No smack talk (shucks!); just a good level-headed analysis giving due respect to both programs, which both deserve, by a Georgia writer.

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A day later, Georgia finds itself on the path to another appearance in the College Football Playoff.

It has become clear that when the Dawgs and LSU meet on December 7th this won’t simply be a collision between two powerful SEC schools. It will be a collision of football styles - offense versus defense.

We will have another data point on the “defense wins championships” metric that day. Simply put: defenses don’t win championships if they get outscored. And with the Tigers scoring fewer than 30 points once this season (23-20 win over Auburn), getting outscored by LSU is a real concern.

Then again, the Tigers’ defense has left more than a few scratching their heads about how and if their defense can survive the likes of Ohio State, Clemson and others. LSU has permitted 37 or more points four times this year.

The other top four teams this week have combined to allow more than 20 points twice combined. Sure, Clemson and Ohio State haven’t dealt with the schedule LSU has; but, no one is confusing Vanderbilt or Texas with being good teams. Ole Miss scored 37 on the Tigers last night.

That’s an issue.

And while Clemson and Ohio State have played dominantly these last few weeks, it is hard to totally know a lot about both teams. The Buckeyes’ best win is over Wisconsin - a dominating 38-7 win over the Badgers at home. Not making fun, but it is hard to know who Clemson’s best win is. Is it 7-3 Wake Forrest or 7-3 Texas A&M?

Ending the season with your best win being over a team that is projected to be 7-5 leaves everyone in the collective dark regarding the Tigers. Clemson has picked up their play of late, but they remain the only team ranked from their league. There is legitimate confusion about who the Orange Bowl will select as the ACC representative because that selection is based on CFP rankings.

Clemson very well could be the best team in the nation. We just don’t have a ton to go on to determine that. And whenever that truth is brought up it sends Tiger partisans into a big-time sensitive freakout.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs’ win over Auburn gives the program three division titles in a row. Georgia went nearly ten years before winning its first SEC East title in 2002. UGA’s likely foe, LSU, has not played in the SEC title game since 2011, when No. 1 LSU came from behind to beat No. 12 Georgia 42-10 on the way to the Tigers’ most-recent conference title.

No SEC school, until Georgia, has gone to the championship game three years in a row and faced three different teams in league history.

Georgia has 20 days to get right offensively. LSU’s defense certainly isn’t great, but we might be overdoing how bad they are the same way we are overdoing how bad Georgia’s offense is right now.

Keeping in mind that UGA has: turned it over four times against South Carolina; played in a rainstorm against Kentucky; played in freezing weather against Missouri, and faced the No. 2 and No. 3 defenses in the SEC.

That Georgia’s production offensively has slowed to under 30 points a game should be understood. That doesn’t dismiss dropped balls, etc. Therefore, UGA has had to roll its defense (which has permitted 31 points in its last four games), out there to finish out the Auburn game. The offense finished off the Gators.

Georgia is right where it wants to be. That it hasn’t played in an ideal way to get there will be held against them by folks who are either haters, or are just waiting for them to lose again, so they can jump up and down about it.

“See, I told you so” is a difficult way to watch sports and live life. We know a lot more about UGA and LSU than we do Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma and the like. If distance makes the heart grow fonder does it also mean that knowing where to bury all the bodies in a college football season take away the fun in the killing?

We must pick over everything---this is what we do. By the way, I would not at all be shocked by Auburn beating Alabama in two weeks. I probably shouldn’t mention capital crimes and those two in consecutive paragraphs.

Hide your trees.

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