Can a fried impeller cause this??

Last week I went down an extremely shallow channel that I had to idle through. The bottom of the channel was muddy and I eventually turned around and went back. By the time I idled back the motor was obviously hot from going too slow for too long. I felt the tracking fins and prop scrape a few things but they both looked fine when I got it back on the trailer. All week long I was a little concerned that I possibly fried the impeller with all of the mud/sand that it pulled through.

Well this morning I dropped it in the water and got about 500' from the dock (doing about 30 mph) and the temperature shot all the way up. At that point I could see a little smoke coming from the engine so I stopped and headed back for the dock (At that point I knew I'd be replacing the impeller). I didn't want to go too slow thinking that a little water would get through and cool it off, but as soon as I gave it a little gas it would bog down so I had to idle back.

My question is does the motor have a sensor preventing it from working too hard once the temp gets too hot?

Thanks in advance.