Georgia Tech Becomes Bowl Eligible

The Jackets played their most balanced game of the season, beating the Huskies 30-10 (actually 30-3, but the Big East refs gave UConn a TD with 2 pass interference penalties at the end). A combination of solid offense, crunching defense and big plays on special teams made the difference. With win #6 the Jackets are now bowl eligible. However, 6 wins is no guarantee of a bowl and it certainly does not guarantee an east coast bowl, which should be the goal.

The offense played one of the better games on the year, with 410 yards of total offense. Reggie Ball played one of his best games, completing 22-38 passes for 288 yards, 2 TD's and 0 INTs. The key was good decision-making which has been the hammer Coach has been trying to pound into Reggie's head. He made good decisions in this game and in fact received a mini-standing ovation from the fans on one play where he threw the ball out-of-bounds. Could this be a turning point? Who knows, but let's hope so. Calvin Johnson continued to amaze, pulling in more spectacular catches to add to his highlight reel. He finished with 6 catches for 131 yards. Nate Curry caught 5 passes for 83 yards and most of those were of the highlight reel variety. But they weren't the only guys to catch a pass, as 6 different Jackets caught passes. Reshaun Grant rushes 19 times for 73 yards, a solid effort.

While the offense definitely showed signs of life today, the defense was once again the key story of the game. A very pass oriented UConn team finished with only 225 yards of total offense, 205 in the air and only 20 yards rushing. In fact 70 of those yards came on the Huskies last meaningless drive, where our 2nd/3rd stringes were playing and the Big East refs were helping out all they could. The Jackets took the run away, which was critical as always. The D held UConn to only 3-17 on 3rd down conversions. Butler, Wilkinson, Anoai and Landry all finish with 6-8 tackles each. Eric Henderson only had 4 tackles, but 3 of them were for a loss. In the secondary, it was bend but don't break. The longest UConn pass play was 23 yards, and they didn't give up any big plays. Just an A+ effort from the defense.

Special teams really deserves special mention here. Travis Bell went 3-3 in FG's and set the GT mark for consecutive FG's. The streak will continue next week. The punt team blocked two punts and ran one back for a TD. Ace E. blocked one that DJay Jones ran back for a TD and DJ Jones blocked the other. Just outstanding. Punting was solid. Out of 7 kick-offs, Belcher kicked 3 touchbacks. Unfortunately the only glaring weakness of this team is our ability to tackle on kick-offs. UConn had 93 yards on 4 returns.

Just a great overall job by the team, Coach Gailey and the staff. Not only did we win, Coach Gailey played a LOT of young guys in the 2nd half to get some gametime experience. There were no big injuries. The Jackets took care of business, but there is no rest, as Virginia comes to town in one week.

Around the ACC, North Carolina slipped by Wake Forest and Clemson somehow managed to lose to Duke on a 53 yard FG. That helps the GT case for better bowl games. Virginia and Miami are playing now. Interestinly, it is actually possible (but not likely) that the ACC cannot fill all its bowl slots.

Oh yeah, one last thing, Big East referees suck!!! Or maybe I should say they are loyal. Nah, they suck.
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PREDICTION CONTEST
Well, there were about 6 people REALLY close to the final score, but one person got it exactly right:

WINNER: ChrisInIndy, picked 30-10 (so Chris did YOU pay the refs?).

Nice going.