THANK ALL OF YOU questioning what the fuck we were doing defensively on that last play... heartbroken UGA fan here doing the same (too many of my fellow DAWGS just want to move on but I just can't stop thinking about it). We did the ONLY thing that could cause a loss at that point. Anything else but a deep ball and we are tied at worst, more likely the victors. Just unbelievable. The emotional swing from after the sack being overjoyed because it felt like we finally had it, to the game being over 1 play later, was CRAZY.
BTW, I re-watched the all-22 and that same receiver was open on the previous play (the sack) as well and the safety had to come over. Parrish (the corner) was getting beaten all night, so I don't know what we thought would be different on the final play. I think maybe because it was just all happening so fast we didn't get into the scheme we needed. Sure wish Kirby would have had his old defensive-back hat on and spent our timeout to set up a better scheme and also to re-emphasize: NO DEEP BALLS. Rare occasion where a long sack may have actually helped the Alabama offense because it opened up the field and let them run 4 deep routes. If anyone saw the end of the Rose Bowl, we shut down Oklahoma precisely because they had no real room to throw the ball.
EDIT: also, the other real place Bama truly outmanned us was in their depth. Not only the QB change but there were at least 4 other skill-position players crucial in the 4th/OT who didn't even start the game or play in the first half (including the receiver who caught the game-winner). Hopefully, Kirby is on his way to building that kind of depth at UGA, but we're just not there yet. I will say, though, we shot ourselves in the foot by giving Chubb more carries when Michel was CLEARLY the better runner in this particular game. What's the use of depth if you don't use it correctly? Saban is completely cut-throat, as evidenced by the QB benching; meanwhile we continued running Chubb into the line for 1 yard gains when Michel was ripping off 10 and 20 yards at a time, lol...