The good and bad in Tech’s loss
Reviewing Tech’s 42-34 loss to Georgia:
The game that was
Georgia Tech looked sharper for 80-plus plays on offense than it has all season, but losing three fumbles and an interception were too much to overcome. The Bulldogs converted those miscues into 28 points. As focused as the offense was, the defense is still learning on the job, a kind way of saying it’s just not working yet. With the exception of half against Wake Forest and and a game against Virginia, it hasn’t worked consistently all season.
What we learned
1. The team can get up for big games, why not the rest? The Yellow Jackets’ three best performances this season occurred against three of its biggest rivals: Georgia, Virginia Tech and North Carolina. Where was that emotion against N.C. State, Duke or Kansas?
2. The defense is a pick your poison. When Tech loads up to stop the run, which it did frequently against Georgia, it gives up the pass. Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray completed 15 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns. The Bulldogs averaged 8.9 yards per play. And then the Bulldogs were able to run, accumulating 154 yards. Like Tech, Georgia averaged 5.3 yards per rushing attempt.
3. Tech’s offensive line can come off the ball. The front five have been much-maligned this season, but they looked sharp against the Bulldogs. Not only were they not called for a penalty all night (with the exception of two point-after attempts), they pushed around Georgia’s front seven. Johnson complimented his line after the game, something he hasn’t done this season. It was their best performance this season.
Injury report
There were no significant injuries to report.
Numbers game
92
Plays run by Tech against Georgia. It was the most plays the Yellow Jackets have run since 2000, when they ran 94 against Virginia.
Sound bite
“I think you make your own breaks. You have to give them credit, they made plays. I’m just more disappointed for the kids because they played so hard. I just wish I could have found a way to help them win the game.”
– Tech coach Paul Johnson
Loose ends
Tech finished with a .500 record in the regular season for the first time since 2000. … Tech is 39-61-5 in its series against Georgia. … Its 512 yards of offense were its most since the game 1999 game against Georgia. … Its 77 rushing attempts were its most in the last 30 years. … Tech trailed in nine of 12 games this season. … Anthony Allen surpassed 1,800 yards rushing in two seasons. … Freshman outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu had his second sack in as many games. He has three this season. He’s one off the team’s leader, Brad Jefferson.
What’s next
Tech must wait to find out which bowl wants it. Seven teams in the ACC are up for seven bowls, starting with the Champs Sports Bowl, which picks third. The conference championship winner will play in the Orange Bowl and the loser will play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Tech is being slotted by bowl forecasters into the Independence Bowl. Its performance against Georgia, coupled with the poor performances of other conference teams this weekend, may give it a bump to a more prestigious bowl.
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165 comments Add your comment
superDawg
November 29th, 2010
9:40 am
macroid you are are one shy tekie for someone that prides themselves on being there thick or thin.
Jesse Stone
November 29th, 2010
9:43 am
It’s a good thing Todd Grantham had an extra week to prepare for Tech’s offense. How many yards and points would Tech put up if he’d only a week to prepare???
pat
November 29th, 2010
9:43 am
“when you come here it’s been 18-21″…Why doesn’t FL want to leave its state to play Georgia in their yard? Let’s give that a try and see if a shift occurs.
BUG KILLER
November 29th, 2010
9:44 am
<—————-WIDE LEFT<———————
Cobb Dawg
November 29th, 2010
9:51 am
As a “non-Tech” college football fan, please allow me my two cents. Anyone calling for the firing of CPJ doesn’t know college football. When I heard that he was going to Tech, my thoughts were “uh oh”. He’s one of the best offensive minds in the game and Tech is very fortunate to have him. The problem at Tech is obviously not offense. The problem, IMHO, is that you can’t recruit enough quality players to field an entire championship quality team. Few can. But with a few good-quality recruits on defense along with CPJ’s offensive scheming, Tech should be fine. CPJ is a great fit for Tech, a school that’s not going to out recruit most top-tier programs.
Joe
November 29th, 2010
9:58 am
This game cost me 4 hours of my life I will never get back. This game is alot more entertaining when at least one of our teams is relevant!
ATL XMAN
November 29th, 2010
10:05 am
im excited too for uga as tech has a team full div 1aa players after this year. your only div 1a player that is left is a. allen and without him this sat your run game was crap. he is gone after this year and your team is full of PJ players. small linemen and even smaller qbs and running backs. lots of losing for you guys in the future. i hope pauls stays there for 10 more years
Too Easy
November 29th, 2010
10:06 am
Old Dawg: You beat me to it, but I think only SC and AU were better teams that beat us. Now Big Ole Stinger has to live up to his end of the bargain and die.
Laoh
November 29th, 2010
10:06 am
Thank you Cobb Dawg! Never thought I’d be thanking a dawgs fan but you obviously understand football and CPJ heck of a lot more than most of our own Tech fans. We overachieved in 2008 with a 9-4 record, we won ACC, appearance in the Orange Bowl and went 11-3 in 2009… going into 2010 we lost 4 Jrs to NFL, we have one senior OL who was originally a walk-on(!!!), we have a new DC with a new scheme, etc, etc, etc. We just don’t have the talent that bigger programs can attract. Worse, Gomer (gailey) left us so thin with talent, I feel sorry for CPJ. Yet some are calling for CPJ and Al Groh’s head. Al Groh’s defense is fine, he just needs more time and better players fit for his scheme. CPJ is a great offensive mind and a proven winner. He knows how to take average talent and polish them up to be winners. I hope he stays at Tech for a long long time. Our 2011 should be better and 2012, we’ll be very dangerous.
collegeballfan
November 29th, 2010
10:09 am
“…it’s a home game for Fla…”
Maybe it is, but the Georgia people keep signing the contracts to play in Jacksonville. So if you have a problem it is with your perceived dummies in Athens.
————
I had 10 fans from both schools over for the game. The consensus before the game was that UGA could name the score. 56 – 3 Georgia was the general trend. GT playing with its #2 QB and UGA having its starter at QB were the major points. Plus all agreed GT just sucked all season.
To say we were all stunned by the game would be an understatement.
The GT offensive line was just awesome and we did not expect that.
The GT QB just made to many wrong reads was another consensus.
———-
How do I get GT and Tennessee in the same bowl? It would be a wonderful game with all the ties between the two schools.
jarvis
November 29th, 2010
10:11 am
Your defense is going to continue to be dreadful. You recruit no talent, and that can’t work on the defensive side of the ball.
You lost to pretty awful Miami, Clemson, and Georgia teams because you can’t stop anyone. Two of those three teams will most-likely fire their coaches, and Georgia probably should.
Ask Jim Harbaugh how he’s landing top talent at an academic powerhouse. It’s the only way you guys are going to signifcantly improve.
Reality Check
November 29th, 2010
10:22 am
UGA fan but would like to congratulate GT on a hard fault game. For various reasons GT and UGA appear to have one common waekness. Neither team can field an even average defense and after one year we new DC’s neither showed much improvement this year. Hopefully for both schools another year recruiting and players learning the system will help. I hope we are not playing each other next year for 6-6 or 7-5 again.
Jesse Stone
November 29th, 2010
10:26 am
GT will field a better team next year. The defense can only improve and TWashington got valuable experience leading the team. We will miss A-Allen but I feel confident we can plug in another back there to rush for 1,000 yards next year.
ST. SIMONS
November 29th, 2010
10:36 am
THE TECH QUARTERBACK THREW A PASS THAT SEEMED TO BE A WOUNDED DUCK—THAT WAS UGLY–BUT YOU KNOW WHAT , THEY SHOULD HAVE WON AND I AM A DAWG FAN–OUR COACH CALLED A RUNNING PLAY AFTER KNEELING ON FIRST DOWN, PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY– SOMEONE, ANYONE
jarvis
November 29th, 2010
10:38 am
Jesse…what makes you think the defense will improve?
Much like UGA’s you are undersized at Nose Guard, but you are also unathletic at Linebacker. Those are the two staples needed in a 3-4.
I don’t see anywhere that you have incoming talent to fill either of those needs. Groh’s defense going to Tech was a square peg for a round hole. Your personnel doesn’t match the scheme.
VarsityJacket
November 29th, 2010
10:39 am
As I stated earlier, CPJ must go. We lost to 5 unranked teams including the MUTTS at their worst in 20 years.
BUG KILLER
November 29th, 2010
10:40 am
<——————- WIDE LEFT<———————-<
Big Ol Stinger
November 29th, 2010
10:45 am
OK Varsity, I’ll play along, even though I disagree with you.
So we fire CPJ – and your replacement is……………..???????????
Let me guess…..Bill Cowher, Gruden, maybe Dungee? Just who do you think is better for Tech, that Tech can afford, that would want to coach ACC football at an Engineering school?
It’s easy to say CPJ must go. Don’t bring problems, bring solutions.
We Own Tech!
November 29th, 2010
10:56 am
Ha Ha Ha! I love listening to the you Nerds! “we have the smartest coach”, “we beat ourselves”…what a bunch of losers man! Then some “Florida fan” posting on here, good try Nerd. How sad is it that on these blogs, Tech fans have to always pretend to be Gators?!? That is just sad!
Yes, Florida has “owned” us, but not like WE OWN YOU!!! HA HA HA!!!
42-34
VarsityJacket
November 29th, 2010
10:56 am
Big Ol – I know you are a true fan and respect your opinion. My problem is CPJ’s offense won’t take us to the next level. I am not happy being mediocre year in and year out. I would like to see a traditional coach back at Tech again like a George O’Leary. Not sure who exactly, but there are plenty of good young coaches who are not stuck in an offensive system that prevents you from recruiting top talent. I know we cannot get one of the top 10 coaches, but we can do better.
VarsityJacket
November 29th, 2010
11:00 am
How bout the head coach for Appalachian State?
blazer
November 29th, 2010
11:04 am
Played good enough to win-played bad enough to lose-
had a chance to win it or tie it in the last two times we had it!!
Had our chances!
Jesse Stone
November 29th, 2010
11:06 am
jarvis- GT’s defense is young and got valuable experience this year. This was the first year in a 3-4 scheme Another year in the weight room will help as well. Like I said, this defense can not get worse than they were this year. I also think you are underestimating J-Burnett at linebacker. He is a true sophomore and is a tackling machine. Reminds me of Curran, but julian will stay all 4 years.
JuniorVarsity Jacket-…nevermind, you are a waste of time.
GOJACKETS
November 29th, 2010
11:08 am
We were mediocre last year?
Big Ol Stinger
November 29th, 2010
11:09 am
If we’re playing the replace coaches game, personally I’d rather start with Hewitt.
I’d go aftrer Brad Stevens from Butler or Mike Anderson from Mizzou, but I digress. There’s a chance those guys would want to step up to ACC basketball.
Can’t say I know much about App State football, but I respect your passion Varsity. Nobody’s happy with this season, but we can’t get crazy about it and start putting toe tags on coaches over it.
Frontman
November 29th, 2010
11:27 am
Haven’t checked the UGA blogs (I don’t as a rule, because I get enough of idiotic rednecks just going around Atlanta), but I don’t seem to have heard enough about how monumentally stupid it was for Richt to run the ball with 1:40 left after GT called their last timeout. If Tech had found a way to go down the field and tie that game, and I had been the AD at UGA (God forbid), I would have fired Richt immediately. That was one of the dumbest coaching moves I’ve seen in a long time.
Paul H
November 29th, 2010
11:32 am
UGA fan here. I would like to congratulate Tech for coming to play and playing hard until the end. I thought it would be blow out city but I should’ve known better given the way our season has gone. Glad my team won but good game, Tech.
VarsityJacket
November 29th, 2010
11:42 am
GO JACKETS – Yes, we were mediocre last year. We lost to a terrible UGA team, lost to Iowa, and won the ACC which I regretably must admit is the All Cupcake Conference. How many ACC teams in the top 10? Top 20? Compare this to any other respectable conference?
A Bowl?
November 29th, 2010
11:44 am
What Bowl wants a team that has virtually no fan support? There aren’t many Tech fans to begin with and practically zero that actually show up to support their team.
How weak is the ACC?
November 29th, 2010
11:46 am
Georgia, a very mediocre SEC team, played horrible and still beat GA Tech.
How weak is the ACC?
Amazingly weak!!!!!
savjacket
November 29th, 2010
11:47 am
VarsityJacket…should be VarsityDawg. That’s who you snivel like. Loser.
1 out of 9
November 29th, 2010
11:47 am
1 out of 9 sure makes that 1 look like a fluke!
reebok
November 29th, 2010
11:47 am
we have good coaches and great scemes…now we need some players! johnson is a fantastic coach, but he better prove that he’s a good recruiter as well, or we are doomed to a bunch of 7-5 seasons…chan gailey redux!
GTBob
November 29th, 2010
11:49 am
The good: UGA could not stop our offense.
The bad: We stopped our own offense way too many times.
Overall, we didn’t play that bad. We just made too many mistakes to win. The fact that we were still in it at the end was a minor miracle.
VarsityJacket
November 29th, 2010
11:51 am
reebok; you are exactly right. This is his 3rd season and he has HIS players. No more excuses. There is more than one coach in Georgia that should be on the hot seat.
GTBob
November 29th, 2010
11:51 am
@How weak is the ACC?
The ACC went 2-2 against the SEC this weekend. What does that say about the SEC?
Where were you Jackets?
November 29th, 2010
11:52 am
You sure didn’t come to Athens to support your team!!!!
Face it! GT has the worst ‘fair weather’ college football fans in America!!! You should be ashamed!
Only Idaho State brought fewer visiting fans to Athens this year. Vanderbilt and Louisiana Lafayette brought more fans than Tech.
If you want to know why Tech can’t get over the hump in football then look in the mirror.
How can Tech ever become great with no fan support?
Maybe you should just abolish football and concentrate on women’s volleyball!!!
VarsityJacket
November 29th, 2010
11:52 am
GTBob – The Mutts made plenty of mistakes to. Fumble the kickoff, fumble the punt, fumble the snap, and one more fumble by Criminal King
How weak is the ACC?
November 29th, 2010
11:53 am
Pitiful…..but proud to beat Vandy? LMAO
Criminals?
November 29th, 2010
11:54 am
Does that rapist still play for the Yellow Jackets?
VarsityJacket
November 29th, 2010
11:55 am
GTBob – come on; you are clueless. The ACC is terrible this year. Just look at the top 25. Are you seriously trying to say the ACC is equal to the SEC? I think the SEC has 5 teams in the top 20 and we have 2. Are you for real? How many BCS championships have our conference won vs. the SEC. Are you a complete idiot?
CRYBABIES!!!!
November 29th, 2010
11:56 am
Hey you whiny crybaby techsters!! Quit your whining and crying you make everyone want to puke. You weren’t even at the game to cheer on your so called team! You are WIMPS!!!
Veteran Fan
November 29th, 2010
12:03 pm
We love Coach Johnson for his honesty and integrity! He tells it like it is and doesn’t sugar coat it! This team is young and has made too many mistakes all year! Last year’s team was older and committed fewer turnovers. Fewer turnovers would have led to a 9-3 or 8-4 season and everyone happy! This team was competitive in the big games and that is all we can ask of any football team period! Our household is proud of the team and will attempt to go to whatever bowl we go to wherever it is! Also, will renew season tickets and considering two more! Hope to see all true TECH MEN everywhere and their families at the bowl in a few weeks! Lets have some fun!
Jesse Stone
November 29th, 2010
12:17 pm
SEC West is definitely better than the ACC. SEC East is another story.
GTBob
November 29th, 2010
12:25 pm
@VarsityJacket,
Im not equating the SEC and the ACC at all. The SEC is definitely superior, but bashing the ACC because one of the SEC’s worst teams beat one of the ACC’s worst teams seems a little stupid. How did Florida do against Florida St? If the ACC was so completely weak and useless then Florida should have destroyed FSU shouldn’t they? The SEC has two good teams this year, just like every year, and the rest of the conference will ride their coattails and pretend they are great as well.
Veteran Fan
November 29th, 2010
12:41 pm
By the way congrats to the classy Dawg fans on this blog. But to Criminals, unlike your coach, Coach Johnson suspended the player who was accused of assault immediately and he was acquitted in court and then was allowed to rejoin the team! It cost him a season but it was the right thing to do! Unlike your coach who will welcome Christian Lemay who had sex with a girl in school, appealed his suspension, and then withdrew from school rather than accept his punishment! He bailed on his school and his football teammates and this is the leader of the team in two years! It is embarassing to have a state school with the behavior problems that the Georgia football team has and will continue to have because they don’t walk away from problems like Lemay! I feel bad for the classy Dawg fans and friends I know!
GT for life
November 29th, 2010
12:42 pm
down year for alot of teams no doubt-what is troubling to me is play calling at crunch time-Bama-Tech-Uga-Tex,Ok,Tenn,FlaEtc—pressure makes water go up hill—need to get a grip on it—Allen was on fire and we get ball on downs -give Allen the ball up the middle like we did all 2nd half-instead we go backwards-need to be better prepared at crunch time CPJ-still its great to be aYellowjacket!! Gooooo Jackets!
wesleywhatwhat
November 29th, 2010
12:58 pm
i think “varsitydawg” is on the wrong blog.
Born2Buzz
November 29th, 2010
1:08 pm
Doug, any word from CPJ on the play calls of our next to last series? It looked like Tevin didn’t exactly run the plays that were sent in.
Varsity Jacket, go root for Auburn.
Born2Buzz
November 29th, 2010
1:09 pm
And hey, we could be Texas, who went from playing for the NC to not even being able to go to a bowl, any bowl.