Georgia wipes out TCU in NCAA football championship

In what will likely go down in history as one of the greatest ever team performances in a playoff game, the Georgia Bulldogs destroyed the TCU Horned Frogs 65-7 in the College Football Playoff National Championship at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. 

The win completed Georgia’s undefeated season, crowned them back-to-back national champions and established Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart’s program as being in a class of its own. 

“It seems like for the past three or four months, we’ve been looking to see if somebody could beat us and we just ran out of games. Nobody could,” said Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett. 

For TCU, making the national title game after being unranked to start the season was an incredible run for their program, but they felt the loss showed they still have a long way to go before they can be considered an elite program. 

“Obviously, you’ve got to give Georgia a ton of credit,” said TCU Head Coach Sonny Dykes in a postgame press conference. “They showed what kind of football program they have, and they’ve got some players over there that are pretty special. We didn’t do a great job of getting our guys prepared.” 

The 58-point margin of victory set many college football records. It was the biggest win against an AP top-three team ever and was the largest margin of victory in FBS bowl history. In addition, Georgia’s 65 points were the most ever in a national championship game. 

The Bulldogs were able to dominate in all facets of the game, leaving TCU completely overmatched. 

On their first drive of the game, Georgia marched down the field in under three minutes and scored a touchdown. 

On the other side of the ball, they shut down TCU’s ensuing drive by forcing a fumble and cashed in on the turnover with a field goal. 

This is how much of the game went. When Georgia had the ball, they completely dispatched the TCU defense and scored with little resistance. When TCU had the ball, the Bulldogs shut down every single chance that TCU had to get back in the game. 

TCU did go on one impressive drive that ended in a trademark touchdown run by quarterback Max Duggan, cutting the lead to 10-7 and making the game momentarily close. 

The Bulldogs then outscored the Horned Frogs 55-0 for the rest of the game. They took every opportunity to pile on while giving the Horned Frogs almost no opportunity to respond.

On offense, they scored five rushing touchdowns and four passing TDs. Bulldog quarterback Stetson Bennett accounted for six of those nine TDs, earning national championship game offensive MVP honors.  

“What [Bennett] did tonight was truly amazing,” said Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart. “He probably had his best game of his career in my opinion, with some of the checks he made, some of the decisions he made. Just really elite.”

On defense, the Bulldogs picked Duggan off twice and sacked him five times. They held TCU to a measly nine first downs and only 188 total yards. Defensive back Javon Bullard accounted for both interceptions and a fumble recovery, earning him the national championship game defensive MVP award. 

“As a kid, you always dream of moments like this,” Bullard said. “To see those moments and accomplishments come true, it’s just a surreal feeling. I’m extremely blessed to be in the position that I am and I just thank God for it every day.”

They put it all together for a second consecutive national championship, the first time a team had won back-to-back titles in the College Football Playoff era. Not even their Southeastern Conference rival Alabama has done that since the CFP was created. 

Smart credited his team’s ability to run it back to their determination. 

“They had a will to work, they didn’t listen to what everybody said about them … and every time they got doubted, they came out fighting,” Smart said. 

With a 15-0 record and the biggest championship game victory ever, Georgia established themselves as the class of college football in 2022 and the team to beat in college football for years to come.