ATLANTA — With the boogeyman that has been the SEC Championship game vanquished, the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs now set their sights on conquering even greater monsters.
The No. 1-ranked Bulldogs conquered two beasts at once with Saturday’s 50-30 win over No. 14 LSU at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. One, they were able to capture the school’s first SEC championship since 2017 and only the fourth since divisional play began in 1992. It was the fifth time in the past six years that Georgia has played in the league title game under coach Kirby Smart, but only the second league title during that run. The Bulldogs were 3-6 in the game before Saturday.
Two, the Bulldogs were able to put to rest the notion that LSU somehow has their number. The Tigers (9-4), in their first year under coach Brian Kelly, were one of only two SEC teams Smart has never beaten in his seven years as Georgia’s coach. He entered Saturday’s contest 0-2 against LSU, last losing 37-10 in the 2019 SEC Championship game (Smart’s 0-1 vs. Ole Miss).
With those anomalies skewered, the Bulldogs’ can now set their sights on an even greater pursuit — perfection and back-to-back national championship. Now 13-0, Georgia is expected to remain the nation’s No. 1-ranked team and will find out Sunday who they’ll play in a College Football Playoff semifinal. Whoever it is, it’s expected to be back at The Benz in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 31.
As for perfection, LSU is the last team to achieve that, going 15-0 on the way to the 2019 title behind quarterback Joe Burrow and later-to-be-fired coach Ed Orgeron. The defending national champion Bulldogs were unable to duplicate that after losing to then-No. 3 Alabama in this game last year. They famously vanquished the Bama beast at Lucas Oil Stadium on Jan. 10.
On Sunday, the Bulldogs will get the official validation of what they’ve proven during a perfect 13-0 run so far. Georgia will be named No. 1 in the final CFP ranking of the season. There remains much discussion about who the opponent might be, TCU, Ohio State or somebody else. More on that later.
As for Saturday’s game, Georgia was dominant while being far from perfect. Georgia got 274 yards and four touchdowns on 23-of-29 passing from quarterback Stetson Bennett and a whale of a game from senior safety Christopher Smith. But considering the offenses that await, there was the rather glaring blemish of allowing 549 yards to LSU — 502 of which came via the forward pass.
After a wacky opening period, the Bulldogs settled in for the night with a steamroller of a second quarter. They scored 21 consecutive before giving Smart some halftime fodder to spew in the locker room by allowing the Tigers to drive the almost down the field in 32 seconds to kick a 42-yard field goal as the buzzer sounded. Still, the Bulldogs’ led 35-10.
The 35 points tied the SEC marked the most in the first half of the title game since Alabama led Florida 35-17 in 2020. It came on the nearly impeccable work of Bennett. Not only did he throw four touchdowns on 19-of-24 passing, but he frustrated LSU’s defense to the tune of going 5 of 7 on third down.
Georgia’s failing was in letting LSU get loose for 211 yards and notching a first-quarter score behind hobbled quarterback Jayden Daniels. But as the Bulldogs have been wont to do, their defense erased some of its own blemishes with extraordinary plays.
The one that should’ve have turned the game early was a blocked field-goal attempt by Nazir Stackhouse at the end of the Tigers’ second possession of the game. The crazy part of it was the ball ended up resting undeterred on the Georgia 4-yard line. Finally, after some coaxing from teammates and coaches, Smith picked the ball up. With many LSU players — and some Bulldogs as well — Smith ran the ball untouched 96 yards down the Georgia sideline for a touchdown. With 3:33 remaining in the opening quarter, it gave the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead, but, with the Tigers lined up to kick a short field goal, represented a 10-point swing.
LSU quickly answered only 1:12 later with a seven-play, 75-yard drive, which meant it had gone the length of the field on its first two drives. Georgia, would answer, too, and the game suddenly took on the complexion of a shootout.
But on the Tigers’ next possession, the senior Smith made another play. He batted away a pass for Jack Bech. The ball ended up bouncing off a fallen Bech’s helmet and up into the arms of Georgia linebacker Smael Mondon.
Taking over at the 22, Bennett then hit Ladd McConkey with a strike on a quick post, and the Bulldogs were up 21-7 and the partisan Georgia crowd in The Benz was fully ignited.
The rest of the quarter belonged to Georgia, which would score on two more Bennett passes, including one from three yards out to freshman Dillon Bell with 32 seconds remaining in the half to make the score 35-7.
The second half basically was more of the same, with the Bulldogs seemingly losing focus for short spurts. LSU’s Daniels, who came in with a sprained ankle, sat for the rest of the night while his understudy Garrett Nussmeier took over. He exposed for Georgia’s playoff opponents this team’s defensive weakness — being able to cover good receivers downfield. He, too, hit the Bulldogs with over 200 yards passing.
That mostly was unimportant on this night. This was more of a coronation in between figuring out what teams will be in front of Georgia and its ultimate goal to become the first repeat national champion since Alabama in 2012.
No, the Bulldogs’ chief goal was avoiding all the chaos that already had been wrought on college football’s championship Saturday. No. 4 USC went down in inglorious fashion to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship game late Friday night. No. 3 TCU followed suit earlier Saturday with an overtime loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game in Dallas.
That means that Georgia won’t know its opponent for its semifinal matchup, which will be back here in The Benz in the Peach Bowl. The committee will have to decide whether to keep TCU in the top four and/or elevate either Ohio State or Alabama from where they sat without being subjected to the jeopardy of playing in a conference championship.
Should the No. 6-ranked Crimson Tide (10-2) make that leap, they would be the first two-loss team invited to the four-team semifinal since it was conceived in 2014.
The Bulldogs weren’t at all worried about that Saturday. Hoisting the championship trophy and making snow angels in red-and-black confetti was all that was on their minds.
