ATHENS - Aaron Murray's performance against ranked teams (two wins, seven losses) has been debated in some quarters. I did a story on it for Sunday's papers, and you can read it here.

Along the way, I examined his performance and stats in those games. Here's what I found:

First, I broke down each of those seven losses, and assessed how much the quarterback was at fault: Three games, I decided, could be closely pinned on Murray, three were not his fault at all, and one (Boise State) was kind of in between. I took into account not only his stats, but whether and when he fumbled,  the running game, how the defense performed, etc.

Now here are Murray's stats against ranked teams, including those two victories:

2010
No. 24 South Carolina: 14-21, 192 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 3 sacks, six rushes for minus-15 yards
No. 12. Arkansas: 15-27, 243 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 6 sacks, 14 rushes for nine yards (1 TD)
No. 2 Auburn: 15-28, 273 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, 3 sacks, six rushes for minus-4 yards

2011
No. 5 Boise State: 16-29, 236 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT, 6 sacks, seven rushes for minus-33 yards
No. 12 South Carolina: 19-29, 248 yards, 4 TD, 1 INT, 4 sacks, six rushes for 19 yards
No. 24 Auburn: 14-18, 224 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT, 3 sacks, nine rushes for 21 yards
No. 17 Georgia Tech: 19-29, 252 yards, 4 TD, 1 INT, 1 sack, eight rushes for 11 yards
No. 1 LSU: 16-40, 163 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, 4 sacks, eight rushes for minus-five yards
No. 12 Michigan State: 20-32, 288 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 4 sacks, eight rushes for minus-13 yards

Therefore:

Murray's stats vs. ranked teams (nine games): 148-253 (.584), 2,119 yards (235.4 per game), 17 TD, 9 INT, 34 sacks, 72 rushes for minus-10 yards, 1 rushing TD

Murray's stats vs. unranked teams (18 games): 299-492 (.607), 4,079 (226.6), 42 TD, 13 INT, 22 sacks, 102 rushes for 288 yards, 5 TD

The two conclusions I draw:

- Murray has been guilty of some key mistakes, such as in the South Carolina and Michigan State losses last year.

- But overall, when Murray has blocking and the ability to use his feet, he gets the job done. The disparity in the sacks and his rushing yardage bears that out.