ATLANTA - The clock on Georgia's season read two minutes and 36 seconds.

The Bulldogs trailed Ohio State 41-35 with 2:36 remaining in Saturday's Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl. They needed to travel 72 yards, or else their dreams of a national title repeat wouldn't make it to the new year.

So a Georgia offense that had muddled its way through most of the second half did what it had to do. In the process, it kept the season alive with a 42-41 win over the Buckeyes.

To hear the players tell it, that drive started in practice.

"It’s two-minute. We’ve practiced this so much in practice," running back Kenny McIntosh said. "We’ve been through these scenarios. Like I said, coaches put us in scenarios and we try to fight our hardest. He puts us in bad scenarios like tonight, and we fight hard to come back and win."

Still, the offense had sputtered most of the second half. But then receiver Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint spoke up in the huddle. Then quarterback Stetson Bennett had a message, followed by center Sedrick Van Pran.

The messages varied, but all centered around one main theme. The game and half hadn't gone how anyone expected, but opportunity lay ahead if the Bulldogs focused and did their jobs.

"Where else would you rather be? Having the ball with two minutes left, and if you score a touchdown, you win the game," Bennett said. "I looked around, and there was just a whole bunch of just determined, strong stares from all the dudes. It gave me confidence, and everybody else had confidence when we went down the field."

Pass plays of two and 15 yards started the drive. After an offsides penalty, Bennett fired a strike to receiver Kearis Jackson for a 35-yard gain to the Ohio State 15-yard line.

"The way he played me, he played man coverage, inside leverage," Jackson said. "He pressed me. I haven’t seen that all year. But as a slot receiver, knowing my abilities, I was happy that was the call. I had a two-way go. They were split safeties, and they were playing like a two-man, so I knew the middle of the field was going to be open. I took it up the middle, Stet made a great throw, I made a great catch, and we kept the chains moving."

Bennett appeared to be a bit hesitant at points in the game. But he said the desperation of a final drive "frees you up" to make plays. He certainly did that with the throws to Jackson and Brock Bowers on the possession.

On second-and-5 from the Ohio State 10, Bennett made his final play of the night. He looked left and found an open AD Mitchell in the corner of the end zone for the game-winning score.

"It’s what he does," Mitchell said of Bennett's poise. "I give praise to my dog Stet, I give praise to the O-line. I give praise to all my teammates that made the plays before me."

Kirby Smart and his players talk often about making practice harder than the games. That's a hard thing to do when the game situation is a two-minute drive to keep hopes of a repeat alive.

But thanks to those practice sessions, the messages from the veteran leaders, and timely execution, Georgia will be playing for all the marbles on Jan. 9.

"We had our time, we knew we had to go score," receiver Ladd McConkey said. "We work on it every week, we just went out and did it."