Georgia has already faced two top 10 passing offenses this year. Both of those games went well for the Bulldogs.
Kirby Smart and company have had a few close calls this season, but their games with Mississippi State and Tennessee were not among them. Georgia blew the first par 26 on Nov. 11. 12, holding the (other) Bulldogs — the ninth-best passing offense in the nation — to 261 passing yards. With a Heisman Trophy contender at quarterback (Hendon Hoooker) and Biletnikoff Award winner at wide receiver (Jalin Hyatt), the Vols went for 195 yards through the air in a two-touchdown loss to the Bulldogs on the 1st. november. 5.
Each of those teams averages more passing yards per game than the Buckeyes, who rank 14th in the nation with 291.4 yards per game. But Georgia was still impressed with what they saw of the Scarlet and Gray passing game, and they don’t act like Ohio State would be a copycat of any unit they faced. previously.
“I would say they are quite unique on their own. They do a lot of things that are different and they’re very good at what they do,” Georgia defensive back Kamari Lassiter said Monday. in the backfield. They’re pretty unique just with what they do and how well they do it.
It starts with CJ Stroud, whose 176.3 passer rating and 37 touchdown passes are the highest numbers of any opposing quarterback Georgia has played this year. In fact, these are the highest ratings in the country.
“To see him grow, he always had tremendous arm strength, touch and speed on the throws, but he became a complete quarterback there in their system.” – Kirby Smart on CJ Stroud
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart doesn’t need much of a refresher on the quality of the Buckeyes’ two-time Heisman Trophy finalist. Smart recruited Stroud out of Rancho Cucamonga High School years ago, a process he still remembers in detail, and said he’s seen Stroud make tremendous progress since then.
“I loved his mom, man. What a great woman. She’s awesome. I’ve been across the country and been able to sit at his house and visit him,” Smart said on Monday. He has a really good disposition about him. He’s not really high, not really low, not really emotional. He keeps a level head, which for me as a quarterback is one of the main qualities that one he could find. He also came to visit us and got to see him at the Heisman. He just matured. To see him grow, he always had tremendous arm strength, touch and speed on the throws, but he became a full quarterback in their system.
Eight of Ohio State’s opponents this season are giving up less than the 215.1 passing yards Georgia is giving up per game on average, a number that ranks only 49th in the nation. In those eight games, matchups against Penn State, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Toledo and Iowa, Stroud averaged 261.3 yards per game with a total of 21 touchdowns.
It doesn’t hurt that Stroud has arguably the best wide receiver in college football to throw, as Marvin Harrison Jr. had 72 catches for 1,157 yards and 12 touchdowns in his first 12 games as a true sophomore. . In those same eight games against pass defenses that gave up fewer yards than Georgia, Harrison averaged 79.9 yards per game with five receiving scores.
He’s a very good player. I have a lot of respect for him. He is very physical. He’s a tall, long guy with a pretty big catch radius. It just seems like he’s paying attention.– UGA CB Kamari Lassiter on Marvin Harrison Jr.
For the Bulldogs, neutralizing Harrison’s ability to make game-changing plays on the field will be as important as anything when it comes to limiting the points Stroud and company put on the board in the air. .
He’s a very good player. I have a lot of respect for him,” Lassiter said. “He’s very physical. He’s a tall, long guy with a pretty big grip radius. He just seems to be attentive. attention to detail during the match, which makes him a very good player.
No. 8 total yards per game and No. 2 in points against, Georgia’s defense is perhaps considered the best in the country for some reason. But it’s not because he erased all the passing attacks he played this season. LSU’s 37th-ranked passing offense racked up 502 yards and three touchdowns against the Bulldogs through the air in Georgia’s last contest, and most of that came with the hiring of a quarterback by the Tigers.
The SEC championship game alone proves that Georgia’s pass defense is far from impenetrable, given the game, and the Bulldogs know that. Especially in a contest against the Buckeyes.
“Ohio State certainly has a lot of good receivers, good quarterbacks, and we have a lot of respect for them. I say during the LSU game, not trying to backtrack too far, but we had a couple of misses during that game. in the second half,” Lassiter said. “We just really needed to refocus and refocus after this win and in this time off and get back to the basics of Georgian football.”
As far as yardage goes, Georgia had four of its six worst pass defending performances all season in its last four games before the Peach Bowl. Then again, Ohio State is averaging 43 fewer yards per game through the air in its last six games of the regular season than he did in the top six and threw 12 fewer scores in the same span.
The Georgia defensive back treated his lead to the college football playoffs as an opportunity to tighten the holes that were exposed in his last contest, refocusing on the fundamentals ahead of the Peach Bowl.
“In high school, we just emphasized technique and worked on our basic covers, worked on one-day things and just main technique and gained more confidence and stuff like that,” Lassiter said.
But by all accounts, Ohio State has taken the same approach to preparing bowls. At kickoff Saturday, the team that has improved the most from being laid off before the bowl may well have the upper hand for a spot in the national championship game.
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