Aaron Murray takes big hit after interception (GIF)

Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray is lucky that injury wasn't added to insult. And Alabama is very lucky to have avoided a flag on a hit that leveled Murray in the second quarter of Saturday's SEC championship game.

What happened:

Murray didn't put enough on a throw down the left sideline, leading to an interception by Alabama defensive back Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Dix returned the interception 35 yards to Alabama's 47-yard line, helping the Crimson Tide take a 10-7 lead over Georgia with a short field goal at the end of the first half.

Murray wasn't hit during the throw; he just threw the ball short and inside, rather than deep and to the end zone's front left pylon.

He was, however, leveled after Clinton-Dix's interception turned Alabama's defense from potential tacklers into potential blockers. After Murray began to act like a defender, not a quarterback, Alabama defensive lineman Quinton Dial crushed Georgia's largely unsuspecting team captain.

There's no flag for hitting the quarterback once he begins to make a move towards tackling a ball-carrier, so Dial's in the clear there. But there is a rule against helmet-to-helmet hits, and at the very least, Dial's hit should have drawn a penalty. (At worst, the hit might have drawn a suspension during a regular-season game.)

For Georgia, any anger over the lack of a flag (and there was a referee standing right in front of Murray, looking at the play) is tempered by the fact that Murray wasn't injured. But Alabama might have had trouble adding a field goal had it been penalized 15 yards for Dial's hit.