Paul Johnson Q&A

Greetings-

The post-game interview from Paul Johnson.

Q: Is frustrating how you’d describe the game?

A: I would say frustrating. I thought our kids played hard  Frustrated that we couldn’t find something that they could do on offense a little better. Clearly, they had a better plan than we did because we couldn’t get any rhythm, couldn’t get much going. Never really hit any big plays after the toss play that we hit to Roddy (Jones) there in the first half and they called offsetting penalties.

We never hit any big plays. We never got anything going. We had a heck of a drive there in the second quarter to get back in the game – 90 yards – and then we give up the touchdown again. We can’t overcome the special teams that we had today and that’s a reflection on me. Clearly, something we’re doing isn’t right in about every facet. I don’t know if the kickoff return got out to the 20. The kickoff (team) let [Miami] return one. The fake punt; I’ll have to look at the tape. It’s an automatic call if there’s a certain look, if there’s not that many people. So it was an automatic call. I’ll have to look and see who made the play because it was [by  Miami's] bench.

With an automatic call, either we made the bad automatic call or we had to turn somebody loose. I don’t know which. The punt (team), we never caught one. When that thing hits the ground, you’ve got to get away from it.

Q: Did Zach Laskey have a problem with confidence fielding punts?

A: I think today was the worst that it’s happened to him. He had one where he bobbled it and dropped it, but clearly after the first one, it looked like that he didn’t want to come up and catch it. You would have to ask Zach.

Q: Will you evaluate that job this week?

A: We’ll take a look at everything. You have to.

Q: What wasn’t working with the offense?

A: I don’t know. We just never got in sync from the interception on the first play. Like I said, I thought we had an opportunity with the drive because we ate up the second quarter and now even with all the things that have happened, if you get in at 14-7 and you get the ball first, you got a chance.

And then the other thing that was a killer was we couldn’t finish the drive in the third quarter. We converted a couple plays and got down there and we couldn’t convert. We could never get anything going. We had a hard time getting the ball on the perimeter. They made us play in that tackle box and we weren’t very good in there. We couldn’t hit any big plays. We’ll have to take a look at the tape and see.

Q: The run defense played better.

A: I thought we played better against the run. We all lost. But for positives, I thought we ganged up on the run a little better and played a little better against the run.

On Tevin Washington’s play:

A: We’ve got to find something he can do.

Q: What happened on the fumbled punt?

A: I’ll have to look at the tape and see. I think he tried to pick it up on the bounce. … I don’t think he fielded it cleanly. The killer was the kickoff, too. It was supposed to be a deep kick.

Q: It wasn’t a squib?

A: Oh, no. There was no squib.

Q: Was Synjyn Days’ fumble part of the reason he hasn’t gotten playing time lately?

A: Well, we’ll just have to see.

Q: Do you have a prognosis on his injury?

A: No.

Q: Is playing Vad Lee a possibility at this point?

A: Probably not.

Q: Can you see that Tevin Washington is doing anything wrong?

A: Nothing that I know that I can see that I can fix. If I did, I would fix it. It’s not fair to put all this on Tevin because there’s a lot of us that have got to do better. We can’t overcome bad plays. Because when  you’re not hitting big plays … I don’t know how many plays that 90-yard drive was. It had to be a slew. That’s hard to do.

Q: What happened on the first play?

A: I thought we had Orwin (Smith) open. It’s something we saw the film study that I thought would have a chance. I think we had a chance. We just didn’t get it done.

Q: How were they giving you problems on the perimeter?

A: We can’t get to the perimeter. I don’t know that we have a tough time on the perimeter. They make you hand the ball off.

Q: Is it a problem of Tevin Washington missing reads?

A: I’m not sure that he’s missing em. I think that what’s happening is you’ve probably got five blocking four and the four are winning. But we’ll have to look a the tape and see.

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Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog