CFP Wild Card Alabama OTs Georgia, Hoists the Hardware

Published on 9-Jan-2018 by Alan Adamsson

Football - NCAA    NCAA Football Daily Update

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CFP Wild Card Alabama OTs Georgia, Hoists the Hardware

Seems like the term fog of war has more applications than on the battlefield.

It describes a situation observed by the Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz -- published posthumously in 1832 -- that, all too often, it's not the best-laid strategies that determine a result.

It's the run of play.

Frankly, just substitute sport for war and this still works:

War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.

No doubt coaches will love that second sentence. Right now, Nick Saban would be nodding effusively enough to risk a concussion.

He made the key move, but it was the fog of sport that put Alabama in position to overcame a 13-point deficit not once, but twice.

And then, dudes claimed the game in the most sudden of ways that college football can offer:

A long bomb after a sack to beat Georgia, 26-23, in overtime.

Dramatic stuff, but this game sure as hell didn't start that way.

Given the gravity ascribed to games like this, football coaches usually approach them like the fate of the Western World is at stake.

That's how this one started. Typically vanilla X's and O's. Memories of the mind-numbing 2012 SEC rematch were seeping to the fore, and it stayed that way until Georgia coach Kirby Smart flashed a spark of creativity just before the half, shifting Mecole Hardman into the wildcat:

Maybe hitting intermission down13-0 was when Saban decided to roll out a clearly-practiced Plan B just in case Smart's knowledge of the Tide would provide an advantage.

Saban came outta the locker room announcing he'd handed the keys to freshman QB Tua Tagovailoa because Jalen Hurts was holding onto the ball too long.

Check out Bama's night-&-day performance with that decision as the fulcrum:

Damn.

Still, the Hawaiian did have a bitta luck of his own:

Fog of sport.

And to think if Saban didn't go to Plan B, Tagovailoa might've harbored thoughts of transferring. Then again, consider the source.

Ironically, it looks like it'll be Georgia's season-starting slinger, Jake Eason, who'll be transferring instead.

What could be in store for Andy Pappanastos?

Hopefully, dude's a Sociology major.