Saturday, November 06, 2004

Jackets Decide to Show up in 2nd Half - We Still Own NC ST

Jackets win 24-14.

Well, after the 1st half, I was mentally prepared for the loss. As I'm sure most of us were thinking, who the heck do we put in at QB? I still don't want to give up Bennet's redshirt. But to Reggie's credit, he stepped up in the 4th quarter. When?? Right after Coach put Bilbo in on a critical 3rd down play, which was an incomplete pass.

Some thoughts from the game:

1. Kudos to Rashaun Grant, who carries 20 times for 122 yards. The kid flat out ran well against one of the top defenses in the country. He really showed speed and some really great moves in the open field. On a few of those runs he had me thinking PJ who?? Ok, not really, but he showed a glimpse of the potential we all thought he had.

2. You have to feel for Chris Woods pulling the hamstring. It really was another moment to shine. It was a series of similar circumstances that got PJ his chance in the sun. Now it jumps over Woods and goes to Grant, who took advantage.

3. The REAL credit for the running game needs to go to the O-Line. Let's face it, they played well and opened up some mammoth holes. Grant did what he needed when it was there, but they really set the stage for him. Major props

4. Is it just me or is Calvin Johnson not human? The entire 1st half I'm wondering why we don't throw to him more - AS WE'VE ALL BEEN ASKING!! So then he starts to get the throws and guess what - good things start to happen. That 3rd down catch where he reached behind him with one hand on the run and layed out with imo the most amazing catch of the year in college football. I have got to get a clip of that one. And he almost pulled off another one-handed TD catch that would have been even more amazing - of course he got the pass interference call - since they couldn't cover him. Folks, we are only going to keep this kid as long as the courts allow us.

5. Ok, now to the REAL reason we won this game - DEFENSE. The D deserves the credit for keeping us in this one, even when our offense wanted to give it away with turnovers. That group really saved the day. I think they held NCST to about 17 yards of rushing in the 2nd half. Chan Gailey used the word "suffocating" in his post-game interview, even though he said he didn't want to overstate it. Bottom-line - they kept us in it and they sealed the deal at the end.

6. Nice to see Kenny Scott get his first career INT (I think) and then return it to the house. I guess you could say he got the "pick six".

7. We still only scored 17 points of offense. Reggie Ball ended the game 9-27 for 92 yards passing, 2 TD's and 3 INT's. That just won't cut it.

8. After the game, when Wes asked how he was feeling about his team, he said:
I am so proud of our football team I cannot see straight". When asked about Reggie Ball's performance in the 1st half, he said "I was so mad I couldn't see straight". Pretty funny. Actually, I saw more emotion out of Gailey in this game than I have seen all season. He was after the refs for a couple of plays and just seemed more vocal. Good to see imo.

Don't have time for more right now. Link to the re-cap.