Seton Hall
College Football Playoff Semifinals: Breakdown and predictions
Date: December 26, 2019By: Michael Daly
The college football world will be locked in on the two semifinal playoff games taking place on Saturday, Dec. 28, 2019, the Chick fil-A Peach Bowl and the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.
The Chick fil-A Peach Bowl kicks off at 4 p.m. EST, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, and will feature No. 1 LSU and No. 4 Oklahoma. The second semifinal game takes place in Glendale, Arizona, at the State Farm Stadium at 8 p.m. EST. The schools squaring off in the desert will be No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson.
No. 1 LSU enters the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl with an undefeated regular season record of 13-0, and an SEC Championship. Saturday’s site for the Chick fil-A Peach Bowl will be the LSU Tigers’ second straight game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Their last appearance in the stadium was on Dec. 7 against the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game. In the game against the UGA Bulldogs, Heisman winner Joe Burrow passed for 349 yards and threw four touchdowns in the 37-10 win. His stellar performance solidified his Heisman candidacy in becoming the second LSU player to win the award in 60 years.
Burrow, along with wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, will spearhead LSU’s offense and force Oklahoma to key in on them defensively. On the other sideline, Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts hopes to shock the Tigers and capture his second national championship.
Hurts orchestrated a comeback for the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2018 College Football Playoff Final against the Georgia Bulldogs. He hopes to accomplish the same in a familiar stadium with a win against LSU in the semifinal game.
The Oklahoma Sooners had to grind out several close games that turned into high-scoring shootouts. Both games against No. 7 Baylor went down to the wire and forced Hurts and the defense to make plays late against a Baylor Bears team that were merely a couple of plays away from being in the College Football Playoff.
In the last five games for the Sooners, only one game was won by more than a touchdown, 34-16. That 18-point victory came on Nov. 30 against No. 25 Oklahoma State. Oklahoma’s offense needs to produce a lot of points and the Sooners defense must do just enough to give their offense a chance against a stingy LSU defense.
The PlayStation Fiesta Bowl presents two high-powered offenses with No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson. Both sides are coming into this game with chips on their shoulders and something to prove. Ohio State believes they should have been the No. 1 team in the nation with their 13-0 record and Big 10 Championship. On the other hand, Clemson wants to show the country why they not only belong in the College Football Playoff, but why they feel that they are the top team in the nation.
The two quarterbacks in the game, Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, have history with one another. For starters, they were the top-two quarterbacks in the 2018 high school football recruiting class. Not only were they the best quarterbacks in the class, but they were also rated as the two best overall players in the entire country and in their shared home state of Georgia.
The common football links between these two quarterbacks will only add more excitement to an already highly anticipated game. Ohio State last played against No. 8 Wisconsin in the Big 10 Championship Game on Dec. 7. The Buckeyes defeated the Badgers, 34-21, in a come from behind win, which punched their ticket to Glendale, Arizona, in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. Fields tossed three touchdowns and aired out 299 passing yards. Running back J.K. Dobbins rushed for 172 yards and scored one touchdown.
Clemson’s last game was also on Dec. 7 in the ACC Championship Game against No. 24 Virginia, when they blasted the Cavaliers, 62-17. The Tigers’ defense stifled Virginia’s quarterback Bryce Perkins. He had a shaky performance of 266 passing yards, and only two passing touchdowns mixed with two interceptions. Lawrence torched the Cavaliers’ defense by throwing four touchdowns and totaling 302 yards through the air. Clemson added four more scores on the ground with their bruising running game.
ESPN’s College Football Power Index rates Clemson and Ohio State as the two best teams this season. Saturday’s game will be the first time that two teams that have 32 FPI points on average for a season will play each other since USC and Texas played in the 2006 Rose Bowl. Many outsiders view this semifinal matchup to be the true championship game in college football.
Predictions:
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: No. 1 LSU defeats No. 4 Oklahoma, 42-23
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl: No. 2 Ohio State defeats No. 3 Clemson, 38-34
Michael Daly is the Web Editor at WSOU SPORTS, and can be reached at wsousportswebeditor@gmail.com.
