Georgia wins the SEC championship

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As team’s head into the first week of December, some playoff teams hope to make it into the final four spots. With more and more upsets happening towards the end of the regular season to wrap up an unpredictable season. For a lot of teams on the outside looking in, the conference championship games was a chance for possibly some playoff teams to make a mistake and Georgia was looking to keep their heads up on making the season as perfect as they possibly can.

For the Georgia Bulldogs coming into Atlanta for the second season in a row the Georgia Bulldogs have entered in the SEC Championship game with a 12-0 record and 8-0 in conference play. The Georgia Bulldogs in the playoff era was just the third team to have back-to-back 12-0 seasons joining Florida State (2013-14) and Clemson (2018-19) and has currently won 27 straight games coming in and passed Michigan for how many times they have been number one in the AP poll (Georgia 35 times and Michigan 34 times). For the LSU Tigers, they came into the SEC Championship after a bad loss in College Station, Texas, last weekend. With LSU, they enter the game with a 9-3 record and 6-2 in the conference under new head coach Brian Kelly overperforming in his first season making headway. 

At the start of the game LSU drove down the field, but was stopped on fourth down. LSU tried to go for a field goal, but it ended up being blocked by the Georgia special teams and Christopher Smith would end up returning the blocked field goal return ninety-six yards to the end zone to put the Bulldogs up. With Georgia putting the first points on the board, LSU would strike back with back with Jayden Dainels throwing a strike to Keyshon Boutte and Boutte would end up doing the rest resulting in a fifty-three yard touchdown play to tie the ball game at seven points a piece with 2:21 remaining in the first quarter. With little time left on the clock, the Georgia Bulldogs would have to work quickly; and they would, as the Georgia Bulldogs drove down the field on a seven play, seventy-five yard drive. Brock Bowers would cap off the drive with a three yard touchdown catch from Stetson Bennett to end the first half with a fourteen to seven lead.

By the time the second quarter rolled around, the Georgia Bulldogs would pull away as the Georgia Bulldogs would score twenty-one points unanswered, with Stetson Bennett throwing touchdowns to Ladd McConkey, Darnell Washington, and Dillon Bell, but by the end of the half the LSU Tigers kicked a forty-two yard field goal at the end of the half to make the score 35-10. With an outstanding performance offensively from the Georgia bulldogs to have an outstanding performance in the first half and looking for more, but LSU had other plans.

With the start of the third quarter coming, LSU starting quarterback Jayden Daniels went out of the game near the end of the second quarter, and backup quarterback Garrett Nussmeier had to come into the game, and the Tigers went on a role, as they started off the second half with an early touchdown to Malik Nabers and Nussmeier connecting for a thirty-four yard touchdown. Georgia would respond though, as Kenny McIntosh would run into the end zone for six and make the lead over the Tigers to twenty five. Then, after the long Georgia scoring drive, the LSU Tigers would strike back with a running touchdown from Noah Cain to make the score 42-23 by the end of the fourth quarter.

By the start of the fourth quarter the Georgia Bulldogs went on a seven play, seventy-five yard drive that was capped off by a second rushing touchdown on the day, and Darnell Washington caught a pass for a two point conversion to score fifty points on the day. Although the LSU Tigers responded with a touchdown later in the quarter, in the end it wasn’t enough as the Georgia Bulldogs would win their 14th SEC Championship and their first championship since 2017.