The first marquee matchup of the 2024 regular season has arrived as the No. 2 ranked Georgia Bulldogs (3-0) take on the No. 4 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide (3-0) on Saturday night inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Georgia had a scare two weeks ago against the Kentucky Wildcats, winning the game 13-12 as the Bulldogs held onto the win at the end. The SEC powerhouse could have been looking ahead, or the Bulldogs may have been exposed after beating Tennessee Tech and Clemson by 76 combined points to start the year.
For Alabama, no opponent has come within 26 points of the team thus far. New coach Kalen DeBoer has the Tide rolling, and a home matchup against a marquee opponent is the first of many tests the Tide faces this year.
Will Georgia win in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 2007? Or will Alabama pick up their ninth win over the Bulldogs in their last 10 tries? We’ll cover that and more as we preview our top player prop bets and our best bet in this game.
Last season, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo helped the Georgia passing attack take off as quarterback Carson Beck threw for 3,941 yards in 14 games after years of relying heavily on the running game.
Since the Georgia Tech game last season, however, Beck has exceeded 247 passing yards once – the season opener against Clemson. Expect Beck to fall short of this mark yet again after failing to meet that mark in four of the last five games.
Alabama has a dual-threat quarterback manning the offense in Jalen Milroe. The 6-foot-2 junior has thrown for 590 yards and eight touchdowns to start the season while also running for 156 yards and six more scores in three games.
Milroe is the key to the entire Alabama attack. Bettors should expect that Georgia will attempt to limit Milroe’s effectiveness through the air and give the quarterback – who has two 75-plus rushing yards in two games this season – a chance to cover this player prop bet.
Georgia has spread the ball around nicely in their wins this season as Beck has thrown nine or more receptions to three wide receivers this season. Without a clear favorite, it’s hard to pick one as the go-to guy moving forward, but senior Dominic Lovett is as close to one as the Bulldogs have this season.
After back-to-back games with 33 yards receiving, Lovett broke through for 89 receiving yards on six catches to lead the Bulldogs past Kentucky two weeks ago. Expect him to continue that trend this week against the Crimson Tide.
Alabama is going to push the offensive boundaries as hard as possible, but the defense ultimately wins this game. The Tide have too many weak links in DeBoer’s first matchup with the Bulldogs for me to call for an upset, and I’m not impressed with Georgia after the Kentucky matchup.
Conversely, Georgia isn’t going to score a whole of points, either. The 1.5-point spread the Bulldogs enjoy could be fool’s gold as I believe a 22-21 score is possible, or the Tide win this close contest. But will either team explode for more than 28 points in this game? That’s not likely. Take the points and enjoy this matchup.
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