It wasn’t exactly a surprise that the SEC Championship game featured a lot of points. The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida Gators are two of the most high-powered offenses in college football and as both teams combined for 98 points, it was a sight to behold for college football fans who love to see an offensive shootout.
In the end, despite a spirited fight by the Gators, the Crimson Tide’s trio of Mac Jones, Najee Harris, and DeVonta Smith held strong to get Alabama another victory in the SEC Championship, winning by a score of 52-46.
The start of the game gave us a preview as to how the rest of the game would go. Both teams traded touchdowns within the first five minutes as Harris scored for Alabama and Kyle Trask threw a 51 yard touchdown to Kadarius Toney.
Florida answers with a 51 yard TD from Kyle Trask to Kadarius Toney. 7-7 in the first five minutes. pic.twitter.com/HdfaIn5dib
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) December 20, 2020
The second quarter was when Alabama shined and that’s when it looked like it would be a blowout. In the second quarter alone, Jones threw three touchdowns to Harris and went into halftime with a 35-17 lead. But the switch flipped and the third quarter was all Florida as they scored two touchdowns with Trask tossing his second 50+ yard TD of the game.
The fourth quarter would be a back and forth that led to both teams scoring a couple touchdowns but Alabama held the lead throughout. On top of the 98 combined points, both teams combined for 1,067 total yards with both QB’s breaking the old SEC Championship record for most passing yards (Jones – 418, Trask – 408).
While the skill position players had great games, it was Jones, Harris, and Smith who really performed. Jones had five touchdowns along with his 418 passing yards while Harris scored five touchdowns of his own (two rushing, three receiving) with 178 rushing yards. Smith bookended his first quarter and fourth quarter receiving touchdowns with 184 receiving yards.
Many will point to Dan Mullen’s questionable strategy at the end of the first half. As Trask scored the touchdown, the Gators snapped the ball with 21 seconds left on the play clock. Given Alabama is able to score quickly and efficiently, Florida could’ve let the play clock run down so Trask would’ve scored with about 49 seconds left instead of 1:09. Maybe Alabama would’ve scored anyway but the fact remained that the Gators left 20 seconds on the table and the Crimson Tide scored with six seconds left in the half. In a game where they ultimately won by six points.
Either way, Alabama came out the victors and are off to the College Football Playoff once again. They are joined by Clemson and really are the only two locks within the four. The final two spots will likely be taken by Notre Dame, Ohio State, Texas A&M, or possibly (but not likely) an undefeated Cincinnati. For the Crimson Tide, the worry of missing out isn’t going to happen, they proved that once again against Florida.