The Georgia Bulldogs picked up their third SEC Championship of the Kirby Smart era Saturday evening, knocking off the second-ranked Texas Longhorns 22-19. This marks the second loss for the Longhorns this season, with both coming at the hands of the Bulldogs. Round two was much tighter, becoming the first SEC title game to go into overtime.
When the dust finally settled though the Dawgs wound up triumphant, and the Longhorns were stunned in defeat. This outcome will naturally have a massive impact on the impending College Football Playoff in more ways than one. With so much to unpack from another classic SEC title game, let’s take a look at the key takeaways. As well as, how the game is likely to impact the postseason.
Georgia Needs Two Quarterbacks to Win SEC Title
Georgia Finds a Way
The Dawgs had to overcome a lot of adversity in order to pull out this win, particularly on offense. Georgia picked up just 68 yards the entire first half, with Texas holding them to a single field goal. To make matters worse, Carson Beck injured his right arm at the end of the half, which ultimately knocked him out of the game.
Coming out of the break, the Dawgs were forced to rely on their backup signal caller, Gunner Stockton, which essentially eliminated any passing game they had. Despite these hurdles, the Dawgs were able to forge a path to success on the backs of their defense and ground game.
Trevor Etienne was phenomenal in his return from injury, picking up 94 yards and Georgia’s only two touchdowns. The second of these wound up being the game-winning score in overtime which sealed the SEC title for Georgia. Defensively, the Dawgs were able to hold one of the top offenses in the country to just 19 points, while also forcing three turnovers.
“We’re mentally fatigued, but we’re one of the most mentally tough teams that we’ve ever coached,” Smart said on his team’s resiliency after the game. “I’ve had more physically tough, I’ve had more physically talented, but I don’t know that I’ve ever had a more mentally tough team. They just keep coming and keep coming, and they never say die.”
These sentiments sum up the Bulldogs perfectly not only in this game but the season as a whole. They’ve taken their lumps and setbacks, but no matter what gets thrown their way, they never stop fighting. It’s the hallmark of a championship team, and it’s exactly what won them the SEC on Saturday.
Texas Asking, “What If?”
On the opposite sideline, Steve Sarkisian’s team has to be kicking themselves over this loss. Despite Georgia’s grit down the stretch, the simple fact is that the Longhorns shot themselves in the foot with multiple costly miscues. If Georgia did everything in the face of adversity to win, Texas did everything to lose.
Turnovers, costly penalties, and an inability to finish drives all led to the Longhorns coming up just short in the end. Sarkisian touched on his team’s lack of execution in his post-game press conference, emphasizing his team’s lack of discipline in the turnover department, and inability to capitalize in the red zone.
“In the first half we had some great opportunities, and we just couldn’t capitalize the way we would have liked,” Sarkisian said. “Clearly the penalties were an issue in the first half where we stalled out on some things and for the in some third-and-longs and whatnot.”
Along with the miscues and turnovers, two missed field goals also ended up coming back to bite Texas in the worst possible way. Senior kicker Bert Auburn did go four for six on the night. Unfortunately, those six points he left on the field would have in all likelihood sealed the win for his team.
When you play in these types of high-stakes matchups, the margin for error is always going to be thin. It’s fair to say that neither team played a good game. However, when it mattered most Texas just wasn’t able to execute at the level Georgia did. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s a reality of big-time college football.
College Football Playoff Implications
With the SEC Championship game in the history books, both team’s attention (along with the rest of the countries) will turn to what the CFP Selection Committee decides to do come Sunday. Both sides were viewed as virtual locks heading into the game, it was just a matter of determining which team got a first-round bye, and which hosted a home playoff game.
With the win, Georgia is likely to move up into the top four and in doing so secure a much-needed bye. There is still the question of seeding, however, and this is where things could get interesting.
Even though they secured the bye, Georgia also saw their starting quarterback, go down with what could potentially be a serious injury to his throwing arm. Now, we don’t know the status of Beck’s injury just yet and are unlikely to until after the Committee makes its final selections, but this doesn’t mean they won’t take it into account.
After all, we have seen injuries to key players impact how the selectors view specific teams. Florida State last season is a perfect example of this. Could the committee use this as a reason to bump Georgia down from say two to four?
Then you have Texas, whose path to the national title became significantly harder with the loss. How will their performance impact which side of the bracket they end up getting put into? All of these are questions the Selection Committee will have to answer, and the way they do will have very real implications on how both teams ’ postseasons shape up.
