Matt Stinchcomb thinks Georgia will upset LSU in 2019 SEC Championship Game

Even though the LSU Tigers are undefeated heading into the SEC Championship, Matt Stinchcomb believes the Georgia Bulldogs will upset the Bayou Bengals.

It is conference championship weekend in college football. With the College Football Playoff’s final rankings being revealed on Saturday, ESPN’s Matt Stinchcomb spoke with FanSided on behalf of the Allstate AFCA Good Works about the always-important SEC Championship Game on Saturday between the No. 2 LSU Tigers and the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs. Stinchcomb is sensing an upset.

“I think Georgia pulls the upset on Saturday,” said Stinchcomb. “I don’t know if the defense they have played this season has been appreciated as it should, as we tend to emphasize offenses in the way that we do…It’ll be the best one LSU has faced and I think Georgia is a better team than the other elite defenses they have seen. Auburn is right there, Florida has a really good defense.”

Stinchcomb would obviously point out that what LSU is doing offensively is unlike anything we’ve seen out of the Bayou Bengals in a decade-plus. Much of that has to do with the play of Heisman Trophy frontrunner in quarterback Joe Burrow, a guy who Stinchcomb believes will win the Heisman, regardless of what happens in Atlanta on Saturday.

“His regular season was historic,” said Stinchcomb. “I’m not sure if I’ve seen a player on this type of a tear for this long. And I think part of it too is a function of where he’s doing it. So he’s doing it at LSU, a place where we’ll say has been offensively repressed for the better part of a decade and a half.”

He did, however, say that “Burrow is bound to have a few foul balls” in a game at some point, as “he’s had only one multi-interception game and that came against Ole Miss earlier this season, but that’s it.” In short, we’re not going to see Justin Fields or Trevor Lawrence take his Heisman Trophy from him as Kyler Murray did to Tua Tagovailoa because of this game last year. It’s all his.

“I think it would have to be an epically bad performance for him not to win the Heisman, but it is absolutely possible because we just saw something like this happen last year.” Even anyone ends up stealing Burrow’s Heisman, it’ll probably end up being Fields at Ohio State, but don’t count on it.

Frankly, it will take another Heisman-level performance for Burrows’ Tigers to beat Georgia in Atlanta. This is a stage and a venue Kirby Smart‘s Dawgs are very familiar with. This is the third-straight SEC Championship Georgia will be playing in. Add in the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship and this is four high-stakes games in four years in Atlanta for Georgia.

When asked if this neutral-site game will be a de facto home game for Georgia, playing in front of presumably a 75-percent Georgia crowd, Stinchcomb does believe this is a facet of this game we cannot overlook. He has seen what Dawg Nation has done this year to help lift its team in high-profile games this season.

“It definitely can be, especially in a domed stadium,” said Stinchcomb. “Those venues can be incredibly loud. And what Georgia has proven throughout the season is that the fanbase gets it. They have impacted games. They impacted the Notre Dame game, they impacted the Texas A&M game…But you could see the procedure penalties, the inability to get the snap off cleanly…”

Stinchcomb would say that LSU’s offense is prolific enough to potentially overcome a loud neutral-site environment that heavily favors the opponent, but no, it will not be easy for Burrow, passing game coordinator Joe Brady and head coach Ed Orgeron to overcome on Saturday afternoon.

When looking back on why he believes Georgia will eke out the SEC Championship over LSU, Stinchcomb believes that the Georgia offense has the potential to be more dynamic than the other defensive-minded teams that LSU has come across this season in Auburn and Florida. The keyword here is potential, as Georgia has largely overwhelmed on offense for most of this season.

“I don’t think those offenses are as threatening, or as multi-dimensional as Georgia’s is, or it can be,” said Stinchcomb. “But I think they find a way to squeak this one out against the top-scoring team in the country.”

Georgia will be without its best wide receiver in the game in Lawrence Cager due to injury. Its star freshman in George Pickens will be out the first half for getting into a fight in Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate last Saturday vs. Georgia Tech.

Stinchcomb believes that wide receiver Dominick Blaylock has to step up, for the tight ends to be more involved in the passing game and for James Cook to get some more touches out of the backfield, whether that is as a runner or as a receiver. If Georgia can hold Burrow and the LSU offense to 28 points or fewer, then the Dawgs just may be good enough to win the SEC after all.

Matt Stinchcomb spoke with FanSided on behalf of the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. Stinchcomb, Tim Tebow and more joined Allstate volunteers for a special community service project at East Atlanta Kids Club ahead of the 2019 SEC Championship.

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