Mark Wiedmer: Bama's Saban still the soul-crusher of opponents' championship dreams

Dec. 5—It will end one day, this Alabama stranglehold on its Southeastern Conference football brethren. At some point, albeit at some seemingly distant moment in the future, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban will surely retire.

Won't he?

Mustn't he?

The storylines of No. 3 Bama's 41-24 victory over No. 1 and previously unbeaten Georgia on Saturday will be both diverse and discouraging if you're a Bulldogs fan looking ahead to the College Football Playoff.

Two costly second-half interceptions by Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett will reenergize the preseason question posed by CBS announcer Brad Nessler early in Saturday's fourth quarter: "Is Stetson good enough to win the big game?"

Then there is the idea that it's all been just a little bit too easy for the Dawgs all season, given their average margin of victory of almost 34 points a game and only one of those 12 wins by fewer than 17, and that in the opener against Clemson.

One could also trot out the motivation argument. Having dominated as they did in those first 12 games, almost no one has even vaguely entertained the thought that Georgia might somehow miss the playoff. In truth, no one save Saban and the Tide had seemed to consider the notion that Bama could win this SEC title game and add to its preposterous collection of nine such championships prior to this one, that total already two ahead of Florida for the all-time lead.

So the Dawgs entered Saturday as 6.5-point favorites, which was also pretty much the points they were allowing per game (6.9) prior to kickoff. Nearly four hours later, Bama had done what was previously thought impossible in shredding the nation's top defense.

Or as Saban said afterward of his pride in the Tide "playing the game at a level we did today that most people probably didn't think we could."

While true, Bama had only itself to blame for the general perception that it was, by its impossibly lofty standards, mildly mediocre before this one.

Not only had it blown a late lead in its lone loss at Texas A&M, it had struggled in narrow wins over Arkansas, Florida and LSU. Then came the miracle win at Auburn, which certainly canceled out one of the Tigers' shocking victories over Bama through the years, but did little to deliver much confidence to Bama Nation that it was now ready to face Georgia.