Happy Homecoming - GT beats Duke

Well, the Jackets took care of business, beating Duke at homecoming today 24-7. Another strong outing by the defense and a mediocre outing from the offense. The bottom-line is we got out front and stayed in front. Other than a sloppy play right before the half, there wouldn't have BEEN a Duke score. Even that was questionable with a fumble by Duke ruled a TD.

OFFENSE: C+
The offense made enough plays to win. Maybe I'm being too hard on them with a C+. But the negatives today really sit with the wide receivers. D.Bilbo dropped an easy but critical 3rd down pass early in the game, L.Thomas dropped a catchable deep ball that could have been a TD and N.Curry dropped another catchable deep ball. That probably took 1-2 TD's off the board and 60+ yards of passing. Only Calvin Johnson continues to catch EVERYTHING within the same area code. That kid is amazing. Calvin caught 6 balls for 92 yards and 2 TD's, including one thrown on the halfback option from PJ Daniels. Levon Thomas caught 2 passes for 49 yards.

Reggie Ball had a decent day, going 10-20 for 133 yards, 1 TD and 2 INT's. Gailey let him off the hook for the INT in the endzone. Chan said that just as Reggie was taking the snap, the defense bailed out and ran backwards into coverage. Chan said HE personally made a bad play-call. Once again, most of Reggie's passes looked pretty crisp, sharp and on-target. But we WILL need more production from the passing game, which means both the QB and WR's will have to put it together next time.

PJ Daniels really set the tone today. He's the backbone of the team. And that's proven to be the key to our success. PJ ran 24 times for 116 yards with a long of 33 yards. There's no doubt he would have racked up more had coach not put in Woods and Grant.

The offense on total collected 330 yards of offense, certainly below average and it could have easily surpasses 400 with some caught passes.

DEFENSE - A
The defense has been outstanding two weeks in a row. Duke was held to 184 yards of total offense, with 84 on the ground and 100 in the air. The key - 2.1 yards per carry. Just outstanding job of stuffing the run. And they did not give up any big plays. There were another 5 sacks today - with Tenuta's gameplan and execution working extremely well.

Individually, Chris Reis was just EVERYWHERE. He is just amazing. Two sacks, 7 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss, 2 pass-break-ups and 1 forced fumble. But you know what, you still have to point to the return of E.Henderson as a turning point. He just frees up everyone else with one-on-one's because most teams have to double EH.

Just an all-around strong performance. If they can continue this level of play on the D, we will have the chance to win any of our remaining games.

SPECIAL TEAMS - B
Well, I'm pretty happy with special teams other than one part - when the opponents catch kick-offs. We seem to almost be lucky to make tackles. We got a break when a kick-off was returned for a TD but was called back on a penalty. But they still had 2 returns for 70 yards. Thank goodness two balls were kicked in the endzone for touchbacks or it could have been more.

Other than that I'm impressed. Ben Arndt had an outstanding day, continually pinning Duke deep, including at least 3 inside the 20, two which were inside the 5 (I think). Nice job by Ben

I am also impressed with Travis Bell. He hit all PAT's and a 47 yard FG. He continues to show consistency as a young guy. Good job.

COACHING - A-
I have to give Tenuta major props and you know what - I think Gailey and Nix did a fine job on offense as well. They don't control turnovers and they don't control dropped passes that are very catchable. That's on the players I'm afraid.

INTANGIBLES - D
Here's where I was not impressed. We seemed to have penalties at the worst times. The unsportsmanlike conduct after the non-safety on Houston (I think) gave Duke the ball back on the 15. Just total loss of composure. Roughing the passer. Turnovers, etc. This is about the details. Even though Duke was more penalized, we had some real costly ones.

CONCLUSION
At the end of the day, it was a fairly dominant performance by the defense and an average performance by the offense, and other than kick-offs, a strong special teams performance. Looks like our defense will start to keep us in most games and the question mark (like 2003) will continue to be the consistency and growth of the offense. Health is also a major concern and Anaoi, AT Neal and others left the game with injuries. It is clear this team cannot win with key injuries - and right now most injuries are key. Depth is still an issue.

A win is a win. Be happy. Celebrate homecoming. Then start preparing for Thursday night lights on ESPN at BDS.

PREDICTION CONTEST
Well, TechTower is our winner with a prediction of 28-7, only 2 points off. He almost nailed it. Here's the top 5:

TechTower....24-9.....2 points off (0 on GT, 2 on Duke)
theSir.......28-7.....4 points
Gabe.........28-10....4 points
Scott........27-10....6 points
ChrisinIndy..30-10....6 points

GO JACKETS!!!!!!!