Georgia Finally Takes Down Alabama to Win Its First National Title Since 1980

For decades, the narrative was that there was a sports curse in the state of Georgia. Now, just two months after the Atlanta Braves won their first World Series in 26 years, the Georgia Bulldogs finally toppled Alabama 33-18 to capture their first national championship since 1980.

The first half of this game was largely a snoozefest, with the Crimson Tide heading into the locker room with a 9-6 lead. There wasn’t a touchdown scored until there was 1:20 left in the third quarter, when Zamir White punched it in to give the Dawgs their first leas of the game at 13-9.

It was the fourth quarter that cemented this game as a classic, though. With Georgia up 13-12, Stetson Bennett tried to get rid of the ball and ended up committing a crazy turnover on a fumble barely recovered inbounds by Alabama.

The Tide punched it in for a touchdown to re-take the lead, but Bennett wasn’t finished. He came back on Georgia’s next drive and delivered an absolute dime to Adonai Mitchell in the end zone for what would end up being all the Dawgs would need to secure their first national title in more than four decades.

UGA added a pick-six with less than a minute left to put the nail in the coffin and finally slay the beast. Just a little over a month after being embarrassed by Alabama 41-27 in the SEC Championship Game, the Bulldogs finally beat the team they’ve failed to conquer so many times in the last decade to win the whole thing.

Even with what Bama showed towards the end of the year, it’s pretty clear Georgia was the best team in the country throughout the entire season. There were plenty of questions as to whether or not the Dawgs could get it done with Bennett under center — as recently as halftime of this game — but that elite defense was enough to carry UGA all the way to a national title.