First, congratulations to LSU and their fans for the win. As a Tech fan, it was hard to watch the Chick-Fil-A Bowl but certainly, I won’t shy away from admitting that Georgia Tech was dismantled in all aspects of the game… offense, defense, and even special teams. I was severely disappointed in the way our defense played last night; they simply looked unprepared to play the game of football. I could easily blame the offense for being unproductive but hopefully our defensive unit would be the first ones to admit that it was their job to get themselves off of the field and keep the other team out of our end-zone. Likewise, our special teams had yet another dismal game. Our team was fooled by a surprise onside kick and a fake punt, the latter being during the middle of the blowout which is quite irksome but not against the rules or anything.
This loss in no way diminishes the great season the Yellow Jackets had in 2008. I honestly expected Tech to go 6-6 mainly due to the introduction of the new coaching staff, new offense, and being the youngest team in the ACC. A 9-4 season with some great wins (especially to U[sic]GA) brought Tech some high-profile coverage of its season and games.
I intend to keep up with whatever news that comes out about Tech during spring practice like I did for last year. I am biased but I think there are some great things ahead for the GT football program in the years to come. I can’t wait to see what our guys can do after a Spring and Summer of maturing with this past season under their belts. It’s great to be a Tech fan.
Tech was down 16 points at the half then the offense clicked into place. What an absolutely amazing comeback victory by Georgia Tech against our rival!
Don’t comment telling me I’m wrong because I am talking metaphorically and the title was for rhetorical purposes. In reality, Tech got the W today and are 5-1 overall now but it’s very difficult to consider today’s win a victory because it could have easily gone either way and came down to a barely tipped field goal that prevented the game from going into OT. Were we playing a team in the ACC? Nope. Tech played Gardner Webb, a Division I-AA team that our program scheduled because Army pulled out of a home-and-home contract last year.
If you are a Gardner Webb fan, I don’t mean to say that just because GW is a Division I-AA team that it has no credibility or chance to beat a I-A team (for example, Toledo beat Michigan today) but let’s not pretend that this is the first time you’ve read this game should have been an easy game for Tech. Because, it should have been. Even after reading somewhere that GW was a great rush-defense team, I admit that I didn’t think much of it and wouldn’t have been able to believe that they would be able to hold our rush-oriented offense to 79 yards on the ground.
Now for Tech fans, let’s not use the “but it’s our third-string QB” excuse because that doesn’t explain why we only had 79 yards rushing. That doesn’t explain why Calvin was sacked two times and he was the leading rusher at the end of the game with 35 yards rushing on 19 carries. I am going to be blunt here so be prepared for that: our offensive line just plain sucked. Coach Paul Johnson said in his radio show last week that they were working a lot on their punt-return team but did he let the offensive line take a week off or something? CPJ also said after last week after Duke’s game that the offensive line needed to play lower and launch off of the line of scrimmage… but did they instead lay down on the ground and play dead? I wasn’t able to watch the game since it wasn’t televised but I did listen to it live on radio and I just could not believe that our blocking was so bad that our running game couldn’t even muster 80 yards; don’t forget 35 yards came from Calvin who is more of a pocket-passing QB.
What’s even worse is that after reading this column from Terence Moore at the AJC, it seems as if 80% of our offense failed to show up for this game because aside from our non-existing offensive line, our wide receivers were running wrong routes. Seriously? Out of any of the games that the wideouts could be running the wrong routes, they do it on a day that Calvin finally starts a game. Calvin, who is so easy to root for because of he is so team-oriented and unselfish? Come on!
In my mind, Coach Paul Johnson and the Georgia Tech football team lost today. They are 4-2 in my book. We can say a win is a win all we want but we all know Tech coaches, players, students, and fans were disappointed by our lackluster offense today and know that our offense can do better than they did today. Tech didn’t take GW seriously today and it’s going to hurt the team’s credibility.
How about the glass half-full stuff? Our defense played decent which is better than piss poor. This can be used as a good learning experience for our young team so hopefully this game will make them stronger and more focused.
Wow, what a game! The stories of the game were all about defense for both teams. Tech’s defense was giving up yards left, right, and up the middle in the first half. In the second half, it was a different story because they forced multiple turnovers and even got a safety. The cream on the top was the athleticism of Josh Nesbitt making amazing plays… turning possible sacks on third downs into huge yard gains for the first. I would have to say that Georgia Tech won because of our defense getting in gear and stopping Crane (was he hurt mid-3rd quarter?).
GT is now 2-0 and 1-0 in the ACC conference. I realize that beating Jacksonville State and BC (in such an ugly way as Paul put it agreeably) doesn’t really match up to some of the ranked teams in the nation. Yet still, considering that earlier this year and probably up until the final play clock ticked down in Chestnut Hill today, there were plenty of sketics questioning Tech’s chances of being successful; I think our offense did okay.
A win is a win regardless of how ugly of a win it was but obviously with three fumbles, two of which I attribute to the poor execution of the offense, we still have a long road of improvement ahead.
One of the formations that Paul Johnson will run as triple-option is the flexbone formation. I’ve created an image below depicting what a balanced flexbone formation looks like. Keep a note of its distinct two A-backs (A) in slot and one B-back (B) in the backfield outlined in black and highlighted. Of course, this is just one formation and there are many different ways to line up but you will almost always see one A-back in slot and a B-back with the last A-back being a blocker or receiver down the field.
Again, one of the most unique things about the triple-option offense is that a play can be called without anyone knowing who is going to end up with the ball and where because there are several ‘options’ the quarterback has when running the play from center. It’s in no way foolproof but if executed properly, it’s a system that can chew up a lot of yards on the ground and give the offense the ability to control the clock.
Just a quick update on miscellaneous things since all I’ve been blogging about lately has only been relating to my fervor for Georgia Tech football.
I want Canon to release the next full-frame digital SLR. The 50D looks nice but I want a full-frame now.
Oh… GT opening game day tomorrow… I am psyched! GO TECH! STING ‘EM!
Is it just me or is our Economy going down the drain. Everyone is all happy because gas is under $4.00 per gallon.
I wanted to vote for Barack but the Democratic National Convention is making me doubt. Who’s manning Congress while all the democrats are working on speeches?
