■ After giving up a touchdown to Alabama, Georgia answered with an 80-yard score from Jake Fromm to Mecole Hardman. A pair of Alabama field goals has cut Georgia’s lead to 20-13.
■ Stay here for live updates and analysis from college football’s national championship game in Atlanta.
How to watch: ESPN has the broadcast, but you can stream the game here.
4Q, 9:24: Another field goal for Alabama cuts into Georgia’s lead.
The Crimson Tide would have liked a touchdown, but after a pass was nearly intercepted in the end zone they should be happy with a field goal that made the score 20-13.
Alabama was steadily moving down the field, taking what Georgia would give them before Najee Harris uncorked a 36-yard run to the left side of the field, fighting past tacklers all the way.
Harris had another short run before Tua Tagovailoa just missed Jerry Jeudy on a throw to the end zone, setting up a 3rd-and-8 from Georgia’s 12-yard line.
Continue reading the main storyGeorgia burned a timeout and then Tagovailoa took another shot into the end zone, just missing Jeudy on a ball that was very nearly intercepted by Dominick Sanders.
That brought out Andy Pappanastos, who hit from 30 yards out to pull within seven points.
4Q, 11:39: Georgia starts working the clock.
Starting the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead, Georgia was clearly thinking about the clock and they started their drive with four consecutive running plays by Sony Michel, accounting for 31 yards. Michel was spelled by Nick Chubb, who ran twice for 6 yards. But on 3rd-and-4, Nick Fromm dropped back to pass and was crushed to the ground by Raekwon Davis for a 9-yard sack, forcing the Bulldogs to punt and keeping Alabama in the game.
3Q, 0:08: Georgia’s defense keeps Tagovailoa in check.
Alabama got a quick first down with a 16-yard run by Bo Scarbrough, but a 7-yard pass from Tua Tagovailoa to Calvin Ridley was followed by a run by Scarbrough for no gain and a pass from Tagovailoa to Scarbrough for 1 yard, leading to a punt.
Drape: This title game delivered what it promised: two hard-nosed teams from the best conference in college football, the S.E.C. Every series matters. I still can’t believe Nick Saban replaced his 25-2, two title-game starter, with a freshman.
Q3, 1:55: Fromm’s third-down magic runs out.
After the kickoff, Georgia got 15 yards for free thanks to an unnecessary roughness call against Alabama’s Mekhi Brown, who continued to rant and rave on the sideline when he was pulled out of the game.
Nick Chubb did not get far on two runs, giving Jake Fromm yet another big third down opportunity, and the freshman capitalized with a 13-yard pass to Riley Ridley, who has been superb all game.
The third-down magic was nowhere to be found a few plays later on an incomplete pass to Ridley, setting up a Georgia punt.
Q3, 5:15: Alabama cuts into Georgia’s lead.
An Alabama field goal made it 20-10 in Georgia’s favor.
Given a short field thanks to the interception, Alabama ran the ball twice, picking up a first down, and then Tua Tagovailoa took a shot at the end zone with a pass that sailed over the hands of Cam Sims. Tagovailoa was nearly intercepted on second down when a bad drop by Calvin Ridley popped into the air, and then the drive stalled with an incomplete pass on third down.
Andy Pappanastos came out and hit a 43-yard field goal to pull within 10 points.
Drape: Critical drive coming up here. Nick Saban rolled the dice with Tua Tagovailoa. Briefly looked like a genius, but ultimately gets an interception by the freshman, and eventually a field goal. Bad penalty sets up the Dawgs. A touchdown puts this out of reach.
3Q, 6:21: Alabama’s defense takes the ball back.
Alabama answered an interception with one of their own. On the first play of Georgia’s drive, Jake Fromm threw to his left, had it deflect off the helmet of a defensive lineman, and then fall into the hands of Raekwon Davis for the turnover.
3Q, 6:32: Tagovailoa throws into trouble.
Not wanting Jake Fromm to get all the fun, Tua Tagovailoa again threw deep on the first play of a drive, but this one fell incomplete just in front of DeVonta Smith. On second down he rolled out to his left and forced a bad pass down the sideline, which was intercepted by Georgia’s Deandre Baker. As good as Tagovailoa looked on the previous drive, the pick was exactly what you would expect from a true freshman pushed into such a difficult circumstance.
3Q, 6:52: Georgia answers with an 80-yard touchdown.
Alabama had made it a football game with Tua Tagovailoa’s thrilling touchdown drive, and their special teams piled on by pinning Georgia down at their own 7-yard line to start their next drive. But Jake Fromm was not intimidated. Fromm’s 80-yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman made the score 20-7 in Georgia’s favor.
Fromm started the drive by immediately picking up a first down with a 14-yard pass over the middle to Terry Godwin, but Nick Chubb gave 8 yards of that back when Anthony Averett dropped him deep in the backfield.
Chubb ran up the middle for 7 yards, getting the Bulldogs to 3rd-and-11, and Fromm aggressively threw deep to Hardman on the sideline. The sophomore wide receiver fought past the coverage for the long touchdown and the play stood up to a review by officials.
Drape: Wow! I say it again because we are a public forum. But Fromm to Hardman for 80 yards on 3rd and 18 is pretty spectacular. Saban, who some of our readers say never panics, has to be a bit puckered now. Still, it’s a great game. Bring on Tua Tagovailoa!
3Q, 8:52: And just like that, Alabama is back in it.
Tua Tagovailoa showed why Nick Saban put him in. The true freshman led a drive that was far more impressive than anything Jalen Hurts had offered, and he got the Crimson Tide their first touchdown of the game, narrowing Georgia’s lead to 13-7.
He started with beautiful deep pass to Calvin Ridley that nearly went for a 44-yard touchdown, but the ball was just out Ridley’s hands and it fell incomplete. On the next play he saw no openings and fought for a 3-yard gain, lowering his shoulder into a defender at the tail end of the play.
On 3rd-and-7 the pass protection was broken down and he cut to the right of the field before cheating back to the left for a 9-yard gain, and then picked up 39 more yards with a completion to Robert Foster and two to Henry Ruggs III.
With a 1st-and-goal from Georgia’s 6-yard line, Tagovailoa again found Ruggs for the touchdown, dramatically changing the landscape of this game.
Drape: Nice Alabama drive keyed by Tua Tagovailoa. His third down scramble was the key play. Chris Fowler says we have a “Freshman Quarterback Duel.” Hurts is the first one on the field to congratulate his rival on the touchdown. The balance inches back to Nick as a genius, but I’m doubling down on panic.
3Q, 10:51: Tide’s defense picks up the intensity.
Alabama’s offense may have looked slow coming out of the locker room, but the Tide’s defense was clearly fired up, forcing consecutive plays of negative yards before Georgia’s drive fizzled out with a 4-yard run by D’Andre Swift. The Bulldogs had the ball for just 93 seconds of clock time, but the team’s fans were left angry about a missed facemask call on Swift’s second-down run which went for minus-8 yards.
3Q, 13:03: Alabama switches quarterbacks, but gets same result.
Alabama started the half with Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback rather than Jalen Hurts. It was a somewhat surprising change, which means both teams are playing true freshmen at quarterback.
Tagovailoa’s opening drive did not make much of a change in the offense as he ran for 4 yards and passed for 2 before a sack left them with a 3rd-and-8, effectively ending their drive. Alabama had a short injury delay while Jonah Williams was treated on the field, but they eventually punted the ball away.
Drape: Nick Saban is either panicking or a genius. He’s put in Tagovailoa in at quarterback, a freshman, after saying it wasn’t Jalen Hurts’s fault the Tide struggled in the first half. I vote for panicking. He has decided that he can’t stop Georgia, and needs to score with them. Hurts is 25-2. At least we know now that Robo-Coach Saban is human after all. Kirby Smart has gotten under Nick’s skin.
Here’s the view from Vegas:
Here’s what’s going on in Las Vegas, according to our friends at William Hill. In the second half, Bama is giving 6 points, which means the money is coming in and expects the Crimson Tide to outscore the Dawgs by 6 points in this next half. The over/under for second half points is 23. So the smart money expects a strong half from Alabama. If you are a betting man, like me, I’d take Georgia plus 6 and the under for the second half. An interesting note: In January, you could have gotten Georgia to win the championship at odds of 40-1. Bama? 3-1.
2Q, 0:07: Bulldogs head into the locker room with a 13-0 lead.
Georgia did not have much time to work with, but they had all three timeouts remaining, so they decided to be aggressive heading into halftime. It paid off, with Mecole Hardman taking a direct-snap into the end zone from 1 yard out for the first touchdown of the game and a 13-0 lead for the Bulldogs.
The drive started with 1:19 remaining in the half, and Jake Fromm immediately found Riley Ridley for a 10-yard gain. Fromm was nearly intercepted a few plays later, but when Alabama’s Anthony Averett failed to get his hands on the ball, the Bulldogs capitalized by getting 14 yards on the ground from Sony Michel on the next play.
An Alabama penalty got Georgia 5 more yards, D’Andre Swift ran for 7 and Fromm, not seeing any good receiving options, pulled the ball down and reeled off a 14-yard run of his own.
With a short field in front of him, Fromm threw aggressively to Terry Godwin for a 16-yard gain near the goal line setting up a 1st-and-goal from the 3. A roughing the passer call got Georgia all the way to the Alabama 1-yard line, and Hardman took the ball on a direct-snap, running into the end zone easily.
Drape: Wonderful call by Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney to run the Wildcat — a snap to Mecole Hardaman Jr., who waltzes to the corner. This game is far from over. Nick Saban is frustrated in his halftime interview, but he purposefully doesn’t lay it on quarterback Jalen Hurts. Georgia’s Kirby Smart is understated and says Jake Fromm is making good decisions. Fromm is going to make Dawg fans forget Buck Belue with another half like that (not really). I’m not putting this in the victory column for Georgia yet. Saban and the Tide are too good — see five national championships — but that was a big score to end the half.
Tracy: To go off Joe’s point, the past two national title games — both of which also involved Alabama — were shootouts whose final scores were 35-31 and 45-40. At halftime of those games, the scores were, respectively, 14-7 and 21-7. If past is prologue, the second half will involve substantially more scoring than the first.
2Q, 1:19: Nothing for Alabama.
Alabama’s offense is not doing anything right now. Georgia forced a three-and-out, with the Crimson Tide getting seven yards on a pair of runs before an incomplete pass and a punt completed their drive.
2Q, 2:14: Georgia’s Javon Wims goes to locker room.
A nice punt resulted in Georgia starting from their own 5-yard line, and with so little room to work they settled for two short runs by Nick Chubb before Jake Fromm stepped back into the pocket and found Riley Ridley in the middle of the field for a huge 16-yard completion. It was Ridley’s third big catch of the game, helping somewhat alleviate the concern of Javon Wims having gone into Georgia’s locker room to be evaluated for an injury.
Georgia quickly found itself in another third down situation, but this time Fromm’s throw was well off its mark, skipping to the ground in front of Mecole Hardman.
The Bulldogs were forced to punt, but thanks to Ridley’s catch the field position is not nearly as bad as it could have been.
2Q, 5:15: Tide offense shows some life, but stalls out.
Alabama got a huge start to the drive on a delayed keeper by Jalen Hurts that went for 31 yards, with Georgia seemingly having been caught on their heels. But the Bulldogs quickly made up for that mistake when Davin Bellamy got a huge 6-yard sack on 2nd-and-9. Josh Jacob ran the ball for 5 yards and then the Crimson Tide punted yet again, showing little sign of having figured out Georgia’s defense.
2Q, 7:33: Another Georgia drive ends in a field goal.
Georgia started using all of their weapons and had the team’s best drive of the game, but after failing to get into the end zone after reaching 1st-and-goal, they settled for a 27-yard field goal from Rodrigo Blankenship that increased their lead to 6-0.
Looking to capitalize on getting the ball back so quickly after they had taken the lead, the Bulldogs started things off when Jake Fromm hit D’Andre Swift with a screen pass that went for 15 yards. Runs by Nick Chubb and Fromm picked up a second first down. Then Fromm aggressively challenged the Alabama defense by throwing downfield, and it worked, with Riley Ridley contributing a 23-yard catch-and-run while Javon Wims made a circus catch on the sideline that stood up to an official review.
That set up a 1st-and-goal from Alabama’s 10-yard line, but the Bulldogs stalled out, setting up Blankenship for yet another kick.
Drape: Wow, how big has freshman Jake Fromm been? That was a big throw to Riley Ridley, and even a bigger one to Wims to take them into the red zone. He almost made a freshman mistake on 3rd & 6. The Dawgs should have had 7 there. A 6-0 lead over Alabama is not enough after you’ve pushed them around.
2Q, 12:52: Alabama fails to answer Georgia’s scoring drive.
After a touchback, Alabama started at their own 25 and they answered Georgia’s scoring drive by going absolutely nowhere. Two runs and an incomplete pass generated only 4 yards before the Crimson Tide punted the ball away. Georgia had an injury delay early in the drive when David Marshall, a sophomore linebacker, was slow to get up after a running play before being taken to a medical tent for further evaluation.
Drape: Here is what Alabama was worried about before the game, and is now in a full blown panic. The Georgia defensive front is strong and harassing. They totally owned Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, the Heisman winner. Jalen Hurts looks lost. Unless the Tide opens up a ground game, Hurts is going to be hurting, and the Dawgs are going to be rolling over the Tide.
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2Q, 14:14: Georgia settles for a field goal, and the lead.
At the end of the first quarter, Georgia finally had something working, but they failed to convert on 3rd-and-11 to start the second quarter and Rodrigo Blankenship came out to hit a 41-yard field goal to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead.
It took several frustrating attempts to get Georgia’s running game on track, but on a 3rd-and-20 near the end of the first quarter the Bulldogs chose to run the ball and Sony Michel broke free on the right sideline, sprinting for a 26-yard run that woke up Georgia’s offense.
Prior to Michel’s run it had looked like yet another drive would end in a quick punt. Alabama’s Anthony Averett delivered a huge sack on a 2nd-and-10 play, sending Georgia all the way from Alabama’s 42-yard line to Georgia’s 48-yard line. But despite the Crimson Tide’s powerful front-seven having sniffed out and demolished both Nick Chubb and Michel on most of their previous attempts, Georgia went with a run on the 3rd-and-long and were rewarded with a huge gain, eventually setting up Blankenship’s kick.
Drape: Hot Rod Blankenship, the Dawgs kicker is a helluva story. Him of the Kurt Rambis glasses. He was a preferred walk-on with former Coach Mark Richt. But Kirby Smart was slow to put him on scholarship. He did eventually the day before the Notre Dame game, which Hot Rod won with a field goal. He went for 55-yards against Oklahoma. He may be the difference here. In fact, he already is.
1Q, 6:54: Alabama offense sputters.
After two short plays, Alabama was faced with a 3rd-and-3, and it was fairly obvious that Jalen Hurts would be running the ball. Georgia sniffed the keeper out immediately, easily stopping the quarterback for a loss of one yard. The quiet start to the game continues with Alabama punting the ball away.
Drape: It’s early, but this game is looking promising. Hurts is going to need to run tonight. He’s more Blake Bortles than Drew Brees, and there is nothing wrong with that. But these two staffs have the other measured so far.
1Q, 9:01: Georgia, a great running team, keeps passing.
Through two possessions, Georgia, which ran all over Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl, has passed on every single offensive play. Jake Fromm has completed just 3 of 7 passes for 17 yards as Sony Michel and Nick Chubb have been relegated to decoy work thus far. The strategy is not working as of yet, with Georgia having just one first down to go with one turnover and one punt.
Drape: I like the fact Georgia is wide open. They do have a ground game, but they are challenging Bama’s secondary. As our colleague Marc Tracy pointed out, Jalen Hurts is a game manager. He is there to make good decisions. These are the opening rounds of a heavyweight fight and neither team is backing down.
1Q, 9:54: Tide fails to convert after interception.
Alabama got painfully close to putting the ball in the end zone but they settled for a 40-yard field goal attempt by Andy Pappanastos that missed wide-left, keeping the game scoreless.
The Crimson Tide had started at their own 36-yard line thanks to Tony Brown’s interception, and they made steady progress with their running game, picking up 30 yards on the ground to go with 17 through the air, generating three first downs. Jalen Hurts led the way with two carries for 22 yards.
Hurts then flirted with a touchdown when he found Calvin Ridley wide open in the end zone thanks to broken coverage, but the pass sailed over Ridley’s head, taking away Alabama’s best opportunity.
Pappanastos initially made a 35-yard attempt, but after a penalty he tried for 40 yards and missed badly.
Drape: Couple of things: Nick Saban’s process is unassailable on everything but the field goal kicking game. I hate criticizing Andy Pappanastos; He’s a kid. But look back at Saban’s Alabama years, and he’s never developed a reliable kicker. What I mean by that, is someone who never gets any pub because he makes the kick he’s supposed to. The false start was inexcusable. But this is exactly how they started against Clemson.
1Q, 13:38: Alabama’s defense takes control early.
The Crimson Tide’s defense showed its dominance immediately with an interception on the third play of the game.
Alabama had won the coin toss and chose to defer, which resulted in Georgia receiving the ball to start the game. The ball was kicked out of the end zone for a touchback, which set the Bulldogs up at their own 25-yard line to start.
They got off to a slow start, with Jake Fromm dumping off two quick short passes that accounted for just three yards, but then he tried to be more aggressive, throwing deep to Javon Wims, and had his pass intercepted by Tony Brown.
Joe Drape: Big play to open this slugfest. It was a fine throw by Fromm, but Brown took it away from Wims. Hard nosed play. Let’s expect a lot of them. These are two top-10 defenses.
Trump takes the field for national anthem.
President Trump took the field shortly before the playing of the national anthem to what seemed to be mainly cheers. He stayed for the anthem, and left before the teams took the field. (In college football, unlike the N.F.L., teams nearly always stay in the locker rooms for the anthem.) These are two fanbases that, like their teams’ coaches, are frankly probably more focused on the upcoming game than on the president’s presence.
A pregame prediction: Dawgs win a close one.
Joe Drape: The Crimson Tide were 3-2 favorites to win the championship before the playoffs started, even though they were the No. 4 seeded team. They are 4-point favorites right now. Alabama has the best coach in the game, and a roster of talent that is the best in the nation. I’m one of the few people in the know-nothing, effete East Coast football establishment that admires them.
That said, I’m picking the Dawgs. They had some magic going their way against Oklahoma. They were pushed around the first half, but never lost their poise. Kirby Smart and his staff made the necessary adjustments in the second half. There is some sentiment at work. I am a former denizen of Atlanta, and this column explains why. Prediction: Georgia 28, Alabama 24.
Pregame Reads
■ Before, and during, the game tonight, “Glory, Glory” will be played. It’s Georgia’s unofficial fight song. Others might recognize the stirring tune as an older and nationally prominent song: “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the famous Civil War anthem of the North.
Read Marc Tracy’s story on how the song became such a popular part of the Georgia fan experience.
■ Nick Saban has a chance to win an unprecedented fifth national title in nine seasons. Perhaps the most remarkable detail about that remarkable run is that none of those championship teams — at the program that produced Bart Starr, Joe Namath and Ken Stabler — had an elite quarterback destined for N.F.L. greatness. Here’s a look at what makes a Nick Saban quarterback.
Continue reading the main story
