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Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Gator Bowl ruminations
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is very long, but I have plenty to get out of my system.
With three straight three-point losses, Georgia Tech’s season ended with questions that won’t be answered until next season, or never, and at least one big surprise.
Having been Tech’s lifeline for most of the season, and frequently a primary reason the Yellow Jackets won or at least had a chance to, Jacket defenders Monday found themselves in rare territory. They were trying not to be the reason Tech would lose. This was quite a reversal, the defense lost a game the quarterback nearly won.
As Georgia Tech’s offense broke from two-month slumber, the defense fell into one. West Virginia’s spread offense, and all the speed in it, gave defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta and Co. fits, particularly as the Mountaineers scored 21 straight third-quarter points to turn a 35-17 deficit into a 38-35 win.
No lead was safe against the No. 13 Mountaineers, who unleashed their vaunted rushing attack for 311 yards on the ground, and gashed the Jackets for another 131 yards and two touchdowns through the air on just 15 attempts, and nine completions.
Most people figured West Virginia was going to score. That offense is ridiculous. But who’d have predicted Tech’s defense couldn’t hold a 35-17 lead? “Mistakes and speed beat us, but I think without the mistakes the speed wouldn’t have been enough,” said middle linebacker Philip Wheeler.
The only other game this season in which the defense fell apart was Clemson, and that happened late, from the end of the third quarter on. The game plan was flawed in that one, stacking too many guys on the line so that once James Davis and C.J. Spiller broke the line, they were off to the races (or Spiller was left at the sideline to catch a pass and out-run everybody after a missed tackle).
Monday, I don’t think the game plan was flawed. I think WVU’s speed was a big problem, and Tech over-pursued often. Pat White made a big difference, and the Jackets did not prepare for fullback Owen Schmitt (13 carries, 109 yards, two touchdowns) to be such a big part of the offense, even with Steve Slaton hurt.
There’s no question in my mind when the game turned. After the teams traded touchdowns to start the second half, the score was 35-24, and West Virginia forced Tech into a three-and-punt. Whether the WVU fans sensed what was happening, or actually helped create the momentum change, Alltel Stadium was rocking as Tashard Choice was held to 1 yard on first down, Tech took a delay of game on second down, and then Tashard rushed for 3 yards.
A lot of WVU fans wore T-shirts saying, “Morgantown,” on the front, and “Where greatness is learned, and couches are burned,” on the back. It’s a tradition. They celebrate big, and as Taylor Bennett and Co. came to the line on third down, the Mountaineers were in gale-force party mode. Bet fires were starting in Morgantown. Bennett’s pass to Choice was good for just 2 yards, Durant Brooks got off one of his worst punts of the year (32 yards out of bounds), and the tide had turned. WVU players and coaches were hopping like they’d already won.
WVU went 2 yards, 20, 2, and completed a pass for 14. Then, a 5-yard rush, an incomplete pass to a receiver who was wide open in the end zone - as in completely uncovered - and a 14-yard touchdown to pull within 35-31.
Worse, the kickoff drilled Tony Clark in the leg, bounced off Sedric Griffin, and WVU recovered. It was meant to be a line-drive kick, but the result was not intended quite like Tech’s earlier on-sides kick. “Theirs was by design,” said WVU coach Rich Rodriguez. “Ours was luck.”
Tack on a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Tech, a 5-yard run, and then White jitter-bugging 15 yards for the lead, and that was it.
The Jackets threatened a couple more times, but Chris Dunlap was bumped at about the 5-yard-line on Bennett’s only interception. Eight times out of 10, a flag gets thrown there. Don’t know if Dunlap would’ve caught the ball, but he’d have made a play on it.
Dunlap also blocked in the back, and Gailey later said he thought it was a fair call, to wipe out a huge third-down conversion in the red zone. It was a great check down to Choice by Bennett, the likes of which Tech fans have rarely seen.
Which brings me to the topic of quarterbacks. Bennett was way, way better than anybody could have predicted, and I don’t care that WVU had one of the nation’s worst pass defenses statistically. He bought himself time in the pocket by moving on numerous occasions, without running like Reggie Ball might have.
His recognition and pocket sense was very good, and the touchdown pass he threw to James Johnson was a laser - and a beautiful one at that. “It was a perfect, just over the cornerback and not high enough for the safety to get there,” James said. That, folks, was a big, big, big league throw.
Gailey said getting the tight ends involved was partly a function of Bennett’s height relative to Ball’s. “He can see the field a lot more, and we were able to use more of the field,” the coach said. “I thought Patrick [Nix] did a great job of adapting what we needed to do to the personnel that was available to us in this ball game. That fit things that Taylor did better.”
The lingering question is: Did Taylor fit Tech better, or rather would he have helped Tech adapt to certain situations down the stretch of the season when the rest of the team beyond the quarterback position played well enough to win?
Gailey was asked if had any second thoughts about not playing Bennett more during the season, obviously when Reggie struggled, most notably in the Clemson, North Carolina, Georgia and Wake Forest games.
Admittedly, the coach was put in a tough spot (and he’ll stay there in many minds), before he answered, “I think what happens is you evaluate each situation as you go through it each week. I would not have changed anything this year in that respect.”
Then again, how tough is that spot? Reggie’s gone for good.
I have great respect for Chan on a lot of levels, but that’s hard to swallow. At the college and pro levels, and sometimes others too, when the starting quarterback is struggling badly (more than just a little, that is), it’s not uncommon to go with a backup - provided you have a certain level of confidence in him, and don’t have some sort of unqualified commitment to the starter.
The Bears ran away with the NFC North this year, but late in the season Lovie Smith benched Rex Grossman in favor of Brian Griese. Jake Plummer led the Broncos to the AFC title game last year, had his best season ever, threw like 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions. But when he struggled this season, rookie Jay Cutler got the nod.
I know there are other circumstances in the Denver situation, like Plummer’s pending cap charge, and the possibility he’ll be jettisoned in part for that reason. Plus, Cutler was a first-round pick and the likely future for that team.
But you can always find mitigating circumstances to provide grounds to rationalize every decision made, or not made. Those are big-picture issues that don’t relate to taking the season game-by-game with the idea of doing whatever is possible to win that day.
And now, what about the greater body of evidence? On what grounds might coaches have not had sufficient confidence in Bennett to give him a run when Ball imploded over the last third of the season?
It is impossible to convince me that Bennett did not merit at least an opportunity (or three, or four) to jump-start the Jackets in several critical junctures late in the season. I’m talking about games after Gailey and Nix in October admitted (and I appreciated the candor) that Ball’s injuries beginning in the Maryland game diminished his effectiveness, thereby reducing playbook options (which apparently already were limited by Ball’s height) because his greatest skill, the ability to run, was squelched.
The unspoken but strongly insinuated sales pitch at the time was that Ball, even injured, gave Tech its best chance to win.
After the evidence we saw yesterday, who’s buying?
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