When Georgia’s defense slowly returned nearly every meaningful starter from the 2019 group that finished No. 1 in scoring, you might have asked yourself a couple of things.

How good can this group be? And who really poses the best threat to defeat it?

After all, the LSU squad that trucked Georgia en route to a national title was in for a massive overhaul. Plus, the Tigers weren’t on the regular-season schedule. Of course, there was Florida, which returned Kyle Trask, loads of weapons and an improved offensive line.

And then there was Alabama. Georgia fans obviously circled that matchup, and really, all football fans should have. But what kind of test would it be for this vaunted Georgia defense in the post-Tua Tagovailoa era?

Well, if these 3 weeks were any indication, Mac Jones and this Alabama offense are going to be the ultimate litmus test for Georgia.

Really? Mac Jones? The guy who was supposed to be the placeholder in between Tagovailoa and Bryce Young?

Yes, Mac Jones, AKA the guy who leads the country in quarterback rating. You know, Mac Jones, AKA the guy who averaged an FBS best 13.3 yards per attempt with an 80% completion percentage through 3 games.

If you’re still under the impression that Jones is some system quarterback, I’ve got news for you. He’s one of the nation’s best signal-callers, and if Georgia wants to be the last remaining SEC unbeaten, it needs to stop him from taking over Saturday night.

This is, by all accounts, the ultimate strength vs. strength matchup. Georgia has allowed 3 touchdowns all year, and Alabama is the No. 1 scoring offense in America.

Georgia overwhelms offenses with its endless rotation of front-7 guys who blow up plays in the backfield, and Jones has only taken 2 sacks all year.

Obviously, another wrinkle of this matchup is how a Georgia defense that allowed 0 rushing scores and an average of just 38 rushing yards (!) in its first 3 games will stop Najee Harris, who leads FBS with 10 rushing touchdowns.

But in 2020, we know this to be true: This game is going to come down to whether Jones can make a big-time throw against the best defense he’s ever faced.

You could make the case that even in a game in which Alabama seemingly scored at will against Ole Miss, Jones still had to make big-time throw after big-time throw. Granted, it helps when you’re against the worst defense in the SEC and its only chance of stopping Alabama’s skill players probably involved a mid-play injury … and I’m not totally sure DeVonta Smith wouldn’t have still found a way to haul in a 75-yard touchdown with a pulled hamstring. That would have at least made it a fair fight.

Smith against this Georgia secondary is a fair fight. It’s a headliner fight. The same is true of Jaylen Waddle and John Metchie III vs. that Georgia secondary. Those 2 guys are averaging north of 20 yards per catch. Georgia, on the other hand, only allowed 7 of the 115 passing attempts it faced this year to go for 20 yards. Considering how awful SEC defenses have been so far, that’s saying something.

The common denominator in those receivers busting loose still comes back to Jones and his ability to escape that Georgia pass rush. These are the types of plays that suggests Jones is much more than a system quarterback and is closer to “that game-changer who can pick you apart if you don’t knock him down.”

Did Jones step up in the pocket? Yep. Did he square his shoulders for a throw on the run? Yep. Did he deliver a ball that only his receiver could get to? Yep.

Jones has been checking boxes all year. You don’t lead the nation in quarterback rating through 3 games vs. Power 5 teams just by dumping it off to playmakers and letting them do all the work.

This is a perfect example of Jones throwing a perfect ball against solid coverage. If this ball ends up in any other spot to Metchie, it doesn’t go for 6:

This is why this Alabama offense is still so dangerous in the post-Tagovailoa era, and why it’s hard to notice that Alabama lost a pair of receivers in the first 15 picks of the NFL Draft. Jones is doing things that even good coverage beats.

We don’t know how much separation these Alabama receivers are going to get against Georgia. This is the first time that Steve Sarkisian’s offense is facing Georgia’s defense. I’d argue that this year’s matchup on that side of the ball is actually better than the one we saw in the 2018 SEC Championship when Tagovailoa played poorly and then got hurt, and it’s superior to the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship when Alabama went through a mid-game offensive identity shift that Georgia’s loaded defense wasn’t prepared for.

And to be clear, half of why this is the best matchup involving these teams in recent memory has to do with what Kirby Smart and Dan Lanning have rolling on defense. In a time when seemingly everyone in the SEC has forgotten how to tackle, turning on a Georgia game feels like you’re watching the 1985 Chicago Bears. That’s especially true in the second half, where Georgia has yet to allow a touchdown and it surrendered 3 yards per play.

But wait, there’s more!

Besides the fact that Feleipe Franks, Bo Nix and Jarrett Guarantano couldn’t muster a single touchdown drive in the second half against Georgia, those guys also averaged a combined 4.6 yards per attempt in the second half. Those are SEC veterans who were in obvious passing situations, and yet, they still struggled to have any sort of efficiency after the break.

How efficient has Jones been in the second half, you ask? He’s averaging 16.9 yards per attempt in the second half in 2020. Through 3 games, he has just 4 incompletions in the second half.

If you think that’s just a product of facing subpar defenses, it’s really not. Even if you combine last year’s Iron Bowl and the Citrus Bowl, both of which were matchups away from home vs. top-25 defenses, Jones completed 76% of his passes for 15 yards per attempt in the second half. That’s not a typo. That’s 5 games against Power 5 teams, 3 of which had one of the highest-paid defensive coordinators in the sport.

This is the ultimate money-maker game for Jones, though. Carve up a Georgia defense this good and suddenly those NFL sharks will come swimming. You know, just in case they aren’t already.

We’re going to find out just how good Jones is Saturday.

Go figure that we’ll have the same ultimatum about the Georgia defense.