Alabama football is going to need to pull off an upset on Saturday. The Crimson Tide, long accustomed to being college football’s top power, faces a Georgia team in the SEC championship game that enters the matchup on a 29-game win streak.

The Bulldogs are ranked No. 1 in the College Football Playoff top 25. Alabama, currently No. 8, has to win in order to keep its hopes of making the field of four.

“So we kind of knew that it is, this game kind of being the deciding game for this type of situation,” Alabama safety Malachi Moore said. “But I don’t think that needs to be our focus this week. I think our focus this week is to go out there and execute and have championship-level preparation. And make sure everybody knows how big this game is. How important it is to all of our fans. Yeah, we just have to go out and execute and play together and play the 60 minutes.”

Alabama has been stuck at No. 8 since the first playoff rankings were unveiled. There’s been a logjam ahead of the Crimson Tide and speculation is rife that UA could still miss the playoff, even if it were to pull off the upset.

On Monday, players mostly said they weren’t thinking too hard about the playoff possibility. Quarterback Jalen Milroe did express optimism for the team’s future.

“We’re not a finished product, and I think that’s a scary thing,” Milroe said ” When we’re all clicking, as a whole football team, it’s a scary sight. We constantly need to improve. Offensively, there are some things we need to clean up. But the biggest thing, with progression, it takes acknowledging where you need to improve at, and we’ve done a good job of that in the locker room.”

Alabama was the last team to beat Georgia, in the 2021 SEC championship game. The Bulldogs went on to earn revenge against the Crimson Tide in that season’s national championship final.

UA hasn’t been in the playoffs since losing that national title game. If it has any hope of moving into the top four, it will need to show out against UGA.

“I think we just want to go out there and dominate and just be a championship team,” linebacker Deontae Lawson said Monday. “I think that just starts in the week with our preparation.”

Alabama and Georgia are scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. CT Saturday in Atlanta. The game will be aired on CBS.