AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 26
Sunday, October 26, 2008
UVA’s Offensive Line Dominates…Cavs Win…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There will be much discussion regarding the Yellow Jacket turnovers and how they cost Georgia Tech a win and a 7-1 record. Its easy to look at the box score and see the fumble at the UVA 7 yard line and think to yourself…that was the game right there.
Unfortunately, the truth of the matter was the fact that the Virginia offensive line dominated the vaunted Georgia Tech defensive line for a majority of the afternoon. The Jackets were unable to put any semblence of consistent pressure on Marc Verica and the defensive secondary got shredded for 270 yards and two touchdowns as the Hoos completed 29 passes in 30 attempts. That’s a completion rate of almost 75%. Nine different Cavaliers caught passes on the day.
That high completion rate allowed the Cavs to mount four drives that consisted of 10 or more plays…11 for 53, 12 for 66, 10 for 46, and 12 for 27. The Cavaliers ran up 23 first downs on the afternoon, coverting 11 of 18 third down efforts to extend drives and keep the Tech defense on the field.
The nearly 10 minute advantage in time of possession resulted in a play advantage of 75 to 56 for the Cavaliers and it became obvious that our defense was winded in the fourth quarter when Cedric Peerman started ripping off chunks of yardage en route to a 118 yard performance.
So…I submit that the bottom line in this game was the dominance of the UVA offensive line. The lack of pressure on the quarterback allowed UVA to extend their drives and wear our defense down. And the extra time that Verica had to check through his progressions allowed him to find receivers and safety outlets that resulted in passing yards against corners and safeties who simply couldn’t cover their assignments indefinitely.
So what went right for the Jackets? If forced to find positives I’d say that the improved kick returns from Roddy Jones were a nice improvement and the fact that Georgia Tech was only penalized twice all game. That’s about it really…beyond the nice toss sweeps to Jones and passes to Thomas that seemed to be working in the first quarter but then disappeared for the remainder of the game.
Looking forward, its realistic to be content with a 6-2 record and knowledge of the fact that noone else on Tech’s schedule has the behemoth offensive line that UVA possess. No other team possesses a quarterback that is slinging the ball around at a nearly 70% completion rate combined with a senior running back like Cedric Peerman. Tech would have soundly defeated UVA with quarterback pressure and better ball security…and the same can be said of everyone else left on the schedule going forward.
Being married to a huge FSU fan, I’ve watched quite a bit of Seminole football this season. Its been obvious that the FSU offensive line is woefully bad. They are nowhere near as good at pass protection as the UVA line is. Tech WILL get pressure on Christian Ponder. BUT…FSU seems to have found their running game and Antone Smith is extremely dangerous. It should be an interesting game and one in which Tech can bounce back and get to 7-2 and solid bowl eligibility before facing UNC on the road in two weeks.
But again…the Jackets MUST pressure the quarterback and must protect the football.
Go Jackets!
THWG!
