UPDATED: Tech drilled by BYU, 41-17
The defense was picked apart and battered. The offense had no magic. The special teams, save one historic kickoff return, was largely a hindrance.
Saturday, Georgia Tech lost to BYU 41-17 at Bobby Dodd Stadium in a game that contained little mystery.
“We pretty much got our tails whipped,” coach Paul Johnson said. “It was disappointing. I think we got whipped in all three phases of the game.”
With a chance to even their record and build on a convincing win over Boston College a week ago, the Yellow Jackets (3-5) continued their flailing season. Tech gave up 40 or more points for the fourth time in the past five games, had a punt blocked and failed to produce an offensive touchdown for the first time since the 2008 Chick-fil-A Bowl loss to LSU. In hopes of reviving the offense, Johnson sent in backup quarterback Vad Lee late in the third quarter. To rousing cheers, he drove the Jackets for a field goal on his first drive, but produced 16 yards of offense in his final two possessions.
Just to qualify for its 16th consecutive bowl, Tech will have to win three of its final four games. The Jackets finish with Maryland, North Carolina, Duke and Georgia. For a team that lost by 24 points at home, none of those register as expected wins.
Saturday, the defining difference between BYU and Tech was their performance on third down. The Cougars picked up first downs on 9 of 16 third downs, while the Jackets struck out on 10 third-down conversion attempts.
Defensively, Tech reverted to the form that led to the firing of defensive coordinator Al Groh. After holding Boston College to a 1-of-9 effort on third downs last Saturday, the Jackets permitted quarterback Riley Nelson to extend drives left and right with completions.
Interim defensive coordinator Charles Kelly mixed up coverages and blitzes that occasionally produced results. He sent seven defenders at Nelson on a 3rd-and-8 on the game’s opening possession, but Nelson answered it with a 15-yard completion.
One of Tech’s highlights, a 22-yard interception return for a first-quarter touchdown by safety Isaiah Johnson, came on a third down in which Tech rushed three and dropped eight into coverage. But the Jackets couldn’t disrupt Nelson with any frequency and also missed a slew of tackles, a problem that plagued the defense under Groh but had abated in the Boston College game.
Tech also had trouble with BYU running back Jamaal Williams, a 17-year-old freshman who dinged the Jackets for 107 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
The BYU defense, ranked No. 8 in the country against the run, needed no help, but the Jackets abetted the Cougars with penalties, missed blocks and faulty reads on the option. Not counting a kneeldown at the end of the first half, Tech had nine possessions and couldn’t hold the ball for more than six plays on seven of them. The Jackets ran just 47 plays, a little more than half the 91 they ran against Boston College and the fewest of any game in Johnson’s tenure. BYU’s 38:59 time of possession was also an opponent high in the Johnson era.
“It’s obvious that we’ve got to do a lot better,” Lee said. “We’ve got to clean up a lot of things.”
The big plays that this offense needs to expand its margin for error never materialized. Tech had been averaging six plays per game of 20 yards or more. Saturday, the Cougars held them to one, a 22-yard run by A-back Robbie Godhigh.
“They make you earn it, and we weren’t good enough to earn it,” Johnson said. “We’d self-inflict wounds.”
Asked if this was the worst offensive game of his five-year tenure, Johnson replied, “I’m sure it is.”
Only Isaiah Johnson’s interception return and Jamal Golden’s 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown – the Jackets’ first such score since 1998 – kept Tech in the game, which was 24-14 in BYU’s favor at halftime. The game tilted in the third quarter when quarterback Tevin Washington, pressured by BYU end Ezekiel Ansah, threw an interception deep in Tech territory that was returned to the Tech 2-yard line. A one-yard touchdown run by Williams pushed BYU to a 31-14 lead with 3:43 left in the third quarter and released any remaining suspense.
The Jackets will return to work Monday, trying to find answers that have eluded them for the larger part of eight games.
“I don’t know,” said Johnson, asked to explain how his team could be playing beneath expectations. I don’t have an explanation for you.”
By Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog
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473 comments Add your comment
DORKS R US
October 27th, 2012
11:23 pm
Really fact check… In what arrests, campus assaults, and of course loses?? U live in the ghetto hipster deal with it
DORKS R US
October 27th, 2012
11:25 pm
Hey but it’s society problem… Until your love one is involved
DORKS R US
October 27th, 2012
11:29 pm
WE OWN THIS STATE!! IN FOOTBALL AND SAFETY
Fact Check
October 27th, 2012
11:30 pm
Dorks… You are all talk… Play the wussy card now.
Like most Bulldawgs… All you have is a football team… And, until this year, even the football team stunk. If you are one of the 10% of UGA fans that actually went to school there, then your degree is essentially worthless. Look at all the great Tech leaders in this state. I can only name two or three UGA grads who have done anything of note.
It is you and your alumni brethren tat are the real losers. I dust you losers up everyday in the business world. Going to continue doing it to.
Silly Mutts
October 27th, 2012
11:33 pm
You have to admit Paul Johnson is a smart man! He made millions on a fluke! He will make millions having done nada! He is laughing all the way to the bank!!!!! I hope gt doesn’t win another game while he is HC! Loser!
Why Does CPJ Look Like He Just Smelled a Turd?
October 27th, 2012
11:33 pm
Answer: He drops one on Tech’s field every Saturday.
Fact Check, lighten up Francis. $50,000 per year is nothing to brag about. Suck it.
Fact Check
October 27th, 2012
11:33 pm
Yes… The 65 players you have had arrested in the last 5 years feel really safe over in Athens.
You guys definitely lead the country in man-loving rock stars who chase male students out of Skyy’s Bar.
Fact Check
October 27th, 2012
11:34 pm
Try $2.5mm a year loser.
It's up to DRad
October 27th, 2012
11:36 pm
This is his pick and his mess. The team was not prepared and I think they’ve given up. Look at the stands, it’s obvious the fans have. How about a coach who wants to win more than half the games? Wouldn’t that be a nice change. At least UGA WANTS to win. Tech has settled for mediocrity and until it decides to really want more, it will never happen. How about a kick butt coach? How nice would that be?
Slim Pickins
October 27th, 2012
11:36 pm
Paul has run out of options
...
October 27th, 2012
11:37 pm
Enter your comments here
R
October 27th, 2012
11:37 pm
Been watching GT football for over 50 years and don’t remember it ever being this bad—with the exception of Bill Lewis. The only thing worse than being a GT fan is being an Auburn fan!
BullDogMike
October 27th, 2012
11:38 pm
One question : When will GT ever take football serious again ? I Mean what will it take ?
Silly Mutts
October 27th, 2012
11:41 pm
@R…..this team and coach are quitters and don’t deserve to wear the GT unis. I would pay money to see GT lose to md next week by 50! Then fish fry will get the ax!
Who is a Bigger Fraud: Fact Check or CPJ?
October 27th, 2012
11:41 pm
Fact Check, put down the liquor and tell the truth. You are in Mom’s basement in Star Trek PJs. Time for bed little boy. Sounds like you and George O’Leary have a lot in common. You have problems with the truth.
Fact Check
October 27th, 2012
11:43 pm
Looks like Dorks went to cry… Was hoping we could meet at a Waffle House and have a little discussion about who the boss is…
Fact Check
October 27th, 2012
11:45 pm
Not really, bro. Everything I have said is true… Again… If you want to meet up, then you will learn that a rich Tech guy can scrap too. would love to show you who really runs this state.
Silly Mutts
October 27th, 2012
11:49 pm
Gt football is toilet butter!
Clyde
October 27th, 2012
11:52 pm
Play makers wanted!
Nate on SLC
October 27th, 2012
11:53 pm
BYU is a handful of plays away from being 9-0. They had Notre Dame on the ropes in South Bend a week ago and only lost because their QB missed a WIDE OPEN TD pass in the 4th quarter. That’s the same Notre Dame team that just beat Oklahoma in Norman by 17. The Cougs have a title-contender quality defense. GT was just outclassed today.
Fact Check Likes Sausage Because he Works at Waffle House
October 27th, 2012
11:55 pm
Fact Check likes boy’s sausage and plays with it at Waffle House. Go to bed punk and you will still wake up as a LOSER. No wife, no job, but a lot of hot air.
stanh
October 27th, 2012
11:57 pm
fan for life im right there with you….im done….50 years and ive never seen less effort out of a team…CPJ your kids have quit on you….get your s… and get out of town…..i was all for you and think your a great guy but number one you cant recruit…you cant win games without defense…dont believe me…hmmm…..do you think bama plays defense…what about ga…and ug florida…and even south carolina…you win championships by playing defense man not running some high school offense….We dont have a player who could start for georgia…….its sickening….you say being in the top 15 in recruiting isnt a big thing….really?….are you freaking serious…damn man be honorable and have character….dont quit during the season buy do it at the end of the season…please
1 4 GT
October 27th, 2012
11:57 pm
Note on today’s game. What is up with the punter being only 12 yards behind the ball (LOS)? How long nave we been watching punters lineup 15 yards from the LOS? Might that be the reason we have seen so may punts close to being blocked and did in fact have one blocked today that BYU recovered at our 9 yard line? Seems logical to me.
Clyde
October 28th, 2012
12:01 am
Yeah, then he shanked the next punt because he was scared of having it blocked again. Punt went straight up in the air. May as well have gone for it on 4th down.
jw
October 28th, 2012
12:03 am
time for the Paul Johnson Fun and Run tour to come to an end – go back to Georgia Southern or maybe Valdosta State needs an ex-division 1 coach – the big boys have seen through the smoke and mirrors – your fan base is gone, your institution is non competitive in football. Get out the slide rules and calculate a new formula for success. The Nobel Prize of college football will NEVER pass through Atlanta if you don’t do something soon!
Fact Check is a Waffle House Cook
October 28th, 2012
12:07 am
Fact Check,
Just because you are a Waffle House cook does not mean you have succeeded in business in Atlanta. Tom Forkner (co-founder of Waffle House with Joe Rogers) is my old friend at the Atlanta Athletic Club and former neighbor in Riverview. I will put in a good word for you with Tom so you can become the manager of one of his stores. With your inflated ego, you will think you have really arrived then. LMAO!!!!
Fact Check
October 28th, 2012
12:07 am
Dorks… Gotta hot wife, a business that mints money, and I tell it like it is. Would love to smack you down anytime. Just name the place. You won’t because then you will be forced to repeat 10 times that “GT Runs This State 364″.
As we have established… you have a wife… She goes 220 and makes your mobile home lean to whatever side she is standing on. Your parents were blue collar just like you. Your mom fried Snickers bars for you as a boy and your dad cleaned out Chicken coups. Today they are on food stamps but your entire obese family gets together every weekend to watch the UGA football game on your rented flat screen (which, of course, was rented to you by the owner of the largest Aaron’s Rents… A GT grad.). You are a loser because you can’t back up your talk. I am ready to prove it at any moment… Just say the word, Michael Stipe.
Ed Stone
October 28th, 2012
12:12 am
@Tech4life if you’re ok supporting high school football at the major college level you could probably save alot of money by actually going to high school games. As for the idiot earlier who said the ACC is not major college football, I just said it, you’re an idiot.
Fact Check
October 28th, 2012
12:17 am
BTW Dorks… If you used to live in Riverview and are friends with Tom and a member of AAC, then I am going to find out who you are.
I know Joe and Tom well. Joe would love it if I smacked you down for the trash you talk. C’mon bro, I need to work out some frustration… If you are not comfortable with Waffle House, then how about somewhere else?
DOC 51
October 28th, 2012
12:18 am
CPJ has wasted 3 yrs. of S.DAYS” GT career.Snoddy,Perkins,and other decent recruits will never be coached up and given a fair chance.
rj
October 28th, 2012
12:18 am
Here is another phase that Tech got whipped in, coaching. Paul Johnson has to be fired or Rad has to go if he can’t make a decision.
Ed Stone
October 28th, 2012
12:24 am
Holy crap, I just saw a bigger idiot on here than tech4life. Congratualtions fact check, you have been crowned the biggest idiot. Enjoy your crown.
Dawgs1
October 28th, 2012
12:29 am
Tech will lose players to gsu if they keep this coach.no one in h.s run this offense and no 3,4,5 star players wanna go there.fire the the coach
justsaying
October 28th, 2012
12:29 am
Hmmm Fact check seems to be rather familiar with said toys. Lonely are you FC?
Fact Check Needs Help
October 28th, 2012
12:29 am
Fact Check, you are really angry tonight. You should get some anger management assistance. Seriously, get some help so it won’t affect your marriage to your fat cow wife. I have heard that getting blown out by Miami, Middle Tenn and BYU will make you angry. Are you not having Fun on the Flats this year? I guess the free hotdog, Coke and GT football are not making you happy this year?
We UGA fans just beat the #2 team in the nation so we could not possibly understand your frustration. Hope to see you in Athens so I can kick your face in at beautiful Sanford Stadium.
1 4 GT
October 28th, 2012
12:31 am
Fact Check….why are you lowering yourself down to their level. Quit it man!
Ed Stone
October 28th, 2012
12:33 am
Good one fact check. You must have found that description in your night stand. You’re probably using it right now.
Fact Check
October 28th, 2012
12:36 am
Name the place bro. I will be there. Would love to smack you down in front of the world’ls largest collection of blue collar college grads.
I am not angry at all… Just pointing out that when called on the mat, UGA fans run and cry. You guys talk a lot of trash.., back it up. All you have is football… And you haven’t been that good at that lately either. Good win today for the Dawgs… But any troll that comes on our blog talking trash, better be able to back it up.
Where are we meeting at Sanford Stadium?
Clyde
October 28th, 2012
12:36 am
Didn’t Georgia Tech beat a highly ranked Clemson team a few years ago?
Fact Check
October 28th, 2012
12:38 am
1 4 GT… I hear you, man. Just want to call this little punk out for what he is… Nothing more than a trash talking troll. Want to see what he is really made of…
Fact Check
October 28th, 2012
12:39 am
Admit it, Ed. You laughed at that one.
Clyde
October 28th, 2012
12:40 am
Fact Check, not all fans of Georgia Tech fans are white collar.
Ed Stone
October 28th, 2012
12:41 am
You wouldn’t make it dude. I would feel bad hurting you.
we steal ruin this state
October 28th, 2012
12:41 am
I’ve been a GT fan since Billy Lothridge/Billy Martin. obviously I’ve suffered. It’s time for a change.
Clyde
October 28th, 2012
12:41 am
Correction, not all Georgia Tech fans are white collar. Need some sleep, long day on the Flats.
Fact Check
October 28th, 2012
12:44 am
Gents… I am off to bed. Love to see one UGA fan step up and meet me… But I know that won’t happen.
So… I will simply go to bed hoping we can DRad this week with a mind to firing CPJ after the buyout is more manageable.
UGA sucks at everything except football.
Fact Check
October 28th, 2012
12:48 am
I would make it, Ed. Just name the place, bro. You will keep trash talking and avoiding the arranging of the meeting place.
And we will see who gets hurt.
Fact Check = Supersize
October 28th, 2012
12:55 am
Supersize is to embarrassed to use his real name tonight. No worries, I would be hiding behind another alias too with all the BS that Supersize talks. Losing to Miami, Midd Tenn State and BYU at home will do that to a Tech fan, like Supersize. Where’s your buddy 5150? To ashamed to show up tonight. Get a good night’s rest so you can defend this blog tomorrow. LMAO!!!
DORKS R US
October 28th, 2012
1:03 am
WE OWN THIS STATE!!
DORKS R US
October 28th, 2012
1:07 am
Why don’t u fact check Dez Nutz in ya mouth just like the Mormon Team did 2 ya! Punk ho