Georgia Tech looking for pass rush
The next move belongs to Al Groh.
Two Saturdays ago, the Georgia Tech defense harassed Virginia quarterbacks Michael Rocco and Phillip Sims, accumulating 16 pressures, by the Tech defensive coordinator’s count and two sacks. Saturday, Groh and his defense were plundered.
The Yellow Jackets gave up 609 yards in the 42-36 overtime loss. It was the most yards that Tech had given up since 1997 and the most that a Groh-coached team had surrendered in his nine years as Virginia’s head coach followed by two-plus seasons at Tech.
Wednesday, Groh didn’t address the game at length, saying that he was done talking about Miami. It was the first opportunity for news media to speak with Groh, as he is not made available following games and defensive coaches and players speak on Wednesdays.
“I haven’t thought about that in a few days, so I’m ready to move on,” he said.
What Groh did address was that Tech’s pass rush was negated by Miami’s protection scheme, in which the Hurricanes often used as many as seven players on passes to block for quarterback Stephen Morris.
“Unless you rush eight, they’ve got more than you’ve got,” he said. “The numbers game comes into effect that way. Usually where those seven-man protections get beat is if you have some awesome individual pass rushers who can win the one-on-ones.”
Without such pass rushers on the roster, perhaps with the exception of outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu, Tech can expect to see plenty more of such strategies in games to come, starting with Tech’s game Saturday against Middle Tennessee State. Future opponents may not be able to duplicate the success of the Hurricanes, who have a young but talented lineup. However, many games may not require 42 points or 609 yards of total offense, either.
“We’ve got some interesting stuff to deal with on the third-down package, and it’s shaken some guys free (in pass rush), so that causes other teams to say, ‘We’re not going to deal with this stuff,’” said Groh in explaining opponents’ opting for a “maximum protection” scheme.
Groh may have to continue to dig for more interesting stuff. Tech has six sacks in four games with a rate of one sack per 26.3 pass attempts. Even before failing to register a sack despite Miami’s 52 pass attempts, the rate was 17.7 passes per sack. Duke, which ranks third in the ACC in sacks, has managed one sack per 11 pass attempts.
Should the lack of pressure continue, Clemson wide receiver Sammy Watkins would appear to be a strong candidate to run wild through the Tech secondary Oct. 6. Attaochu, who led the team last year with six sacks, has one-half of a sack thus far. Through the first three games, Attaochu did have the most quarterback pressures of anyone on the team “by far,” Groh said.
Both Groh and coach Paul Johnson have acknowledged the obvious fact that it was a poor game all-around for the defense. The percentage of times that defensive players executed their assignment “went way down,” Groh said.
Groh was asked if, at the end of the season, the Miami game would be looked at as an outlier.
Replied Groh, “I think that, when you evaluate things on a whole body of work, I think what you might look back on at the end of the season is that Miami’s got a pretty good team.”
Time will tell to what degree Saturday’s game was an aberration or the trigger of a landslide. Could the game have merely been the confluence of a hot quarterback, poor pass rush, an injury-depleted defense and poor tackling – a forgettable game that bears no similarity to the defense that Tech ultimately becomes?
It would have to be a pretty big confluence.
In case you missed it…
Trials challenging Louis Young
Lee, Snoddy angling for playing time
Tech rebounding after Miami loss
The meaning of Tech giving up 609 yards
After Miami loss, Tech tries to regroup
Mark Bradley: Johnson’s approach hurting Tech
Thanks for reading.
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
218 comments Add your comment
Delbert D.
September 27th, 2012
9:44 pm
The AJC did not release the new blogging environment with the promised validated login with their cosmetic and navigation changes to the site. If it can’t be done with WordPress, then dump WordPress.
1 4 GT
September 27th, 2012
9:46 pm
I just hung up the phone from talking to Supersize @ his home. As I surmised, the posts with his handle prior to 9:24 PM going back for some time are not the real Supersize. Those posts are from the name thief!!
Delbert D.
September 27th, 2012
9:59 pm
1 4 GT – Since the NSA streams everything posted on the internet, I wonder if their system has triggered on the fake postings and passed it on for review by HumInt analysts.
5150 UOAD
September 27th, 2012
10:08 pm
Nice! Fake Super is done.
Delbert D.
September 27th, 2012
10:08 pm
Heck, last year chip Towers tracked down a fake poster who was moving from terminal to terminal in the Mercer U. library to try to disguise his logins. Chip blocked the library’s IP address ranges. The NSA has possibly by now requested a warrant from the Attorney General to siphon our SS imposter.
Delbert D.
September 27th, 2012
10:10 pm
That didn’t fool anybody, 10:08 pm. Crawl back in the hole.
1 4 GT
September 27th, 2012
10:11 pm
I don’t know Delbert. I wonder what his reaction would be if they sent in the storm troopers & wanted to “talk” to him/her/it?
Delbert D.
September 27th, 2012
10:11 pm
Enough, I’m outta here.
Delbert D.
September 27th, 2012
10:12 pm
One last comment, then hitting the switch. I don’t think that they would be that nice
1 4 GT
September 27th, 2012
10:13 pm
No, the real 5150 would be much more loquacious, right Delbert?
Tech secondary leaving Miami game behind | Georgia Tech
September 27th, 2012
11:04 pm
[...] Looking for a pass rush [...]
Techbuzz
September 27th, 2012
11:34 pm
DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHH!!!!!!! You can’t have a pass rush playing a 3-4 D with the most under sized line man in college football. Hell, that’s pretty damn obvious!
fuzzybee78
September 28th, 2012
12:01 am
Delbert D at 9:26 is dead on.
GT Fan read it and learn something.
I’ll be there Saturday!
GO JACKETS!
GT fan Alumni for 56 years
September 28th, 2012
6:19 am
BLT, I guess you never heard of Stanford. Higher ranked in Engineering than GT and extremely diverse in Major offerings?and BCS bowls lately, You are part of the problem. I am 63 years old and I have been to more seasons of GT football than you I am sure, I have been in the stands when the nearest fan was twenty yards away on the same row, so I have never been a fair weather fan. Either GT does the necessary things and commits to a top program or I am giving up going to Grant Field and donating. Firing Gailey was what I meant by good coach because it was only partly his fault. I don’t see adding majors as a cheapening of our University. Call it what it is, a University, and we will get more good recruits.
Joel Cote
September 28th, 2012
8:07 am
If the opponent is keeping 7 players in to block that leaves only three running pass routes. Even with the GT pass defense numbers far exceeding that, they continually loss track of receivers, leaving them wide open and resulting in long gains. Poor pass russ and poor coverage has been the theme for the GT defense for the last four years!!
ACC Football Daily Links — Florida State Focused On ACC, National Championship Trophies Next | Atlantic Coast Convos
September 28th, 2012
8:16 am
[...] Georgia Tech Looking for Pass Rush (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) [...]
Jacket Detective
September 28th, 2012
9:26 am
If the other team opts for maximum protection, Al won’t blitz.
Miami’s O coordinator must wish he played D coordinators like Al every weekend.
If the QB knows he will not get sacked or even pressured, especially on the road, his confidence goes way up.
A huge worry is removed.
The QB knows he will have time to find someone open; to check and even recheck his receivers.
WnE
September 28th, 2012
9:54 am
re:
GT fan Alumni for 56 years
September 28th, 2012
6:19 am
BLT, I guess you never heard of Stanford. Higher ranked in Engineering than GT and extremely diverse in Major offerings?and BCS bowls lately, You are part of the problem. I am 63 years old and I have been to more seasons of GT football than you I am sure, I have been in the stands when the nearest fan was twenty yards away on the same row, so I have never been a fair weather fan. Either GT does the necessary things and commits to a top program or I am giving up going to Grant Field and donating. Firing Gailey was what I meant by good coach because it was only partly his fault. I don’t see adding majors as a cheapening of our University. Call it what it is, a University, and we will get more good recruits.
______________
Absolutely great post!!
DFACS has been under great scrutiny for years for failing Children that it is charged to protect, why can’t GT have ELITE ACADEMICS that includes a Sociology Major up through the Master’s Level.
Broadcast News was revolutionized 2 blocks from campus by Ted Turner, why not add a Communications major, can you imagine Syracuse, NYU, or Columbia being that close to the Media center that is NYC and not having Communications majors?
So why doesn’t GT have a Communications Major?
You can still demand high test scores and high GPAs from the applicant pool even if you do have Sociology or Communications Majors.
Those 2 majors alone would bring more FEMALES and give the campus a more “normal” feeling and make it easier to Recruit to GT without cheapening anyone’s Degree.
Most of the Ivy League Schools have Sociology, Education, Communications and those sorts of Majors and I have never heard an Ivy Leaguer claim their degree has been cheapened.
If you’re majoring in Engr. why would you give D@MN what classes the students in the next bldg. are taking or what they are majoring in?
D-B@gs like BLT and his mindset is what is keeping GT from becoming a better University, a better part of the LOCAL COMMUNITY, and more important part of the State of Ga.’s future, the State needs more than Technical Issues solved.
Once again great post, guys like BLT are the main reason why GT cannot cultivate more sidewalk alums like schools like ND or Michigan do.