2018 SEC Championship Game


The 2018 SEC Championship Game was played on Saturday, December 1, 2018, in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, to determine the 2018 football champion of the Southeastern Conference. The game featured the East Division champion Georgia against the West Division champion Alabama. Georgia, the East Division Champion, was the designated home team. The game was televised by CBS for the eighteenth straight year. Alabama came back from a 28–14 deficit in the third quarter to defeat Georgia, 35–28.

2017 season

In the 2017 SEC Championship Game, the East champion Georgia defeated the West champion Auburn 28–7 in a rematch from three weeks prior where Auburn defeated Georgia 40–17. It was the first time since 2008 an East Division team won the SEC Championship.

Teams

Alabama

Also on November 3, Alabama secured its spot in the title game by defeating LSU by a score of 29–0. This gave Alabama a two-game lead over LSU in the West Division, with the Crimson Tide holding the potential tiebreaker.

Georgia

won its November 3 game against Kentucky, securing the East Division. While Georgia could have finished in a tie for the division title with any combination of Kentucky and Florida, Georgia also defeated Florida during the season, giving the Bulldogs all possible divisional tiebreakers. The Bulldogs ultimately won the East title by two games.

Alabama vs. Georgia series history

This match up was the 69th all time meeting against the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs. They last played each other last season for the College Football Playoff National Championship. Alabama defeated Georgia, in overtime, 26–23. The win brought Alabama to its 17th National Title. After the January 8, 2018 match up, Alabama leads the all time series 39–25–4. This match up will be the first time since 2012, that the two teams face off in the conference title game.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

StatisticsAlabamaGeorgia
First downs2123
Total yards403454
Rushes–yards29–15739–153
Passing yards246301
Passing: Comp–Att–Int17–34–225–40–0
Time of possession24:3035:30

TeamCategoryPlayerStatistics
AlabamaPassingTua Tagavailoa10–25, 164 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs
AlabamaRushingJosh Jacobs8 carries, 83 yards, 2 TDs
AlabamaReceivingJaylen Waddle4 receptions, 113 yards, 1 TD
GeorgiaPassingJake Fromm25–39, 301 yards, 3 TDs
GeorgiaRushingD'Andre Swift16 carries, 75 yards, 1 TD
GeorgiaReceivingIsaac Nauta4 receptions, 81 yards, 1 TD

Note: 77,141 was the officially announced attendance figure; "turnstile count" subsequently reported as 69,614.