Settling the whole Georgia 2022 v LSU 2019 debate

Since Georgia won the 2022 National Championship and became the first back-to-back Natty winners since 2011-2 Alabama, people are asking: Would this 2019 Georgia team beat the ‘unstoppable’ LSU team of 2019?

 

OFFENSES

QUARTERBACK

JOE BURROW V STETSON BENNETT

Burrow’s stats (2019): 402-507 (76.3 completion percentage), 5671 yards, 60 TDs, 6 INTs. 361 yards rushing, 5 TDs. Heisman Trophy. 1 SEC Championship. 1 National Championship.

Bennett’s stats (2022): 310-455 (68.1 completion percentage), 4127 yards, 27 TDs, 7 INTs. Rushing: 250 yards, 10 TDs. Invited to NYC for Heisman Trophy. 1 SEC Championship. 1 National Championship.

Burrow’s numbers in 2019 were staggering (He broke the record for total yards in a season and touchdowns in a season that year).

The only stat where Bennett tops Burrow is rushing touchdowns. Helped by cleverly designed runs and an excellent offensive line, Bennett was able to exploit the space. People say ‘deceptively quick’, but let’s just say that Bennett could actually fly. Burrow was also the designed runs, but with the weapons around him, he didn’t have to that season.

Why the transformation? LSU fans will point to the addition of analyst Joe Brady, a young no-name who changed OC Doug Nussmeier’s thinking and created what was essentially a ‘fun and gun’ offense with a really, really good running back to boot.

But to give credit to Bennett, there were a few times this season when Bennett had to bail out the Bulldogs – especially in the Play-Off Semi-Final against Ohio State, when he came alive in the fourth quarter to almost singlehandedly beat the Buckeyes.

EDGE: Burrow.

WIDE RECEIVERS

LSU’s wide receiving corps featured J’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Terrace Marshall and Thaddeus Moss with Clyde Edwards-Hellaire also receiving out of the backfield. The offense had 4 players who had over 450 yards receiving and three players who had double-digit receiving touchdowns. Chase (1,780 yards, 20 TDs, average 21.2 yards/reception) and Jefferson (1,540 yards, 18 TDs, 13.9 yards/reception) were undoubtedly the heroes. In fact, they were utterly unstoppable. Oh, and if a defensive coordinator decided to put four or five back to try and stop some of it, then Moss, Edwards-Hellaire or five other receivers who managed over 100 yards the season could cause problems. But yeah, good luck in stopping Chase and Jefferson. Oh, and Chase, Jefferson and Edwards-Hellaire continue to make tidy money in the NFL now, too.

While Georgia’s wide receiving corps is nothing to be sniffed at, the offense runs through TE Brock Bowers, who could have stopped playing after his freshman season and gone to the pros after his junior year, and still be a first round draft pick. The 6-4 giant had 972 yards receiving and 7 TDs. He was also a fantastic blocker. Then there’s Ladd McConkey, who really should be starring in ‘Braveheart’, who was the Bulldogs’ breakout star. He always seemed to make it into space, and had 762 yards and 7 TDs. And then there was the monstrous Darnell Washington, who was as good a blocker as he was a receiver. Oh, and out of the backfield – in the same role as Edwards-Hellaire had in the 2019 LSU team, there was Kenny McIntosh who had a tidy 500+ yard receiving season and 12 TDs.

EDGE: LSU

RUNNING BACKS

This closer than you might think. Edwards-Hellaire (1,414 yards, 16 TDs) was clearly the better receiving running back, able to catch out of the backfield and cause damage with his speed. But ‘EH’ was on his own in that backfield, while Georgia’s triple whammy of McIntosh (829 yards, 10 TDs) and Dajun Edwards (771 yards, 7 TDs) and Kendall Milton (590, 8 TDs) made Georgia the best rushing team in the SEC in terms of yards. LSU that season was middle-of-the-road in terms of their rushing game.

EDGE: GEORGIA

OFFENSIVE LINE 

There didn’t seem to be a game in 2022 when Stetson Bennett was running for his life. Georgia’s offensive line only allowed 9 sacks all year long, compared to LSU’s 35 in 2019. Maybe that’s because Georgia ran the ball more, but anyway. What is interesting is that in 2022, Georgia lost 10 fumbles, compared to LSU’s five in 2019. Georgia only allowed 52 tackles for loss in 2022, while LSU’s was more leaky, allowing 75. This gives even more credit to the Nussmeier/Brady offense that it was allowed to put up such astonishing numbers.

EDGE: GEORGIA

DEFENSE

It was a joke in the 2019 season that LSU might be the best Big 12 team in the SEC, but after the Ole Miss game where they gave up 37 points in Week 10, there was only one game where they gave up 28+ points, and the game was over by half-time (College Football Play-Off Semi-Final).

But there is another myth: Georgia’s defense being all-out incredible. It wasn’t. Georgia had to replace four first-rounders, for crying out loud.

Most of the season was pretty easy going. Offenses simply couldn’t get it going against a violent front, with the Bulldogs third in the country in yards allowed, and only two offenses managed 22 points during the regular season. After a not looking wonderful against better-matched teams (LSU and Ohio State), Georgia returned to form by beating the living hell out of TCU’s offensive line. Weren’t the Horned Frogs meant to be a high-powered defense?

One of their best displays was against Tennessee, when Will Muschamp’s defense held UT’s offense to just 3-12 off third downs and just 195 yards passing, waaay down from the Vols’ gawdy numbers early in the year. It was so good that when Georgia went up 14-3 you were comfortable, and 21-3 it was over.

True, it may have had a pretty soft schedule to play against in 2022 compared to LSU’s in 2019, but your schedule’s your schedule (we see you, Dawgs fans complaining at people giving you crap about the joke of a 2023 skeddy).

Where Georgia was pretty medicore throughout the season was giving up shots to the pass. Offenses averaged 219.7 yards/game against them. Yes, we know that the average would have been far lower in the regular season, but still. It wasn’t great against passing offenses.

Which is where Georgia’s young defense would have had the problems against the all-world LSU offense. As good as Christopher Smith, Javon Bullard and Kelee Ringo are, do you honestly think that they would be able to stop Chase, Jefferson and Burrow, while also trying to watch out for Edwards-Hellaire? We think not.

On the other hand, LSU’s secondary was proclaimed to be laughable, but Derek Stingley, Kristian Fulton and Kary Vincent were pretty damned good.

Weirdly, LSU was actually pretty good against the run, with opponents averaging 120 yards on the floor against them. And they were playing some very good running backs that season.

SO WHO WOULD WIN?

Georgia’s gameplan would be pretty simple, if you look at their game against Tennessee and then speculate that. Run, run, run. Of course, plays to McConkey and Bowers, but generally, use Bowers and Washington as extra men on the line, and elongate drives. Fast three play drives and getting in a shoot-out with LSU would fail to the extreme.

For LSU, it would be to target the secondary with throws, with Burrow getting the ball out as fast as possible. Georgia’s team might be young, but they are talented and most of them will go in the first two or three rounds in a year or two’s time. Ringo might be able to stop Chase, but Ringo can’t stop LSU going 5 wide all the time.

Anyway, this would be fun.

LSU 41, Georgia 31.