I watched some of the last part of that Rose Bowl again. Obviously, there were points at which either team could have won it, and something happened.
It went back and forth. Duh. Neither team was obviously better than the other overall, but one team wins. UGA later lost on a last second heave by Tu'a in the NC game that coulda gone the other way.
When you get two closely matched teams competing, it comes down to flukes, bounces of the ball, whatever.