After two years of Jay Valai, it was apparent that Alabama’s corners were doing a good job of staying in phase with receivers, but were falling well behind their talent level when it came to playing the ball in the air. Hell, Georgia won a national title by throwing 50-50 wounded ducks at inexperienced corners and daring them to make a play on the ball. And, sadly, the biggest play of the night was an underthrown Bennett eephus that ‘Bama’s DBs were unable to locate.
That was symptomatic of the larger issue that has loomed in the secondary the last several seasons: Alabama corners were losing too many 50-50 balls, not contesting others, and generally relying on scheme and talent to put them in position to make plays, but were not making plays; they were not forcing the issue.