Despite the Georgia Bulldogs outgaining the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 296 yards to 244, Georgia couldn’t come up with the big play they needed offensively or defensively. Georgia was stopped on all three of its fourth-down attempts and lost two fumbles, one deep in Notre Dame territory and one inside their own 20.
Notre Dame on the other hand made big plays on offense, defense, and special teams in a sequence that helped them score 17 points in a span of 54 seconds. It all started with a Mitch Jeter’s 48-yard field goal with 39 seconds left in the first half. Six seconds later RJ Oben’s blind-side sack caused Gunner Stockton to fumble at his own 13-yard line, and Irish defensive lineman Junior Tuihalamaka recovered it. Another six seconds elapsed then Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard found Beaux Collins over the middle for a touchdown on the next play for a 13-3 lead that stood at halftime. It only took the Irish 15 seconds into the third quarter before they found the endzone again thanks to a Jayden Harrison 98 yard kickoff return for a touchdown that gave Notre Dame a 20-3 lead.
Georgia would score a touchdown to make the game interesting but Notre Dame was able to chew up valuable clock in the fourth quarter thanks to some miscues from the Dawgs defense, and hard running by Riley Leonard and Notre Dame would ultimately get the 23-10 victory. Earlier today The Morning Shift gave their thoughts on Georgia’s 23-10 College Football Playoff Quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame.
“Your offense couldn’t get anything going, and there was no adjustment.” Beau Morgan said.
Beau also blames some of Georgia’s offensive woes that occurred last night on wide receivers dropping the ball and poor offensive line play. Beau also believes Kirby Smart got out coached by Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman last night as well.
“Marcus Freeman outcoached him [Kirby Smart] last night there’s no other way to look at it.” Beau said.
Mike Johnson doesn’t necessarily agree with the notion that Kirby Smart got out coached by Marcus Freeman, and puts the onus on the players.
“I think Notre Dame’s players made more plays. If you want to go the route of saying you can’t blame Gunner Stockton or Carson Beck for the dropped balls then how are we blaming Kirby Smart?” Johnson said.
Notre Dame had two takeaways, and Georgia had zero. Notre Dame had four sacks, and Georgia had one. Notre Dame had nine tackles for loss, and Georgia had one. Notre Dame had 150 yards rushing, and Georgia had 62. Notre Dame had a special teams touchdown, and Georgia didn’t. Notre Dame made more plays, and just simply outplayed Georgia, some of that is coaching and some of that is players just not playing well enough. Either way it goes it all boils down to Georgia just getting beat by the better team last night.
