NEW ORLEANS - Georgia's Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame didn't shock Kirby Smart.
Smart had full confidence in his team. But given that the Bulldogs shot themselves in the foot time and time again, their head coach didn't view the 23-10 final score as a surprise in his postgame press conference.
"When you have two turnovers and a kickoff return for a touchdown, that’s what happens," Smart said. "The turnovers are the difference in the game, guys. It's not an exact science. I mean, you should know when you turn it over twice and they return a kickoff for a touchdown, you're not going to have a lot of success.”
Indeed, Georgia lost the turnover battle 2-0 to a Notre Dame team that entered the game plus-16 in turnover margin for the season.
The first critical error came on Georgia's second possession.
With Georgia facing third-and-1 on the Notre Dame 16, running back Trevor Etienne fumbled as he got hit behind the line. The Fighting Irish fell on the ball, turning away Georgia's first scoring threat.
"That's one of the things we knew that there was really no room for error coming into this game. Those turnovers were critical," Etienne said. "He made a great play on the ball. He put his helmet right on the ball, knocked it loose, great play by him, tip my hat to those guys. They played really hard and physical tonight."
Georgia started its next possession with a 67-yard pass from quarterback Gunner Stockton to Arian Smith. But a sideline interference penalty on the Bulldogs moved the ball from the 11 to the 26.
The Bulldogs still got a field goal out of the drive, but they were denied the opportunity of having the ball just outside of the 10.
"They said a coach but I think it was a player, from what I've been told — in the white, and the white is reserved for the officials," Smart said. "That's a safety concern. Most of the time, they'll grant you a warning on that; but it was not a -- it was a situation where it cost us 15 yards. We still had first-and-10 and didn't take advantage of it. But, again, I call those things undisciplined, self-imposed wounds that you lose momentum on. So, it’s just something you can't have happen.”
The Bulldogs then saw Stockton strip-sacked in the closing minute of the first half. The second turnover set up a Notre Dame touchdown that made it 13-3 at halftime.
Smart said the Bulldogs wanted to be aggressive in a game where they trailed. Instead of tying the game, however, Georgia created a double-digit halftime hole.
"I mean, I just didn't play with the greatest technique, to be honest," said offensive lineman Monroe Freeling who appeared to be beaten on the play. "I mean, really at the end of the day, it just comes down to technique."
But the offense isn't the only group who made vital mistakes.
Looking to recapture momentum to begin the second half, Georgia instead gave up a 98-yard kickoff return touchdown. That was the first kickoff return touchdown allowed by the Bulldogs since 2018. Notre Dame took a 20-3 lead 15 seconds into the second half.
"We had an unblocked player that missed a tackle," Smart said. "Usually when that happens, you give the other team credit, but it's not a mistake. We just missed the tackle, right? And when you don't play for a while, sometimes you miss tackles. We had leverage on the ball, and we had somebody that couldn't get him on the ground. And that’s what football is. It's fundamentals and tackling. We tackle him there, then we got a chance to stop them."
The defense played well for the majority of the game. But the Bulldogs jumped offsides on a fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter after Notre Dame rushed its offense on in place of the punt team.
"They wanted us to burn a timeout there and try to do it. And we subbed," Smart said. "So it's really unfortunate, because I've been told by our head of officials in the SEC that you can't do that. You can't run 11 on, 11 off. We did it in 2017 against Tennessee. We've carried that. We practiced that and repped that because teams try to do it, and we were told by officials you could not do that. And so we were trying to say you couldn't do it. We got our defense out there. We were fine. I mean, I would have gone for it if I was them. I don't think they were planning on going for it. They were going to hard-count us. We prepare for that."
All these mistakes came with Stockton making his first career start. Stockton played fairly well, completing 20-of-32 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown.
But in the end, the untimely mistakes were too much for the Bulldogs to overcome.
"With a loss, it always is like, what could I do better?" Etienne said. "What can I do to help this team out? What could I have done?"
