Atlanta, GA- The LSU Tigers are headed home to New Orleans, Louisiana for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game!
Behind a relentless offensive performance, the number one ranked Tigers route the number four ranked Oklahoma Sooners 63-28 to win the 2019 Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl.
LSU head coach Ed Orgeron on the Peach Bowl win,” I’d like to thank the Chick-fil-A Peach
Bowl for giving us an outstanding week. Giving us our time to prepare, giving us great facilities, great food, made us feel at home, great hospitality. But also, in the sense, it’s a playoff game and they gave us all the time we needed to prepare. I’d thank to thank our football team for working so hard.” He Continued, “Proud of these two young men on the side of me [Joe Burrow and Justin Jefferson]. They’re great players, great teammates. What a tremendous job. I thought we played — for about three quarters, we played a complete game. Give Oklahoma credit. They have great athletes. Coach Riley is a great coach, and they’ve had a lot of success.”
It all started with a historic offensive performance by LSU. With 692-yards of total offense, the Tigers picked apart the Oklahoma defense with an air attack led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow was electric, breaking the College Football Playoff record for passing yards in a game with 493-yards, completing 29 of his 39 passing attempts. The graduate transfer senior also broke the record for touchdowns in a game, throwing seven in just the first half. Burrow added a rushing touchdown in the third quarter, becoming the first quarterback in FBS history to account for eight touchdowns in a bowl game.
Also breaking records was star receiver Justin Jefferson, who reeled in 14 catches for 227-yards and four receiving touchdowns. The 227 receiving yards set Peach Bowl, New Year’s Six and College Football Playoff records and are the sixth most in LSU history. Jefferson always seemed to have multiple steps of separation from his defender, and Burrow was always there to find him and deliver a perfect throw throughout the game.
Jefferson on his and the receiving corps’ connection with Burrow, “To have this receiving corps
and have Joe throwing it to our kind of makes our job easier. All we have to do is catch the ball. Going and practicing every day, working with each other, being competitive, just being our normal self, just being goofy, just laughing all practice. That’s what we do. So just not
being really, you know, so serious all the time. Just being ourselves and Joe just makes our job easier.”
Despite giving up 28 points, the Tiger’s defensive performance was also impressive, especially early on in the game. In the beginning stages of the game, Oklahoma’s offense struggled to get anything going, and the LSU defense was able to put the offense in positions of success to which they capitalized on to get out to their early lead.
Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts could never get in a rhythm, and the graduate transfer senior was sacked twice and put under a lot of pressure from the LSU defensive front.
The play of the game on defense came in the second quarter, with a 28-7 lead, the Sooners tried to force a pass deep to get some momentum. Defensive back Kary Vincent would make a great play on the ball down the sideline, going up for the takeaway at midfield. The Tigers would turn around and score to take a 35-7 lead to essentially put the game away before the half.
With the win, LSU advances to the CFP National Championship game. This will be special for the Tigers, who will play for their fourth national championship, and will have the chance to do so in their home state with New Orleans, Louisiana playing host for the championship game. LSU will have a great test on their hands, playing the winner of the other semifinal game between number two ranked Ohio State and number three ranked Clemson.
Written by Brian Pohl
