Alabama played a great game on Saturday in Starkville, walloping Mississippi State 56-23. But it wasn't a perfect game. There were still some issues that the Crimson Tide will need to clean up between now and Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.
Because it might take perfection to beat Georgia. The Bulldogs are far and away the best team the Crimson Tide has faced this season. They might be the best team Alabama faces the entire season, playoff included.
It'll be a massive challenge, even inside the friendly confines of Bryant-Denny Stadium. And if Alabama makes some of the mistakes it made last weekend against Mississippi State, the chances of beating Georgia will diminish greatly.
These three things have to get fixed this week.
1. Alabama has to cut out the turnovers completely
Alabama still finished last weekend's game +2 in the turnover margin thanks to Kane Wommack's defense forcing the Bulldogs into four of them. But Alabama still turned the ball over twice, which directly led to this game staying closer for longer than it had any business being.
Alabama had an opportunity to bury Mississippi State early. Leading 21-7 in the second quarter, a pass off Lotzeir Brooks' fingertips led to a punt instead of a touchdown. After the defense forced a State punt, Dijon Lee muffed it, and the Bulldogs recovered. Even after the defense got the ball right back with Zabien Brown forcing and recovering a fumble, Daniel Hill handed it right back with a fumble two plays later. That led to a Mississippi State touchdown to cut the lead to just seven points.
Obviously, the turnovers didn't prove costly in what was a 33-point win. But Alabama isn't going to beat Georgia by 33 points. This is going to be a close game, and putting the ball on the ground like the Crimson Tide did twice in a row in Starkville could end up being the difference between winning and losing.
2. Alabama has to cut down on the penalties
One other disappointing thing from last weekend was the sheer number of penalties. Alabama had done a good job in recent weeks of cutting down the procedural issues, but they were penalized 10 times for 64 yards against Mississippi State.
That included a delay of game inside the redzone that took a sure touchdown off the board. That also included several penalties that backed Alabama up to the 18 in a goal-to-go situation on the opening drive of the second half. Keelon Russell still put the ball in the endzone on a touchdown pass to Rico Scott, but Georgia's defense won't be as forgiving for mistakes.
Alabama needs to play a clean game from a turnover and penalty perspective to best position itself for a win on Saturday night.
3. The defense has to get off the field on third/fourth down
Alabama's defense did okay on third down against a difficult QB to defend in Kamario Taylor. The Bulldogs went just 7-of-17, but they converted two additional times on two fourth-down opportunities, so that 7-of-17 is misleading as a result. Alabama's defense had 17 opportunities to get off the field and only did so eight times.
And that's despite consistently keeping Mississippi State behind the chains by erasing the Bulldogs' run game. State only rushed for 18 total yards.
Georgia will do a better job of staying ahead of the sticks and avoiding the 3rd-and-10+ situations that Mississippi State constantly found themselves in. Two years ago, Georgia staged a furious rally after Alabama broke out to a 28-0 lead in large part because the Bulldogs went a perfect 5-for-5 on fourth-down situations in the second half. That game would've never been close if the Crimson Tide could have gotten off the field when they had the chance.
Alabama can't make that same mistake this weekend.
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