Yellow Jackets overcome poor defense, red zone issues again

Georgia Tech had a chance to bounce back defensively, to show its poor showing Nov. 1 at North Carolina State was more an anomaly than the norm and to regain some confidence against the ACC’s worst team.

It did none of those things.

Tech beat Boston College 36-34 on Saturday at Alumni Stadium but did so despite leaving gaping holes all over the field for the Eagles to exploit.

It was a sobering development for a team with ACC title game hopes and College Football Playoff aspirations because if BC, a team now on a 10-game losing streak and winless in seven ACC games, can carve up the Tech defense, what can Pittsburgh and Georgia do the next two weeks?

“We’ve had two performances in a row that we did not do a good job in certain areas,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “But, this one, we got a win out of it. We gotta take the good and we gotta take the bad, and we gotta continue to do things we’re doing well and improve the things that we’re not.”

Key was steadfast in wanting to watch the film of a game in which his defense allowed Boston College to score 34 points and gain 537 yards Saturday. The Eagles averaged 8.1 yards per play, had three runs of at least 37 yards and seven completions of at least 15 yards (four went for more than 30).

Before Saturday, the Eagles hadn’t had more than 457 yards of offense against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent all season. They had averaged 16.4 points per game over the previous eight.

The defensive failure was even more disappointing for the Jackets because it came following a bye week. After allowing 583 yards and 48 points at N.C. State, Tech claimed it was using the extra time to make some defensive adjustments.

And the return of defensive backs Ahmari Harvey, Jy Gilmore and Savion Riley was supposed to give the Tech defense an added boost.

Defensive coordinator Blake Gideon’s unit, however, is now trending in the wrong direction.

“We got a ton of faith in coach Gideon. He’s an elite coach,” Tech defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg insisted. “We know that he’s gonna put us in the position to make the play, and we just gotta go out there and execute. We know if I just do my job and my brother do his job, so on and so forth, everyone just needs to do their job and we know no one has to do anything extraordinary to win the game.”

For all the heat on Tech’s defense, the Tech offense also faltered at times Saturday, even while putting up 628 yards — its most against an FBS opponent since Oct. 28, 2023, at North Carolina — and gaining 8.3 yards per play.

Tech’s opening drive stalled at the BC 38 and ended with a punt. Running back Trelain Maddox lost a fumbled inside the BC 30 in the second quarter. And three of Tech’s five possessions in the second half, all of which ventured inside the BC 20, ended with field goals (including the game-winner from Aidan Birr with 11 seconds remaining).

That came on the heels of Tech expressing its deep concern and renewed focus on wanting to score touchdowns in the red zone.

“Offense was moving the ball, yeah — we’re not scoring touchdowns in the red zone. That’s a big difference,” Tech quarterback Haynes King said.

“That’s 14 points in the first half that we didn’t do, whether it’s a penalty, turnover — it’s stuff like that happens,” he added. “Offense isn’t perfect as well. How do you find ways? How do you keep finding ways to play complementary football and find ways to win?”

For all the red flags that occurred during the 60 minutes Saturday at Alumni Stadium, Tech still found a way to eke out a two-point victory on the road and remain in position to reach its first conference title game in 11 years.