Getty Image
Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched.
Or, if you’re the Georgia Bulldogs, don’t count your two-point conversions before you’ve scored a touchdown.
That’s exactly what Dawgs head coach Kirby Smart says happened ahead of a game-losing interception against Alabama on Sunday.
“Very interesting question,” Smart said Tuesday when asked if his team planned to go for two had they scored to retake the lead. “We had discussed that. I had talked about it at length on the headphones (to the coaches’ box) at the two-minute mark.
“We actually talked about it before the game because, you know, the LSU game (in 2022) with them came down to that and LSU was at home when they decided. So, we had discussed it previously, and I had decided if the clock was under 30 seconds, we would probably go for two. But talking with analytics afterward, they would have suggested not to, to play overtime, to kick it.”
On the one hand, going for two seems like the easy answer. You’re on the road and have momentum. There’s no need to attempt to extend the game. However, Georgia also thoroughly outplayed Alabama throughout the second half.
And while it’s good to have a plan, it does feel like Smart and company overlooked the fact that they had to score a touchdown first.
Instead, Carson Beck threw an interception to Bama freshman Zabien Williams on a play that nearly netted the Bulldogs a touchdown a couple of plays earlier.
The interception on 1st-and-10 from the Alabama 20-yard line with 43 seconds remaining and two timeouts left for the Bulldogs, which makes you wonder if Georgia may have gotten a bit too aggressive at a time where it wasn’t necessary.
Had they scored on the play, Alabama would have had the chance to retake the lead with all three of its timeouts remaining.
Smart is undoubtedly one of the nation’s top coaches. But it sure seems like he got ahead of himself here and it may have cost his team a victory.