SEC East Well Within Reach for Georgia Despite Alabama Exposing Bulldogs

The "rainout" played between Alabama and Georgia on Saturday afternoon at Sanford Stadium in Athens followed the same script of the "blackout" between these two teams in the same building in 2008.

Domination by the road team.

The Crimson Tide ran the Bulldogs out of their own building, winning 38-10 Saturday in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated.

Simply put, Georgia (4-1, 2-1) got exposed on both sides of the ball by a better for football team. Luckily for the Bulldogs, it does only count as one loss, and the SEC East title is still attainable. 

"We got whipped. We all know it and we’ve got to do something about it," head coach Mark Richt said in quotes emailed by Georgia. "We’ll watch the film and face the truth and look at ways we can improve. We as coaches have to make decisions to do that."

Georgia's offense was and is predicated on establishing the run with superstar sophomore Nick Chubb. That's fine against teams like South Carolina and Vanderbilt, but it's much easier said (or written) than done against a front seven like Alabama's, which was giving up 56.75 yards per game on the ground coming in.

Chubb found that out the hard way.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Chubb managed 146 yards on the ground but had just 63 until his 83-yard scamper late in the third quarter when the Bulldogs were down 38-3. Alabama shut down Chubb when it mattered and forced quarterback Greyson Lambert to beat it through the air. 

He couldn't.

While the Virginia graduate-transfer was marvelously efficient over the previous two games and threw just two incomplete passes in two weeks, the Crimson Tide got in his face, forced mistakes and eventually forced Lambert to the bench after a first half in which he completed just seven of his 17 passes. He finished the day 10-of-24 for just 86 yards and no touchdowns.

As ESPN's Bomani Jones noted on Twitter, Lambert is not mobile, and the quarterbacks who have toppled the Tide over the last few years typically are mobile, use tempo and stretch the field:

When Plan A—Chubb—doesn't work, Georgia is not equipped to handle Plan B.

It's not equipped at quarterback, not equipped at wide receiver outside of Malcolm Mitchell and not equipped at coordinator—where new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer's units finished in the top half of the NFL in passing offense one time (New York Jets, 2008) over the last nine seasons.

No, Schottenheimer didn't exactly have stellar quarterbacks during most of those years, but it's not like Georgia has Tom Brady on its roster this season, either.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Georgia is one-dimensional by necessity, not choice.

With that said, though, that one dimension still could land the Bulldogs in the Georgia Dome in early December to play in the SEC Championship Game.

Name one front seven left on Georgia's schedule that's anywhere close to the one it faced Saturday.

The only one that's close is Florida, which throttled Ole Miss 38-10 on Saturday night. The Gators look like Georgia's biggest—and perhaps only hurdle—between Athens and Atlanta. 

In addition to the rotating cross-division game against Alabama, Georgia will play Auburn out of the West in its permanent cross-division rivalry. That doesn't look nearly as daunting now as it did in August. 

On top of that, every team in the SEC East is flawed. Missouri has quarterback issues, Tennessee can't close, South Carolina is a wreck (and already fell to Georgia), Kentucky has a loss already and Vandy is a mess.

The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party between Florida and Georgia on Oct. 31 looks like it will be the de facto SEC East title game. To get to that point, though, the Bulldogs have to top Tennessee next week. 

That game has been close each of the last two seasons, with Tennessee playing at a massive disadvantage. That's changed a little bit thanks to the recruiting efforts of Vols head coach Butch Jones and his staff, but his ineptitude in clutch situations has been one of the most depressing storylines of the 2015 season. 

The Bulldogs will go to Knoxville down but not out, at least in terms of the SEC East race.

Georgia could play Alabama—or whichever team wins the SEC West—again in December.

Well, as long as Alabama doesn't "beat Georgia twice" and the Bulldogs don't suffer from a Crimson Tide hangover in October next week on Rocky Top.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com. Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.