By admin 
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.- Missed opportunities and missed calls were the story of the night as No. 2 Georgia came into Bryant-Denny Stadium and beat No. 6 Alabama 20-17 to hand the Crimson Tide its first loss.
Read more Projecting AP Top 25 After College Football Week 6: Oklahoma Stuns Texas, and a New No. 1 Emerges
Facing its toughest test yet, the Crimson Tide put together its worst offensive performance of the season, and the defense struggled to get the key stops. Despite so many mistakes, Alabama still only lost by three points and had the ball with a chance to win in the fourth quarter.
Here are five of my biggest takeaways from the Alabama loss Saturday night for the latest edition of Tide Takeaways:
Alabama couldn’t seize momentum when Georgia tried to give it to them
In a three-point game, there are plenty of opportunities to look back on that could have completely flipped the script from a loss to a win. There were multiple instances where Alabama could have seized momentum in front of a Bryant-Denny crowd that was waiting to explode, but it never could.
Georgia fumbled the ball four times, a mix of forced and unforced errors, and Alabama recovered zero of them. The most glaring opportunity came with a little over 10 minutes to go in the game with the score tied at 17-17 as Alabama punted it away. Sacovie White-Helton muffed the punt, and three Crimson jerseys were around the ball. Somehow, the Bulldogs recovered deep in their own territory.
If Alabama recovered, it would have been in the Georgia red zone with a fantastic opportunity to take the lead. However, the Bulldogs marched 84 yards down the field in 10 plays in what would prove to be the game-winning drive and field goal.
“The ball’s on the ground four times, and that’s just a fine line too,” Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said after the game. “We’ve got to find a way to get that ball. You make your own breaks.”
As a veteran player, Georgia quarterback Gunnar Stockton was poised and extremely efficient, completing 82 percent of his passes. His lone mistake was a tipped pass that was intercepted by Bray Hubbard, yet Alabama didn’t take advantage of it.
The interception came right after Alabama had scored its first touchdown to cut the Georgia lead to 10-7. The home crowd was elated as the pick gave the offense the ball at the Georgia 29-yard line in great position to take the lead. Instead, Alabama lost nine yards on the first play of the drive and then immediately had a false start. The next two plays were incompletions, so not only did Alabama not take the lead, it got moved out of field goal range and didn’t score at all.
Another potential momentum shift happened at the start of the fourth quarter when the Alabama defense held Georgia to a field-goal attempt, and the Bulldogs missed the kick, electrifying the crowd. It was a great chance to respond with a scoring drive to take the lead, but the ensuing drive stalled out.
Even after the 84-yard drive, Alabama got the ball back with 5:25 to go and could have responded with a game-winning drive of its own. The Tide moved the ball into Georgia territory, but a no-call on a potential pass interference penalty on second down followed by a sack on third down pushed Alabama out of field goal range once again.
“Just getting in that fringe area where you get some points, taking a sack or having a negative play, and certainly the offense was frustrated with that,” DeBoer said after the game. “Obviously, I am too, but you know that’s where you just got to look and figure out, you know, how to avoid those mistakes. And it wasn’t one person. It was just execution. It wasn’t necessarily from what I saw on assignments or anything. Just got to execute and be better in those moments.”
Georgia made the “fringe” plays when it needed to. Alabama did not.
Run defense gets exposed by backup running back
Georgia was without two of its top running backs with Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens not taking a snap, yet the Bulldogs still rushed for 206 yards with 120 of them coming from Dwight Phillips Jr. Sophomore Bo Walker, who only had 134 rushing yards coming into Saturday’s game, ran 10 times for 69 yards.
The Georgia rushing attack was consistently gashing the Alabama defense for runs of seven or more yards.
“I know we’re disappointed on some of the runs that they had, especially in the second half and how everyone’s got to do their job, stay in their gap, and that won’t happen,” DeBoer said after the game.
Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack won’t talk to the media until Monday afternoon, but I would anticipate there will be at least one minute of his opening statement dedicated to his disappointment in the run defense.
It’s starting to become a troubling trend for the Tide defense. It did an excellent job containing Mississippi State on the ground last week, but the Bulldogs were essentially without their leading rusher. South Carolina did something similar to Alabama.
The Gamecocks’ Matt Fuller rushed for 112 yards, quarterback LaNorris Sellers had 72 rushing yards and Alabama allowed 216 total yards on the ground in that game. It is not easy to win in the SEC if you’re consistently giving up 200+ yards on the ground.
Alabama only gave up more than 200 rushing yards once in conference play last season (at Georgia) and has already done so twice through the first four SEC games this season.
“I feel like we let some things get away, and that’s on us,” Alabama defensive lineman Devan Thompkins said after the game. “We’re definitely going to learn from it and get better.”
We’re about to find out what Keelon Russell is made of
On his biggest stage yet, Alabama’s young quarterback did not have his best performance. In fact, it was statistically his worst performance: fewest yards, lowest completion percentage, most sacks. But the sophomore took the blame after the game while (rightfully) giving Georgia a lot of credit.
Read more How Raiders’ Klint Kubiak Pushing All the Right Buttons
“I gotta execute at a higher level,” Russell said. “I didn’t play my best game tonight. Countless throws that I missed, and I’ve just got to be better.”
Russell finished 16 of 30 for 185 yards and one touchdown. He did not throw an interception, but he did fumble on a sack on the opening drive. This was definitely the best defense Russell has played against all year and likely will be the best he will face, at least in the regular season.
He missed some open throws, especially early in the game. Yet Russell was the reason Alabama still had a chance to win the game late in the fourth quarter. He continued to show his elusiveness and speed, turning plays that looked like they were destined for big losses into first downs. He led the offense down the field on a two-minute drill at the end of the first half for a touchdown.
This is the first time he’s lost as the starter in college. How will he respond? What does he look like on the road in a rivalry game, especially if center Racin Delgatty is unable to go?
Russell has been praised for his poise by the coaching staff since the beginning of the year. As the quarterback and leader of the offense, Russell can’t let a bad game cloud his self-perception with the Tide heading into the second half of the season.
“We’re going to need to continue to rally around him and find ways to help him out,” DeBoer said. “Got behind the chains a lot of times, and those were the times that hurt our opportunities to put points on the board.”
Trae’shawn Brown continues to be a bright spot
In what was an overall frustrating night for Alabama, freshman running back Trae’shawn Brown continues to be a bright spot. Multiple times this season, Brown has had long rushing plays wiped off the board because of penalties on his teammates, but he finally broke through Saturday night with his longest rush of the season.
His 58-yard rush set up the Crimson Tide’s first touchdown of the game to Elijah Pritchett and helped the offense settle in.
“Trae’s a really good football player, runs really hard,” Pritchett said. “He’s kinda everything we define in this program. Came in as a freshman, and he’s made a great impact. On my touchdown, he had that big play before. He’s doing a great job.”
Brown led the team with nine rushes for 90 yards. It’s the third time through the first six games that the freshman has been Alabama’s leading rusher.
“I don’t know what the exact final stats look like, but I mean there were some explosive runs,” DeBoer said. “I thought when we needed it, thought there was some physicality…For the most part, I thought it was consistent.”
Junior Daniel Hill still technically got the start for Alabama at running back, but he only ended up carrying the ball four times for 15 yards. It is pretty clear that the Tide now views Brown as the running back they trust the most.
Don’t be surprised to see Alabama and Georgia rematch in the postseason
With all the chaos that happened around the league (No. 1 Texas, No. 10 LSU and No. 16 Florida losing) on Saturday, I feel pretty comfortable saying that Georgia and Alabama are the two best teams in the SEC. That’s not sunshine pumping after a frustrating loss, but the way things look.
This is a pretty unfamiliar position for Alabama. It’s the first regular-season loss to Georgia since a Matthew Stafford-led Bulldog team did so in 2007. Normally, it’s been the Bulldogs who are hoping for a second crack at the Crimson Tide, but now the roles are reversed.
Looking at Alabama’s remaining schedule (at Tennessee, LSU and Vanderbilt, home vs. Texas A&M, Chattanooga and Auburn), there are no teams left as challenging as Georgia. The Tide should be favored in the remainder of those games.
Every SEC team outside of Georgia now has at least one loss in conference play. Teams will continue to beat up on each other in this league with the nine-game conference schedule.
Whether it’s in the SEC championship game or in the College Football Playoff, there’s a strong chance that we’ll see these two teams play again.
Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok for the latest Alabama news.
Today’s best reads
- No. 6 Alabama Can’t Make Key Plays as No. 2 Georgia Wins in Tuscaloosa
- Three Storylines I’m Watching Most in Alabama’s Week 6 Matchup Against Georgia
- Alabama Ready for Storm of External Factors Surrounding Georgia Game
- Inside the ‘Humble and Hungry’ Mindset Alabama is Using to Prepare for Georgia
- How to Watch No. 2 Georgia at No. 6 Alabama Football
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/alabama as What We Learned from Alabama’s First Loss Against Georgia: Tide Takeaways.
Copyright ABG-SI LLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Read more Indiana Fever GM Comments on Stephanie White’s Future
This story was originally published October 11, 2026 at 4:00 AM.