Kirby Smart addresses why Georgia opted to throw at end of first half, Gunner Stockton's fumble

Momentum swung in the Sugar Bowl when, after a made field goal, Notre Dame forced a a fumble by Georgia QB Gunner Stockton towards the end of the first half and turned that into a touchdown. However, Kirby Smart doesn’t mind how the Bulldogs went about those final seconds heading into halftime.

Smart spoke about that scenario in the first answers of his postgame press conference following the 23-10 loss to the Fighting Irish in the CFP. Down at 6-3, Smart was fine with his team being aggressive in trying to score or at least tie it up before the half, especially as Georgia was getting the ball to start the second. The Bulldogs just got beat on the left side of their offensive line which led to the second of two costly turnovers.

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“Yeah, typically, when you’re down, you need every possession you can have. And we made a decision that we were going to be aggressive and we were going to try to go two-minute. That’s what everything says you should do. You can’t give up possessions when you’re trailing,” said Smart. “So, we’re down 6-3. We felt like we had a little quick-game pass. Certainly not counting on getting beat that quick at left tackle. Got a sack fumble, which gave them some momentum.”

With that, Smart also noted the poor defense in response. Riley Leonard threw a 13-yard slant score to Beaux Collins right after to make the turnover look that much worse.

“At the end of the day, we got a great red-area defense,” Smart said. “We should stop them.”

The Sugar Bowl changed in the span of 54 second to close and open the two halves. After a defensive first half, a field goal separated Notre Dame by three. The two snaps after for the Fighting Irish were the forced fumble on Stockton by RJ Oben and fumble recovery by Junior Tuihalamaka on defense followed by Leonard’s lone touchdown throw to Collins.

Add in Jayden Harrison’s score off the opening kickoff in the second half and, within less than a minute of action, it went from a tie ball game to a 20-3 deficit for the ‘Dawgs. Smart expressed at least some regret in how that went heading into halftime. Still, even with all that in hindsight, he agrees with what they did based on the numbers at the time.

“I think we did move the ball. We turned it over. So, we had more yards than they did at the time. We had more passing yards than they did at the time. So I don’t see it as just going in the shell,” said Smart. “We got an opportunity, we got timeouts. We got an opportunity to go score. We work two-minute every week and we stay aggressive with it. I mean, we’ve got a really good pass pro team and we didn’t pick him up on that play. Made a great rush and he got a sack fumble.”

While making a comeback in the third quarter, Georgia was never able to overcome what happened in that span. Smart is solid in how he feels about it, though, with what the Bulldogs were trying to do there.

“We don’t play passive here. So we play to be aggressive and we’re trying to go score,” Smart said.

“I don’t question that call because I really agree with the decision to be aggressive and try to go score.”