It’s almost always a difficult task for a college football team to beat the same opponent twice in one season.

It becomes even more difficult when it’s the best teams in the FBS going head-to-head.

The Georgia Bulldogs beat the Alabama Crimson Tide 33-18 to secure their first national championship since 1980 on Monday night.

They snapped a 40-season title drought in the process.

Georgia, which lost its first meeting versus Alabama in the SEC Championship game 41-24, had lost seven straight games versus their conference rival heading into last night.

Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs snapped that drought on the biggest stage, with Smart securing his first win over Nick Saban after going 0-4 since taking over as the head coach in Georgia.

Monday night’s game was the fifth time that teams ranked in the AP top five met twice in the same season, dating all the way back to 1936.

In all five rematches, the loser of the first game went on to win the rematch by double digits.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Tuesday Jan. 11, 2022.

 

Georgia opens as 2023 co-favourite

Stetson Bennett went 17-of-26 for 224 yards and two touchdowns to lead the No. 3 Bulldogs to a win and cover as a three-point favourite.

We didn’t get our first touchdown scorer until midway through the third quarter when Zamir White punched in a one-yard TD run to give Georgia a 13-9 lead.

The two teams combined for 29 points in the fourth quarter to give anyone who bet the under a sweat, but the total ultimately stayed under 52.5.

For what it’s worth, no touchdown scored could be found as high as 250-to-1 odds.

The Bulldogs opened as high as +1000 to win its first national championship since 1980. They were +500 to win the national title entering Week 1 of the college football season.

Looking ahead to the 2022 season, Georgia and Alabama opened as co-favourites to win the national title at +200.

Ohio State is the third choice at +800. Clemson is +1000. Oregon, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Florida and Michigan are all +4000 to win the national championship.

Bryce Young opened as the favourite to win the Heisman Trophy for the second year in a row at +250.

Young will attempt to become just the second player in college football history to win the Heisman Trophy award twice, something that only Ohio State great Archie Griffin has accomplished.

 

Avalanche push win streak to five

The Colorado Avalanche rallied to beat the Seattle Kraken 4-3 on Monday night.

It was Colorado’s fifth straight comeback win and 12th straight win on home ice.

Nazem Kadri extended his career-high point streak to 12 in a row with a goal and an assist.

It was his fifth multi-point outing of the season – only Connor McDavid and Alex Ovechkin have more.

Kadri is now tied with Jonathan Huberdeau for fourth in NHL scoring with 46 points.

Leon Draisaitl (53), McDavid (53) and Ovechkin (52) are the only NHL players with more points than Kadri right now.

In case you missed it on Monday, our NHL analyst Mike Johnson took a closer look at Colorado’s dominance and suggested one future bet that you might want to consider.

 

Pistons stun Jazz in upset win

The Utah Jazz were an 11-point favourite for Monday night’s game against the Detroit Pistons.

It looked like they would have no problem winning and covering when they led by 22 points midway through the second quarter, but things unravelled quickly after that.

Rookie Cade Cunningham scored 18 of his career-high 29 points in the third quarter as Detroit rallied for the 126-116 win.

The Pistons were +550 to win outright.

Utah, which is without several key players who are in the NBA’s health and safety protocol, has now dropped three in a row, including losing each of their past two games as a betting favourite.

The Jazz are back in action at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.

It might be worth keeping an eye on the number for that game as well as who will be available for Utah when they return home.

NBA underdogs went 5-2 against the spread and 4-3 straight up on Monday night. The under went 6-1. 

 

NFL super wild-card weekend lookahead

The stage is set for super wild-card weekend this weekend on TSN and CTV.

On Monday, Davis Sanchez gave us his Early Lean for this weekend’s games.

NFL underdogs are 8-6 straight up on wild-card weekend over the past three seasons.

Dating back to 2007, at least one underdog has won a wild-card round game outright in 12 of the past 14 seasons. 

Another trend worth considering is the unders, especially with weather potentially set to be a major factor.

Over the past three seasons, nine of the 14 wild-card games have stayed under the total. 

We will have plenty of coverage leading up to the weekend right here at TSN EDGE throughout the week, including our best bets for each game.