A rematch of the 2021 SEC Championship Game takes place on Monday night as No. 1 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia square off in the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship. The Crimson Tide are looking for their second straight national title and seventh under coach Nick Saban. The Tide earned their spot in Monday’s national title game thanks to a 27-6 victory over No. 4 Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl semifinal that saw running back Brian Robinson Jr. rush for a career-high 204 yards.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, dominated No. 2 Michigan 34-11 in the Orange Bowl semifinal. Starting quarterback Stetson Bennett threw for 313 yards and three touchdowns in the win and provided much-needed balance to an offense that is predicated on establishing the run.
What should you expect in Indianapolis on Monday night? Let’s break down the game and make picks straight up and against the spread.
Alabama vs. Georgia: Need to know
What went wrong?: The first game between these two teams — a 41-24 win for the Tide in Atlanta — saw the Bulldogs defense collapse for the first time all season. Considered for much of the season to be an all-time great unit, it failed to get Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young on the ground once in the loss.
“Ultimately we want to create pressure,” said Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning. “We want to be able to get after Bryce. As far as how to do it, I don’t want to give away our secrets yet, but wait until the game to figure that out. We want to generate pressure. And certainly there’s a lot of different ways you can do that. And he’s really good at avoiding the rush. And they did unique things to protect him. We have to attack it a little bit differently, but how we do that, there’s a lot of different ways…
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