Burrow’s record 8 TDs lead LSU in semifinal win
LSU QB Joe Burrow was responsible for a bowl-record eight touchdowns in a 63-28 win over Oklahoma in Saturday’s College Football…
ATLANTA — Forget about a Heisman jinx.
LSU quarterback Joe Burrow picked up where he left off against Oklahoma in Saturday’s College Football Playoff semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Burrow, who won the Heisman Trophy earlier this month in the most lopsided vote in history, threw seven more touchdowns — all of them in the first half — and ran for another score in the No. 1 Tigers’ 63-28 rout of the No. 4 Sooners.
The unbeaten Tigers advanced to the CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) on Jan. 13 in New Orleans, where they will play the winner of Saturday night’s other CFP semifinal between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.
Burrow completed 29 of 39 passes for 493 yards before he was replaced by backup Myles Brennan with about 9½ minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
“We go into every game saying that we’re going to throw the ball,” Burrow said. “That’s just who we are. We got a great offensive line that gives me time back there and I think you’ve seen our receivers. They’re pretty good.”
Burrow’s seven touchdown passes were the most in a half of a bowl game by any player in FBS history and tied for the most in a bowl game. Central Michigan’s Cooper Rush had seven against Western Kentucky in the 2014 Bahamas Bowl. His eight total touchdowns were the most ever in a bowl game and the most in a game in SEC history.
Burrow had more touchdowns than incompletions in the first half against the Sooners, throwing for 403 yards on 21-for-27 passing.
Burrow and Tigers receiver Justin Jefferson hooked up for four touchdowns in the first half, covering 19, 35, 42 and 30 yards. Jefferson’s four touchdown catches were the most by a player in a Peach Bowl, a New Year’s Six game and a CFP semifinal. His 18 receiving touchdowns are tied for the most in a season in SEC history.
Burrow added two more touchdowns to Terrace Marshall Jr. and another one to tight end Thaddeus Moss.
“It was a lot of fun,” Burrow said of his performance. “This was expected from us. We expected to be here from the jump and you know we’ve worked so hard for this moment we just gotta finish it off.”
2:05
Joe Burrow comes out firing, throwing seven touchdowns — including four to Justin Jefferson — in a dominant first-half performance.
Burrow became the first player to throw seven touchdowns in a CFP game and the first in SEC history to throw at least five touchdowns in five games of a season, and he set an LSU bowl record for touchdown passes (he shared the previous mark of four, which he recorded in a 40-32 win over UCF last season in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl).
Burrow’s seven touchdown passes in the first half broke the Peach Bowl record, surpassing the previous mark of four shared by East Carolina’s Jeff Blake in 1991 and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel in 2013.
With 55 touchdown passes (and counting), Burrow became the fifth player in FBS history with 5,000 passing yards and 50 touchdowns in a season. Fresno State’s Derek Carr (2013), Hawaii’s Colt Brennan (2006), Texas Tech’s B.J. Symons (2003) and Houston’s David Klinger (1990) were the only other players to do that.
Burrow is three touchdown passes shy of tying the FBS single-season record of 58 set by Brennan in 2006. He said it hasn’t sunk in yet that he’s having one of the best seasons in college football history.
“Not really. We’re trying to get better every day,” Burrow said. “There’s still a lot of room to improve. I missed some throws that I usually make today. I wasn’t quite as sharp as I had been in the past. My receivers bailed me out on a lot of throws. I’m excited to get back to practice and get those things fixed.”
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