Lumaktaw sa pangunahing content

Alabama, Georgia to meet in College Football Playoff title game

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Alabama has a chance to repeat.

Georgia has a chance for revenge.

The rematch is set, and it’ll decide the College Football Playoff national championship. After a pair of easy wins in the semifinals on Friday night, the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs — the only two teams to be ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 this season — will meet again to decide the title Jan. 10 in Indianapolis.

Alabama will be seeking a seventh national championship in the last 13 years under Saban. Georgia is playing with hopes of claiming its first national title since Herschel Walker led the Bulldogs to the title in the 1980 season.

This matchup comes after Alabama — big underdogs entering that game — had little trouble in what became a 41-24 win over Georgia in the SEC championship game back on Dec. 4, costing the Bulldogs a chance at an undefeated season and giving the defending national champion Crimson Tide a trip back into the playoff mix.

Alabama needed that win.

Weirdly, Georgia felt it needed that loss.

“For our team, it was a wakeup call,” Georgia offensive lineman Jamaree Salyer said that night. “I think we needed one. We got a wakeup call from a really good team. If we get a chance in the playoffs, I think that wakeup call will help propel us forward.”

Oh, the Bulldogs were awake on Friday night.

They blew out Michigan 34-11 in the Orange Bowl, taking the field not long after Alabama had little trouble dismissing Cincinnati 27-6 in the other CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl.

“To have another opportunity to play for a national championship … it’s like a dream come true,” Alabama running back Brian Robinson Jr. said after the Cotton Bowl.

Predictably, the Tide didn’t do much talking about Georgia following their win. Most teams would never go down that road, talking about an opponent in tournament play before the next matchup is actually set. But Georgia, playing the later game on Friday, probably could have let Alabama begin entering its thoughts probably somewhere around halftime when the Bulldogs had a 27-3 lead over the Wolverines.

Due respect to Michigan, by then, it was clear: The All-SEC rematch was happening. The first CFP title game saw Ohio State defeating Oregon. All seven editions since have featured at least one SEC team _ Alabama six times, LSU once, and now Georgia twice.

Alabama has gone 3-2 in its previous CFP title game appearances, alternating wins and losses every time. Nobody in the CFP era has won back-to-back titles; Alabama is 0-2 in its opportunities to do so, and Clemson also lost when it had a bid for consecutive CFP crowns.

Georgia can only hope that trend continues.

Not only is this an SEC title game rematch, but it’s also a rematch of the best _ or at least, closest and arguably most dramatic _ title game of the CFP era, now in its eighth season.

Alabama and Georgia played for the CFP crown in Atlanta to close the 2017 campaign. Georgia led 13-0 at the half, but Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench and threw a game-ending 41-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith that capped the Tide’s 26-23 overtime win.

The title game has been nothing but routs since: Clemson beating Alabama 44-16, LSU beating Clemson 44-25, Alabama beating Ohio State 52-24 last season.

Oddsmakers don’t expect a blowout this time around: Georgia was quickly established as a 2-1/2 point favorite over Alabama by FanDuel Sportsbook, that line being set before the Bulldogs-Michigan game had even gone final.

And it makes tons of sense that these are the last two teams standing.

The Tide and the Bullodgs spent six weeks ranked No. 1 and No. 2, in some order, in the AP Top 25 this season. Big things were expected of both teams from the outset: Alabama started No. 1, Georgia began at No. 5.

But even though Alabama coach Nick Saban is 25-1 against his former assistant coaches — including 4-0 against Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who spent 11 years with him in Tuscaloosa — history says a rematch for the national title is a great sign for the Bulldogs.

In the 2011 season, LSU beat Alabama in the regular season. Alabama won the rematch for the Bowl Championship Series national title.

In 1996, Florida State topped Florida in the regular season. The Gators rolled past the Seminoles for the national title in what was then called the Bowl Alliance.

Now, it’s Georgia with a shot at turning the tide.

All it has to do is beat the Tide.



Alabama, Georgia to meet in College Football Playoff title game
Source: Healthy Lifestyle
Mga etiketa:

Mga Komento

Mag-post ng isang Komento

Mga sikat na post sa blog na ito

‘Ang Dating Daan’ founder Eli Soriano, 73

ELISEO “Eli” Soriano, televangelist and founder of the Members Church of God International, also known as “Ang Dating Daan” (The Old Path), died early Friday morning in Brazil. He was 73 years old. “It is with deep sadness, yet with full faith in the Almighty, that we announce the passing of our beloved and one and only Bro. Eliseo “Eli” Soriano — a faithful preacher, brother, father, and grandfather to many,” The group said in its Facebook page. There were no details on the cause of his death. Soriano started his preaching in Guagua, Pampanga, and later started his media evangelism career on radio in 1980 and on television in 1983. He is known for his method of using biblical expositions under the “Itanong mo kay Soriano (Ask Soriano)” television program, where his audience can get a chance to ask him questions, as well as for his “revelations” of doctrinal errors in other religions. He was also known to debate with various religious leaders and sects, especially against the infl...
Mag-post ng isang Komento
Magbasa nang higit pa

Inflation seen to pick up in Jan

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Friday the country’s headline inflation likely rose to 3.7 percent this month on higher prices of fuel, meat and sin products, and on increased power rates. A shopper checks out goods at a stall in a market on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City on Tuesday.PHOTO BY RUY MARTINEZ In a statement, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said January’s point inflation estimate was within the 3.3- to 4.1-percent forecast range of the central bank. The outlook was faster than the 3.5-percent consumer price growth in December 2020 and the 2.9 percent a year earlier. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will release official January inflation data on February 5. “Higher prices of fuel and meat, as well as increased Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) power rates and excise taxes on alcoholic beverages and tobacco, contributed to upward price pressures during the month,” Diokno said. Local oil companies hiked fuel prices three times this month. Price incr...
Mag-post ng isang Komento
Magbasa nang higit pa

Biden presses Xi on HK, Xinjiang in first phone call

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Joe Biden pressed Chinese leader Xi Jinping over human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang late Wednesday in their first call since the new US president took office on January 20, according to the White House. Setting the stage for what could extend the contentious relationship between the two superpowers, Biden offered Xi his “greetings and wellwishes” for the Chinese people on the occasion of the Lunar New Year celebrations, the White House said in a statement. But, laying his own groundwork for Washington-Beijing ties after four tumultuous years under predecessor Donald Trump, Biden immediately challenged his counterpart over China’s projection of power in the Indo-Pacific region, the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and the oppressive treatment of millions of Muslim Uighurs in the Xinjiang region. In the call Biden told Xi that his priorities were to protect the American people’s security, prosperity, health and way of life, and to preserve “a fr...
Mag-post ng isang Komento
Magbasa nang higit pa