That was a Kirby-Stomping, Dawgs
At the start of this season, after Kirby Smart’s baptized Dan Lanning’s debut at Oregon with an annihilation in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Georgia coach about his former defensive coordinator’s team: “He knows we have better players. He’ll never say that, but he knows we’ve got better players.“
At the time, it sounded punch-in-your face arrogant, and prime bulletin-board material.
Before the 65-7 beatdown of TCU, Kirby Smart was thinking the same thing. After the 65-7 beatdown of TCU, you KNOW Kirby Smart – although he probably didn’t admit it – was thinking the same thing.
The talent differential was so wide that even what TCU brought it back within three (10-7), there was never panic stations for the Bulldogs.
We knew that they would rip the Horned Frogs to pieces, and they were, scoring 55 straight points en route to their second straight National Championship.
At half-time David Pollack told Nick Saban Georgia had ‘taken over college football’ over the last year, which made the not-retired Alabama coach’s wince over what the College Football Hall of Famer said. And honestly, had Alabama been Georgia’s opponents tonight, they would probably have beaten the Tide by 14, too.
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A friend of mine of the blog when Georgia played Hawaii way back when: ‘As soon as I sat down and saw that our offensive line was far bigger than their defensive line, I knew we would hammer them’. Well, as soon as you saw the simple size differential between Georgia’s offensive and defensive lines versus TCU’s, you realized that that friend – who was actually at the game tonight – must have been licking his lips.
TCU weren’t punished for having a mediocre-to-bad defense all the way through the season. They got by on comebacks and luck, but when their defense was faced with NFL talent all over the shop, they were the Little Guy and Georgia was Prime Mike Tyson.
And the Bulldogs delivered Tyson-like blows over and over again, de-horning the Frogs through the air and on the ground. Stetson Bennett took advantage of having all the time in the world to throw for 304 yards and 4 TDs (and rush for 39 yards and 2 more). Future Top 10 tight end Brock Bowers had 152 yards and an acrobatic touchdown on just 7 catches, and the Frogs couldn’t deal with Ladd McConkey or Adonai Mitchell.
Georgia also stomped the Horned Frogs on the floor, amassing 254 yards. They punched TCU in the face over and over again, going for what seemed a first down a carry, and there was nothing – NOTHING – the Fort Worthers could do about it.
Defensively, Kirby Smart’s team also threw up one of the gems of the year. New York invitee Max Duggan – thanks to his offensive line consistently getting eaten by NFL talent facing it – was permanently running for his life. He threw for two picks, and RB Derius Davis fumbled another one away. Georgia took advantage of all three errors to book 17 points. Added to that, they utterly silenced Quentin Johnston – TCU’s most dangerous receiver this year.
We don’t know what next year will hold. Will Alabama come back strong again? Will there be more and more hype in Tennessee and LSU? Will Texas A&M rise? Or will Georgia three-peat, as they are already favored to do?
Next year? We don’t know. Right now, let’s bask in what was one of the most exceptional college football National Championship performances in many, many decades, shall we?