LOS ANGELES – Efficient, explosive, unstoppable.
A few other more appropriate adjectives could be derived to explain what we saw from Georgia’s offense in Monday night’s 65-7 destruction of TCU to claim the program’s second national championship in as many years.
“Ice cold execution,” head coach Kirby Smart said after the game.
The Horned Frogs had absolutely no answers.
Georgia, which rolled up 589 yards worth of yardage, scored all six times it had the ball in the first half, with quarterback Stetson Bennett accounting for four of the team’s five touchdowns.
Bennett completed 18 of 25 passes for 304 yards with four touchdown passes, while rushing three times for 39 yards and two touchdowns to earn Offensive MVP honors.
“I think preparation was really good,” Smart said. “I'll be honest with you; I was a little concerned that we were tired. I had apprehension about a couple of the practices we had.”
He shouldn’t have been.
In a game reminiscent of the opener against Oregon, when the Bulldogs scored on all seven first-half possessions against the Ducks, Georgia scored all six times it had the football against TCU.
“I did have a feeling that our offense had a really good plan. And as I watched the offense each day I said, we've got a good plan,” Smart said. “If we execute this plan, we're going to attack these guys and we're going to be really aggressive.”
Tight end Brock Bowers agreed.
“Throughout the week, we were just so focused,” Bowers said. “We were just kind of rolling on all cylinders tonight.”
Give Georgia’s offensive line a ton of credit, too.
TCU did not sack Bennett a single time, while opening up holes for running backs Kendall Milton, Kenny McIntosh, Daijun Edwards, and Branson Robinson to rush for 254 yards.
The game was over basically as soon as it began.
Georgia jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead before a breakdown in the secondary allowed a 62-yard pass to set up a short touchdown run by Max Duggan for TCU’s only score.
But any thoughts of a further comeback by the Horned Frogs were quickly erased as the Bulldogs stormed forward to race to a 38-7 halftime lead.
“It's what I told our players afterward. We have to look in the mirror. It all starts with me and works down from there. And the thing that we did, we had a formula that worked where we played pretty well for 14 straight weeks,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “We carried the same formula into this game. We didn't do anything different.”
It just didn’t work.
Georgia punted just one time in the entire game.
“I didn't have any sense that our players were in a different place. Their preparation was good.
"There was zero difference between preparation for this game and for the Michigan game 10 days ago or nine days ago, whenever that was,” Dykes said. “I think what happens sometimes is you get on a run as we've been on. You play a lot of games like we played this year that are emotional games and games that you put everything you have into it to win it.
"You did it nine days ago against a Michigan team where we had to hold on and fight and scratch for every inch against a very good football team and found a way to win. We got out there tonight and Georgia did a great job, got off to a fast start.”
The Bulldogs certainly saved their best for last.
“Well, I mean, we had confidence in the plan," Bennett said. "We left some plays that we didn't even call. And we missed some shots. But it's the last one. I mean, it was the last one in this jersey. It's for the national championship. It was against Max, who is a great quarterback and [whom] I know from New York. But I mean if you can't pull out your best in a game like this or at least your best effort and best preparation, then maybe this isn't for you. But I don't know—I just had confidence in our guys, and everybody played really well.”
