Weekend Reflections: ACC says officials erred, helped Georgia Tech win
What I think about some things I saw over the weekend …
The Georgia Tech defender jumped offside on third down. He was still in the neutral zone when Wake Forest quarterback Robby Ashford snapped the ball, but game officials didn’t throw a flag.
Hours after Tech’s 30-29 overtime win Saturday, an ACC spokesperson told The Associated Press that offside should have been called on the play. If officials had made the correct call, then Wake would have gained a first down with the penalty yards. Tech had no timeouts left, so the Demon Deacons could have secured the victory by running out the clock.
After offside wasn’t called, Ashford threw an incomplete pass with 1:50 to go. Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert told reporters Ashford “did what he’s trained to do, and that’s take a shot because he doesn’t know if it’s offside or not.”
The Deacons punted with a three-point lead. The Yellow Jackets then drove 33 yards for a tying field goal with two seconds left in regulation before winning in overtime.
Tech caught a huge break when officials missed the offside. There’s no way around it. Now, Jackets backers might be feeling defensive about that, so let me state the obvious: Wake blew a 20-3 lead before the missed call and still had chances to win after it.
The Deacons couldn’t stop the Yellow Jackets during their march for the tying field goal. Wake couldn’t stop Tech from scoring a touchdown on the first possession of overtime. Wake answered with a touchdown but failed to convert a two-point try to win.
Tech finished stronger than Wake. Also, another iffy decision by officials went against Tech during the second quarter.
Ashford lost the ball while being hit by Kyle Efford, as his throwing arm was moving forward. Tech recovered the loose ball. However, the play was overturned to an incomplete pass after a replay review. Wake kicked a field goal two plays later.
Wake got lucky with that play, but it was a difficult judgment call for officials. The offside should have been an easy call.
The refs missed it. It happens.
Tech got lucky on that play and a few others. They also showed great resolve by rallying to win a road game after they played poorly for two-plus quarters. Both things are true.
All that matters in the end is that the Yellow Jackets won the game. Tech, Virginia and Duke are the only ACC teams with 2-0 league records. Louisville, Cal and Virginia Tech are 1-0.
The Falcons are fine
I heard a lot of panic after the Falcons lost 30-0 at Carolina in Week 3.
Fans wanted to bench Michael Penix Jr. Fire offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. Get rid of Raheem Morris.
Everyone can relax after the Falcons beat the Commanders 34-27 on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Penix played the best game of his young career: 313 yards passing on 26 attempts with two touchdowns and one (bad) interception. The Falcons tallied season highs in points and yards per play (6.8). Morris didn’t allow the stink from Carolina to linger into the next week.
The Falcons are 2-2 heading to the bye week. That’s where I figured they’d be, even if I was off on the specifics of the wins and losses. The 0-2 start in the NFC South hurts the Falcons, especially when one of the losses is to the Panthers, but there’s plenty of time left to gain ground.
The Falcons have a bye this week. The Bills are here Oct. 13 for Monday Night Football. Buffalo is 4-0 with the third-best point differential in the NFL after Sunday’s games (plus-43). But the Bills showed some vulnerability while facing weak opponents over the past two games.
The Dolphins and Bills were tied in the fourth quarter at Buffalo in Week 3. The Saints were down by two points with nine minutes to play at Buffalo on Sunday. The Dolphins are 0-3 (they play Monday night); the Saints are 0-4.
Maybe the Falcons can figure out a way to outkick the Bills at the finish. If not, then the next several games on the schedule look manageable.
From Weeks 7 to 13, the Falcons will face just two teams that currently have winning records: the 49ers and Colts (both on the road). The other five teams had a combined 3-15 record before Monday night’s games.
The Falcons will play a lot of mediocre or worse opponents during that seven-week stretch. The caveat is the outcomes of NFL games are very difficult to predict from week to week (ask me how I know).
The Falcons didn’t look like they could beat anybody a week ago. Then they came home and proved they were fine.
Nick Saban is gone, but Alabama still owns Kirby Smart
Kirby Smart is 1-7 against Alabama after the 24-21 loss Saturday night in Athens.
“I mean, what’s everybody else’s record against them?” Smart said when asked about it after the game. “You’ve got it? I don’t (have it), either. I don’t lose sleep over that because those games have been, like, championship-caliber games, right?”
Smart has said something similar about Alabama before. It was appropriate context when Nick Saban coached the Crimson Tide. Hardly anyone beat Bama back then. Smart did it to win a national championship.
Alabama’s mastery of Georgia was supposed to subside once Saban called it quits in January 2024. If Saban were the game’s best coach, then Smart is No. 2.
But successor Kalen DeBoer also has Smart’s number. DeBoer is 2-0 against Smart. As noted by AJC sports columnist Ken Sugiura, DeBoer is 6-5 against all other power-conference teams.
In his retort, Smart asked about everybody else’s record against Alabama. The better question: What’s everybody else’s record against Alabama with DeBoer as coach? The answer: better than Smart’s.
Georgia was unlucky
Georgia was unlucky to lose to Alabama. That’s according to ESPN analyst Bill Connelly’s postgame win-expectancy metric. The Crimson Tide had the lowest win expectancy (19.6%) of every winning team over the weekend.
(For the record, Georgia Tech had the second-lowest postgame win expectancy among the weekend’s winning teams.)
Connelly’s formula measures a game’s “key, predictive stats” and determines “you could have expected to win this game X% of the time.” According to Connelly, Alabama’s win expectancy was so low because Georgia did much better with explosive offensive plays and the Tide had good turnover luck.
It seems Georgia’s luck has evened out. Georgia had the lowest postgame win expectancy (23.8%) of all winning teams in Week 3 after its victory at Tennessee.
My Weekend Predictions were 6-5
I lost backing Georgia and going against Kennesaw State. I was right to pick the Falcons (though Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels missing the game certainly helped). I had a two-fer with Georgia Tech: I picked them to win and Wake Forest to cover the two-touchdown point spread.
Really, I didn’t make any truly bad picks this time. That’s a nice change.
About the Author
