Being a one-loss team in the SEC doesn’t end your chances of going to the BCS championship game if you can win the conference. However, Georgia find themselves in quite a lot of trouble with a too tight win over Tennessee, and Aaron Murray losing playmakers around him and not having much left to play with.
Georgia managed to escape Tennessee with a 34-31 win, improving to 4-1 this season an 3-0 in SEC play. However, having Todd Gurley sit out the entire game and Keith Marshall end it on crutches wasn’t a good sign for things to come, and there’s only so much Aaron Murray can do on his own with an offense that looks a lot less impressive all of a sudden, not to mention the injuries plaguing the defense as well.
Murray wasn’t very sharp at 19-of-35, but he did throw for 3 touchdown passes, including two in the fourth quarter, and one huge pass to Rantavious Wooten with only 5 seconds left on the clock, setting up overtime, which Georgia won thanks to Marshall Morgan, who did miss one field goal during the game, but also started hit by hitting a 56-yarder.
It’s not like Georgia aren’t deep enough at running back to provide some sort of cover for Gurley and Marshall. J.J. Green ran for 129 yards, as the Freshman enjoyed the biggest game of his career. Even Murray ran quite well, going off for 53 yards on three carries. Tennessee aren’t good enough, which makes it kind of sad considering how big this program was about a decade ago, to make the most of so many injuries to the Bulldogs.
A lot of guys went down today and that hurts a lot. We hit a lot of adversity all day long and we had to push through it, find guys to step up and guys stepped up, made some big plays for us. I’m not really in the celebrating mood so much, just thankful to escape here with a victory considering what happened.
Despite the win, Mark Richt isn’t happy. Not just because what this close win could mean in terms of voters moving Georgia down a spot or two (in favor of Florida State, possibly?), but after already losing his top receiver, Malcolm Mitchell, in the opening game of the season to Clemson, his faith and trust in head trainer Ron Courson might be at an all-time low. His defense giving up over 30 points for the fourth time this season wasn’t a cause for celebration as well.
Georgia have the offense, when everyone is healthy, to be the best in the nation. However, as their injuries continue to pile up, it’s getting harder and harder to think they won’t mess up somewhere along the way from here to the SEC East championship game. This year, with so many teams still going strong and undefeated, not to mention the unbeatable beast from Alabama, it might mean that a season opening-loss to Clemson, before we get to touch on the injuries on both sides of the ball, doomed Georgia’s chances of going to the title game, and all they did later on was for naught.