NEW ORLEANS – Caught in a defensive battle in which neither team gained 300 yards, Georgia coach Kirby Smart made an aggressive but unfortunate decision late in the first half of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Immediately after Notre Dame took a 6-3 lead with a 48-yard field goal, Smart had untested sophomore quarterback Gunner Stockton drop back from his 25-yard line with 38 seconds left to pass instead time to pass. Defensive end RJ Oben broke through for a strip sack and Fighting Irish junior Tuihalamaka fell for the ball on the Bulldogs’ 13th point.

One play later, Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard hit Beaux Collins for a 13-yard touchdown.

So No. 2 Georgia trailed 13-3 in a game where every point was valuable. The No. 7 Fighting Irish won Thursday’s game 23-10, ending Smart’s bid to capture his third national title with the Bulldogs.

“Usually when you’re down you need every possession you can have and we made the decision to be aggressive and try to play two minutes and that’s what you should do.” Smart said. “You can’t give up possession of the ball when you’re behind. We felt like we had a little quick pass. “We certainly didn’t expect to be beaten so quickly at left tackle and got a sack fumble that gave them some momentum.”

In fact, the Bulldogs had already lost momentum. Their previous possession lasted all of 31 seconds – including the punt.

With 3:40 left in the half, Stockton threw three consecutive incomplete passes – the last two while escaping pressure – giving Notre Dame time to get into field goal range.

But Smart continued to rely on his struggling offense even though Stockton had thrown just 35 passes in his career before replacing injured starter Carson Beck for the second half of the Bulldogs’ 22-19 overtime win over Texas in the SEC championship game .

Although the move backfired, Smart defended his approach.

“We had a chance to score,” he said. “We worked for two minutes every week. I don’t question this decision because I really agree with the decision to be aggressive.”

Stockton went 20 of 32 for 234 yards, including a perfect strike to Arian Smith for a 67-yard gain that set up a go-ahead field goal in the second quarter, and a 32-yard touchdown pass to wide-open running back Cash Jones, who was able to equalize the deficit to 20-10 in the third round.

Outside of those plays, however, the Bulldogs did very little, racking up 62 yards rushing while Stockton was sacked four times.

“It just hurts,” guard Tate Ratledge said. “This team had one goal, and that was to win a national championship.”

Georgia outscored Notre Dame 296-244, but went 0 of 3 on fourth down and 2 of 12 on third down and allowed a 98-yard kickoff return to open the second half.

Struggling Irish coach Marcus Freeman frequently outmaneuvered Smart. The last time occurred when Notre Dame drove its punt team off the field and got its offense going again while facing a four-and-1 at its own 18 with 7:17 left.

In the commotion, Georgia linebacker Jalon Walker was sidelined and the Fighting Irish didn’t punt until two minutes later.

“Our head of the SEC told me you can’t do that, you can’t run 11 on, 11 off,” Smart said. “We positioned our defense well. We were fine. They wanted to count us hard. We prepared for it, but we got sidelined.”