Georgia Tech is no longer untested, but it’s still undefeated
The biggest play: Roddy Jones down the sideline. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
Georgia Tech hadn’t been tested, so it decided to test itself. It watched North Carolina score three second-half touchdowns and override a 14-point deficit, and suddenly serious stuff had arisen. The nation’s No. 25 team was tied at home, 7:22 to play.
“We thought we’d try to make a game a little more exciting,” Paul Johnson would say afterward, half-smiling but not nearly laughing. That said …
Johnson mightn’t have enjoyed every detail of this game — the two turnovers, the missed field-goal attempt, the never-ending run of lousy special-teams play, the dropped touchdown pass by the otherwise ascendant Stephen Hill, even his own loss of fourth-and-1 nerve — but he had to be tickled by its outcome. A coach can’t know about his team until it’s forced to make plays for the express purpose of game-winning, and Johnson’s Jackets aced that exam.
Tied with 7:22 remaining, Tech led with 5:20 to go. Nice kickoff return, long Roddy Jones run down the sideline — shades of Sanford Stadium, November 2008 — and a Tevin Washington duck-in touchdown. No poor pitchouts or muffed catches here. Just two minutes of precision at the moment precision was required.
“I’m kind of glad it happened this way,” Hill said. “It shows the team it’s not going to be easy.”
Tech’s first three games had been varying degrees of days at the beach. It hadn’t trailed since the Independence Bowl. It hadn’t failed to lead 7-0 after its first snap. It was amassing silly numbers even by Johnson’s standards, but you knew full well that September wouldn’t pass without silliness yielding to cold reality. Reality arrived Saturday wearing powder blue.
North Carolina isn’t a great team, but it takes football seriously enough to have committed so many indiscretions it was impelled to vacate two years’ worth of victories. The Tar Heels seized the lead here, forcing Tech to react, and sure enough Tech scored 28 of the next 35 points. But then Al Groh’s defense, which had limited Carolina to 30 yards over the final 27 minutes of the first half, started to perform like the Tech D we’ve come to know and bemoan, and the usually roaring Tech offense wasn’t quite at high tide.
Which sounds strange, given that the Jackets finished with 35 points and 496 yards. But when you enter averaging 59.3 points and 675.3 yards, you’ve set an impossible standard. Matched finally against an opponent capable of punching back, Tech missed just enough chances to keep this close.
Said Johnson: “We’ll have to look at the tape and clean up the stuff we didn’t do great, and there’s a bunch of it.”
A bunch? Not really. But enough to render this the Jackets’ first close game of 2011. And even after the go-ahead-to-stay surge, Tech couldn’t run out the clock. Carolina got the ball and one final chance. Would Groh’s defenders go belly-up?
Nope. Tech halted the Heels before they could draw close enough to throw into the end zone. The defense incapable of making any plays last season made several this time — linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu had three sacks, including one on the game’s final snap — and that’s an upgrade.
“Thirty-five [points] is better than 28,” said Johnson, voicing a familiar and incontrovertible theme. “That’s what I was pleased with.”
There was, however, a single greater point: We’d seen how sleek Tech could look against token opposition, but against the Heels we saw it being forced to make plays — and then making them. No team scores 66 every given Saturday, and the rest of the schedule will resemble more of what we saw in Week 4 than in Weeks 1-3. This outcome should give the Jackets even deeper faith in themselves.
And there’s hay to be made in this conference. Nobody looks impregnable. The Jackets don’t play Florida State, and they’ll get Clemson and Virginia Tech here.
“Our goal is always to win the ACC championship,” Washington said, and a month ago those words might have sounded fanciful. Four victories later, this season bears the look of a real opportunity. Tech has positioned itself to do something, and that’s all you can reap from any September.
By Mark Bradley
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368 comments Add your comment
Georgia Tech is no longer untested
September 25th, 2011
7:04 am
`
Even ESPN’s ’stubborn’ Heather Dinich said:
” Georgia Tech is now 4-0 and yes, this team is for real.”
heeldawg
September 25th, 2011
7:14 am
Congratulations to Tech on a big win against a quality opponent. UNC is not a great team, and they have an interim coach, but they have some talent–especially on defense. So scoring 35 points on them and racking up 500 yards of offense is nothing to sneeze at.
Tech is an improved team and will get to 7-0. Their schedule is very favorable. The two big ACC tests will be against Virginia Tech ( a probable loss) and Clemson ( a toss-up). I would not be surprised at all to see the Jackets at 10-1 going into the season finale against Georgia. That game should be very interesting–an emergingly solid Georgia defense against a prolific, clicking-on-all-cylinders Tech offense, and a talented (but Bobo-led) Georgia offense against a somewhat porous Tech defense. Turnovers and special teams could well decide the outcome of that game.
Again, congrats on the win. Y’all deserve your ranking.
duece coupe
September 25th, 2011
7:38 am
5 things that did go right for Tech:
—————————————
1. Won first game
2. Won second game.
3. Won third game.
4. Won fourth game.
5. The highest scoring offense in the nation.
UGA = Yawn
September 25th, 2011
7:56 am
What a great win and a great game. Go Jackets!
??????
September 25th, 2011
7:57 am
Some of u pup fans need to get a life or maybe a job
fan of shorter passes & longer runs
September 25th, 2011
8:10 am
I thought Cooper Taylor caught a bad H2H call couple years ago but that call Sat against Sweeting was equally as bad. Too bad the refs cannot use the replay to correct those type calls.
yearofthedawg
September 25th, 2011
8:13 am
Hey ramblingbuzz… that was my point exactly. Neither team has beaten anybody.
And by the way, I got my bachelors degree at UGA and my masters at Tech. I cheer for both, except when they play each other. I just get mystified when writers (even the ones I like) draw such far reaching conclusions from games in September.
Chronos
September 25th, 2011
8:15 am
heeldawg, it’s nice to see a uga poster who can write in complete sentences. Both Tech and uga did what they needed to do yesterday and won. Fans of both teams should take solace in that instead of trolling each others blogs with silly comments.
GT
September 25th, 2011
8:32 am
That was a good North Carolina team. They had Lots of talent on the field, young but very talented. Bernard the running back is as good as any freshman in the country. They need a big play receiver and they are going to hurt somebody. The coaching was very clever too; a little lacking in the fourth quarter running out of timeouts but this is a sleeper team that will beat someone in the ACC that will help Tech this year.
I love Johnson. He is what is good about football. You take your five star uncoachable players and he will take his one star humble player and beat you. Not all the time but enough to give you hope. He does it betting somewhere in a game your superstar is going to break mentally. It seems the better ones break more that the one that have to think to keep up. North Carolina had a little more talent than Tech and certainly not the cockiness of some teams we will see this year. If they had been cocky, Tech would have beaten them worse. Rogue teams don’t play like North Carolina, very disciplined and a fine representative of their university.
GT
September 25th, 2011
8:35 am
UNC represented their university very well. If these are the rogue teams the NCAA are trying to control I am not sure of the service the offer. If this team had been a little more cocky Johnson would have beaten them by 40 points. This team will beat someone this year that will help Tech win the ACC title.
4Tech
September 25th, 2011
9:07 am
Simply put…IMHO this Tech team can/will go as far as the defense (& kicking game) takes them. I believe with the emergence of a passing attack, the offense is pretty much a given at this point. I’m sure there are teams that can slow it down, but if the defense can hold up its end of the bargain, we can have a really good year. Go Jackets!!
RGP
September 25th, 2011
9:11 am
UNC is a basketball school so I don’t know what is so exciting about this win.
Stinger
September 25th, 2011
9:13 am
yearofthedawg- You actually consider Ole Miss a good team. They lost to Vandy 30-7 for crying out loud. The bottom line is the dawgs haven’t beaten a good team. The Jackets beat a top 25 team. We are 4-0 and have one of the most explosive offenses in the Nation. Our defense is improving and the last time we started the season 4-0 we won the National Championship. The only team we didn’t beat that year was North Carolina, we tied them. The dawgs are a team that is trending downward. This is the year you lose to both Vandy and Kentucky in your own conference. The Jackets will hand a Half Dollar on you this year.
mike
September 25th, 2011
9:15 am
nice win. still need to improve on tacklling.
DSBD
September 25th, 2011
9:22 am
Enjoyed watching the game. Seeing improvement. Low points of the game were the bad H2H call and the dropped TD pass by hill.
GR82BAG8R
September 25th, 2011
9:33 am
yearofthedog – September in football is like mutual funds in investment: Past performance is no guarantee of future returns, but it can be used as a predictor. Teams that are playing poorly in September rarely perform well in November – - especially against teams that are performing well in September.
I see Maryland got stomped at home by that powerhouse Temple, NCState got whipped by UC, UVA lost at home to USM, and Miami lost at home to Kansas State. The ACC did not provide much support for those claiming it is a good football conference.
duece coupe
September 25th, 2011
9:39 am
Georgia Tech’s defense ending the game with a sack
was good.
The Goon Squad is improving fast.
duece coupe
September 25th, 2011
9:40 am
Defense and offense is coming together.
Nativebird
September 25th, 2011
9:43 am
Wow. North Carolina…POWERHOUSE. Break out the bubbly. My Jackets are destined to periodically challenge for regular season success, and trounced in Post-season against any team with more than a week to figure out this gimmick program.
19
September 25th, 2011
9:46 am
The other school’s trolls should go to their own blog. You know, “gonna run the table” and all that other stuff. After you guys stomped ole miss you should be ranked in the top 10. LOL
JB
September 25th, 2011
9:47 am
Dawg fan Here. This Tech team is surprising a lot of us. The pundits had told us this team without Nesbitt and a stout D would struggle. Just the opposite. The creation of the forward pass in this offense has made this team more dangerous, and the D is better, but not good enough yet to stop a real good ball club IMO. This team has a chance to win 10,maybe 11 games, including my very disappointing Dawgs. Congrats on the win and I feel this team will get better. Ouch for a Dawg fan.
headley lamar
September 25th, 2011
9:58 am
This was the all probation bowl.
And Tech still loses to Georgia. Just like most years.
Not Disappointed
September 25th, 2011
10:08 am
Keep Winning Jackets!
Class of '98
September 25th, 2011
10:11 am
Enter your comments here
Hit REAL Hard
September 25th, 2011
10:11 am
THE #1 offense in the nation is the kind of gimmick, I like.
Not Disappointed
September 25th, 2011
10:13 am
Thanks JB! a.k.a. Dawg Fan! I know we have a way to go, but I want them to take it One Game at a TIME! Ramblin Wreck!
Paul in NH (formerly RDU)
September 25th, 2011
10:15 am
What a difference playing a game makes. On Friday, according to many posters, UNC was a “real team” with a bunch of future NFL players on D that was going to expose GT as a fraud. By Saturday night, UNC was a weak team with no coach and no good players on defense.
all I remember is
September 25th, 2011
10:17 am
UGA is 2-2 and unranked.
duece coupe
September 25th, 2011
10:25 am
Georgia Tech will move up in the Rankings today.
JB
September 25th, 2011
10:26 am
Although 1-9 against Richt, Richt getting fired from Georgia does not bode well for Tech IMO
stevefirstave
September 25th, 2011
10:28 am
Vince, heck MTS could beat MState. Navy and ECU should have won against
SCarolina but to let Boise State come to the GA Dome and trounce
UGA like it did….put in perspective once by the Old ball coach, ” I don’t
know what happens to those great high school recruits when they get to Athens!!”
Boyz From N. Ave.
September 25th, 2011
10:34 am
Our high school Offense is number 1 IN THE NATION in like 5 categories. now if we can a defense to match, we might be dangerous.
Boyz From N. Ave.
September 25th, 2011
10:37 am
BTW, thanks for comments JB. A classy Dawg fan is hard to find. IMHO you are welcome on the Tech blog anytime, even though u root for the wrong team. Like you, I wish both teams could come into the T Day massacre 11-0. It doesnt do the rivalry any justice when one team is good and the other is struggling.
duece coupe
September 25th, 2011
10:38 am
Six teams ranked ahead of Georgia Tech lost.
Brock
September 25th, 2011
11:01 am
Stephen Hill’s catch is #1 on ESPN top ten. Columbus- NC was ranked so your post is pointless. Please do a loittle research and less drinking next time.
Brock
September 25th, 2011
11:01 am
little
1 4 GT
September 25th, 2011
11:10 am
Supersize, boy do I remember sentence diagramming & composition in English class. I don’t think it’s taught anymore. Kids don’t learn how to use a slide rule either. I was almost as fast as a calculator to 100th’s, but today.s kids all have at least a 9 digit calculater & computers. They still need to know at the least basic math & grammar skills.
1 4 GT
September 25th, 2011
11:16 am
GT86. A lot of the low game day attendance can be attributed to the economy the past 2-3 years. And your A/D (Braine) publicly saying the alums need to get over a school like GT expecting double digit wins in football or championships in most any sport. Then you have a coach like Gailey whose best qb is Reggie Ball???? Nothing more needs to be said imo.
1 4 GT
September 25th, 2011
11:18 am
Supersize, do the frosh still wear the beanies??
1 4 GT
September 25th, 2011
11:21 am
Rwreck77 Your attendance thoughts about the demographics bear a lot of truth.
duece coupe
September 25th, 2011
11:41 am
Actually 5 teams lost ranked ahead of Georgia Tech, but Illinois struggled with Western Michigan.
Gorilla Biscuit
September 25th, 2011
11:45 am
Enjoy the ride Gnerds. You’ll lose two of three from among Miami, Clemson, and VT, and of course the annual beatdown from the Dawgs. 9-3 and another Bowl meltdown.
UGA ROCKS!!!
September 25th, 2011
11:49 am
Don’t ya’ll remember 1980, we rule the world.
All I know
September 25th, 2011
11:56 am
Gt is 1-0 against ranked teams. UGA 0-2. Maybe you guys should play weaker teams….
Gorilla Biscuit
September 25th, 2011
12:01 pm
Like North Carolina?
StingDoc
September 25th, 2011
12:30 pm
DanRad is a Genius for hiring Paul Johnson. While the dawgs recruit better players who could never survive the curriculum at Tech whenever they managed to stay out of jail, we have the better coach. Furthermore, as Bobby Dodd said, “We get the smart ones.” So we definitely can beat them if we want to bad enough. Paul is1 & 2 against the dawgs, beat their pre-season #1 team and lost one of the games only because the thugs deliberately injured Nesbitt as they tried to do the previous year.
Buzzfan
September 25th, 2011
12:38 pm
heeldawg said: “Congratulations to Tech on a big win against a quality opponent.”
It’s great to see an intelligent Georgia fan who practices good sportsmanship unlike the many moronic dawg-fans posting here who probably not only never went to UGA but sound as though they never made it past the 6th grade!
Steve
September 25th, 2011
12:39 pm
Only 46,000 showed up??? HA HA. Pathetic.
Steve
September 25th, 2011
12:41 pm
And how sad is it that it’s been 21 years since the nerds were 4-0? Tells you how bad their program is. What’s funny is if Tech had UGA’s schedule, they would be 1-3 at this point.
techfan
September 25th, 2011
12:57 pm
What’s funny is if Tech had UGA’s schedule, they would be 1-3 at this point.
I have a hard time believing that Tech would have lost to a team that Vandy blew out. Plus, i’m not sure South Carolina would bet us after that showing against Navy. Boise would probably beat us pretty good though. We would be 2-2 at worst.