ATLANTA — The term “game of inches” has been attached to college football since at least 1941, when it was attributed to Illinois coach Bob Zuppke. More than eight decades later, on the final night of the year 2022, that aphorism was more relevant than ever.

Inches. Seconds. The razor’s edge that can separate victory and defeat. Enough of those tiny margins of time and distance broke Georgia’s way for the reigning national champion Bulldogs to defeat Ohio State, 42–41, in an all-time classic Peach Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal.

It was that close. That tense. That dramatic.

“My heart goes out to those guys,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said of Ohio State. “They played well enough to win. We played well enough to win, too. Just well enough.”

Smart was just quick enough calling a crucial timeout in the fourth quarter before an Ohio State fake punt on fourth-and-1 that was successful—if the ball had been snapped in time. Smart said he recognized that the Buckeyes were not in their traditional punt alignment and signaled timeout to the official, without help from his assistants on the headset. The head coach’s headset has three channels he can toggle between—offense, defense and special teams—and Smart was on the defensive channel coming out of that defensive series. “They were saying something on the special teams line, but I wasn’t on that line,” Smart said. But in the end he didn’t need the help—a Smart play indeed.

Tight end Brock Bowers was just athletic enough to keep his body off the ground and stretch for a first down to keep a fourth-quarter drive alive on replay review, when he had been ruled short. “Brock was pretty dumbfounded,” quarterback Stetson Bennett IV said. Georgia had to settle for a field goal three plays later, but it turned out to be a vital three points.

Defensive back Javon Bullard was just legal enough with a devastating hit on Marvin Harrison Jr., that was originally called targeting before being overturned, preventing a touchdown and knocking the superstar wide receiver out for the rest of the game. That hit prevented Ohio State from taking a three-score lead at the end of the third quarter.

If any of those three plays go the other way in a one-point game, it’s likely that the Buckeyes pull the upset and are playing TCU for the national championship next week. Instead, Georgia was inches and seconds better. The best day in CFP history teetered for the longest time toward two startling upsets, after the Horned Frogs took down Michigan in a wild shootout, but ultimately the ‘Dogs made every inch count.

In the end, Bennett was just good enough to erase several earlier mistakes and lead another clutch fourth-quarter Playoff comeback, having etched his name into school lore last year with a rally to beat Alabama for the national championship. As was the case then against the Crimson Tide, Bennett’s miscues were part of what put his team in a deficit.

“I felt like there was a 30-minute period where I just played bad football,” Bennett said. He took some bad sacks, made some risky throws, and at one point threw a lateral while in the Red Zone that Ladd McConkey had to fall on for a big loss, turning a touchdown drive into a field goal.

“Freaking, I threw a lateral,” Bennett said in the postgame press conference, and next to him Smart closed his eyes for several seconds, painfully reliving that bad moment. “Stupid.”

But once again, the undersized former walk-on, who is one of the great Cinderella stories in the sport’s history, rose to the occasion under incredible pressure and delivered. This game, like several others, was a microcosm of his career—just when Georgia fans were ready to give up on him, just when the general public was writing him off, he found a way.

“It kind of frees you up,” Bennett said of the do-or-die stakes the ‘Dogs faced. “You’ve got to. Otherwise, we’re going to lose.”

Trailing 38–24 heading into the fourth quarter, Bennett led three consecutive scoring drives to pull the game out of the fire. On those final three possessions, with his six-year college career hanging in the balance, Bennett completed 12-of-14 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns. That’s the stuff of legends, pushing him further into the improbable realm of great Georgia quarterbacks. At a school that has had plenty of them, none has accomplished what Bennett has done.

The final drive was perfection: Bennett completed five straight passes, working the middle of the field to drive Georgia to the Ohio State 10-yard line, then firing an out route to Adonai Mitchell for the touchdown. It was Bennett-to-Mitchell for the go-ahead TD against Alabama last year as well.

Bennett described the mindset of the final drive: “It’s in our hands now. Defense stood up whenever we needed them to. Where else would you rather be? Having the ball with two minutes left and if you score, you win the game. I looked around and there was just a whole bunchy of determined, strong stares from all the dudes.”

Except Georgia still didn’t have the game won after scoring the go-ahead touchdown. Bennett guided the Bulldogs downfield so efficiently and quickly that they left 54 seconds on the clock for Ohio State and its own brilliant quarterback, C.J. Stroud, to have a last crack at it.

Stroud drove the Buckeyes to the Georgia 31-yard line, whereupon Ryan Day made a bad decision on a night when he coached a great game. He ran the ball on first down, a conservative call, instead of trying to push further into field-goal range for kicker Noah Ruggles. In the end, Ruggles was left with a 50-yard attempt—and he came into the game 0-for-4 in his career from 50 yards or farther. Now he’s sadly 0-for-5 after hooking the kick wide left, not close.

Running back Kenny McIntosh, who had 126 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown, was watching the climactic kick from right where the ball was snapped. When he saw it veering left, “I dropped to my knees, right then and there. Then I ran on the field.”

On the sideline, Bennett was again reduced to tears by the emotion of the moment. Last year, when Kelee Ringo made a clinching pick-six interception return, he broke down. This time, Bennett sobbed anew before taking the field for a final kneel down.

That final play happened at 12:01 a.m., on New Year’s Day 2023. The guy taking the knee is 25 years old, and began his college career in 2017. His labyrinthine trail to hero status wound through a transfer to a junior college, then a return to Georgia, then several benchings as Smart kept looking for a better QB. Turns out he had a national champion on the roster all along—and now perhaps a two-time champ.

After being awarded the Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the game, Bennett exited the podium and was inundated with one well-wisher after another as he tried to make his way off the field to the Georgia locker room. Finally, he grabbed the back of an offensive lineman and asked him to be his lead blocker.

Once he got in the clear, Bennett began running—left hand in the air saluting the Bulldogs fans, able to rejoice in a moment that came so close to slipping away. The inches and the seconds were on Georgia’s side Saturday night, and the ‘Dogs needed all of them.