Hellloooo Atlanta....

PASADENA – Sony Michel, oh you Sony Michel.

After an earlier fumble that left the senior hanging his head in despair, the Bulldogs senior ripped off a 27-yard run in double-overtime to send the Bulldogs into the national championship game with a 54-48 win in the Rose Bowl over Oklahoma.

"When I scored a touchdown, I knew it was over," said Michel, the game MVP. "We finally get a chance to play for something big.

Indeed they do. On Jan. 8 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Georgia Bulldogs will have a chance to play for it all when they take on Alabama, which beat Clemson in the Sugar Bowl, 24-6.

Amazing.

"Our kids are so resilient. They never stopped chopping wood. They kept fighting. They believed," head coach Kirby Smart said. "There were offensive players affecting defensive players in the locker room at halftime and they kept fighting. We didn't play the way we were capable of, but the best news is we get a chance to play again. So I'm really proud of the fight, the resiliency of our seniors and our fan base."

Both teams traded field goals to cap the first overtime period before the Sooners’ offense took its turn first to start the second possession.

For a second it appeared that Georgia had set itself up a chance to go for the win right there when Deandre Baker picked off Baker Mayfield, only to have the play waved off when Jonathan Ledbetter jumped offside.

But Lorenzo Carter would save the Bulldogs, when he blocked a field goal setting up Michel to play hero, which he did by taking a direct snap and shooting 27 yards around the left side for the game-winning score.

"It's tough to describe right now. It's a hell of a college football game. You know, an epic Rose Bowl Game," Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said. "You know, being on this side of it is difficult to describe, the disappointment, the hurt that we feel, that those guys in that locker room feel right now. Some of them came in telling me sorry and telling us sorry, and I said don't tell us you're sorry. Our team put it on the line. They laid it on the line every snap."

So did the Bulldogs.

With the scored tied at 38, Georgia had the ball near midfield, when Michel had the football pop out after a big hit by Caleb Kelly, which Steven Parker picked up and rumbled 46 yards for the go-ahead score.

Georgia had one final chance to with 3:30 to play.

Quarterback Jake Fromm made the sure the Bulldogs would make the most of it, driving his team 59 yards on seven plays, including a key 16-yard pass to Terry Godwin before the Bulldogs capped off by a 2-yard run by Nick Chubb out of the Wildcat with 55 seconds left to play.

But the Bulldog defense held.

After Mayfield completed a 12-yard pass for an initial first down, Georgia’s defense forced a punt with 17 seconds left sending the game into OT.

"I think when you've got 1 and 27 it makes it a little more doable. You've got 6 and fives outside and some good people around him. But Jake continues to grow as a player. He puts us in the right play," Smart said of Fromm, who completed 20 of 29 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns. "He makes good decisions with the ball, he protects the ball. He does a lot of good things, and I'm really proud of his growth. I think the kid has a bright future. As long as you have a good run game and the offensive line creates running lanes for 1 and 27, it's hard to play defense against these two guys. I mean, it's tough."

Color Mayfield impressed with Georgia's freshman QB.

"Obviously, I would have liked to have been on the other side of things, but I was taking in the last moments with my teammates and also trying to find Jake Fromm. You know, the true freshman that led his team to a playoff victory. You don't typically see that," Mayfield said. "He's an incredible player. You can tell he commands his offense and he has respect of his teammates. For me, that's about the greatest character trait you could have. Just told him to go win the whole thing. Got a lot of respect for him and keep working hard.

"For him, I think the sky's the limit."

You like offense? Then this was the game for you.

Both team combined for over 1,000 yards, with Chubb and Michel rushing for 145 and 181 yards respectively. Michel accounted for four of Georgia's touchdowns, scoring on runs of 75, 38 and 27 yards while catching a 13-yard pass for six from Fromm.

Chubb added a pair of touchdowns himself on runs of 50 and 2 yards.

Mayfield, meanwhile, completed 23 of 35 passes for 287 yards for Oklahoma which got 201 rushing yards from Rodney Anderson.

However, that wasn't the story in the second half as the Bulldogs held Mayfield to just 87 yards passing in the second half.

"It was just the halftime adjustments, we had to come in, we knew we were going to face adversity throughout the game," linebacker Roquan Smith said. "We had to make those adjustments and just come out and play with a little more passion."

The Bulldogs would need every one.

Trailing 31-17 at the half, Georgia’s defense did what it had to do, stopping the Sooners on their opening possession, forcing a punt that Mecole Hardman returned to the 50-yard line.

All it took from there was a handoff to Chubb, who broke a myriad of tackles for a touchdown on the Bulldogs’ first play, drawing Georgia within seven points.

Georgia wasn’t done.

Tying the game on Michel’s touchdown, a 38-yard run, before safety Dominick Sanders made the play of his career, picking off Mayfield with a return to the 5-yard line.

Two plays later, Fromm hit Javon Wims for the 5-yard touchdown and a 38-31 Bulldog lead with 13:57 to play.

The Sooners, however, weren’t about to lie down.

Oklahoma roared back, tying the game at 38 on a six-play, 80-yard drive with Mayfield hitting Dimitri Flowers in the back of end zone for an 11-yard scoring play.

Mayfield and company were everything they were built up to be.

By the time the second quarter had ended, the Sooners had already piled up 360 yards of offense, to 291 for the Bulldogs.

It wasn’t all due to Mayfield.

Oklahoma’s Anderson rushed 13 times for 125 yards and two scores, including one on a 45-yard run.

Of course, Mayfield played a huge role, too.

The Heisman Trophy winner certainly did his part, completing 13 of 18 passes for 200 yards and one touchdown, but he showed he also knew how to catch the ball as well, when he snagged a 2-yard pass from wide receiver CeeDee Lamb with six seconds to play until half.

That made the score 31-14 with just six second left, but amazingly that was still time for Georgia to get points on the board after the Sooners failed to execute a squib kick which up-man Tae Crowder recovered at midfield.

Following a 9-yard pass to Godwin, out trotted Rodrigo Blankenship to squeak in a 55-yard field goal – a Rose Bowl record – to make the halftime score 31-17.

Michel accounted for both of Georgia’s first half touchdowns, first on a 13-yard catch to tie the game at 7 before ripping off a 75-yard gallop enabling the Bulldogs to close to within 21-14 with 14 minutes remaining in the second quarter.

Fromm finished the first half by completing 12 of 12 passes for 109 yards and the touchdown toss to Michel.

"I really just think the emotion in the players settled down and played with a little more discipline and a little more passion and energy. It wasn't like there was a magic sprinkle dust. We called the same defenses we called in the first half. We just played them better," Smart said. "We didn't even get them to third down in the first half, I don't think, once. It's not indicative of who we are, and we've got to do a better job as coaches to put our players in a successful situation, and that's my most disappointing thing that I didn't do a good job."