Hopefully, the Alabama football team has fully moved on from Saturday night. A tough run of games awaits, possibly beginning with Saturday afternoon. Basking in glory is time wasted.
The Alabama Crimson Tide team, the coaches, and the program in general gained much by taking down the Bulldogs in Athens. An often negative, national script has been flipped. Alabama is now a legitimate CFB Playoff contender.
The word most used in media coverage of the Crimson Tide's win has been redemption. The word applies more than it does not. Alabama's Kalen DeBoer's reputation can be said to be redeemed. In a religious sense, the word means a clean slate from past transgressions. Neither DeBoer nor Alabama gained a clean slate. Until the last one in a season, there is always another game. What Alabama, and more so DeBoer, gained was a reprieve.
The Alabama Football Standard
At Alabama, nothing but a National Championship can come close to redemption. It is an insane standard, but it is real. It was Alabama's standard before Nick Saban, but the GOAT made it irreversible. If Kalen DeBoer wins an Alabama Football National Championship, an immediate question will be asked. When will he win another one?
Christopher Lewnau, writing for Saturday Blitz, made the best pairing of redemption and Alabama's win over Georgia. He defined it as a Road to Redemption. That is appropriate as long as Billy Beane's mantra is added: "Nobody cares unless you win the last game."
The must win mentality at Alabama does not diminish what the Crimson Tide accomplished by beating Georgia in Athens. The confidence Ty Simpson gained and leadership skill he exhibited will carry over to future road games.
Skipping abstract words and using simple ones, On3's Chris Low may have explained Saturday's game the best by writing, "The Crimson Tide did the punching on Saturday night at a place where few teams have had the fortitude, poise or talent to even have a chance to counter punch, much less come in and win the game... In a venue where Georgia had long been the bully, it was Alabama that was the bully ..."
Alabama not a bully in a post-Saban world? Was there any national, college football pundit who did not say or write that? Alabama did much in last season's four losses and even some wins to reinforce that perspective. Thankfully, Kalen DeBoer did not believe it. And now he appears to have a football team that agrees.