SEC Championship Game Reaction

There are no moral victories in major college football, and certainly not in a championship game.

Georgia came up just short on Saturday night in what can only be described as a classic college football game.  Now, Alabama will go on to play for the National Title, and Georgia will wait to see how far they fall down the SEC's bowl tie-ins.

As for the game itself, I was shocked at the poise shown by Georgia.  Both teams played well in the first half, but it almost seemed like a warm half rather than an indication of how the rest of the game was going to be played.  The third quarter was amazing.  Georgia scores a touchdown to take the 14-10 lead, then blocks the punt and returns it for a touchdown to take the 21-10 lead.  I'm not going to lie, when the punt was blocked, I didn't think the game was over, but I thought this was going to be our night.  It just seemed like things were going Georgia's way.

Bama answered as you would expect them to.  They battled back to take the lead at 25-21, and I think most Georgia fans probably figured this is where things would go astray for the Dawgs.

However, Georgia answered back and took the lead 28-25, and showed that they were capable of making a touchdown drive when they had to have it.  Bama got their one big pass play of the game when they needed it the most to take the lead 32-28, and now, surely, the Dawgs would falter.

Georgia's offense went three and out, seemingly ending the game.  All Alabama had to do was get one first down, and the game was over.  Alabama had been running all over Georgia, so surely they could  run for one first down right? Wrong.

When they had to do it to save the season, Georgia's defense managed to stop Alabama one last time and give Aaron Murray a chance to win the game.  The next minute plus of football almost seemed like a blur.  Completion after completion, with a Gurley first down run tucked in on third down, and all of a sudden Georgia was in Bama territory.  Murray found Arthur Lynch and now Georgia was inside the Bama 10.  Here it is, its going to happen.

I started yelling at the TV for Murray to spike the ball.  But no spike came, Murray's pass was tipped, Connelly did what receivers are trained to do, and the game was over just that quickly.

I think Georgia would have been better served spiking the ball on first down and calling two pass plays into the endzone that you would have had time to run with 14 seconds left.  However, I heard the explanation after the game that Georgia got the play called and Bama's defense wasn't able to substitute  so that is why Georgia didn't spike the ball.  I buy that.

As I said before, it was a fantastic game that didn't end in the way Georgia fans wanted it to.

Anyone who wants Mark Richt, Mike Bobo, or Todd Grantham to be fired, should turn in all of your red and black attire for the gold and blue of Georgia Tech because you are an idiot and you deserve to be miserable watching the triple option.

Anyone who hopes that Aaron Murray goes pro because Georgia would be better off without him, can do the same thing.

I started this post by saying that there are no moral victories, and that is true for the players and the coaches. The one thing that I hope comes out of this loss, is that I hope the fan base finally falls in love with this team.   I feel like the Bulldog Nation is constantly looking for someone to blame when things don't go right, but there is no one to blame after last night's game.  We played great, they played a little better.

There is one criticism that makes sense.  It has taken 12 years for Georgia to have a legitimate shot at the National Championship under Richt.  When you play in the biggest games against the best teams, you are going to lose sometimes, just like Georgia did last night.  The problem is that Georgia needs to be in that position more often.

Still a Dawg through and through, and looking forward to having one more chance to watch the Dawgs play this season.