Paul Finebaum calls Georgia must-win game for Alabama’s Playoff hopes
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The vaunted ‘Alabama revenge tour’ got out to a rocky start when the Crimson Tide fell to Florida State by a score of 31-17 during Week 1, causing many across the nation to question Kalen DeBoer‘s ability to lead the program and whether or not this team is capable of making the College Football Playoff.
Three weeks have gone by since then, and after picking up dominant wins over Louisiana-Monroe and Wisconsin, Alabama has a chance to right all of the wrongs from Tallahassee when it makes its first trip to Athens since 2015 on Saturday night.
Per usual, this matchup features plenty of SEC and national title implications, and ESPN’s Paul Finebaum believes that the Crimson Tide are in a must-win scenario compared to their opponents.
Playing the ‘Paul in or Paul out’ game on SportsCenter, Finebaum explained that while a defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs would be far from surprising, the way the rest of the Tide’s schedule shapes up creates added pressure on them this week.
“They’re already lost to Florida State, and while that may look like a really good loss, the problem is the calculus,” Finebaum said. “It would be their second loss of the season, and Alabama still has Vanderbilt–yes you heard me, Vanderbilt–, Tennessee, LSU, Oklahoma, Auburn. It’s just an endless stream of tough games, so Alabama needs this one to stay alive.”
To Finebaum’s point, following the Georgia game, Alabama hosts the surging Commodores, visits unbeaten Missouri and then hosts arch rivals Tennessee. And that slate doesn’t even include late-season matchups with LSU, Oklahoma and Auburn.
Thus, the DeBoer & Co. will have to pull off an upset as underdogs in a hostile environment in order to keep treading water in the cutthroat SEC.
Current sports editor with the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. 2024 graduate from Mizzou and college athletics enthusiast.
