ATLANTA — Ohio State icons Urban Meyer and Kirk Herbstreit shared their opinions on what it will take for the Buckeyes to beat Georgia.

Meyer, who beat Kirby Smart defenses while at Florida and coaching Ohio State, indicated it will come down to big plays by the offense.

Herbstreit, among the best analysts in the nation, says its about the Buckeyes’ defense finding answers for the UGA tight ends.

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The No. 1-ranked Bulldogs (13-0) play No. 4 Ohio State (11-1) at 8 p.m. in the CFP Peach Bowl Semifinal in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Smart made a strong case to be the national coach of the year in leading his Bulldogs to a 13-0 record and its first SEC title since 2017 leading into tonight’s CFP Semifinal in Atlanta

This, after losing an NFL-record 15 players in one draft, including an NFL-record five first-round picks from one defense.

“I’ve been watching a lot of film on them — doing stuff for Big Ten Network,” Meyer said on ABC-6 & Fox-28 in Columbus.

“They don’t play the ball real well downfield, but (Ohio State) has to protect — Jalen Carter is one of the best interior d-linemen I’ve ever seen. So we’re probably going to have to use a back to help the guards, because our guards are going to have trouble with this guy.”

Carter has been a one-man wrecking machine to the point of working his way up to the top of the 2023 NFL Draft.

But to Meyer’s point, Georgia has been trending the wrong way on surrendering big plays.

The Bulldogs allowed 19 plays of 25 yards-plus through the first nine games this season — and 19 more plays of 25-yards play in the last four games.

Against LSU, in a 50-30 SEC title game, Georgia surrendered a season-high seven plays of 25 yards or more.

“I’m thinking our strength is our receiver room and our quarterback and throwing the ball,” Meyer said. “That’s relative, it’s really not a weakness of theirs. Their (Georgia) strength is stopping the run, and they gave up a lot of pass yards against LSU I saw.”

The Bulldogs enter the game ranked 49th in the nation in passing yards allowed per game this season — a stark contrast to their No. 1 rushing defense rank.

Herbstreit, meanwhile, said it’s more about the Ohio State defense answering the bell after surrendering 45 points in a season-ending loss to Michigan.

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“If they can defend the tight ends, (because), believe it or not, it’d be easy to say C.J. Stroud throws for 400 yards,” Herbstreit said in an ESPN conference call.

“But I think it’s how do they physically match up? This is a defense that’s wounded after their game against Michigan. Now they got to go up against Stetson and this offensive line, these backs, these tight ends.

“And I think the tight ends are the key to the Georgia attack. Not only off play action, but they do such a good job of moving them around.”

To Herbstreit’s point, Kentucky held Georgia to just 16 points and one touchdown on a day that saw Brock Bowers get just 2 catches for 10 yards and Darnell Washington shut out.

Missouri, which held UGA to just two touchdowns in its 26-22 loss to the Bulldogs, surrendered 5 catches for 66 yards to Bowers and 3 catches for 64 yards to Washington.

Kentucky is the top-ranked total defense Georgia has played this season (15th), while Missouri is the second-best defense (34th).

Mississippi State, at 40th, is the only other Top 50 defense the Bulldogs had to go through this season.

The Ohio State defense ranks 12th.

“Todd Monken is one of the more underrated offensive coordinators,” Herbstreit said.

" …. he does this 12-personnel look with his two tight ends, and sometimes Bowers is a receiver, sometimes he’s a tight end, just a difficult matchup for anybody, and I want to see how Ohio State matches up.

“If they can slow down the tight end play of Washington and Bowers, I think Ohio State could have a chance to win the game.”