Morgan’s blocked kick saves win for Tech

With 9 seconds left, Georgia Tech was staring at overtime against I-AA Gardner-Webb.

The Bulldogs lined up for a 44-yard field goal to tie the game at 10. Sophomore defensive end Derrick Morgan averted the embarrassment, tipping Ryan Gates’ kick and pushing it left.

“Darryl Richard and Vance [Walker] got excellent penetration up the middle and I was able to get a piece of the ball,” Morgan said. “I didn’t know what happened but I heard the crowd cheering so I knew it was something good.”

Morgan came into the game third in the ACC with four sacks. He added 2 1/2 to that total while making 10 tackles, a team high shared by defensive end Michael Johnson.

But Morgan was visibly frustrated afterward.

“As a defense we didn’t play to our ability,” he said. “We made some mistakes, gave up some big plays.”

The Bulldogs began their final drive at their 35. Backup quarterback Devin Campbell, who entered after Stan Doolittle broke his thumb, hit Jamal Patmon for 26 yards and Dobson Collins for 12 yards to get into field-goal range.

With no timeouts left, coach Steve Patton opted to kick on third down.

“I could have taken another shot at the end zone, but they were playing deep,” he said. “We could throw a quick out, but then you take a chance on some stuff happening.

“I felt like if we hit the field goal, we put pressure on them to do something in overtime. They hadn’t really moved it in the second half.”

Bulldogs defense bottles up Tech

Tech came in averaging 290 rushing yards a game, fifth-most in the nation. Gardner-Webb had allowed 46 rushing yards a game, which ranked third in I-AA.

It was no contest.

The Bulldogs bottled up Jonathan Dwyer and Tech’s quarterbacks, holding the Jackets to 79 yards on 47 attempts (1.7 per carry).

“The option was game was pretty much nonexistent,” coach Paul Johnson said. “There wasn’t anybody doing anything. It wasn’t like you had an area where you could say, OK, these guys are playing pretty good, we’ll work on this.”

Dwyer, held to 27 yards on 16 carries, called it an off day.

“We just weren’t on the same page,” he said. …

Starting linebacker Sedric Griffin left the game after having a seizure, but coach Paul Johnson expects him to be fine. …

Linebacker Brad Jefferson had two tackles, one for loss, in his first action since dislocating his wrist in the opener. …

A-back Marcus Wright became the seventh true freshman to play this season. He had one carry for 4 yards and fumbled a pitch. …

Tech narrowly avoided its first loss to a I-AA school since 1983 (Furman). …

The Jackets haven’t been scored upon in the first half since Week 3 at Virginia Tech….

Dominique Reese became the sixth Jacket to intercept a pass this season when he caught a ball deflected by cornerback Mario Butler in the first quarter. Last year, only two Jackets got interceptions.