Football - Can a win be this ugly?

JOHNNY CRAWFORD / AJC

The Jackets got the win today against the Tarheels 27-25, but this had to be one of the ugliest, mistake-ridden games of the season. We were fortunate in so many ways tonight.

TURNOVERS GALORE

4 fumbles today. Halfway through the season we had the top turnover ratio in the conference. The 2nd half of the season we've been near the bottom. Taylor Bennett coughs up the ball twice, including one inside our own 5 yard line. Tashard Choice, the once surehanded wonder, coughed it up for the 2nd straight week. Josh Nesbitt wowed us with his running ability and finally connecting for his first career TD, but he coughed it up once as well.

I guess I should look on the bright side - no INT's. Geesh!.... Honestly, this team has been playing pretty sloppy for awhile now.

BELL FINALLY GETS THAT GAME-WINNER

Travis Bell had never kicked a game-winning field goal in the final seconds. After missing his first attempt at a game-winner, a normally automatic 33 yard shot, Bell was beside himself. But amazingly enough, he got another shot and made good this time. Nice going. After that first miss, there wasn't another guy I have rooted for to succeed on a play, and he came through.

DURANT BROOKS - BOOM!

77 yards. That would be the length of his longest punt today. He average 60 yards. That performance vaulted him into 1st place on the all-time ACC record list of highest career punting average. Nice.

"I could see once it was in the air it was traveling like a missile," Brooks
said. "Then I looked at the returner, and I was like, 'He's not going to get to
this. Finally.' Most of them stand back 45 or 50 yards. It sounded like this one
had rockets behind it. It got over his head, and I was smiling. It took a pretty
good roll. I wish it would have rolled straighter."

GREG SMITH BREAKS OUT

Greg Smith brough his A-game today, catching balls for 155 yards and 2 TD's. He was the man today.

CHOICE AT IT AGAIN

It's funny - my sense of Tashard Choice's day was that it wasn't overly effective. But he ends the day with 33 carries for 142 yards. He just does his thing and he did it today.

NOTABLES

Other notable performances include Gary Guyton, who was a monster today with 2 sacks and another TFL, Vance Walker, who had 1.5 sacks and recovered a fumble, Jamaal Evans who was a MONSTER on kick returns, including a critical HUGE return from deep in the endzone out to the 50 yard line late in the game. Morgan Burnett who got his first start at CB and played fairly well,

IT'S THAT WEEK AGAIN

Time to move our attention to one of the most important games potentially in Coach Gailey's future. Who know whether this game determines his future or not, but winning it sure would put a nice stamp on this season.

Having said that, Georgie is playing their best ball of the year, and a performance like today is going to result in a slaughter. EVERYBODY needs their A-game to pull out the upset this week. Of course that's the magic of this rivalry and football in general - you've got to play the games.

Nice job getting the W today, no matter how ugly. Congratulations Travis Bell for kicking the game-winner and fighting through the mental hurdles of missing the first try.

GO JACKETS!!!!!!