Georgia's Keys to Stopping Ohio State's Offense

The major keys to Georgia stopping Ohio State's high powered offense.

Author:
Jonathan Williams
Dec 27, 2022 2:24 PM EST

The Peach Bowl is just a few days out from being played. The top-ranked Bulldogs look to continue their dominant run and keep their hopes of winning back-to-back national championships alive while Ohio State seeks their first title since 2014. These two teams have not played one another since the 1993 Citrus Bowl, and now they'll play for a spot in the championship game.

The Bulldogs tote one of the nation's most dominant defenses in the country as they did a season ago along with an efficient offense. The Buckeyes on the other hand possess a prolific quarterback in CJ Stroud who has helped lead his team to average 44.5 points per game this season, the second most in the nation.

Georgia will be faced with the tough task of trying to stop the Buckeye's high-powered offenses, so what are the keys to containing them?

Getting off the Field

Part of what makes Ohio State such a great offense is they rarely get themselves into third-down situations. In fact, they have the 10th fewest third down attempts in the country while converting 46 percent of the time. Georgia on the other hand has a defense that ranks at the top nationally on third down as opponents have only converted 26 percent of the time against the Bulldogs.

In their loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes only converted five times on third down out of 16 total attempts. As stated before, Ohio State doesn't put itself into that position very often so when Georgia does get the opportunity to get the Buckeyes off of the field, they need to make those opportunities count.

Make them Earn It

A team doesn't average as many points as Ohio State has this season without having the ability to score them in bunches. The Buckeyes have done exactly that this season through the help of making big plays in the passing game. This season, Ohio State has hit 56 passing plays that have gone for 20+ yards, the 10th most in the nation. They also rank sixth for passing plays that have gone for 30 or more yards, 30 of them to be exact.

Just as it was key for Georgia to limit explosive plays against Tennessee, it is just as important against Ohio State. With a duo like CJ Stroud and Marvin Harrison Jr. on the field, the Bulldogs will need to keep everything in front of them and force the Buckeyes to earn their yards and points. If Ohio State starts hitting for big chunks of yards at a time, Georgia could find itself in some trouble.

Force Someone Else to Step Up

As mentioned before, Stroud and Harrison have been a killer duo for the Buckeyes this season. Harrison has 1,157 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. Harrison is not the only playmaker the Buckeyes have on offense, but he is one of the more dangerous ones, and if he gets going then things can get messy real quick for the Bulldogs.

Georgia does not have to completely shut down the star wide receiver but they need to do enough to force Ohio State's hand and make someone else have to step up to make big-time plays. If they can do that, then their life on defense might be a little easier for them in this game.

Emoka Ebuka can beat you or Marvin Harrison Jr. can beat you. Both can't.