NEW ORLEANS – Notre Dame defeated Georgia 23-10 in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday afternoon. Here’s what Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said after their College Football Playoff victory.

“I have reminded them over the last ten days during our preparation that this will be a fight of more than 60 minutes. Georgia has lost nine games this year and they are finding a way to come back and win. And so they did. Our coaches called the game aggressive, they put everything on the line for this university and this football team.

Whether being in the first round helped Notre Dame in this game: “No. I don’t do that. I think whatever circumstances you’re given, you make the best of it. And if we had a bye in the first round, I would have been the first to say, ‘Hey, that.’ For us, it’s great. For us it is always a crowded group. And no matter what circumstances come our way, we will seize the opportunity and maximize it. And that’s what she did.”

On the fourth-down decision in the fourth quarter: “We practiced this situation that happened in the fourth quarter. And I think the performance reflected that. We had great confidence in our ability to do this and we had a plan. And that’s “I want our program to be so aggressive that we’re out there when it matters.” And that has to be one of our advantages: we will be an aggressive group and not afraid of making mistakes.

About the key to defense success: “We had three keys to winning on defense, and the first was stopping the run. And we didn’t think we could lose this game by passing yards, but we could lose by not stopping the run. And.” The defense did a great job stopping the run and putting them in some tough third-down situations. And another key to the win was two takeaways, a few turnovers that were hugely relentless.”