Georgia showed its toughest fight yet against Alabama in the pre-halftime battle

In every Athenian's nightmares, there couldn't have been a worse half of football for the Georgia Bulldogs. Saturday's trip to Bryant-Denny Stadium to face the rival Alabama Crimson Tide started badly and got worse by the minute.

Then things just got ugly right before halftime when Kirby Smart was probably just hoping to get to the locker room and integrate with his team. But hey, maybe he can praise Georgia for finally showing some heart, even if it was the wrong heart at the wrong time.

After forcing an Alabama punt with less than a minute left and trailing 30-7, Georgia ran three plays that culminated with a pass to the speedy Arian Smith in hopes that he might make a breakthrough , to end the half and make the score a little less one-sided. It went over 30 yards, but there were no points. However, after Smith was tackled near the Georgia sideline, things quickly got heated.

Players from Alabama and Georgia had to be separated in a shoving match that lasted nearly half a minute. There were no punches or anything like that, but it was a heated scene as the Bulldogs clearly weren't in a good headspace after the way the first half had gone.

The only error that resulted was Alabama redshirt freshman offensive tackle Miles McVay being called for unsportsmanlike conduct, a penalty that came in the second half.

But there's a reason you can say this was the most combative Georgia had shown up to this point on Saturday night. Carson Beck looked completely rattled and lost as he threw two picks into negative zone and took a safety for an intentional grounding in the end zone. Oh, and let's not forget the vaunted defense that had exactly no answer to Jalen Milroe or really anything Kalen DeBoer threw at them in the first 30 minutes.

Maybe the pre-halftime scuffle is something Smart the Dawgs can feed off of. Or perhaps it was a last-ditch attempt by the team to show some life. What is certain, however, is that the skirmish was a sad exclamation point on the worst half of Georgian football in recent memory.