The game plan for stopping the Sooners' offense
If you were Georgia coach Kirby Smart and defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, how would you scheme to slow down Oklahoma's offense?
Trick question – you can't.
In fact, according to Bill Connelly's S&P+ efficiency metrics, they rank better in both facets of offense – running and passing – than every other team in the country. Likewise, Brian Fremeau rates the OU offense as the nation's best by a large margin.
No defensive blueprint exists because the Sooners have an answer for everything a defense can throw at them.
Commit to stopping the running game, and Baker Mayfield and the OU receiving corps will light up your secondary six ways from Sunday.
Playing loose on the back end to prevent chunk plays? OU will gladly matriculate the ball down the field in bite-size pieces. And if you're hoping the O will stall in the red zone, bear in mind the Sooners have produced touchdowns on more than 70 percent of their trips inside the opponent's 20-yard line this year.
Not to get all hyperbolic, but OU has college football's most well-rounded offense in recent memory. The Sooners possess the chemistry and personnel to implement whatever kind of game plan that Lincoln Riley draws up. They also have the ability to adjust in-game to whatever they're seeing from the D. On a more micro level, OU's mastery of run-pass option plays literally builds in countermeasures to be deployed on the fly in the middle of a play.
None of that is to say that the Sooners can't be stopped. Yet, "scheming" will have very little to do with Georgia's ability, or lack thereof, to disrupt the OU offense.
In the absence of a magic schematic bullet, stopping the Sooners rests more with how many dudes your defense has. Frankly, it's more a matter of limiting the damage from play to play than stopping them cold.
The good news for the Bulldogs is that they have studs like linebacker Roquan Smith on that side of the ball. We'll find out on Monday if they have enough.