2022 Peach Bowl

The 2022 Peach Bowl (officially known as the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl for sponsorship reasons) was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 2022, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The game was the 55th annual playing of the Peach Bowl, one of the two semifinals of the 2022–23 College Football Playoff (CFP), and was one of the bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. The game began at approximately 8:00 p.m. EST and aired on ESPN. It featured two of the four teams chosen by the selection committee to participate in the playoff: the Georgia Bulldogs from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Ohio State Buckeyes from the Big Ten Conference. The winner qualified for the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship against the winner of the other semifinal, hosted at the Fiesta Bowl.

Georgia entered the game as SEC champions with an undefeated 13–0 record, while Ohio State entered 11–1. The Bulldogs had defeated LSU in the SEC Championship, while Ohio State failed to qualify for the Big Ten title game following their loss to Michigan to conclude the regular season. This was the second meeting between Georgia and Ohio State; the first was a Georgia win in the 1993 Florida Citrus Bowl. The game marked Georgia's second CFP appearance in two years—they entered as the defending national champions after their victory in the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship—and it was their third appearance overall. Ohio State made their fifth CFP appearance, having won the inaugural CFP national championship game. The game was Ohio State's debut in the Peach Bowl, while Georgia made their seventh all-time appearance.

The game's first quarter saw each team score a touchdown, and Ohio State scored two more to begin the second quarter, giving them a 21–7 lead. Seventeen unanswered points by Georgia—two touchdowns and a field goal—gave them a three-point lead but a 37-yard pass from quarterback C. J. Stroud to wide receiver Xavier Johnson with forty-nine seconds remaining in the second quarter gave Ohio State a 28–24 lead entering halftime. The Buckeyes scored ten unanswered points to begin the second half on an Emeka Egbuka touchdown and a Noah Ruggles field goal; these were the only scoring plays of the third quarter. The fourth quarter began with Georgia scoring ten unanswered points of their own, bringing them within three; another Ruggles field goal pushed Ohio State's lead to six points with 2:43 remaining in the contest. Georgia retook the lead, 42–41, with fifty-four seconds left on a pass from Stetson Bennett to Adonai Mitchell. Ohio State's ensuing drive resulted in a 50-yard field goal attempt, which was missed wide left. The potential game-winning field goal was missed almost exactly as new year began, leading many Georgia fans to call it the "Midnight Miracle".^[1][2] The game ended with a quarterback kneel and Georgia won the game, earning them a berth in the national championship.