ATHENS — A majority of Georgia football fans were dealt a football “pick-me-up” from the so-called “Philly Dawgs” with their Super Bowl victory.

The Super Bowl win that saw four of the six former Georgia players on the Philadelphia Eagles contributing to a 40-22 dethroning of two-time defending champ Kansas City and their three-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes was a nice flashback for UGA fans.

The 2024 Bulldogs won the SEC Championship -- something the 2021 Georgia national championship team stocked with future Eagles players and NFL stars didn’t do -- but the 23-10 Sugar Bowl CFP quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame marked the first time since 2018 that UGA had lost three games and ended a season with a loss.

Watching the “Philly Dawgs,” however, it was easy to recall how those same Bulldogs took down a once-seemingly unconquerable Alabama gridiron empire in the 2022 CFP Championship Game in Indianapolis.

The Georgia front smothered former Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young that night, keeping the future No. 1 overall pick out of the end zone for three quarters until the offensive could finally get going.

Indeed, it was a Jalen Carter blocked field goal that changed the flow of that 33-18 win, as Georgia trailed 9-6 at that time with 3:18 left in the third quarter.

Of course, current Buffalo Bills star James Cook broke a 67-yard run on the very next play from scrimmage.

After a 6-yard run from Seattle Seahawks back Kenny McIntosh, Las Vegas Raiders back Zamir White crashed into the end zone from the 1-yard line to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game at 13-9 with 1:20 left in the third quarter.

Alabama managed to surge back ahead in the fourth quarter with a field goal and its only touchdown of the game — on an 18-yard drive following a Stetson Bennett fumble — but the Dawgs’ offense was up to the challenge of answering.

Future NFL receiver A.D. Mitchell reeled in a 40-yard pass to put Georgia back up 19-18, and then future NFL record-setting tight end Brock Bowers scored on a 15-yard TD reception as Georgia’s cushion swelled to 26-18.

Georgia fans know the rest, the storyline coming full circle with current Philadelphia defensive back Kelee Ringo getting a 79-yard Pick 6 in the final minute to ice the game.

The fourth quarter fireworks were indeed memorable, but without that dominant defensive effort, those Georgia third quarter points would have been too little, too late.

The boxscore for Georgia’s national title game was just as deceptive where Carter and Davis were concerned as the Super Bowl boxscore.

Carter was not credited with a tackle in the Super Bowl, but this was a player who forced Mahomes from the pocket, applied pressures, required double teams and forced at least holding call.

Carter was just as disruptive in the 33-18 win over Alabama, even though the boxscore reflects he made only three tackles.

Davis — who trumpeted the phrase “two on me, someone’s free” during his Outland Trophy campaign in 2021 — had just two tackles and one sack in the Super Bowl, just as he only had two tackles in the national title game.

Davis and Carter were two of SEVEN future first-round NFL picks on that 2021 defense, even as the stats didn’t show it.

The defensive line works as a unit, staying in assigned gaps to effectively build a wall, which forces the quarterback to scramble into another defender’s waiting arms or be susceptible to a player coming free.

Hence, the “No-Name Defense” mentality Georgia came up with, which players like Davis, Carter and Smith quickly embraced.

That was the Eagles’ plan, just as Georgia had once had a defensive front capable of creating havoc and effecting the quarterback without the benefit of the blitz.

The Bulldogs’ fans remember that unit well, and the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles, with Carter, Davis, Smith and Ringo on the field, served up a favorable reminder for many Georgia fans on Sunday night.