What Kirby Smart, Georgia players said about Ohio State after Peach Bowl

ATLANTA — Ohio State had Georgia on the ropes.

The Buckeyes entered the final frame of the Peach Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal with a 14-point lead after playing their best defensive quarter of the season.

Except, when it mattered most, Ohio State crumbled on that side of the ball, allowing back-to-back touchdown drives to the defending national champs.

Buckeyes quarterback C.J. Stroud did his best to get Ohio State into field goal territory, but a 50-yarder was too steep a challenge for place kicker Noah Ruggles, who shanked his attempt wide left.

It was a dramatic CFP semifinal, a 42-41 game in which both teams earned respect nationally.

Here’s what Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs players said about Ohio State postgame.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart

OPENING STATEMENT REMARKS ABOUT OHIO STATE: “I’ll open with a lot of respect for Ohio State, Coach Day and his program. I saw C.J. [Stroud] out there, and my heart goes out to those guys because they played well enough to win the game, and they got a really good football team. So do we.

“We didn’t play our best football game. A lot of that had to do with Ohio State.”

ON OHIO STATE’S OFFENSIVE SUCCESS: “A lot of credit goes to them. We tried man. We tried zone. We mixed it up. The most disappointing was the series before the half. They earned it most of the time, and we had some big stops. We had some big momentum stops in the first half and then had some big momentum stops in the second half. 

“But the one before the half is probably the one where we had seized a little momentum there, and they went to the half with the momentum after that. That was probably the most disappointing thing we had. They’ve got a really good playmakers, and they got a guy that could throw the ball to them and got a really good offensive line, and they can score points.”

 ON CALLING A TIMEOUT BEFORE OHIO STATE’S FAKE PUNT: “They just were not in their traditional formation. A lot of teams carry that speed break. They come up the line quick. Everybody’s lined up tight. And we’ve seen it in the SEC. A lot of teams carry it, and you try to practice it, but it’s another thing when they actually do it and execute it. So it was one of those gut reactions that I didn’t think that we had it lined up properly to stop it, so we called timeout.

“For me, I saw them lined up, and there’s a line that’s a special teams line, but I was on the defensive line because we had just come off a defensive stop. So I saw the formation, and apparently they were saying something on special teams line, but I wasn’t on that line. I was on the defensive line and was prepared to call a timeout, which I don’t like doing because it costs you possessions when you do that. You’ve got to be prepared and not burn them.”

ON IF THAT WAS A GAME GEORGIA DESERVED TO WIN:

“Really, I know you don’t believe it, my heart goes out to those guys because they played well enough to win. That’s not my concern. My concern is the men in our locker room. We played well enough to win too, just well enough to win. We played really hard in the fourth quarter.”

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett IV

ON HANDING THE BATON OVER TO THE GEORGIA DEFENSE FOR THE FINAL POSSESSION: “Yeah, trust them. We talked about — we had a little powwow on the sideline in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t going good. They were beating us. We had sucked on offense, and it was just, ‘Hey, play by play, do your job. It doesn’t matter what happens on the other side of the ball or another position, do your job. So we had done our job, and then we trusted the defense. Then, at that point, it was up to, I guess, the kicker.”

ON THE DIFFICULTIES GEORGIA HAD VERSUS OHIO STATE’S DEFENSE: “We didn’t play our best game, starting with me. Coach Smart said in the locker room, we had two three-and-outs to start the second half. Like that doesn’t happen, and that falls on me, and that falls on our offense. We’ve got to fix that. So we’re going to go to work.”

Georgia defensive back Javon Bullard

ON THE CREDIT OHIO STATE DESERVES: “We give a lot of credit to Ohio State. Those guys made plays when they needed to make plays. We knew coming into the game, it wouldn’t be perfect. You come into a game like this, College Football Playoff, we know you are going to give up some plays, they are going to make some plays, we’re going to make some plays. You can’t get too high up and can’t get too low.”

ON HIS PASS BREAK-UP OF OHIO STATE WR MARVIN HARRISON JR. IN THE BACK OF THE END ZONE: “It was really just C.J. scrambled. He made a play with his feet and threw the ball up in the air. I seen Marvin’s hands going for the ball and just tried to make a play when I could.”

Georgia running back Kenny McIntosh

ON OHIO STATE’S PERFORMANCE: “We knew coming into the game that they are a tough team, and they’re going to be good and make explosive plays. We had to go back to the drawing board [after they jumped ahead].

ON WATCHING THE FINAL OHIO STATE POSSESSION: “It was tough. I was praying to God. [Noah Ruggles] made all his kicks the whole game, and that one last one [went our way].”

Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson

ON TRYING TO STOP OHIO STATE QB C.J. STROUD: “We’ve been seeing things similar to their offense every day in practice. Sometimes we got too hungry, and they got behind us, but the way our offense moved the ball today — we weren’t perfect today, but we did enough to win the game.”

ON BOUNCING BACK FROM A TOUGH DEFENSIVE GAME AGAINST OHIO STATE: “We try to come out here every day and prove our defense is reliable. We just have to keep chopping and try to keep getting better. They had a boatload of receivers with a ton of yards today, and we must do a better job of covering them and as a pass rush, getting to the quarterback.”