Analysis: Everything goes Georgia’s way in rout of TCU in national championship game
TCU’s magical season ended with a thud.
The Horned Frogs were unable to stop Georgia’s quest for back-to-back championships as TCU fell 65-7 Monday in the national championship at SoFi Stadium. It was TCU’s worst bowl defeat.
“Tough one tonight,” coach Sonny Dykes said. “I think anybody that saw that knew could see that we certainly didn’t play our best. You got to give Georgia a ton of credit. They did a tremendous job of getting their team ready to play. Those guys came out and played exceptionally well.”
Georgia quickly reminded TCU and the rest of the country why the Bulldogs have been viewed as the overwhelming favorites all season. The Horned Frogs were briefly in it, only down 10-7 with under five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
However, the Bulldogs reeled off the next five touchdowns to take a 45-7 lead early in the third quarter. The absence of TCU running back Kendre Miller, who missed the game with a MCL sprain, was apparent as the TCU offense struggled all night with the exception of one drive.
“Georgia did a great job, got off to a fast start,” Dykes said. “And we answered, cut it to 10-7 and then for whatever reason it went downhill from there.”
The Horned Frogs turned it over twice in the first half and didn’t force a Georgia punt until the second half. The Bulldogs marched up and down the field with relative ease in the second half.
It was a somber end to one of the best seasons in program history, but it should not overshadow TCU’s journey to the final game of the college football season.
“Tonight did not go the way we wanted it to,” Max Duggan said. “Disappointed in that aspect, but tonight isn’t going to take away from this season and what we were able to do as a program. I don’t think that’s going to define us.”
Here are four takeaways from TCU’s title game loss:
Bennett outduels Duggan
In battle of Heisman Trophy finalists, Georgia’s Stetson Bennett had the edge over Max Duggan.
Duggan had the more daunting task entering the game, considering the talent gap between the teams, running back Miller’s absence and Georgia’s excellence on defense. But Bennett deserves a ton of credit for how he guided the Georgia offense.
A number of his throws were in the flats or to wide open receivers, but he also made great plays with his legs, including two rushing touchdowns. With Georgia facing a third-and-10 early in the second quarter, TCU sent Dee Winters off the edge. He wasn’t blocked but Bennett evaded Winters with a quick spin and scrambled to pick up the first down.
He would ran for a touchdown five plays later. Bennett was 13-of-17 in the first half with over 200 yards and four total touchdowns. Meanwhile, Duggan started slow as he missed two receivers on the opening possession. Duggan scored TCU’s lone touchdown of the half, but overall it was a tough opening 30 minutes for him.
He was sacked twice and intercepted twice. He overthrew Quentin Johnston on the first INT and made a pass into double coverage on the second.
“I think tonight was one of those nights where at least offensively we couldn’t get anything rolling,” Duggan said. “They were playing well on defense. We were shooting ourselves in the foot. I was making bad decisions. I wasn’t executing well and not putting us in a position to score some points and move the ball.”
To be clear, Duggan wasn’t the reason TCU lost, but we all knew it would take an all-time performance by the quarterback for TCU to pull it off. We know how badly Duggan wanted to perform well and win a championship for Fort Worth, but ultimately that desire wouldn’t be enough against Bennett and the Bulldogs.
Bowers is a bad man
TCU coach Sonny Dykes compared Georgia tight end Brock Bowers to future Hall of Famer and his former player Robert Gronkowski multiple times before the game. Bowers showed why he was worthy of such praise with a dominant first half. He helped set up Georgia’s first touchdown with two receptions totaling 33 yards on the opening drive.
Later in the second quarter, somehow TCU’s Jamoi Hodge found himself matched up on Bowers, who got wide open for a 35-yard gain that set up a score. His biggest play came when the Bulldogs were facing a third-and-15 with a 24-7 lead. A stop by TCU would’ve been a small win for the Horned Frogs, but instead Bennett had plenty of time to find Bowers as the Horned Frogs only rushed three defensive linemen.
Bennett hit Bowers for a 24-yard gain, and it felt like the game was over at this point. Bowers had five receptions for 102 yards in the first half and even had 15 yards on the ground. Bowers scored Georgia’s first touchdown of the second half with a 22-yard catch in which he jumped and secured the contested pass over a TCU defender to make it 45-7.
The Horned Frogs had no answers for Bowers and the rest of the Georgia offense.
Monken in his bag
There was hope that Georgia’s lack of familiarity with TCU’s 3-3-5 would be an advantage for the Horned Frogs. It didn’t pan out that way as Bulldogs offensive coordinator Todd Monken had a near perfect plan to attack TCU’s unique defense.
Georgia’s versatile offense of play-action and misdirection neutralized TCU’s speed. The Horned Frogs spent too much time thinking instead of attacking.
“They didn’t really do anything special,” Dee Winters said. “We just kind of beat ourselves up. Kind of just executed on our mis-alignments and kept scoring on those. We just kept beating ourselves up, just overthinking, trying to run too fast to the ball and things of that nature.”
Georgia’s first three touchdowns came with ease as each scorer walked in untouched in some fashion.
The Bulldogs gained 371 yards and averaged 9.3 yards per play to take a 38-7 lead into the half. Monken deserves the bulk of the credit for how easy he made things on his playmakers. The 38 points in the first half was a CFP title game record. Georgia accounted for 65 points and almost 600 yards of total offense. It was a complete masterclass by Monken and the rest of the Georgia offensive staff.
Kirby Smart said postgame that he knew the offense had good plan leading up to the game and if the Bulldogs executed, they could have a big night. That prediction came true in resounding fashion.
A start they didn’t need
TCU’s fast start against Michigan is one of the reasons the Horned Frogs were able to advance to the national championship game. The Horned Frogs knew another fast start was needed, but TCU failed this time as Georgia jumped to a 10-0 lead.
After the Horned Frogs went three and out on their first possession, the Bulldogs responded with a well- executed five-play drive featured a little bit of everything, including a screen Bowers and Bennett walking into the end zone untouched on a 21-yard run.
On TCU’s next possession, Derius Davis was stripped by star safety Christopher Smith, and the Bulldogs capitalized with a field goal. Halfway through the first quarter, the Horned Frogs were already down double digits. TCU didn’t panic and responded on its next drive as Davis made up for the fumble with a 60-yard reception.
Davis caught the pass, and made a Georgia defender look silly with a 360 spin before he was pushed pushed out at the Georgia 11. Duggan rumbled in a few plays later to make it 10-7. The defending champions answered back by going 70 yards in just four plays as Bennett found a wide open Ladd McConkey for a 37-yard touchdown with 2:43 remaining in the first quarter.
“We had a formula that worked where we played pretty well for 14 straight weeks,” Dykes said. “And we carried the same formula into this game. We didn’t do anything different. Their preparation was good.”
Dykes quickly learned that the preparation wasn’t good enough and the early hole was too much for the Horned Frogs to battle back from.
This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 9:59 PM.
