If your Georgia Bulldogs are once again attempting to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in Mercedes-Benz Stadium and you’re haunted by flashbacks of all the times that happened before, and of how it’s always ended, you could probably use a drink. I can help you with that.
Look, I get it. I sat crumbled in the floor after the clock ran out in 2012. I watched helplessly as Devonta Smith caught a touchdown on 2nd and 26. I still don’t understand that fake punt. I have watched Alabama torment Georgia in Atlanta from hundreds of miles away and from only a few feet away. I cannot make you trust this Bulldog team to get the job done this time in a way they haven’t so many times in the past.
I can tell you that this Alabama team isn’t those Alabama teams. That they’re almost as banged up as the Bulldogs, and coached by a man who is having to actively having to answer questions about whether he and his family are going to decamp to State College, Pennsylvania because things in Tuscaloosa are too tough. I trusted Nick Saban to deal effectively with those kind of issues. Kalen DeBoer is going to have to show me he can simply brush those things off.
There’s also the fact that this UGA team is a little different from some of those past teams. Not better, per se. But different. They seem borderline impervious to pressure. They came within three points of beating this Alabama team in September, and they’re a significantly better football team on both sides of the ball now than they were then.
Will they need Gunner Stockton to avoid throwing one of those ugly interceptions he’s taken to tossing over the past three weeks? They will. Will they need the defense to get some third down stops in situations they did not in round one with the Tide? Certainly. Will they need to take some chances and gamble at least once in a way that will give you and I heartburn? Sadly it seems almost guaranteed. This game is going to make me nauseous no matter what happens right up until the final buzzer.
But you know what? Bama can’t do anything to me that they haven’t already done. I’ve had my heart ripped out by Tua, Jalen Hurts, Dre Fitzpatrick, Devonta Smith, Mark Ingram, Bryce Young, and a whole lot of other guys in Crimson and frankly you can’t stomp on what’s no longer there.
And what’s the cocktail to drink as you prepare for someone to try fruitlessly to tear out the heart they already tore out a decade ago?
A Heartless Bastard. You’ll need:
- 1 ounce rye whiskey
- 1 ounce gin
- 1/2 ounce lime juice
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- 4 ounces ginger beer
- A lime wheel and mint sprig for garnish
Fill a shaker with ice. Add the whiskey, gin, lime juice, and bitters. Shake well and strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Then top it with the ginger beer and stir gently. Garnish with a lime wheel and a mint sprig and enjoy. Until later…
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
