Casagrande: Alabama still owns Georgia and should be No. 1 in the polls

Before Williams’ final heroic act, there was a sense of existential dread among the 100,077 people packed into Bryant-Denny Stadium. Forget the fact that a loss in this 12-team playoff era would not result in the failure of a postseason bid. The home crowd knew the psychological impact if they let this game fail.

Kirby Smart’s Boogeyman would be dead – a real exorcism of the demons that stood between him and a dadgum dynasty.

Saturday night’s story would have been the resurrection of a Georgia team that was already on the farm upstate. Milroe’s 36-yard touchdown run with 12:24 remaining in the first half put the Tide on the scoreboard 28-0 and outscored the visitors 258-27.

The whole moment was breathtaking.

Simply stunning.

Alabama, an underdog for the first time since Williams’ childhood, had Georgia breathing down its neck and begging for a belly rub. Switching uniforms, this game could have been mistaken for an FCS starter week in Tuscaloosa and not a “No. 2 against No. 4” prime time spectacle.

Georgia was undisciplined, unnerved and outmatched in every way for the first 18-plus minutes.

The scene was even more incredible when there were still 2:31 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Like a zombie, Georgia crawled and then sprinted out of the grave and into an Alabama night terror come true. Everything that once hummed with assembly line efficiency turned into an incoherent mess.

After scoring touchdowns on their first four drives, the Tide scored just three offensive points on their next eight possessions.

It was all afoot and the spirit of Harvey Updyke was on high alert when Carson Beck spotted Dillon Bell on the first play of Georgia’s final comeback run. With just five rebounds, the Bulldogs got the defensive look they had been looking for all night.

Pitch.

Catch.

Alabama suddenly loses and Bryant-Denny was ahead.

The walls closed in after the 67-yard touchdown gave Georgia a stunning 34-33 lead. From the sidelines, the panic was unmistakable.

And 13 seconds later it was gone.

Phew.

All it took was one last perfect throw against Williams, a spin move mixed with a juke and the Alabama horror was a fairy tale again.

The 75-yard touchdown pass on the first Tide snap after restoring the lead relieved the Bryant-Denny faithful.

Catastrophe averted.

Another freshman ensured that Zabien Brown intercepted Beck in the end zone as he tried to tie the game in the final minute. It was preseason Heisman favorite Beck’s third pick of the game on a night in which he completed 27 of 50 throws for 439 yards.

Milroe, meanwhile, completed 27 of his 33 passes for 374 yards (177 for Williams) and recorded 117 rushing yards.

He was involved in four touchdowns.

A true Heisman contender on the team that will leave September with the most impressive win in the country.

For a time he was single-handedly engaged in destroying Georgia.

That didn’t last because the storyline between Alabama and Georgia is never linear.

There’s always an idiot. Alabama just got through one

So Milroe will win the final 41-34 and no one is the Rammer Jammer checking the facts.

Especially not on this night full of wild mood swings that put your sanity to the test.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or further Facebook.