Does Alabama still make the Playoff? Probably? But Georgia exposed a flawed team at the worst time
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ATLANTA — In an SEC Championship in which the masses didn’t need much to tee off on Alabama’s Playoff chances, the Tide provided a lot. And by a lot, I mean a little.
By the time that Georgia made it a 3-score game in the 4th quarter to all but silence any chance at a historic Alabama comeback — something that could never be ruled out considering the setting — here’s all you needed to know. Alabama had 1 rushing yard. One. Take away the 2 sacks, and it was … 19. Alabama running backs had as many drops in the passing game as the team had rushing yards.
Now in some circumstances, that’s forgivable. You know, like a mid-September game in which Alabama has to win 13-7 and play the field position game.
But on Saturday? That wasn’t acceptable. Not in the slighest.
A flawed Alabama team will (probably?) still get in the Playoff out of fear that punishing a team who earned a conference title game will start a riot among conference commissioners who are desperate for any way to line their pockets. But at this point, who really knows? Last year’s precedent with SMU was for a 1-loss team who played in a down-to-the-wire ACC Championship against Clemson.
This year’s debate will be about a 2-loss Alabama team who suffered loss No. 3 by making the best thing on its résumé — the win at in late-September at Georgia — look a distant as the Nick Saban era.
Did I say that out loud? Or did it just feel distant in about every possible way on Saturday?
Yeah, 1 rushing yard will make you ask some questions.
But now, the question isn’t about whether this Alabama team, which could finish with its worst rushing attack since 1955, can win a national title. This team is too flawed for that kind of run against 4 elite teams, which is ironic when you remember that Alabama became the first team in SEC history to win 4 consecutive games vs. AP Top 25 teams without any byes or extra rest. Also of note, that was 2 months ago. Does that matter for the résumé? You bet. It’s the entire résumé, no matter what any Notre Dame fan will try to tell you.
The question, though, is now whether Alabama is too flawed for an equally flawed selection committee to put it into the field
A normal showing on Saturday would’ve erased that linger doubt. Even a 10-point loss in which the Tide had a pulse could’ve squashed the notion that idle Miami or Notre Dame deserve to jump the Tide. After all, that extra game wasn’t nothing, and Miami couldn’t even get to the lowly ACC Championship while Notre Dame couldn’t get there because it would rather line its pockets in its own way. It’s an opportunity that the Tide earned by having the best SEC record in the conference that the selection committee valued so much it put 7 such teams in the top 15.
That matters. Maybe that’s what’ll ultimately matter on Sunday.
“If this game goes against our résumé, I don’t think that’s right,” said Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, who also pointed out that “Alabama was down 14 with 7.5 minutes to go, and we had the ball.”
Spin it however you want. Alabama had no choice but to do that, which is why DeBoer listed all of Alabama’s injuries that’ll be taken care of if it earns a hypothetical Round 1 game in 2 weeks.
But ask yourself this — did you think the first 3-loss at-large team in the field would have multiple blowout losses? That’s what Alabama has. And while this isn’t worth breaking down Alabama’s rushing yards against South Carolina like the selection committee attempted to do when justifying initially ranking it behind 2-loss Notre Dame — that was after the Oklahoma loss — we’ve seen a floor that’s anything but Playoff worthy.
Again, Alabama should’ve been the more desperate team. Sure, Georgia had motivation to avenge the September loss and win an SEC Championship. It was also, at the very least, set up to host a home Playoff game as a considerable favorite. It was Alabama who had the door left open slightly for potentially getting kicked out of the field.
Then 1 rushing yard happened. Jam Miller absence or not, that’s baffling.
Actually, that was a stat that needed to be updated. Alabama finished with -3 rushing yards. Woof.
There was no bark in the Tide, but there certainly was with the Georgia defense. That unit allowed 2 touchdowns in its 4 pre-Playoff games, including the 1 that Alabama scored on Saturday to get on the board in a 21-7 game (it also took 2 15-yard Georgia penalties to move the sticks). That’s what the selection committee would like to see instead of whatever it was that Alabama’s offense put on Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday.
It won’t matter to them that it was the Tide’s first loss in the city of Atlanta since Tim Tebow’s national championship-bound Florida squad beat the Tide in 2008, nor will it matter that it was the fewest Alabama rushing yards since at least 1940. Those are historical feats that’ll add to the accomplishment by the victorious Dawgs, who are now staring at a 2-seed with a Round 1 bye in the Playoff.
What will matter is why Alabama was that lost on that kind of stage. Don’t assume that it’ll be a unanimous opinion in the room in Irvine, Texas, on what to do with the Tide. For once, it feels like the selection committee has a real dilemma on its hands. That’s the position that Alabama put it in by showing up in Atlanta and getting run off the field.
At one point, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium sound crew accidentally started playing Georgia’s celebration music as Gunner Stockton still had multiple kneel-downs to end the game. It didn’t matter. They could’ve cranked that in the second quarter and it wouldn’t have changed anything.
A flawed Alabama team got exposed at the worst time possible, and now the sweat through Selection Sunday will begin.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
