Another year, another favorable Playoff semifinal matchup for an SEC team against Oklahoma.

The Peach Bowl is just that, but unlike last year’s Orange Bowl or the 2017 Rose Bowl, there’s a Heisman Trophy winner on the sideline of said SEC team.

It’s a matchup that has star power galore, especially at the quarterback position. The hero quarterbacks are facing off in what many (myself included) expect to be a high-scoring, track meet of a game.

I’m here for that.

I have plenty of thoughts heading into Saturday’s showdown in Atlanta. Here are the most important ones:

1. I like the tone of LSU’s defense talking about Oklahoma’s offense

Publicly, there has been no underrating of what the Sooners did in putting together the No. 6 scoring offense in America. It’s easy to forget that Oklahoma actually averages only 3 fewer points per game than LSU. Context is important, for sure. Oklahoma didn’t have an offensive performance as impressive as any of LSU’s against Alabama, Florida or Georgia. And against Texas, their lone common opponent, LSU put up 45 points compared to 34 for Oklahoma.

If LSU’s defense wanted to sort of brush off Oklahoma’s accomplishments, it’d be easy. But that didn’t happen.

Instead, it gave praise. A lot of praise.

“They’ve got playmakers all in that room,” LSU safety Grant Delpit said during a game week press conference on Tuesday. “CeeDee (Lamb) was a Biletnikoff finalist for a reason. He’s probably the second-best receiver in the country besides Ja’Marr (Chase).”

That’s not bulletin board material. There’s literally an award to prove that.

Delpit knows as well as anyone what can happen against Oklahoma if his eyes are peeking into the backfield. That’s my guess for how the Sooners attack. Their goal will be to make LSU tackle in space and defend the run-pass option with Jalen Hurts and Kennedy Brooks, with hopes of hitting Lamb on the occasional over-the-top pass.

It’s a run game that absolutely needs to be respected. In fact, K’Lavon Chaisson called the Sooners’ ground attack “underrated.” He’s not wrong. Hurts isn’t Baker Mayfield or Kyler Murray as a passer, but he’s a more frequent runner than those 2 Heisman Trophy winners. That’s why the Sooners have the country’s No. 11 ground game.

Oklahoma might not have had the historic season that LSU did offensively, but it also didn’t get to a semifinal by accident. LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda acknowledged that … while using a water bottle to illustrate how difficult it is to defend the Sooners:

If I’m an LSU fan, I like seeing the attention to detail like that. The Tigers aren’t talking like an overconfident unit, despite the fact that they had arguably their 2 best performances of the year against Texas A&M and Georgia.

Obviously we won’t know just how prepared LSU is until the ball is snapped on Saturday, but that doesn’t suggest anything but LSU being totally locked in on the high-powered Sooners offense.

UPDATE: So a couple of hours after I wrote that, I saw this comment from Patrick Queen:

Well, I suppose there goes my theory that LSU has a universal approach when it comes to the Sooners.

2. My fear for Clyde Edwards-Helaire

I’ll admit it. There are few people I’ve enjoyed watching in college football this year more than Edwards-Helaire (his quarterback is one of them). I’ve been saying that since the Texas game. I LOVE how Edwards-Helaire always falls forward and always keeps his legs churning. A guy who plays all 3 downs like Edwards-Helaire is so, so, so, so important for what this LSU offense does, and the fact that he has been at his best for the toughest matchups of the season is all the more proof of that.

But I’ll admit it. I’m worried about Edwards-Helaire whether he plays or doesn’t play on Saturday. Let me explain.

If Edwards-Helaire does play, which LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger guesses will happen, I wonder how he’s going to look coming off that hamstring injury. Is he going to be able to do the things that have made him great this year? Can he cut at full speed and hit that extra burst when a linebacker tries to cover him in space? Will he be able to fly off the snap on a handoff when LSU is trying to take advantage of dime coverage?

I don’t know that. We won’t know that until Saturday if he plays.

And if he does play, I’d be worried about possible re-injury. I don’t have any sort of stats to back this up, but it always seems like hamstring injuries are the most likely to reoccur. Like, the last thing I’d want to see is Edwards-Helaire come up limping on a 3rd-and-3 run as he’s trying to get out of bounds. That would obviously not bode well for his status in a potential national championship, which many have pointed out is where LSU could need him more.

Here’s the other fear I have. If Edwards-Helaire doesn’t play in hopes that LSU can beat Oklahoma without him and he can get back to full strength for a potential national championship, it’ll be the first time this Tigers offense doesn’t have him all year. That’s a significant adjustment to have to deal with in a Playoff semifinal.

With all due respect to Tyrion Davis-Price and John Emery Jr., they aren’t as complete as Edwards-Helaire. If they’re rotating in, perhaps that makes LSU a bit more predictable and easier for Oklahoma to defend. The last thing LSU wants is for the ground game to struggle while we get camera shots of Edwards-Helaire in LSU sweats on the sideline.

Here’s hoping that by game’s end on Saturday night, Edwards-Helaire’s presence or absence doesn’t become a negative story.

3. The Heisman-winning quarterback trend that Joe Burrow is trying to break

It’s 1-3, in case you were wondering.

That’s the record of Heisman-winning quarterbacks in the Playoff era. A Heisman-winning quarterback hasn’t won a Playoff game since Marcus Mariota beat Florida State in the 2014 Rose Bowl. That was the very first Playoff game. Crazy, right?

Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow will be bucking recent history if he leads LSU to a Playoff win. Photo by: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Now obviously, Derrick Henry won the Heisman and fueled Alabama’s national title in 2015, so it’s not just a Heisman thing. But there might be something to be said for all the awards season hoopla that Heisman-winning quarterbacks have to deal with during that time between the conference championship and the Playoff. That time period is shorter than it was in the BCS era.

Granted, there were obviously still 2 weeks of non-awards season time for Burrow to prepare for Oklahoma. That’s even more than a typical game. Teams actually have fewer mid-week requirements than they did earlier in the Playoff era, per Playoff coaches’ requests. Part of that could be based on that quicker turnaround.

If Burrow comes up short as a double-digit favorite, some will wonder if there’s more truth in that Heisman stat.

4. The Oklahoma pass defense that’s better than advertised, but those injuries

Raise your hand if you knew before the Peach Bowl that Oklahoma had the No. 24 pass defense in America. Put your hand down. You knew it was improved, but you didn’t know it was that improved. Granted, Oklahoma literally only had one way to go after posting the No. 130 pass defense last year … out of 130 FBS teams. Woof.

Credit Alex Grinch for that. This isn’t the same group that was shredded by Alabama (and virtually everyone) last year.

How many top-40 passing offenses did Oklahoma face, you ask? Three. That was Texas Tech, Iowa State and Texas … and the Sooners allowed:

  • Iowa State: 282 yards, 5 passing TDs, 41 points
  • Texas Tech: 122 yards, 0 passing TDs, 16 points
  • Texas: 210 yards, 0 passing TDs, 27 points

All things considered, that’s pretty impressive.

Having said that, the Sooners obviously haven’t faced a group like LSU. And against the best passing offense they’ve seen, being down some key players won’t exactly help. The suspension of sacks leader Ronnie Perkins is significant for the simple fact that bringing down Burrow is an all-hands-on-deck sort of deal. And being without safety and second-leading tackler Delarrin Turner-Yell won’t be ideal for the way Burrow attacks over the top in the middle of the field.

I tend to think that the common wisdom about defending LSU is true. Clearly, it’s super difficult, and really only 1 team has done it successfully all year. That was Auburn. How did it do it, you ask? By getting pressure with 3-4 down linemen and having the back end of the secondary play extremely well with extra help.

Perkins and Turner-Yell being out limits Oklahoma’s ability to do both of those things. The question is how much will it matter come Saturday.

5. A prediction

Fun. Lots of fun.

Oh, that’s not the prediction you were looking for. You want a score, I’d imagine.

I’ll go LSU 48, Oklahoma 31.

I don’t think that LSU turns it into a laugher from the jump like Alabama did last year. Oklahoma will keep it interesting in the first half. It might even be a 1-score game at the break. We’ll have an entertaining back-and-forth battle with Hurts and Burrow early on with them trading turns making big plays.

But halftime adjustments from LSU will pay dividends. The Joe Brady/Steve Ensminger combination will dial up ways to get LSU’s receivers better looks in space, and this will turn into an LSU performance that we’re used to seeing.

Ed Orgeron said that the SEC Championship wasn’t their final destination. Everyone knows what that is.

By Saturday night in Atlanta, LSU will have a clinched a spot to reach its final destination.