Earlier in the week, I asked former Georgia offensive lineman and current SEC Network analyst Matt Stinchcomb a hypothetical question.

At the time, it seemed fair. I asked the All-American what the narrative would be if Georgia lost to Auburn in the SEC Championship. Would Georgia fans still be saying that their team couldn’t win the big one?

After all, the Dawgs were the best team in America for the first 2 months of the season. Their team won an SEC East title and made a conference championship game for the first time in 5 years. Even with a loss, the Dawgs were likely heading to a New Year’s 6 bowl.

Would a season like that really not be enough to change any Mark Richt-era narrative about the program?

Stinchcomb answered the hypothetical question in simple, but telling fashion.

“The best way to shut a narrative like that up is to win the big one,” he said.

On Saturday, Georgia shut up a whole lot of narratives.

RAPID REACTION: Dawgs gain revenge, trounce Auburn

The Dawgs didn’t collapse when times got tough like they did a few weeks earlier at Auburn. In what was essentially a Playoff quarterfinal, Georgia played arguably its best game of the year.

It cooled off a red-hot Auburn team and did what some thought was impossible. That is, reverse a 23-point outcome. Oh, and win the big one.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

With all due respect to Richt, who had plenty of championship-caliber teams of his own, anybody who watched Georgia in 2017 could’ve told you that this was a different team. This wasn’t a team that merely skated by a lackluster division and earned an SEC Championship bid the way Florida did the past 2 years.

All year, Georgia was Alabama East. Well, it wasn’t for one day. But take away that brutal afternoon in hostile Jordan-Hare Stadium (could anyone have beaten Auburn that day?), and the Dawgs have been as big-time as it gets.

Many fell back to stale Georgia narratives after that game. It was easy to forget that this was the same Georgia team that had a true freshman quarterback walk into Notre Dame Stadium and pull out a victory … in his first career start. And how fitting it was that Fromm played the game of his young career Saturday.

All he did was shut up the narrative that Georgia couldn’t throw.

With the season on the line, he completed 73 percent of his passes for 183 yards and 2 touchdown passes. Those weren’t a bunch of quick slants, either. Fromm played mistake-free football. He was so good that it didn’t even matter that neither Nick Chubb nor Sony Michel eclipsed 80 yards rushing. Fromm made all the right adjustments to shake off that first Auburn game.

And speaking of adjustments, that Georgia defense totally flipped the script on Auburn. Remember when the Tigers marched down the field and scored on that first drive? Well, that was it. Jarrett Stidham couldn’t get anything going, and against an offense that struggled with a banged-up Kerryon Johnson, Georgia showed no mercy.

It was essentially an inverse of that first matchup. This time, Roquan Smith played Jeff Holland’s role. Smith fueled a defensive effort that was as impressive as any we’ve seen from a team all year in a big-time game. Between Smith, Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy, Georgia’s defensive firepower was unmatched. Their pass-rushing efforts were helped by the fact that Georgia’s secondary stepped up and played perhaps its best game of the season, as well.

One had to know that Kirby Smart was going to make all the necessary adjustments. The guy with a Nick Saban-like obsession with perfection wasn’t going to let his team have a repeat of the last Auburn game. This team was too good for too much of the year to allow that to happen.

The result of that was the program’s first SEC Championship since 2005. And even that team, which was the last Georgia squad to start 7-0, lost 3 of its final 6 games. The 2017 Georgia squad is not like the 2012 group, which couldn’t get that over-the-hump win against Alabama in the SEC Championship.

Saturday was indeed Georgia’s “get-over-the-hump” moment. Even if the Dawgs can’t get a semifinal win and make it to a national championship, it won’t take away from the fact that this year’s squad earned the program’s first Playoff berth. In fact, Saturday all but guaranteed that Georgia will become the SEC’s first non-Alabama team to get a Playoff nod.

Amazing it is that feat was achieved in Smart’s second season in Athens. This season is starting to feel a lot like Richt’s second (and best) year at Georgia. The difference is now, Georgia is still alive for a national title, AKA “the biggest one.”

And if Saturday was any indication, the Dawgs look like they aren’t done shutting up narratives.