ATLANTA - It's safe to say Georgia's defense hasn't played up to its standard in the month of December.

The Bulldogs have given up a season-high in points in back-to-back games, surrounding 30 to LSU and then 41 to Ohio State in Saturday night's Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl. In both contests, the Georgia secondary in particular had its struggles.

But at the end of the day, the Bulldogs did enough to get one more chance to correct their mistakes. Their 42-41 win over Ohio State secured Georgia a spot in the National Championship Game.

"A lot of credit goes to them. We tried man. We tried zone. We mixed it up," Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. "They've got really good play makers and they got a guy that could throw the ball to them and got a really offensive line, and they can score points."

All the talk leading into the game centered on Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud and his talented stable of receivers. They wasted no time providing that the headlines were warranted.

Stroud completed 15-of-19 passes for 238 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. Buckeye receivers routinely ran wide open. Marvin Harrison Jr. had five receptions for 106 yards and a pair of scores in the first half.

Both touchdowns came on scrambles from Stroud, an area that cornerback Kelee Ringo said the Bulldogs need to improve moving forward.

Georgia's best defense proved to be sacking Stroud. Of Ohio State's three drives that didn't end in points in the first half, two were halted by sacks.

"Ohio State has a boatload of wide receivers, and we (could have done better at) getting our rush there to help our DBs out. We can’t have them covering for nine seconds," inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson said.

But the Bulldogs anticipated Ohio State making plays. Cornerback Kamari Lassiter echoed one of Smart's famous phrases, saying the secondary kept telling each other to "keep chopping" on the sideline.

That went hand in hand with Georgia trying to figure out some way to slow down the Buckeyes.

"I definitely would say adjustments against a good offense like that is definitely something that you’re going to need to be able to do throughout the game or else they’re going to be able to play 7-on-7 out there," corners back Kelee Ringo said.

The belief of the group never wavered. Safety Malaki Starks said he felt confident in a comeback early in the third quarter. But the Bulldogs trailed by 14 heading to the final period after an uninspiring quarter from the offense.

In that final period, the Bulldogs allowed only a field goal to the Buckeyes. Dumas-Johnson said the biggest difference came when the defenders told themselves to "man up."

"What are we going to do? Championship teams are built on that moment and how we were trailing," Dumas-Johnson said. "Coach kept saying, championship teams are what we do now. That’s a comeback and that’s what we did."

Even on the final drive, the Bulldogs held Ohio State to minus-one yard on its final three plays. That forced a 50-yard field goal for the win, an attempt that ultimately sailed wide left and secured the victory for the Bulldogs.

That comeback triumph, however, wouldn't have been possible without a gutsy effort from a defense that didn't play its best, but still played well enough when it counted.

"That was a street fight," Starks said. "We fought to the very end, nobody ever gave up. I think that’s how we were able to come out on top."