The Joe Burrow Touchdown Bracket: Day 19

We kicked off the Get the Nat region with Ja’Marr Chase leaving a future first round pick in this week’s NFL Draft flat on his face and guess what, we’re doing it again. I’ve been dying to talk about this play since we started this whole bracket three weeks ago, so without further ado here it is.

No. 2: Ja’Marr Chase’s 33-yard go route vs. Alabama

The context:

While there may ultimately be a more significant touchdown over the course of Joe Burrow’s epic 2019 season, I don’t think there’s a single play that feels better in a cathartic sense than this one right here. It reminds me of that scene in Remember the Titans when Julius sacks the quarterback of the team with the coach that made a racist comment about Denzel Washington. Julius takes his mouthpiece out and tells the quarterback that he’d better make himself comfortable down there and I like to think Chase told Alabama’s Trevon Diggs something similar.

Remember of course that this drive was set up when Tua Tagovailoa inexplicably fumbled the ball away on Alabama’s opening possession. LSU hadn’t gotten a break like that against Alabama in nearly a decade and it made sure to take advantage of it. LSU calls run plays on its first three snaps to get out of the shadow of its own end zone then goes to the air the next three.

Burrow hits Chase along the sideline for 23 yards to put the Tigers at midfield. Then Burrow finds Jefferson over the middle for 18 yards. The drive’s capped off beautifully when Chase wins the one-on-one match up with Trevon Diggs and hauls in a 33-yard touchdown to give LSU a lead it would never surrender.

This touchdown felt —good— I don’t know of any other way to put it. When was the last time LSU had a lead over Alabama prior to that throw to Chase, 2012? It was a long time coming especially considering LSU had been shutout the year before. It was beautiful seeing Diggs fall on his face like a dweeb while Chase hit em with the griddy. It was the football version of Biff wailing on George McFly back in 1955. With the eyes of the college football world watching, one throw from Burrow to Chase told everyone that this losing to Alabama shit ends right here.

No. 15: Justin Jefferson 8-yard fade vs. Georgia

The context:

It’s a shame that this play happened so late in the SEC Championship Game. If this is earlier in the game, maybe it’s higher up on our list and not a 15 seed. Instead Burrow and Justin Jefferson will have to settle for only adding to Georgia’s humiliation in its own backyard.

This touchdown was set up thanks to the second interception by the best corner back in college football Derek Stingley Jr. Fromm doesn’t learn his lesson and foolishly tests Stingley again. The touchdown itself is owed to Thad Moss running a rub route springing Jefferson free. We didn’t know it at the time, but that would be the first of five touchdowns Jefferson would catch in Mercedes Benz Stadium that December.