Georgia needs a second-half comeback if it wants to win the Sugar Bowl game against Notre Dame and advance to the College Football Playoff.

The Irish took a 13-3 halftime lead against the Bulldogs thanks to Riley Leonard’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Bo Collins with 27 seconds left in the second quarter.

The touchdown came one play after RJ Oben beat left tackle Monroe Freeling and made a blind-side hit on Gunner Stockton, resulting in a fumble that Tuihalamaka Und recovered at the UGA 13.

“We tried to be aggressive in 2 minutes and will probably regret it,” Kirby Smart said during his halftime interview. “We wanted to show confidence in our quarterback, but we didn’t get the block we needed and they made a good play.”

Georgia outgained Notre Dame 152 yards to 135, but two costly turnovers left the Bulldogs behind at halftime for the seventh time this season.

Gunner Stockton is 9 of 14 passing for 142 yards in his first start, while Irish quarterback Riley Leonard is 10 of 15 passing for 60 yards and has 6 runs for 50 yards.

The Irish had taken a 6-3 lead just moments earlier at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans when Mitch Jeter hit a 48-yard field goal with 38 seconds left in the first half.

The Bulldogs scored first on their third drive of the game when Peyton Woodring hit a 41-yard field goal to make it 3-0 with 12:14 left in the second quarter.

Gunner Stockton had hit Arian Smith on a 67-yard pass to the Notre Dame 11, but the Bulldogs were pushed back 10 yards before their next play due to a sideline interference.

A referee watching the play encountered an unclothed UGA player on the white portion of the sideline, forcing the Bulldogs to start with a first-and-10 from the Notre Dame 26, resulting in the field goal .

The Irish responded with a field goal of their own on the ensuing drive, with quarterback Riley Leonard doing most of the damage on the ground.

Leonard had runs of 5 and 32 yards to get Notre Dame to the Georgia 26, from which Mitch Jeter hit a 44-yard field goal to tie the game at 3-3.

“Everyone just has to do their job,” Smart said of Leonard’s runs. “We held them to a field goal, which was the best we could do right there.”

Georgia had threatened to score in the first quarter and drove to the Notre Dame 16 on its second possession of the first quarter.

The drive ended when Adon Shuler hit Trevor Etienne and sent the ball loose, leading to the Irish recovering at their own 10-yard line.

“We turned the ball over twice, one time we would have had a lead but they brought in an extra player and the receiver didn’t block it, and the next time we narrowly missed a player at left tackle,” Smart said. “If you don’t block people at the edges, you’re going to have trouble.

“We run the ball better than them.”

Notre Dame receives the kick in the second half after the coin toss is won and the game is postponed.