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SEC Social minute by minute

3:58 pm December 1, 2012, by Michael Cunningham

Update 7:59 Alabama wins 32-28 to capture the SEC Championship and a date with Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship Game. Bulldogs fans were left to wonder a) why quarterback Aaron Murray didn’t spike the ball stop the clock in the final moments and b) why Chris Conley caught that deflected pass instead of letting it drop incomplete and stop the clock.

Update 7:35 Alabama goes up again on AJ McCarron’s 45-yard TD pass to Amari Cooper.

Update 7:29Georgia forced Alabama to punt for first time in second half, but then goes three-and-out. Bama ball at its 45, 6:25 to play.

Update 7:11 Georgia answered Bama’s grinding ground game by going to the air. Aaron Murray had completions 17 and 45 yards and Todd Gurley capped the five-play, 2:03 drive with a 10-yard TD run.

Update 7:04The Crimson Tide are back in the lead, 25-21, after Eddie Lacy’s one-yard TD run. Their strategy has been simple: punish the Bulldogs with a bruising offensive line and pile-driving running backs Lacy and T.J. Yeldon.

“Alabama is running almost at will,” CBS play-by-play man Verne Lundquist said.

On a 32-yard run during the drive Lacy sized up Georgia safety Baccari Rambo, who didn’t appear eager for the collision. “He almost turned down the hit!” CBS color analysts Gary Danielson noted.

Update 6:50 Bulldogs fans hardly had time to think about finally playing for the national championship again game before Alabama answered with T.J. Yeldon’s 10-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion. That drive took only a little more than two minutes.

The Bulldogs had two 15-yard penalties on the drive.

Update 6:38 Cornelius Washington blocks Alabama field-goal attempt, Alec Ogletree returns it 55 yards for a touchdown and Georgia fans nearly break Twitter.

Update 6:25 Georgia takes back lead after freshman running back Todd Gurley muscles in for a three-yard touchdown. Gurley gained 44 of the 75 yards on that drive.

Update 6:18 Good on CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson for pointedly and directly asking Nick Saban at halftime why he didn’t call timeout after AJ McCarron’s scramble. It wasn’t the mealy-mouthed questioning you hear from some sideline reporters. Saban admitted he messed up.

Update 5:53 The Crimson Tide lead 10-7 at halftime after they allowed the clock to run for too long following AJ McCarron’s 22-yard scramble.

Georgia coach Mark Richt, in a halftime interview with CBS reporter Tracy Wolfson, said he’s not concerned about quarterback Aaron Murray’s availability after he took the big hit from Quinton Dial.

Update 5:44Georgia QB Aaron Murray throws an interception and then takes a hard hit to the head from Bama’s Quinton Dial but no penalty is called.

“That should have been a flag,” CBS color analyst Gary Danielson said. “That was unnecessary roughness. It was a hit to the head and it was missed.”

Update 5:39 Eddie Lacy runs 41 yards for a touchdown that ties it at 7-7 two minutes before halftime.

Update 5:23 Georgia holds near goal line when Sanders Commings intercepts a pass by AJ McCarron.

That came after Alabama got a shot for a touchdown on a roughing penalty against Georgia’s Alec Ogletree on third down.

Update 5:10: With Aaron Murray off to a strong start, CBS color analyst Gary Danielson talked about Murray’s decision to avoid interviews in the week before the game.

“He decided this week, ‘I don’t want to talk to the press,’” Danielson said. “Now when you do that people say, what’s the deal? I don’t care. I don’t care if he ever talks to us. He wanted to zero in on his game plan.”

Update 5:02 Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray throws a 19-yard touchdown pass to Jay Rome for a 7-0 lead.

Update 4:58 The Bulldogs pull off a fake punt after Alabama had one negated by a delay of game penalty in the first quarter.

Update 4:56The score is 0-0 after a quarter. It’s the first scoreless opening quarter in SEC Championship Game history.

Update 4:38: Georgia’s freshman kicker, Marshall Morgan, missed a 50-yard field goal try. That’s not exactly a chippy but Morgan is being judged harshly on Twitter.

In this space will monitor Twitter and the CBS telecast for the SEC Championship game today between Georgia and Alabama. Check back here for updates during the game.

The first Twitter storm erupted earlier today when Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan went on ESPN’s “College Football Game Day” and picked the Crimson Tide to beat the Bulldogs. As you might expect, that didn’t go over well with Dawgs fans. In the two hours or so following his pick, Ryan was trending on Twitter in Atlanta–and not in a good way:

As you can tell from that last tweet, Ryan also picked Georgia Tech to upset Florida State in the ACC Championship game. So there were some appreciative tweets from Tech fans on Ryan’s Twitter mentions along with the vitriol from Bulldogs supporters.

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14 comments Add your comment

rady

December 1st, 2012
7:50 pm

Mark Richt just sucks

Gator Dude

December 1st, 2012
8:02 pm

Ha Ha Ha Hey dawgs what a wasted season, you beat us and you STILL end up going to toilet bowl !!!!!!!

BS

December 1st, 2012
8:03 pm

Enter your comments here

BS

December 1st, 2012
8:05 pm

And GA fans called ND overrated ?

BigK

December 1st, 2012
8:14 pm

While is Richt always pulling on his ear?

big perry

December 1st, 2012
8:16 pm

it was not that the tide was better then the dawg it was the tide cocheswas smarting then the dawg.you see your d-line cannot stop the run you run the ball to, first and ten from your on eight you going to throw a 20 yard incompelet pass and come up short on third and one this coching stuff is stuipd then. 15sec left in the game and you do not spike the ball the coching stuff panic no team can be this dump but georgia throw the ball in the endzone please.

Rick

December 1st, 2012
8:19 pm

What sort of leadership is that? Seems that Richt was not sure what to do at the end of the game. Why spike the ball and then actually coach when you can let 20-year-old kids freelance the championship play away? I’m not from GA and don’t care who won, but that was the dumbest coaching decision I have ever seen in my life at any level? Did he think he could really run four plays in ten seconds? UGA’s defense is trash, but Richt did not even live up to his own player’s efforts.

You can say that there were many plays in the game, but you can’t argue that everything rode on that single play when it took place. What a disgrace. It must hurt bad to be a UGA fan. A BCS birth is not certain now. You lost the SEC, a place in the title game, and possibly a BCS birth. But, on a positive note, the nation was hoping for ND and BAMA–the two most historic teams will face off. You made many people happy with your loss.

Whiznot

December 1st, 2012
8:19 pm

Failing to clock the ball was stupid. Catching the ball short was stupid. Has anyone got a brain? Georgia deserved to lose but Saban was just as stupid at the end of the first half. The nation has every right to think the SEC is populated by half-wits.

Rick

December 1st, 2012
8:22 pm

If GA Tech wins, at least there will be one champion in GA tonight. Still something to cheer in GA.

jack

December 1st, 2012
8:23 pm

Georgie got HOSED,,, plain and simple. The networks wanted Bama in the NC game,,vegas wanted Bama to win,,,and they made sure that happened. If you look at the replay of the last play of the game, you will see the BAMA defender plainly holding the UGA receiver that was the intended target of the pass. The official is 5 feet away,, looking right at them and no flag. The flags ONLY came out of the pockets against BAMA twice. And one of those was a meaningless make up call with only 4 minutes left in the game, The best team lost tonight, they deserve better.

BigK

December 1st, 2012
8:25 pm

Enter your comments here

RC

December 1st, 2012
8:33 pm

Game was over when refs. showed that they would not protect Murray and that Bama QB was not to be hit. Simple as that

DaTruth

December 2nd, 2012
9:01 am

Mark Richt needs to go. He is not a confident coach and there is no way UGA can win with a non-confident coach. Mark Richt is another Bobby Cox, a coach surrounded by talent and surrounded by play makers and that is the only reason they make it that far. Too much talent on UGA football teams to come up empty every single year. The constant factor is coach Richt. He is not a champion coach, and until the fans learn to stop making excuses and settling for losing, nothing will change. You have to want to win, where losing is not an option and for Mark Richt losing is an option. After 12 years of great talent and nothing to show for it, it is amazing how little he is bothered by this. Mark Richt’s attitude is to nonchalant and it carries down to his players. No sense of urgency and they don’t play like they want the game. This is what separates men from boys and it comes down to who wants it the most. Mark Richt does not want to win and that’s why they don’t.

Pup lover

December 2nd, 2012
3:56 pm

I BLAME THE REFS! WE THE REAL SEC CHAMPS!!!
GO PUPS FOREVER