ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray says he has yet to move past what occurred in the closing seconds of the SEC championship game, when the Bulldogs' hopes for an upset of Alabama and a chance at a national title died at the Crimson Tide's 5-yard line.

"I can't sleep at night," Murray said Wednesday in his first interview since the 32-28 loss to Alabama on Dec. 1. "I literally replay the entire game pretty much every night before I go to bed. It's stressful. It's a game that will probably haunt me the rest of my life, honestly."

The decision leading up to the final play itself has been the subject of much debate inside and outside the Georgia program in the ensuing 11 days. With Georgia out of timeouts, the Bulldogs opted to throw to the end zone instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock and instead running a well-worn play they call "stout" that features dual fade routes from the outside receivers and speed outs by the two inside receivers.

Murray threw a back-shoulder fade to Malcolm Mitchell -- who faced tight coverage from Alabama cornerback Dee Milliner -- in the right flank, and he has little doubt what would have happened had the ball made it to its intended target.

"Oh, it's a touchdown," Murray said. "It's a 50-50 ball, and the guy's facing Malcolm and Malcolm's supposed to just go up and catch the ball. It's not like the guy's facing me where he could have made a play on it. He would have had to, when Malcolm had his hands on the ball, had to strip it out of his hands. So it would have been up to Malcolm to make the play."

There is one problem for Murray in this scenario that prevented what might have happened from becoming a reality. Crimson Tide linebacker C.J. Mosley stopped his late pass rush, threw up his hands and got his fingertips on the line-drive pass. The deflected ball floated into Georgia receiver Chris Conley's hands, and he caught the ball inbounds before slipping to the turf at the 5.

The Bulldogs could do nothing as the final seconds ticked off the clock, securing Alabama's win and a chance for the Tide to meet No. 1 Notre Dame on Jan. 7 in the Discover BCS National Championship Game.

There was more than enough regret to go around after the narrow defeat, but the Bulldogs don't think they made the wrong decision to go for a touchdown instead of stopping the clock in the waning seconds. What they regret is the outcome -- aside from a turnover, the worst-case scenario in such a situation -- that Mosley's deflection brought about.

"Part of going no-huddle is when you have the defense on the run, you snap the ball again. You don't need to stop play. Play was stopped because we had a first down," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "With 15 seconds, strategically if you are able to call a play and it's incomplete, you have time for two more plays. You can run three plays. You want to give yourself as many opportunities as you can.