3 terrible mistakes by Kirby Smart's Georgia in Sugar Bowl that cost Bulldogs a semifinal ticket

The Georgia Bulldogs struggled in the Sugar Bowl as they wound up losing to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 23-10, ending their national title hopes. There were a lot of reasons for the game playing out this way, but some key mistakes by coach Kirby Smart's team stood out.

Let's take a closer look at some of the major mistakes that Georgia Bulldogs made to cost them a shot at facing the Penn State Nittany Lions in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

3 Biggest Mistakes by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl

Timely Penalty

The Georgia Bulldogs committed five penalties for 36 yards in the game but there was one that is going to be the catalyst of why they lost a chance of a potential comeback. On 4th and 1 at their own 18-yard line, the Fighting Irish had their punt team out on the field. They would have a mass substitution where the offense would come from the sidelines and replace the punting unit.

Georgia had a chance to substitute as well but would jump offsides to give Notre Dame the automatic first down and continue to chew more clock as that penalty occurred with 7:17 remaining and the Fighting Irish would punt the ball with 1:49 left in the game.

Not Closing Out the First Half

The Georgia Bulldogs defense and special teams struggled in the final minute as well as the opening of the second half as they allowed 17 points in 54 seconds of game clock. The Fighting Irish kicked a field goal, forced a fumble by quarterback Gunner Stockton on the first play of the next drive and had quarterback Riley Leonard throw a 13-yard passing touchdown on the first play to end the first half.

On the opening kickoff in the second half, the Fighting Irish were able to return it to the house with a 98-yard kickoff return. When the Georgia Bulldogs are struggling to move the football and are built on the defense dominating, they cannot afford to have mistakes like that happen on offense and special teams.

The team just seemed to lose a sense of focus to close out the half and expected the second-half kickoff to be a typical kickoff that is around the area of a touchback rather than returned 98 yards to the house.

Playcalling on Third Down

There is something to having a bad game offensively as the Bulldogs did. However, it is a completely different story when they wind up going 2-of-12 on third down attempts throughout the game. Credit goes to the Notre Dame defense but with the inability to run the football, the play calling looked feasible at best.

The Bulldogs needed to figure out how to extend drives to put points on the board and at least get into field goal range but just simply could not get first downs. With the way the Notre Dame offense played, they did not need too much to secure momentum.