ATLANTA -- Georgia seems to like playing in Mercedes-Benz Stadium this season.
Good thing they'll likely get to do it again.
The Bulldogs blew past LSU 50-30 to win the SEC championship Saturday night, guaranteeing a playoff berth that was already viewed as a foregone conclusion by many entering the game. This year's Georgia team, however, will not be backing into the playoffs like last year's unit that lost the SEC title game to Alabama.
The offense was the star of the show for Georgia, most notably senior quarterback Stetson Bennett. He threw for more than 270 yards and four touchdowns to four different receivers. It was a memorable performance for a quarterback who has had to face plenty of adversity and doubts in his career.
Now, he'll quarterback the Dawgs in the playoffs for the second year in a row.
"We came here with a plan to have a connected assault. We talked about it all week. We wanted our team to stay connected, and they did that," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said after the game.
LSU controlled the first quarter of the game, with Georgia only running three offensive plays in the game's first 12 minutes. The first score belonged to Georgia, though, as Nazir Stackhouse blocked an LSU field goal attempt and Christopher Smith scooped up the loose ball that everyone else in the stadium seemed to ignore. He then ran it back 95 yards for a touchdown.
The Tigers responded, as quarterback Jayden Daniels found Kayshon Boutte for a 53-yard touchdown just a few plays later to tie the game at 7. Then Bennett and the aforementioned Georgia offense took command of the game, with a quick drive capped off by a 3-yard touchdown pass to Brock Bowers in the final seconds of the quarter and a 14-7 Bulldog lead.
There was more bizarre action to start the second quarter, as a pass from Daniels defelcted off the helmet of an LSU receiver and into the waiting hands of Georgia's Smael Mondon for an interception. Bennett then threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Ladd McConkey to put Georgia up 21-7.
For the rest of the half, Georgia's top-ranked defense flexed its muscles, pressuring Daniels and sacking him multiple times, ultimately leading to him exiting the game. Daniels had entered the game already nursing an ankle injury suffered in the Tigers' regular season finale against Texas A&M.
Georgia got one more touchdown on a 14-yard throw from Bennett to Washington to take a 35-10 lead into the locker room. LSU would find plenty of points in the second half on the arm of backup quarterback Garrett Nussmeier. Nussmeier threw two touchdown passes in the second half, but Georgia would net a pair of rushing scores from senior running back Kenny McIntosh to keep the Tigers at bay. McIntosh finished with 113 yards on the ground.
"Our team kind of played this game like they played the whole season: unbelievably well in spurts and unbelievably poor in spurts, and answered the bell when they had to," Smart said.
They also added some trickery on a reverse pass from receiver A.D. Mitchell to tight end Darnell Washington in the 4th quarter to reach the 50-point mark. Robert Beal would sack Nussmeier with just over three minutes to play, forcing a fumble that Georgia recovered, sealing the victory. Both teams ended the game with over 500 yards of total offense, with almost all of LSU's output coming through the air.
"They were the better football team today. Proud of my team. Proud of the fight that they gave today. We were just a little short," LSU coach Brian Kelly said after the game.
Georgia is now 13-0 for the first time in program history, tying the second most wins in a season in school history along the way. For the defending national champions, though, there are bigger goals on the horizon.
If the Bulldogs are ranked number one by the College Football Playoff Committee Sunday, they would choose their destination for their national semifinal in either the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona or the Peach Bowl back in Atlanta.
"Yeah, I mean, we like this place. We play pretty good here," Bennett said.
Their opponent is up in the air after an upset-filled conference championship weekend that saw third-ranked TCU and fourth-ranked USC both fall. Ohio State and Alabama, who both missed out on their respective conference championship games after regular season losses, are now back in play for the field of four.
For now, the Dawgs will enjoy an SEC championship that had eluded them in their last three trips to Atlanta. Their last SEC title prior to Saturday was in 2017, Smart's second season in Athens.
"Winning the SEC is a big deal. This is the best conference in football. National championships is huge and great. That's our next goal. But SEC is the first goal, second goal after winning the East," Bennett said. "Winning the SEC championship, there's only one of those. It's a banner. It's the same thing as a national championship, just a little bit smaller scale. So, yeah, it was important for us."
