How Michigan Football beats Georgia in the Orange Bowl
Winning the defensive battle
I’ve talked about the modern-day illusion that “defense wins championships” but we’ll be watching arguably the tightest matched #2 vs #3 playoff match since Georgia vs Oklahoma.
But in that game, Oklahoma’s defense was obviously not at the same level as Georgia’s. Michigan and Georgia both have the two best defenses in the country in what is sure to be a defensive showdown.
That leaves us with the question can defense win championships? The winner of the Georgia vs Michigan game will undoubtedly solve the answer once and for all because to me, this is simply not true anymore in the 21st century with the evolution of offenses.
Michigan’s defense is built to stop an offense like Georgia and vice versa. With the two best defenses in college football going at it, the ability to get pressure and work as a collective unit is going to be the big factor of who wins the trenches on both sides.
The one big test Georgia’s defense had was Alabama, and they allowed 42 points. While you can’t take what you saw one time over what you saw 12 other times it’s important to look at the flaws in the one poor performance. What we saw was what we expected at the beginning of the season — Georgia’s secondary was weak.
With one of the least experienced secondaries in the SEC, they were exposed by a Heisman caliber QB over the top, but Michigan does not have that with Cade McNamara. While Cade is a fantastic QB, he’s not Bryce Young. So how does Michigan attack Georgia’s defense? Over the top.
While that sounds crazy, Jim Harbaugh needs to change it up in the playoffs. He’s not playing Iowa or Penn State, he’s playing a legitimate team that can go pound for pound with every athlete Jim has in his arsenal.
He has the talent to pass, and we know Cade McNamara can make the passes he needs to make, but I believe that the run game is going to be rendered obsolete on both sides of the ball, so it’ll be up to Cade and Stetson to make the plays over the top.