How No. 16 Georgia Tech can still make the ACC title game

The Yellow Jackets failed Saturday to clinch a berth in the ACC title game. But their title game chances are not technically zero with one week of the regular season remaining.

No. 16 Georgia Tech (9-2, 6-2 ACC), after losing 42-28 to visiting Pittsburgh at Bobby Dodd Stadium, will step out of league play at 3:30 p.m. Friday when it faces No. 4 Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The league’s other title game hopefuls will all be fighting for a chance to play Dec. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Obviously our goal was to do what we needed to do and win it. If we won, we were in, but it’s football,” Tech guard Keylan Rutledge said.

Tech now needs Pitt to beat No. 13 Miami (9-2, 5-2) in the regular-season finale, No. 19 Virginia (9-2, 6-1) to lose to Virginia Tech and Southern Methodist (8-3, 6-1) to lose at California. In that scenario, Pitt would clinch a berth, and Tech would finish above Virginia and SMU based on its record versus common conference opponents all played equal times.

The Jackets could have done things the easy way by winning Saturday but instead trailed 28-0 early in the second quarter and could never quite draw even despite getting within 35-28 in the fourth quarter.

“We definitely weren’t at our best. I’ll take a lot of the responsibility, the whole defense takes a lot of responsibility. It’s unacceptable for us to do that,” Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg said. “But we were just able to stay together, and we knew that we were gonna be able to come back together and carry on fighting and chipping away. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get the result we wanted.”