ATLANTA — It’s taken nearly a decade for Kirby Smart to exorcise his demons against Alabama. More than once at least. Saturday in Atlanta, Smart and the Bulldogs left no doubt who the best team in the SEC was beating Alabama 28-7.
The Story
Georgia and Alabama’s previous battles followed a very similar script. Alabama came out on fire and got a big lead early, landing blow after blow and getting out to an insurmountable lead in the first half. Alabama outscored Georgia by 33 points in the first half of their last two meetings.
Not this time.
Both defenses traded a couple three-and-outs in the first two drives for each team. But after pinning Bama deep on their second drive of the first quarter, UGA blocked a punt and recovered inside Alabama’s 20. Georgia wasted no time scoring to take a 7-0 lead.
On the next drive Ty Simpson’s third down pass was deflected and intercepted by Georgia on their own side of the field. Georgia capitalized off the turnover with a 14 play, 57 yard drive for another touchdown to go up 14-0.
The two touchdown lead is a familiar script from past games between these two. Alabama allowed Georgia to go up 13-0 in the 2018 national championship before storming back and winning and overtime. They trailed by 14 multiple times the following December in the SEC Championship that ended with another Alabama come from behind win behind Jalen Hurts.
This wasn’t that.
Alabama’s defense played well for most of the game, but the offense was suffocated all game. Alabama was held to 70 yards of offense in the first half and registered just one yard rushing on 14 carries. Alabama’s offense showed no signs of life outside of a few plays, and most of them involved some sort of trickery. The Tide not only routinely failed to convert short yardage situations, as the second half wore on they almost never even attempted to run on short yardage.
Georgia had four drives that started in Alabama territory and scored four touchdowns. It was a dominant performance in all three phases of the game, and Georgia capped off their second straight SEC Championship and the third in the last four years.
The Stats
51 – Georgia’s blocked punt in the first quarter was the first punt block allowed by Alabama in 51 games. (Utah State 2022
55 – Games since Alabama has been held scoreless in the first half. The last time it happened before Saturday was 2021 against Auburn. Their 70 yards of offense against Georgia was also the fewest in a half in the last 55 games as well, also dating back to their 2021 game against Auburn.
-3 – Alabama was held to -3 yards rushing on Saturday. It’s just the second time in program history they finished a game with negative yards rushing, and the first time in 57 years dating back to 1968 against Missouri when they netted -45 yards.
38 – Georgia only needed 38 tackles on defense on the day against Alabama. That’s the fewest they’ve had in a game since 2023 and over their last 33 games.
The Social Media Reaction
Georgia brought out the belt after beating Alabama in the SEC Championship 😳 pic.twitter.com/1hvOJTmY0n
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 7, 2025
Georgia Defense vs Alabama | SEC Championship Game:
🐶 7 Points Allowed
🐶 4/17 on 3rd & 4th Downs
🐶 -3 Rushing Yards
🐶 1 Takeaway@GeorgiaFootball https://t.co/h7YL5ldUcS pic.twitter.com/M5lEFy3inb— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 7, 2025
First time in the history of the SEC Championship Game an opponent has been shutout thru three quarters
— Chuck Dunlap 🏈 (@SEC_Chuck) December 6, 2025
Alabama starting QB, Ty Simpson posing for a photo with Kirby Smart’s son, Andrew just minutes after losing the SEC championship. Thoughts?? pic.twitter.com/tjg4zOj1Vx
— 🏈⚾️ Pigskin Petey 🏀🏁 (@pigskinpetey) December 7, 2025
UGA Defense thoroughly dominated in every facet.
UGA Offense wasted zero opportunities.. Go Dawgs!!! https://t.co/rkPqIT7J8w pic.twitter.com/i28k5Nmn0j— DawgStats (@DawgStats) December 7, 2025
Bama losing to Georgia is like having a truck with 300,000 miles finally breakdown on you.
You’re not happy about it but it had to let you down at some point
— Transfer Portal (@NCAAPortal) December 7, 2025
Idk man do you have to keep Bama in pic.twitter.com/lYnME06lRR
— CFBNumbers (@CFBNumbers) December 7, 2025
