Georgia pulverizes TCU 65-7 in national championship game as Ohio State football wonders “What if?”

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football can at least say it gave Georgia everything it could handle in its playoff matchup.

TCU barely gave the Bulldogs one strong quarter. Georgia repeated as national champion by crushing the Horned Frogs 65-7 in Monday’s College Football Playoff championship game at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

Ohio State fans still getting over the agony of a 42-41 Peach Bowl semifinal loss to Georgia can add another “What if” to the pile.

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Stetson Bennett threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for two more. Ohio State had effectively limited the senior quarterback’s ability to make plays with his legs in that semifinal. Bennett’s running was instrumental in the early momentum that led the Bulldogs to a 38-7 halftime lead.

Bennett opened the second half with a touchdown pass to tight end Brock Bowers. After having only modest success against OSU, the sophomore carved up TCU for 152 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions.

Georgia’s defense held TCU to a meager 3.7 yards per play, nine first downs and a 2 of 12 performance on third and fourth down conversions. Ohio State averaged 7.1 yards per play in the semifinal and led by 14 points with around eight minutes left to play.

So what could the Buckeyes have done if they had earned this date with TCU?

Georgia, though, simply overwhelmed the feel-good story Horned Frogs and took Heisman Trophy runner-up Max Duggan out of the game by forcing three first-half turnovers. In a season in which it sometimes seemed no one team wanted to step up and claim superiority, the Bulldogs did so emphatically on the final night.

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