Better, but not Best

Aaron Murray, God Love Him.

Did he lift the monkey from him back?  Hard to say for me.  To call Murray's performance yesterday a good one, I'd have to have one less eye and a Disney-Dawg's heart.  I will, however, give him credit where it is due.  Mike Bobo put the game in his hands in the fourth quarter.  We were only up by one, y'all.  We were holding on by one little point and Bobo decided to go with the passing game.  He picked the guy who had already tossed three interceptions to go out and win the game for us.  He decided that Florida may gang up on the run, and so the throws would be there.  Bobo bet on Murray....

and Bobo won.  So did Georgia.

Unlike previous big-game performances, Aaron Murray looked great on the final drive.  Of course, that was largely due to Malcolm Mitchell's clutch catch-and-run.

Did we get lucky with a penalty?  Yup.  Did fortune shine on us with an instant replay overturn?  It did.  Still, the final big throw had to be made.  Murray had to throw a back-shoulder pass (his specialty) to a receiver running a stop-route against tight man coverage.  In the past, Murray might have let that moment overtake him.  He might have sailed the ball over Mitchell's head.  He might have thrown it too far inside, and had the ball picked by Purifoy.

Not this time.

No, this time Murray made the throw.  He overcame three first-half interceptions.  He overcame a couple of big drops by his receivers.  He stood in the face of the blitz and tossed a pass that put his receiver in a position to break the game open with an amazing run.

The final statline is not impressive.  50% completion for 150 yards, 3 interceptions and 1 touchdown.

But, the one touchdown was a huge one.  When Aaron Murray absolutely had to make a throw, he made a hell of a throw...and Georgia won as the result.

Like I said, I don't know that the monkey is off his back....but it looks like the thing's grip is pretty damn strained.  The good news?  We should see the other Aaron Murray for the rest of the season...  you know, the one that plays amazing against bad defenses.  And maybe...just maybe, he'll prove to be the SEC's best in the SEC title game.

Go Dawgs!