Kirk Herbstreit reveals what he thinks changed at halftime for Georgia

On the Jan. 12 version of The Paul Finebaum Show, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit came on and talked about what he thought changed at halftime for the Georgia Bulldogs in their epic 33-18 national championship victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide.

“I go back to halftime. Because it was a game that was going back-and-forth. And at halftime — wouldn’t you say that Georgia went from very one dimensional offensively…to all of a sudden they came out in the second half. Their first possession and White got a couple big carries, I can’t remember the exact yardage, it was like 11 yards, maybe 18 yards,” Herbstreit said.

“We’re like ‘woah’. They actually got a push up front, which they hadn’t done the whole first half. They ended up trying a flea-flicker, where he got sacked and they lost yardage and they didn’t get points. But it just had a different feel. And then they had the long run by Cook.

“It was like uh oh they’re getting this running game going a little bit. And then the turnover. And that kind of set everybody back. I kept mentioning it during the broadcast. These are teams [that] are being a little cautious. They don’t want to be the guy that makes the mistake. And then we had that big mistake. We had the sack. The fumble, but that looked like an incompletion, but you could see the ball was out before his hand came forward.”

Herbstreit continued:

“And Branch recovers it., almost non-chalantly like he’s at a practice, but he was, in fact, in bounds. It gave Alabama great field position and it ended up being their only touchdown

“Their next possession — when Bennett started to attack through the air. That, to me, really changed the complexion of the game and the energy of the game

“Passes. And then got a free play with the offsides play by Tim Smith that ended up hitting the touchdown. And I don’t know, it was almost like it ignited them on both sides of the ball to the point where they felt like they believed that they could win.”

But Herbstreit noted the difference in feel but still felt like Alabama had a chance to do what they had done all season — comeback to win.

“Now with all that being said, you feel that Bryce Young with the football in his hands was down by eight with a chance to go down — knowing him — lead them to a potential touchdown and a two pointer–maybe we’re headed to overtime,” he said.

“So– the score gets away — you could look at 20 points in the fourth quarter. But a lot of that I think had to do with… the momentum flipping after that turnover and then Todd Monken saying let’s go do it. And they got aggressive throwing the football. And they just got some momentum going there at the end of the game.”

The longtime ESPN analyst is right. Georgia coming out and getting aggressive in the second half was a huge difference-maker in the football game. Not only that, like he noted, their offensive line started to get a push up front and they were truly manhandling Alabama in the fourth quarter. Their offense was much more balanced in the second half.

Georgia made the plays down the stretch that needed to be made. There was a collective fire lit in the team that said, “We’re not losing this game. Not tonight.”

From a tackling standpoint, it was one of the best national championship games in the history of the sport. There was phenomenal execution by both teams throughout the game. It looked like really, really high-level college football — the way a national championship game should look.