ATLANTA — Florida punter Eric Wilbur decided to take one last shot at his Arkansas counterpart at the end of the Gators’ 38-28 victory over the Razorbacks in the SEC Championship Game.

As Wilbur lined up for the game’s final punt with 10 seconds left, he mockingly imitated Razorbacks punter Jacob Skinner’s unique presnap routine, where he leans back and stretches his hand to the sky in a mental visualization exercise.

The jab was unnecessary. Florida already had delivered three knockout blows to the Arkansas punt team earlier in the game.

The Gators blocked an Arkansas punt, burned the defensive unit on a fake punt deep in Florida territory and scored a touchdown after Arkansas’ Reggie Fish muffed a punt.

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As it turned out, the Razorbacks might have been able to withstand one special-teams breakdown. Not three.

“That was our first letdown of the year on punt team in the biggest game of the year,” said Sam Olajubutu, a senior starting linebacker who is Arkansas’ upback on the punt-coverage team. “It’s real frustrating. Any time you make mistakes it’s devastating, especially mistakes that put other teams in position to score. We made a lot of mistakes the whole night.”

The Gators scored on a 9-yard run one play after the second-quarter blocked punt, but the most devastating mistakes came during one third-quarter possession.

Arkansas had just scored on an interception return by Antwain Robinson to take its first lead, 21-17 with 8: 33 left in the third quarter, and the Georgia Dome was shaking with cheers from Razorbacks fans.

The Gators were pinned deep in the north end zone, the one filled with screaming Arkansas fans, and lined up to punt on fourth-and-10 from their 15-yard line.

That’s when Florida Coach Urban Meyer made perhaps the gutsiest call of his career. Receiver Jemalle Cornelius took an end-around 17 yards on the fake punt for a first down.

It worked because Arkansas had no one guarding the edge.

“If we’re going to not be successful, we’re going to shoot everything we’ve got,” Meyer said. “I had a lot of confidence.... That play has been practiced a couple thousand times in the last two years.”

Arkansas forced Florida into another punt, and this time Wilbur actually punted it. Meyer said he wanted to go for it on fourth down with a yard to go, but codefensive coordinator Greg Mattison talked him out of it.

The Razorbacks would have been better off trying to stop another fake.

The soaring 54-yard punt floated to the Razorbacks 4-yard line.

Fish, playing for the injured Peyton Hillis, had been set up on the 20 and said he didn’t realize how far back he floated when he tried an ill-advised over-theshoulder catch.

One of the basic rules of punt returning is never catch a punt inside your 10-yard line. Let it hit and bounce into the end zone for a touchback.

The ball bounced into the end zone, but only after Fish muffed it. Florida’s Wondy Pierre-Louis then fell on it for a touchdown.

Florida went ahead 24-21 with 3: 47 left in the third quarter and never trailed again.

“Just one of those bonehead plays,” said Fish, who answered every question he was asked after the game. “We were doing so well, it’s a trip. We had such a high, and momentum was totally on our side. For me to drop that punt and let them score, I felt like I let the team down.”

Fish remained prone in the end zone for several moments before teammates pulled him up. On the sideline Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn gave Fish words of encouragement.

“Truly, I’ve never been in a situation where I feel like I made the team lose,” Fish said. “It is hard even talking about it, but life goes on. I’m going to wake up tomorrow and hopefully still be breathing.”

Arkansas had its breath knocked out in the second quarter, when Jarred Fayson burst unblocked up the middle to block Skinner’s punt. It was the first time in 183 punts, dating to 2003, Skinner has had a punt blocked.

Arkansas also had a punt blocked in the 2002 SEC Championship Game against Georgia.

“We snap it, and next thing I know the dude’s right on me,” Skinner said. “He was right there. It puts a downer on the sidelines, for sure.”

Olajubutu, who was Skinner’s last line of defense, said a miscommunication between him and deep snapper Brett Goode allowed Fayson to come through the middle of the line untouched.

Florida scored on the next play, just the start of a not-sospecial night for an Arkansas punt team that had been solid all season.

“We just didn’t play very well,” special teams coach James Shibest said. “We played a team with good speed that did some good things with that unit. They were good at it [special teams ]; we weren’t.

“ It’s just tough, especially in a big game, a critical game.”