Strengths and Weaknesses of Each College Football Playoff Team

We're all set for the College Football Playoff semifinals on Dec. 31 between Michigan and TCU (4 p.m. ET) and Georgia and Ohio State (8 p.m. ET).

If Georgia can't capture its second consecutive title, it'll be because of a difficult draw. The Bulldogs are going up against the high-flying Buckeyes, who snuck in following Utah's annihilation of USC in the Pac-12 Championship Game.

The winner of that game will play either Michigan, which will be trying to complete what it couldn't a year ago in its second straight CFP appearance under Jim Harbaugh, or the nation's biggest surprise of the season in TCU. The Horned Frogs lost the Big 12 Championship Game in overtime to Kansas State but still got in to the playoff.

There will be plenty of analysis of the matchups over the next three-plus weeks. But if you want to know who will win each game, it's a matter of which team can attack and exploit the other's weakness and which teams' strengths continue to shine.

Here are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the CFP final four.

The Georgia Bulldogs are strong in every facet of the game, which is why they're the overwhelming to repeat as national champions. Despite losing so much talent last year, the Dawgs are dominant yet again.

While the offense has done much more this season to bring along the younger defenders, Georgia's biggest strength once again is a fast, aggressive defense that has improved as the season progressed.

To open the season, Georgia smothered an Oregon team that wound up 15th in the latest CFP rankings. Later in the year against Tennessee, which had consistently shredded defenses, UGA was able to rush three and get pressure, blitz often and still be athletic enough on the back end to keep Vols receivers in front of them.

If Jalen Carter isn't the best defensive player in the nation, he's second to Alabama's Will Anderson Jr. He leads a defense that is first nationally in rushing defense, allowing fewer than 77 yards per game.

Georgia's front seven is even better than that, though. They allowed just 2.97 yards per carry during the regular season, sixth-lowest in the FBS, and they also have a 31 percent pressure rate, according to ESPN.com. Even when they aren't getting sacks, they still harass signal-callers.

Georgia's offense is excellent, but its calling card is still that Junkyard Dawg D.

If you're looking for weaknesses on Georgia, good luck with that. You're going to be nitpicking a team that has been special this year on both sides of the ball.

Perhaps the Bulldogs would love to have a game-breaking offensive weapon at running back or wide receiver to go along with dynamic tight end Brock Bowers. But that group of playmakers by committee has been pretty darn good, led by Ladd McConkey.

The biggest imperfection in the red-and-black armor isn't even really a flaw right now. Entering the SEC Championship Game, Georgia was sputtering in the red zone when it came to scoring touchdowns.

The offensive line wasn't coming through in short-yardage situations inside the 20, leading to field goals. Georgia had only 43 touchdowns in 66 trips inside the red zone, a 65.2 percent success rate.

All of that changed against the Bayou Bengals, though.

In a 50-30 rout where the defense actually let the team down for the first time all year, the offense picked up the slack. Quarterback Stetson Bennett was brilliant, leading the Dawgs to touchdowns all five times that they made it inside the 20.

If that was a peek at what's to come and not just a one-game aberration, that'll be big for the Dawgs' repeat chances.

Before Michigan running back Blake Corum suffered a season-ending knee injury against Illinois, he was a Heisman Trophy candidate. But even without him, the Wolverines are still dominating on the ground.

Sophomore running back Donovan Edwards tore it up with 401 rushing yards and three touchdowns against Ohio State and Purdue over Michigan's past two games. In other words, the men up front are paving the way for the Wolverines, much like they did last season.

Michigan is sixth nationally in rushing offense and has allowed only 13 sacks all year, which is tied for 16th nationally. A year after winning the Joe Moore Award, which goes to the nation's top offensive line, the unit is up for it again this season.

The same goes for their defensive line. The Wolverines don't have the dynamic pass rush that they did last season with Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo, but they're still stout.

The Wolverines are allowing only 85.3 rushing yards per game, which ranks third nationally. Mike Morris, who leads the team with 7.5 sacks, anchors a unit that is tied for 14th nationally in sacks.

Michigan has a lot of positives, but being strong on both fronts is what could carry it to a national title.

Before anybody says J.J. McCarthy is being considered a weakness here, take a deep breath and calm down. Nobody is suggesting he's a weak link on a College Football Playoff team.

In fact, the sophomore's poise, leadership and big-play ability have been tremendous assets, and he is as unflappable as they come under center. McCarthy is going to be great by the time he's done with Big Blue.

However, he isn't a constant force throwing the football, and he's arguably the weakest of the four signal-callers in the playoff. He's much more talented than Georgia's Stetson Bennett, but Bennett is a seasoned vet who always finds a way.

McCarthy had a few gargantuan touchdown throws to Cornelius Johnson against the Buckeyes, but he went just 12-of-24 for 263 yards in that game. In the Big Ten title game win over Purdue, McCarthy finished 11-of-17 for 161 yards, three touchdowns and a pick.

For the season, the sophomore has completed 65.3 percent of his passes for 2,376 yards, 20 touchdowns and three interceptions. Like Cade McNamara last year, he does enough to get the job done, but if he's asked to carry the load with the game on the line, can he do it?

The play-action passing game has recently opened things up for the Wolverines. Look for them to stick with that approach, because McCarthy has been at his best in that situation.

McCarthy is plenty talented and confident. If he can take another step during the playoff, Michigan will be a legitimate title contender.

As Max Duggan almost single-handedly led TCU back to force overtime against Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game, he could hardly walk off the field after getting pummeled by defenders time and again.

He threw for 251 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 110 yards and another score in the 31-28 loss to the Wildcats.

Duggan underwent heart surgery in the summer of 2020 to fix a rare condition and didn't miss a game, starting a month later. When he was benched earlier this year because he wasn't the type of quarterback that new head coach Sonny Dykes normally deploys, all he did when he got the chance to play was put up Heisman Trophy-worthy numbers.

TCU has come from behind to win games time and again throughout this 12-1 season. That's largely because of Duggan's heroics and will to win.

Yes, Kendre Miller is an excellent running back. Quentin Johnston is one of the nation's most dynamic playmakers at receiver. The Horned Frogs defense has also improved throughout the year and even carried the team at times down the stretch. But the one constant is Duggan.

As it turns out, Dykes' perfect quarterback was Duggan. He's been the catalyst who makes everything tick for TCU throughout the season.

The new coach and the old quarterback have been a match made in heaven.

Despite last year's defensive-minded conference championship game between Baylor and Oklahoma State, the Big 12 has been known throughout the past decade-plus as one that traditionally surrenders tons of yardage.

For all of TCU's heroics this season, it hasn't been very good on defense.

The Horned Frogs' high-octane offense puts up a lot of points, but it also puts a lot of pressure on the defense. It spends lot of time on the field trying to defend against teams wanting to keep pace.

The area where TCU needs to rebuild the most is in the secondary. The Horned Frogs are allowing 235.6 passing yards per game, which ranks 83rd nationally, and they're tied for 72nd nationally with 19 touchdown passes allowed. They've been opportunistic with 14 interceptions (tied for 15th nationally), but opponents are largely finding success against them by letting it flu.

The Horned Frogs aren't much better on the ground, either. TCU is 64th against the run, allowing nearly 150 yards per game, and it has the 74th-ranked total defense in the country.

If Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy can get going with the play-action passing game, he can attack the Frogs downfield. And TCU has to respect the run against Michigan.

“I see a lot of opportunities for our smash fest to kind of take advantage of that,” McCarthy told MLive.com's Aaron McMann. “That definitely excites me, but at the end of the day who knows what’s going to happen? We’ll be ready for it.”

Injuries ravaged Ohio State's rushing attack at times this year, making the Buckeyes more dependent on the passing game than they perhaps wanted to be. But until the disappointing loss to Michigan, quarterback C.J. Stroud and Co. were up to the challenge.

Last season, Stroud had Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba to throw to and finished as a Heisman finalist. Despite losing Wilson and Olave to the NFL and Smith-Njigba to a hamstring injury for most of this season, the redshirt sophomore quarterback was once again a Heisman finalist.

Though Smith-Njigba will sit out the playoff to prepare for the draft, the Buckeyes still have plenty of passing-game weaponry, including receivers Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, and Julian Fleming along with tight end Cade Stover.

Harrison is one of the nation's top playmakers on the perimeter and is a threat to catch passes all over the field. He was a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, which goes to the nation's top receiver.

If the Buckeyes can get healthy at running back, their offense can make things difficult on Georgia's vaunted defense. But with offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson heading to Tulsa to take over as head coach and Smith-Njigba sitting out, this unit has a ton of tumult.

Can everything come together? If so, the Buckeyes can score with anybody. If not, they could be facing a quick exit against the defending champion.

These two statements are mutually exclusive:

• What first-year defensive coordinator Jim Knowles has done at Ohio State this season to turn around that unit is exceptional.
• The Buckeyes should be disappointed and worried about what transpired defensively in the Michigan rout.

Ohio State looked so dominant at times this year because it was vastly better on defense. When you're able to combine a unit that is 13th nationally in scoring defense, 11th in total defense, 23rd against the run and 14th against the pass with an explosive offense, you have the recipe for a title contender.

But the Buckeyes didn't exactly face a lot of high-octane offenses throughout the season. Their biggest wins came over Penn State and Notre Dame, clubs that don't fling it around. Then, when the Buckeyes met up with Michigan in "The Game," everything fell apart.

J.J. McCarthy had touchdown passes to Cornelius Johnson of 69 and 75 yards and a 45-yard scoring bomb to Colston Loveland for 45 yards. Donovan Edwards then clinched the game with 75- and 85-yard scoring runs.

"Nothing to get panicked about," Knowles told ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg and Tom VanHaaren, regarding the first half of the Michigan game. "Then, the second half, they hit a couple [of] big runs. That's just disheartening. I have to take the blame for that. I've just got to do a better job. It's a story of explosive plays."

Which Ohio State defense will show up in the playoffs? If it's the one that played Michigan, the Buckeyes will be in trouble.

All stats courtesy of CFBStats and Sports Reference. Player rankings courtesy of 247Sports.

Follow Brad Shepard on Twitter, @Brad_Shepard.