end and linebackers stemming and disguising. So I think that was a big part of the game.
NICK SABAN: I think that you try to change the picture as much as you can and make the quarterback try to make decisions after he gets the ball in his hand. Stetson Bennett to me is very instinctive, very good player. If he knows what the picture is — and I couple times tonight when he knew what the picture was, that’s when he made plays, and several big plays.
So I think us changing the picture on him a little bit helped. We have to play the ball better in the deep part of the field. We’ve had a couple of those the last couple of weeks that are things that we need to do better, but all in all, I think that was probably the one thing that helped it the most.
Pass rush always helps you. If you get good pass rush. We affected him in the pocket. He scrambled some, which is — you hate, but you’re also affecting a guy when you do that because you’re not throwing the ball on time.
January 10, 2022 ($$):
“I think that they switched up some stuff, had different tendencies,” Young said. “And I have to process that faster, just make the right play for the team better than I did tonight. So they changed some things, and I wasn’t able to execute.”
Alabama ran a stunning 85 plays Monday night. That was the highest number of plays Georgia had to defend all season. Bryce Young, the Heisman Trophy winner, put the ball in the air 57 times. No other offense had attempted more than 48 passes against Georgia’s defense this season. On paper, you’d think that would have been a disaster for the Dawgs, but Young finished with his second worst passer rating of the season. Sure, the two picks were a factor in that, but the bigger deal was only averaging 6.5 yards per attempt.
Georgia made Young work for everything. In the end, that worked for Georgia.
Get The Picture 
I think this is why sometimes the loser of the first matchup has a slight edge in the rematch (talent being equal). They know what didn’t work and can adjust, but the winner would be best advised to keep doing the things they were doing in the first game.
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The slight edge isn’t supported by rematch statistics is it?
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That’s why I added the caveat on the talent level needing to be equal. The information learned from one team beating another is that the winner is usually significantly better.
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FWIW: “Alabama-Georgia will be the 5th time teams have met twice in the same season with both meetings being AP Top-5 matchups. The loser of the first game won the rematch in all 4 previous instances.” The oldest of these pairs of games was Ole Miss-LSU in 1959.
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But even the loser of the first did some things well (usually) that can be adjusted for. I believe the Old Ball Sack got it right when he said, “Usually, the better team wins” (or something like that). As Saban said, Georgia has been the most consistent team all year…and odds makers…Georgia has has been the better team for the whole season.
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I’m sure losing Williams had something to do with it, but it seemed we were going to force Young to get rid of the ball quickly and make the tackle immediately. For most of the game, that’s exactly what we did.
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How perfect that Nolan Smith got that last sack! Young ends the game in the fetal position!
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That sack on the last play of the game was the perfect ending.
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And I am now just realizing that we ended our last 2 seasons with a sack on the last play. Defense did win a championship, or at least helped significantly.
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I believe we started this season with a sack as well.
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Hell we started the Natty with a sack! Unfortunately it was on Stetson.
All good in the end! His fourth qtr was a thing of beauty!!!
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We made life tough for him. He had to get the ball out quickly. Took some shots after the throw. He doesn’t like contact. One of the reasons we won. National Champions BAby.
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True. Auburn cut the template to show how to minimize BY’s effectiveness.
He becomes a mortal human being when he’s pressured.
Not taking anything away from him though. He’s a great player and a fine young man.
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And holding them to 40 yds rushing. And a dead pony shot in Indy. Sheer utopian & euphoric bliss. Ain’t coming down from this cloud for a while.
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Correction Bama netted 30 yds on the ground. Insane Vice grip there considering they spent so many packages on Young
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Sacks at the end reduced the rushing total, but your point stands.
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Bama’s RB’s accounted for 73 yards, Young lost 43.
UGA’s RB’s accounted for 167 yards, Bennett lost 24.
HUGE difference.
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Did Young have any positive yards rushing on any plays I don’t recall any?
Stetson did get some positive yards but no rushing first downs.
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I don’t think so. He probably should have run more.
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BY was sacked 4 times for -43 yards, his only rushing attempts for the game.
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A warfare is based on deception, according to Sun Tzu. 🙂
That game ending sack reminded me of another win over Alabama in 1976,in Athens. Still the wildest week I ever saw in Athens. And that’s not a criticism of any of the other great weeks since then.
Also, UGA is undefeated in Indiana! 🙂
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Both games ND and National Championship turned on amazing catches in the right side of the endzone that turned the game around! To quote Yogi Berra “ it’s deja vu all over again!!
2-0 fer Indiana!!
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Terry Godwin was also #5, amiright?
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This is eerie.
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I questioned why Bama was dropping back and firing with less than a minute left..all the while his star QB is getting killed. Didn’t make much sense to me. They were beat.
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Mathematically still possible, two TD’s one 2pt conversion, plus recover onside kick, part of the never give up mantra!
Makes less sense when you have only 18 pts in whole game are on wrong side of 50 and have one time out!
I can assure you Mr Nolan agreed with their strategy. He also can say he has some nice hardware to show for 13+ years of playing football now!
Congrats
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I guess if you can’t depend on Stetson to win if he attempts more than 30 passes, you can’t expect Young to win if he attempts more than 52 passes.
Also, not sure if the numbers are correct, but I heard that Georgia averaged 4.7 ypc (but like 2.5 w/out the Cook long run) and that Bama averaged 4.7 ypp. Yikes!
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Cry havoc and let slip the Dawgs of war!
We couldn’t have gift wrapped that heisman any better with our ‘contain’ strategy in the seccg, Bryce. But every Dawg has his day – and ours was Monday.
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I was still left thinking that Young was insanely good. That throw me made on the drop before the blocked field goal with a guy about to light him up was ridiculous. But the constant pressure did cause some misfires and misreads.
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Young throws guys open and has that Aaron Rodgers ability to put the ball on his receiver’s hands. What a great effort by our team to beat him and Bama.
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Young is excellent. Even with heavy pressure, he is generally accurate. If you give him 2.5+ seconds he will burn you big time. Gotta just hit him a lot which we were able to do most of the night.
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Young is incredibly accurate most of the time. Like any QB, that accuracy drops when he’s running for is life and getting hit often. That was the difference in the two game. In the first game he was Superman. In the rematch he was just a good QB. You’re not going to stop him from making plays, you just have to limit them and make him pay (dearly) for them. Suspect he woke up Tuesday morning a lot more sore than he did after the SECCG.
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I loved that Young was “Under Pressure “
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Yeah, BY’s pussy was hurting Tuesday. I hope it hurts now. Fuck that guy and fuck Bama.
Losers.
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Football is a game of inches. Our D did enough to barely misfire on a few huge plays.
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From what little I saw of Young’s post-game comments, he seems to be putting the loss all on himself even though he threw for over 350 yards and he was giving his receivers a chance all night long. That kid is going to be motivated as hell next season.
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Yeah, they’ll be out for blood next season.
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To be fair though, when is that not true of Bama. As long as Saban is there, this is what winning titles is going to take.
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You can’t get blood out of a vampire!!!!!
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The team wasn’t healthy the first Saturday in December, I’m even more convinced of it now.
That said, great game plan. They couldn’t run the damn ball. It was glorious.
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Hell yes! Make them one dimensional, including Young scrambling!
Then Dawgs DID run the ball in the 4th qtr! That my friend is a killer combination!
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We did what we had to do: speed up his clock and make him throw before he wants to. It’s a good thing the front 7 were so dominant because there were some openings in the secondary. Even with all that pressure, if not for a few drops, we might be singing a different tune. The kid is super impressive, and I hope we get someone like him on our team one day.
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Call the non fumbles right and the game is different too. How did Stet fumble the ball that far forward and sideways?
I thought Young’s call early in the game could have gone either way…surprised they changed the call on the field…well, not really.
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I agreed with both calls so I’m not really factoring those into a counterfactual.
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Both calls were correct, though I believe if you’re gonna call Bennett’s grounding (which was discussed), you have to call Young’s grounding.
The ball came dislodged from Bennett’s hand before his arm started moving forward. But it was only by a fraction of a second…so as his arm came forward, his hand still pushed the ball in the intended direction… thus the distance traveled.
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I was surprised Bama didn’t try to establish more of a running game with Robinson healthy. Less than 10 rushing attempts in the first half. I guess when you have the Heisman winner on your team you let him do his thing. Maybe the strategy was to wear the defense down and lean more on the running game in the second half.
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Yep. Tire us out sideline to sideline, then try to bash heads. He knew they weren’t going to bully-ball us straight up.
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If you’d told me Young would have 57 pass attempts against our D, I’d expect a W. He’s the Heisman winner but Bama isn’t Klingler and Houston. We had offensive balance and Bama had next to none. We made big plays in all 3 facets of the game.
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Young is a fuckn loser and so is Bama.
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85 plays but for just 4.7 YPP. Meanwhile, we had 6.5 YPP on 56 plays. We were much more efficient.
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