Burrow goes wild as LSU crushes OU to reach CFP final

Published 12:00 am Sunday, December 29, 2019

ATLANTA — Joe Burrow doesn’t care about records — or at least not the ones that he set in spectacular fashion Saturday at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

The LSU star quarterback and recent Heisman Trophy winner rewrote the record books against Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff semifinal held inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Burrow became the first player inn FBS bowl history to be responsible for 8 touchdowns in a bowl game. Burrow completed 29-of-39 passes for 493 yards with seven touchdown passes (all in the first half) while also adding 22 rushing yards on 5 carries with a 3-yard rushing touchdown in the Tigers’ 63-28 rout of the Sooners.

So how did the record-setting quarterback answer a question about his performance?

“January 13th is the record we are worried about,” Burrow said afterwards.

Less than half a hour after a dominant victory where multiple records fell, Burrow and the Tigers have already turned their collective attention to the CFP National Championship Game in New Orleans on January 13th.

LSU (14-0) set the tone on Oklahoma’s first possession.

K’Lavon Chaisson sacked Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts on the first play from scrimmage. OU’s first drive netted negative six yards and the Sooners quickly went three-and-out.

With a short field, Burrow got right to work as he hit tight end Thaddeus Moss on the first play and two plays later found wide receiver Justin Jefferson for a 19-yard touchdown. LSU needed a mere 52 seconds to go 42 yards and score.

Oklahoma meanwhile finally got something going on its third drive as the Sooners needed only 2:21 to go 69 yards. The drive was capped as Hurts found All-American wide receiver CeeDee Lamb down the left sideline for a 51-yard pass. That set up a Kennedy Brooks 3-yard touchdown run.

LSU though answered with a 9-play, 75-yard scoring drive that was capped with a 8-yard touchdown pass from Burrow to Terrace Marshall Jr. That would begin a passing touchdown frenzy by Burrow — all in the first half.

Burrow would go on to throw a 35-yard pass to Jefferson, a 42-yard pass to Jefferson, a 30-yard pass to Jefferson, a 62-yard pass to tight end Thaddeus Moss, and then a 2-yard pass to Marshall.

“We had a hard time, obviously, corralling him back there,” OU head coach Lincoln Riley said. “We’re certainly not the only ones that have. They’ve got a good offensive line. We had a couple opportunities to get him on the ground that we didn’t. They made a couple of plays and scrambled, a couple pretty good coverage, competitive plays.”

Burrow wasn’t the only Tiger to have a record-setting performance on Saturday. Jefferson set new Peach Bowl records with receptions (14), receiving yards (227) and receiving touchdowns (4). His four scores is also a new FBS Bowl Game record.

Jefferson’s quarterback actually gave the credit for his great performance to the record-setting wide receiver.

“To be honest, it wasn’t my sharpest game,” Burrow said. “This guy (Jefferson) was bailing me out on a couple of throws that I had missed. Guys like Terrace (Marshall) and Ja’Marr (Chase) were bailing me out on some misreads.”

Oklahoma managed to interrupt the scoring with a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Hurts but had struggled to get anything going offensively in the first half. “Just talk about the missed opportunities we had, leaving money on the table, going out there and taking advantage of every opportunity we have against teams like this,” Hurts said afterwards. “I mean, games like this, you’ve got to maximize it. We failed to do that.”

The two teams traded touchdown drives in the third quarter with Burrow scoring his eighth and final touchdown of the day on a 3-yard rush. Oklahoma added a 12-yard touchdown run by Hurts.

The two teams would trade touchdown drives in the fourth as OU  had a 1-yard T.J. Pledgers run and LSU running back John Emery Jr. scored on a 6-yard run.

After piling up 692 yards of offense and 63 points, LSU now turns its attention to winning its fourth national title in program history and first since the 2007 season.

And make no mistake, LSU is excited that the game will be held in its home state.

“We love that it is at home, but that’s not going the game for you,” Orgeron said afterwards.