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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > November > 08
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Tech plays worst game at worst time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chapel Hill, N.C. — If it was early September, this game actually goes down a little easier. Because in early September the plan seemed limited to setting a tone, implementing structure, establishing direction — all of those things new head coaches do with young and fragile football teams.
Problem is, this isn’t early September, and so much had changed in the last two months. That young Georgia Tech team already had won more games than most could have imagined. That young team was overachieving with a 7-2 record and had raised expectations.
That young team just experienced its market correction.
The Jackets picked the worst time to play their worse game. One week after defeating Florida State, which launched the team back into ACC contention, the Jackets landed with a thud. They had two fumbles in a span of three and a half minutes in the second half that led to touchdowns, missed two field goals, frequently broke down on offense and lost to North Carolina, 28-7.
In early September, you expected this.
In early November, it was easy to be convinced they were past the possibility.
“It’s hard,” said quarterback Jaybo Shaw, whose early fourth-quarter fumble led to a North Carolina touchdown that blew the game open at 21-0. “We knew what was at stake and we knew we had a second chance to get to the title game. But we came in here and we kind of killed ourselves.”
The Jackets will go to a bowl game. With games left against Miami and Georgia, they still have a chance for two significant wins, which would take them to a very good bowl game.
But when a team plays its way into an unexpected opportunity to win its division and compete for the conference title, it just isn’t dreaming about the Music City Bowl.
“We were excited,” defensive end Michael Johnson said about the atmosphere that followed last week’s 31-28 win over FSU. “We felt like we got a second chance, and you don’t get many of those. We’ll see if we get a third.”
It has been a strange year in the ACC — but not that strange.
The Jackets finished with 326 yards rushing, but they never really got into a flow. Only Jonathan Dwyer’s 85-yard touchdown run with six minutes left prevented them from being shut out. Aside from that score, they never got closer to the goal line than the North Carolina 23 (which resulted in a missed 40-yard field goal attempt).
They trailed 7-0 in the third quarter and were moving the ball well. But after a 21-yard run by Roddy Jones set them up with a first down at the Heels’ 29, the next three plays looked like an offensive coordinator’s tragic opera:
• 1) chop-blocking penalty for a 15-yard loss.
• 2) holding for another 10 in the red.
• 3) sack.
So Tech went from first-and-10 at the Carolina 29 to second-and-36 at its own 45. End of threat.
The young-team-meltdown followed. Jones fumbled a punt return at the 30. That set up a touchdown that made it 14-0. Two plays into the Jackets’ ensuing possession, Shaw fumbled at the 32. That opened the door for another touchdown.
Some quick analysis from coach Paul Johnson: “Lights out.”
Georgia Tech has an extended break before its next game against Miami on a Thursday night (Nov. 20). The players will need it. They’re beat up, particularly on the offensive line. (Two guards were knocked out of the game, after tackle Andrew Gardner was lost for the season to a shoulder injury during the week.)
Mentally, this also represents the mother of all letdowns, given last week’s results and what suddenly was at stake. But Johnson tried to down play that.
“You guys created all of that,” he said of elevated expectations. “Like I’ve said, we have a very young football team that, from one week to the next, is very fragile.”
Two months later, it showed.
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