It was a heck of a first half on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, but after the intermission, Alabama took over and cruised to a 41-24 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs.

Now, coach Nick Saban is 22-0 against his former assistants, besting Kirby Smart once again in dramatic fashion.

After the game, Smart gave a lot of credit to Alabama, particularly QB Mac Jones and the Tide’s explosive offense.

Here’s what he had to say about Alabama in the wake of the loss:

On the tough second half:

“Give Alabama a lot of credit. They have great skill players, and I thought we contained them early. The second half we couldn’t do it. Give their coaches credit. They outcoached us. Frustrated we couldn’t get anything going in the second half. We played a really great football team, and we had some costly turnovers. Give them credit, and we have to go back to the drawing board. We still control our own destiny.”

On Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith’s big plays: 

“They made a couple big throws. They beat us on some bubble plays and a double move with Waddle. They made a lot of big plays on 50/50 balls. Smith and Waddle had some big catches.”

On Nick Saban coaching in the game after negative COVID tests (via 247Sports):

“Well first off I’m glad he’s healthy. Anytime somebody thinks they may have COVID that’s a concern. Somebody his age, you don’t wish that on anybody. I knew the whole time he was going to be able to coach because he had a negative test and we thought it was a false positive. It was just getting enough tests to be able to come back. Very gracious for the team and for him. They’re well-coached and I’ll return the favor and say the same thing. They’re disciplined. They’re physical. They’re everything you want to be in a football team with their physicality. We’re trying to do the same thing, and we didn’t do it as well as they did it tonight.”

On Steve Sarkisian and Alabama’s offensive evolution (via 247Sports):

“I don’t know that it’s new. I said this all week, when they had Tua, they were explosive. They had a great group of wideouts. They had broken every record in the SEC when we played them in the SEC championship game that year. They were moving towards that. Sark is not as unconventional as people say. He’s a little more traditional. They’re a really good power run game. Their offensive line is extremely physical. They’re big, they’re physical, they lean on you and they got a great running back. So the passing game they use is really creative. They run a lot of the same plays from different formations. They did a good job of disguising them with motion and everything.”