The Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in an upset win on January 2nd in the Sugar Bowl 23-10 to advance to the Orange Bowl.
Notre Dame came into this game the seventh seed at 13-1 and the Bulldogs 11-2 and the second seed. The Irish came into this bowl game the underdogs but they showed why never count out the underdogs in this fight. This game was quiet for the first half, and the defenses were holding each other to some close calls in the red zone. But the Fighting Irish were fighting in this whole game. The Bulldogs fell and lost out of the college football playoff.
Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman is ecstatic of how his defense played all game.
“This defense was a reflection of the entire team, just keep battling and I knew this was going to be a 60 plus minute game,” said Coach Freeman.
The first quarter was nothing that the audience expected; the defenses were playing their hearts out and it shows. But it wasn’t anything special, the Irish offense only got one first down on the driver after the fumble recovery. Next drive for the Dogs, they scored a field goal with 12:14 to go in the second quarter. But then four minutes later, Notre Dame strikes with some points on the board to even the score. Some more time to tick off the clock then the Irish came down with kicker, Mitch Jeter, to go up another three with 39 seconds left on the clock until half. Notre Dame forced a fumble on Georgia’s second offensive possession of the game and proceeded to score a touchdown from a pass from Riley Leonard to Beaux Collins then went into the half.
Georgia Head Coach, Kirby Smart, gives credit to Notre Dame in the loss.
“Their team played exactly like we expected them to play physically, tough don’t beat yourself up, and they did that. They did those things exactly right, they got two turnovers and we didn’t,” said Smart.
The two teams came out with a fire in their eyes, and they needed to put points on the board. Notre Dame wanted it bad, first kickoff from the half. Jayden Harrison took out a 98 yard kick return to the house and made it a two score game. That’s all it took for them to get locked in where they left off. This team had the underdog mentality, and they loved it. Then later in the quarter, Georgia wasn’t out yet, they scored a touchdown from backup Quarterback, Gunner Stockton to Cash Jones for a 32-yard touchdown. This made them go down 10. But then the 4th quarter started and this Bulldog team wasn’t playing to their expectations. Notre Dame put the icing on the cake with a field goal to make the final score 23-10.
Notre Dame quarterback, Riley Leonard, paid the price for this win.
“I mean everybody keeps telling me stop doing that and then I did it, worked out today so like its a plus we’re in the playoffs so its like alright. Put your body on the line,” said Leonard.
