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ALL BARK, NO BITE Crimson Tide dominates in all phases, throttles Bulldogs
STAFF PHOTO | ROBERT SUTTON
TOP: Alabama defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick (29) blocks a punt attempt from Georgia’s Collin Barber in the second quarter of Saturday’s game at Sanford Stadium in Athens,
Ga. Fitzpatrick recovered the ball and scored a touchdown. BELOW: Derrick Henry runs through the Georgia defense in the first half. The Crimson Tide running back had 148 yards rushing with a touchdown in the 38-10 win.
Alabama leaves Athens with another blowout win By Cecil Hurt Sports Editor
ATHENS, GA . | After the Blackout came the Washout. For its second straight trip to Athens, separated by seven years but no apparent change in identity for the team, an underdog Alabama football team undressed an overinf lated Georgia squad, this time with a 3810 drubbing on Saturday. “I told our players that the plan we had for them, ordinary men couldn’t get it done,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “We needed them to be extraordinary.” For the most part, Alabama was. Jake Coker, who has grown steadily more consistent since being given full control as the starting quarterback, had his best game. Derrick
PAGE 3C NOWHERE TO THROW
Tide defense gives UGA quarterbacks headaches
STANDING TALL Jake Coker delivers for Crimson Tide with solid effort
Reports of Alabama’s demise were premature
Henry was a consistent running threat, the defense dominant, the special teams an asset instead of a liability. Georgia coach Mark Richt didn’t shirk from the Georgia shortcomings in the postgame locker room. “We said (to the players) that we got whipped, we all know it and we’ve got to do something about it,” Richt said. “We’ll watch the fi lm and face the truth.” Both teams seemed to start tentatively in a rain that varied from drizzle to Niagara Falls over the course of the game. The No. 13-ranked Crimson Tide survived an early fumble, then drove for the first points of the game. Adam Griffith’s 29-yard field goal gave Alabama a 3-0 lead that it carried into the second quarter. SEE A LABAMA | 4C
PAGE 5C BAD IDEA Tide responds to Georgia’s pregame antics with total team effort
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PHOTO | NOAH SUTTON
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PAGE 4C ANALYSIS Alabama defense bottles up Nick Chubb, at least for most of the day
ATHENS, GA . ear the Walking Dead. That’s what Alabama was, right? Deceased. Down for the count. Zombified. The Dynasty, the headlines assured us, Was Done, no more a factor than the Bourbon or the Ming, a distant memory or, at best, a lumbering, mildly threatening collection of moving corpses that could play out the season, perhaps, but wasn’t likely to make much noise. Perhaps the reports were premature. Perhaps the experts, peddling a feeble narrative like a turbo-charged tricycle, were a bit ahead of themselves. Perhaps CECIL Georgia, with its great historical capacHURT ity for self-infl ation, shouldn’t haven’t believed them. Perhaps the Bulldogs should have gone through its pregame warmups like a football team and not a junior high study hall, crowding Alabama’s players as they took the field with some chest-bumping and puppy-yap ratchet-jawing SEE HURT | 4C
NOTEBOOK After struggling in the first four games, special teams comes through for Tide
FOUR DOWNS How the Crimson Tide answered questions against Georgia
For video and a photo gallery of Alabama’s game against Georgia, go to www.tidesports. com and www.tuscaloosanews.com