Jan. 2, 2018, 6 p.m.

The thousands of Georgians out west the past couple don’t know how cold it’s been back home.

They don’t care.

And after Monday night, those who huddled up while the temperatures approached the teens weren’t very worried.

After all, the heat of the Rose Bowl reached all the way across country to a frigid Peach State.

We did have to sit through another TV broadcast of hemming and hawing about The True Freshman Quarterback, with seemingly every incompletion chalked up to Jake Fromm being a True Freshman Quarterback.

He did what he does, what he’s done whether it’s Richmond Academy or Notre Dame.

Yes, Broadcastcomtwits, he can throw deep.

Yes, Broadcastcomtwits, he makes the right reads.

Yes, Broadcastcomtwits, he understands the playbook, and did so before the season started.

Now put down the hair spray and move on.

I thought Fromm would get more called runs, and fully expected one at any given clutch time late in the fourth quarter, because it was wide, wide open much of the game.

He was sacked twice for losses of 18 yards, and otherwise gained 5 yards on four mini-scrambles.

Fromm’s little Tebowesque scramble-and-flip pass to Sony Michel for 17 yards inside the final 2:30 should shut people up for this final game.

It won’t, but it should.

I'd argue his intentional grounding pass in the fourth quarter was a little something extra, too.

Amazing was the fact that Georgia won despite D’Andre Swift having almost no impact, clearly the last time we’ll see that for the next few years.

One wouldn’t have expected Georgia to get as gashed as it was, although lucid folks knew the Sooners would be able to have offensive success. Not to the tune of 201 yards on 26 carries for Rodney Anderson.

One man’s pregame column hit some points.

Fromm, as has been hammered home here all season, was fine. Comfortable. Almost chillin’. He didn’t get much chance to throw downfield, with a long completion of only 21 yards.

But that – as unwritten but expected – helped with a ball-control offense. The game plan will likely change a bit for Alabama, which is more dominating with the front seven and a better tackling team.

Speaking of which, as predicted, tackling is the best way to slow down a run game. Neither the Bulldogs nor Sooners will earn too many gold stars for tackling in a game where three running backs teamed to carry the ball 51 times for 528 yards, an average of 10.4 yards a carry.

Oklahoma missed some chances to tackle by being nowhere near the ballcarrier. A couple times, the only person to touch a Georgia running back was the person handing them the ball.

I didn’t think we’d have so many points in regulation, and the 37-31 pick was looking pretty good, except for the fact it was 38-31 with a full 13:57 left in the game.

That score did hold for all of about five minutes

Many of us were wrong about the layoff favoring defenses over offense. Whew boy, were we wrong about that, along with concerns about Baker Mayfield’s health.

As it was, yes, in a shootout, defense won it.

The last first-half field goal aside, Georgia held OU to a three-and-out to open the third quarter, and the Bulldogs scored on their first play. The teams exchanged three-and-outs, and Georgia forced another punt after two first downs, boosted by two sacks for 8-yard losses each.

Thus, defense at least stabilized the momentum and put it in the middle, until the Bulldogs followed with a 6-play, 71-yard scoring drive to tie the game in the final minute of the third.

More defense? Sure.

Georgia followed the Sooners’ scoop and score with a three-and-out that took up less than two minutes, Oklahoma up 45-38 and taking over on its 23 with 5:16 left.

All Oklahoma needed was three first downs, maybe, and today is a very, very different day.

Anderson got 5, then Mayfield 2, and then D’Andre Walker and Tyler Clark stopped Anderson for nothing, forcing a fourth-and-3 punt with a little more than three minutes left.

Plenty of time for The True Freshman Quarterback, who it was foretold here was likely to be a game-changer.

The Bulldogs’ drive to remember started on their 41 with 3:22 left. Fromm found Terry Godwin and Michel for 15 and 17, then Godwin for 16 on third and 10. Shortly thereafter, Chubb went in from the 2 and Rodrigo Blankenship tied it.

More defense? Of course.

The Sooners had 55 seconds left and began on their 25. The reality is that all they needed was probably 35 yards for the chance to kick a game-winning 52-yard field goal. Oklahoma’s Austin Seibert was 3 for 5 from 40-49 yards and 1 for 1 on 50-plus, hitting a 51-yarder against West Virginia.

In a game of 1,000 yards, how hard could 35 or 40 be, with time and timeouts?

Didn’t happen.

Georgia gave up a first down, and then 8 yards on second down, getting an incompletion on third down and forcing a fourth-and-2 punt.

Defense. We’ll remember all the offense, but the defense deserves more of a high-five than people think.

If a national championship game can be anticlimactic …

And let’s say Alabama wins, which won’t be a surprise. This year. The Tide remain on atop the mountain.

But rest assured, Alabama hears footsteps. Or, pawsteps.

No matter, the first day of 2018 is one millions in this state, and around the country, won’t forget for a good, long time.