For the first time in 29 games—a two-year span—Georgia lost.
And we lost to the last team who beat us: Alabama.
And we lost at the last place they beat us: in the SEC Championship Game.
But unlike last time, we won’t have a shot at redemption, because, as expected, losing kept us out of the College Football Playoff. So long to our threepeat dreams. How sweet they were while they lasted.
This 27–24 loss in Atlanta felt different from than any other loss I’ve experienced as a Georgia fan. For one thing, I was out of practice. I didn’t shout or moan or pull my hair out. Oh, sure, I did plenty of that during the game. But afterward, I was surprisingly calm. I was upset about the missed opportunities—both in this game and those left on the table by not making the CFP—but not angry about them.
Maybe that’s because I knew the score heading into Atlanta. If we didn’t win, we weren’t going to the playoff. If I knew that, then Kirby Smart knew that, and every player on the team knew that. The stakes were known, and we still came up short, because we made mistakes against the kind of team you cannot make mistakes against.
First and foremost, the penalties. Georgia committed an uncharacteristic five penalties for 56 yards, none of which was more costly than a false start before a field goal down 10-7 in the second quarter. Instead of a 45-yarder within his range, Peyton Woodring attempted a career-long 50-yarder that missed when it smacked the right upright. It would’ve been good from 45 yards, and tied the game at 10, completely changing the complexion of the game at that point. If you want to simplify it, we lost by those three points.
Then there was the turnover. Down seven and deep in our territory in the third quarter, we attempted to fake a handoff, then flick it to Dillon Bell. But the exchange between Bell and Carson Beck was botched, giving Alabama excellent field position and setting up a field goal that gave them a two-score lead we never overcame. Once again, if you want to simplify it, we lost by those three points.
The margins are that thin. You’ll hear other Dawgs fans chirp about how bad the refs were and that terrible call giving the Tide a fourth-down completion at the end of the first half. But terrible SEC refs are nothing new, and them’s the breaks. Some will cry about injuries to Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers like Alabama cried “Metchie and Williams” the last two years. But you have to be built to withstand injuries into the postseason, and if you can’t, them’s the breaks.
No excuses. We just weren’t good enough.
But I think the real reason I wasn’t upset by the loss is that I realized I finally got what I needed from Georgia football: a national championship.
It used to feel like every win and loss meant more. Like every win took us a step closer to our goal of winning a national title, and every loss knocked us about 50 steps back. I wanted to see the Dawgs win a national title so bad that anything that was an impediment to that felt like a smack in the face. When Georgia would lose, especially the losses that nixed any hopes of a title that season, I would be sad for days. Sometimes weeks.
But when we did get that national championship, man, there was no better feeling. The communal joy I felt celebrating that title in Indianapolis with my Dawg family and friends is something I’ll always cherish.
I love that feeling. I’d love to feel it again. It’s why I’m willing to risk the bad losses and the heartbreaks. Because when you do break through and have those special seasons, it can be truly magical. And I think we have more of those seasons in our future, so long as Kirby is in Athens.
But I’m not going back to the old days of week-long depressions. Yes, we missed it this year. But there’s always next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.
UGA will go on to play Florida State University at the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30.
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