2021 SEC Championship Game has only one possible ending, and it’s not another Alabama title

You can call this bulletin board material for Alabama if you want, but it’s time to stop hiding from the fact that the Georgia Bulldogs are going to own the Crimson Tide in the 2021 SEC Championship Game.

Georgia — in particular, their historic defense — is just that good.

This is taking nothing away from Alabama, who, as always under Nick Saban has a team who can compete on practically any stage. They’re a quality team, with a fine young rising star at quarterback.

But they aren’t going to win this game. Not this year. Not against these Bulldogs.

This year, they simply aren’t on Georgia’s level. The roles have been reversed from years past, and now the Bulldogs are ready to close the door on Saban and the Tide living rent-free in their heads.

Alabama’s path to the SEC Championship Game has seen some stumbles, while Georgia has simply marched forward

Georgia’s success as the only 12-0 Power-5 team in the country has been well-noted by everyone from the casual fan to the most astute college football experts, while not as much has been made of Alabama’s struggles on their way to a seventh SEC Championship Game in the last 10 years.

Besides the loss to Texas A&M that ended multiple streaks tied to Nick Saban, the 11-1 Crimson Tide have looked less than invincible this season in numerous games and on multiple fronts.

Struggle win number one was in The Swamp against the now-forgotten Florida Gators, when Bama nearly blew a 21-9 halftime lead because their front seven allowed the Gators chunk play after chunk play on the ground in the second half.

Struggle win number two came against a hapless LSU team in Bryant-Denny Stadium, when the Crimson Tide eeked out a 20-14 win over the Tigers on a night when seemingly nothing was going right offensively for Bama. Practically everyone not named Bryce Young nearly gave this game away.

Against Arkansas, the Alabama secondary gave up 358 passing yards to a team and quarterback who had been averaging just over 200 yards per game to that point. They never seemed to be able to put the Hogs away.

And then there was this year’s Iron Bowl. Don’t let the 24-22 overtime score fool you. Alabama’s offense was non-existent  (only scoring three points) until there were less than two minutes left in the game. The big failure for the Tide in this game was the offensive line, who allowed Bryce Young to be sacked seven times.

Now, the glass half full Alabama fans will say “That’s what championship teams do. They find a way to win”.  But four times in one season? Against some seriously struggling teams? Throw in the humbling loss to Texas A&M and it’s clear this Alabama team is still a work in progress twelve games into the season.

Georgia, on the other hand, is a finely tuned instrument heading into the SEC Championship Game.

How wide is the gap, you ask? Against Florida, Auburn and Arkansas, and Tennessee, — their common opponents with Georgia — Alabama gave up 110 points.

The Bulldogs gave up 83 points in the entire season.

That’s how stifling and stingy this Georgia defense has been.

Georgia as a team has given up 6.9 points per game, and if you factor in some points not given up by their defense, that number is even lower. But even at 6.9, it’s the lowest points per game average since Oklahoma posted a 6.75 average in 12 games back in 1986.

That’s historically good.

Alabama in unfamiliar territory in 2021 SEC Championship Game

This will be the first time since 2015 that Alabama walks into a stadium as an underdog. Georgia is favored by 6.5 points, per WynnBET, and that spread should probably be even bigger.

Kirby Smart talked about winning the SEC in 2017 and moving on to the College Football Playoff, and eventually, the National Championship Game against Alabama in this week’s press conference:

"“A long time ago. Just the excitement, the joy of accomplishing something special with a really good group, all those kids that have come back, all those kids, Georgia meant so much to them. It was our first time really doing it under this staff. I think the significant feeling they had of winning the SEC Championship kind of superseded the fact that, oh, we’re going to be in the playoffs now, too. It’s the fact that they had overcome the obstacle, the hurdle that was Auburn earlier in the year and we didn’t play our best game and vindication of okay, we’ve won this game, now we’re SEC champs. Let’s worry about the next chapter after that. I think that’s what made it special.”"

Here’s the thing. Forget the 2018 National Championship Game. Forget the 2018 SEC Championship Game. Forget the 2020 regular-season game at Bryant-Denny — all instances where Georgia held a halftime (or later) lead and eventually lost the game.

This is a very different Georgia, and a very different Alabama.

There has never been a Georgia team more motivated, more disciplined, more prepared, and more tightly-knit as a group than this 2021 squad.

The Alabama monkey is about to be removed from Kirby Smart’s back.

Dawgs by 20.