NEW ORLEANS - Notre Dame beat Georgia 23-10 in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday afternoon. Here is what Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said after the victory in the College Football Playoff.

"I've been reminding them the last ten days as we prepared, this will be a 60-plus-minute fight. Georgia's been down in nine games this year, and they find a way to come back and win. And so, they had that mentality. Our coaches called the game aggressive. Our players executed, put everything on the line for this university and this football team. And I'm really proud of them."

On if playing in the first round helped Notre Dame in this game: "No. I don't. I think whatever circumstances you're given, you make the most of them. And if we would have had a first-round bye, I would have been the first one to say, Hey, this is great for us. We didn't. It's great for us. We are always a glass-half-full group. And whatever circumstances are thrown at us, we're going to take advantage of it and prepare and maximize the opportunity ahead of us. And so, that's what they did."

On the fourth-down decision in the fourth quarter: "That situation that happened in the fourth quarter was something we practiced. And I think the performance was a reflection of that. We had a lot of confidence in the ability to be able to do that, and we had a plan. And that's the aggressiveness in terms of our preparation that I want our program to have, and again, out there when it matters the most. And so, that's got to be one of our edges, is that we are going to be an aggressive group and not fear making mistakes."

On the keys to success for the defense: "We had three keys to victory on defense, and number one was to stop the run. And we didn't believe that we could lose this game by passing yards, but we could lose if we don't stop the run. And the defense did an amazing job at stopping the run. And that put them in some difficult third down situations. And then another key to victory was takeaways. And the defense got two takeaways, a couple turnovers on downs, which were huge. They were relentless."