In loss to Stanford, Georgia Tech’s season goes from bad to worse

STANFORD, Calif. — A 2,100-mile trip to the West Coast turned the likely into what appears undeniable.

It’s just not going to happen for Georgia Tech this season.

“We’ve got to get it together,” coach Brent Key said following his team’s 34-27 loss to Stanford on Saturday night. “And as a coaching staff, everyone’s got to start becoming accountable to things like this.”

After they were beaten by Colorado and Tennessee, the Yellow Jackets traveled to California for a late-night matchup with Stanford in hopes that an unimpressive win over Football Championship Subdivision’s Mercer on Sept. 19 was actually the start of their recovery.

Instead, even as Tech rendered the Cardinal one-dimensional with by far its best run-defense effort of the season, Stanford Stadium witnessed the home team’s evisceration of the Jackets in what was arguably the worst pass-defense performance in Key’s 51-game tenure.

“We did not execute,” Key said. “And when I say execute, we didn’t cover the guys.”

The night had begun with such promise. For their team’s first ACC game in California, Tech supporters had traveled cross country and from around the Bay Area to Stanford’s magnificent campus and picturesque (if only slightly filled) stadium for a game played beneath a full moon and in perfect sweatshirt weather.

The irreverent Stanford band played to character; its drum line included one member playing a plastic dog crate and another a stop sign.

And, while twice settling for field goals on red-zone possessions, the Jackets controlled play in the first half and led 20-10 at the half.

But then the Jackets collapsed. Stanford outscored Tech 17-0 in the third quarter, outgaining the Jackets 237-31, to take a 27-20 lead it would not relinquish.

In the third quarter alone, Cardinal quarterback Davis Warren threw for 194 yards and two touchdowns, completing passes of 52, 49, 33 and 30 yards. Most strikingly, Warren completed the 30-yarder on a fourth-and-11 and the 33-yarder (a touchdown pass) on a fourth-and-10.

He finished with 396 passing yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions, bettering his career yardage high against a power-conference opponent by 182 yards.

Injuries have seriously depleted the Jackets secondary, which was without its top four cornerbacks and two of its top three safeties, and Warren expertly exploited the advantages.

Key was not sympathetic.

“We made some adjustments, put some more help back there, clouded up, put somebody over the top of them and still had two passes thrown in there,” he said. “There’s no excuse at all. It’s part of the game. Make sure those other guys are prepared to go.”

Likewise, the offensive line has been dinged up. But it’s also a group that was supposed to have depth. Quarterback Alberto Mendoza was often fleeing Stanford’s pass rush, and running backs Justice Haynes and Trelain Maddox were frequently trying to make something from nothing.

It said a lot when Tech, built to play power football, faced a fourth-and-1 at its 34-yard line in the fourth quarter and elected to try to convert it with a pass. It said even more when Mendoza was hounded and sacked for a turnover on downs deep in Tech territory that led to Stanford scoring a touchdown for a 34-20 lead with 11:52 remaining.

Besides that, Tech played with poor discipline and seemed to come undone in the second half as Stanford rallied.

“We’ve got to get it together,” Key said.

Tech is now 1-3, and two of the losses (to Colorado and Stanford) were to teams who’ve lost their other four games against power-conference competition by a combined 144-33.

After the game, Key spoke of everyone — coaches, players, staff — needing to be accountable and to look at themselves in the mirror. He mentioned that he was ready to play freshmen to develop them — “guys that’ll give what they have” — as opposed to more experienced players.

He said that he had already “thought about everything” and “I’ll think about everything this week” to figure out how to turn his team around.

It was a message to fans that he is taking this seriously. The problem is that he has been issuing these heartfelt pronouncements and not hiding his displeasure since the first game of the season, and the results haven’t changed.

It was after the season-opening loss to Colorado that Key apologized for a “poorly prepared, poorly coached, poor-disciplined, soft football team” and that it wasn’t the team that he had talked about all offseason.