Nick Saban stomped down the Alabama football sidelines and thought to himself, “Can’t get any worse.”

The Tide defense had just sprinted off the field hunched over after Georgia’s offense delivered a body blow to start the Southeastern Conference Championship. Its initial plan failed. And with a College Football Playoff berth on the line, Saban decided to change the scheme UA had spent all week practicing.

The result? After conceding 83 yards over eight plays, Alabama responded to keep Georgia out of the endzone until the start of the fourth quarter. Half of the Bulldogs’ 321 yards came on the first and last drives of the game, while the Tide (12-1, 8-0) rallied to beat Georgia (12-1, 8-0), 27-24 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“After the first drive, we played almost all split safeties,” Saban said postgame. ” … Middle-of-the-field coverage didn’t do us much good today.

“We went into the game thinking we couldn’t play it. But after the first drive, I said, ‘Can’t get any worse, let’s just start playing it.’ Because that was the plan. That was the plan that we wanted to take ‘em away. The guys did a good job of executing it.”

Georgia’s offensive drive started with two dump-offs to the flats with Carson Beck hitting Brock Bowers for 23 yards and then Dominic Lovett for 14. After a couple of runs, Beck found Ladd McConkey for a 15-yard gain in front of Terrion Arnold, the wide receiver jawing at Alabama’s cornerback. With the pass rush a tad slow to get home, a heavy Bulldogs crowd erupted.

Yet, the middle-of-the-field adjustment forced Beck to hit the outside more consistently and while he tried to buy time in the pocket, there wasn’t enough room to find Bowers and McConkey, both of whom worked their way back from lower-body injuries. Bowers had a team-high five catches for 53 yards on eight targets.

Smart credited Alabama’s defensive front but noted the difficulties of a key piece like Bowers missing roughly 15 practices. Saban said the run defense was key since the extra body in the second gave UGA an opening. Overall, the Bulldogs set a season-low with 78 rushing yards and Beck had his second-fewest yards in one game (243). UGA had been averaging 39.6 points and 496.4 yards per game, respectively.

“Only thing we can say is they whipped us up front,” Kirby Smart said. “They have big, big humans. People always say, Georgia can run the ball. It’s hard to run the ball when they have good size in there. They’re a physical front. But I was very pleased with the run game, not the conversions. That probably was the difference in the game, the short-yardage conversions and gifting 10 points away.”

Alabama’s second-half dominance (it averaged 7.5 points allowed in the latter 30 minutes of games this year) wasn’t as prominent — Georiga completed a 51-yard bomb to Arian Smith that set up a field goal on its first drive — but forced a key turnover when Bulldogs transfer Trezmen Marshall fell on a fumble at the UGA 11-yard line.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].