Kirby Smart had some tough answers for the hard questions he was dealt after Georgia’s 23-10 Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame.

Smart attributed the Bulldogs’ loss to two turnovers and Notre Dame’s 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown on Thursday night at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

There was plenty of room for second-guessing along with a question about a rules interpretation, which Smart steadfastly said may have been called incorrectly.

Georgia out-gained Notre Dame 296 yards to 244, but untimely mistakes and lack of execution gave the Irish the momentum they needed to win the game.

The big plycalling second-guess was Georgia’s decision to attempt to drive for a score -- rather than running the time out in the first half -- after taking over the ball with 39 seconds left from its own 25-yard line down 6-3.

Georgia called for Gunner Stockton to drop back on a called pass play that led to a turnover, which the Irish converted into a touchdown a 13-3 halftime lead.

“Typically when you’re down, you need every possession you can have, and we made a decision that we were going to be aggressive and we were going to try to go 2-minute (offense), and that’s what everything say.s you should do,” Smart said, perhaps referring to metrics.

“We don’t play passive here, we play to be aggressive and we’re trying to go score.”

The rules interpretation is one that will likely be talked about more in the coming days, and Smart will surely seek more clarity.

Specifically, Smart said, he has been under the impression that teams cannon substitute 11 players for 11 players, as Notre Dame did from their own 18-yard line on a fourth-and-1 with 7:17 left.

The Bulldogs were down 23-10, but when they were drawn offsides after what Smart believes was an illegal substitution, it enabled the Irish to run another nine plays are more than five minutes off the clock, essentially sealing the game.

“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,” Smart said, referring to an instance where UGA attempted to do that against Tennessee in 2017.

“I’d have gone for it if I was them, I don’t think they were planning on going for it, they were going hard count us, and we prepared for that, we do it every week, and we jumped offisides,” he said. “But we also were told you couldn’t do that in our league.”

Smart also noted two judgment calls that went Notre Dame’s way on Georgia’s opening possession when Irish defender Bryce Young collided with punter Drew Miller on consecutive plays

The penalties were called as running into the kicker — a 5- yard penalty, rather than roughing the kicker, which is a 15-yard penalty and first down.

“They have two roughing the kickers that were running into the kickers, that’s a subjective call,” Smart said of the calls leading to a change of possession. “Those could be first downs.”

Smart said the 15-yard penalty called for sideline interference that backed UGA up from the Notre Dame 11 to the 26, leading to UGA’s second quarter field goal, also could have been called differently.

“Very unfortunate, I think it was a player (standing) in the white area — and the white is reserved for the officials, it’s a safety issue,” Smart said. “Most of the time they’ll grant you a warning on that.

“I call those things undisciplined, self-imposed wounds that you lose momentum on, and it’s something you can’t have happen.”

Smart reiterated throughout his postgame press conference that Georgia’s two turnovers and the touchdown Notre Dame scored on the opening kickoff of the second half were the main reasons the Bulldogs lost the game.

“The turnovers were the difference in the game guys, it’s not an inexact science,” Smart said. “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.”