There are two ways for Georgia Tech fans to look at their team's play in its 5-0 start.
They can be encouraged that the team has managed to stay undefeated despite troubling shortcomings and be hopeful that they will be fixed.
Or they can despair that the Yellow Jackets' winning streak is living on borrowed time, convinced that these flaws will eventually catch up with them when the schedule toughens. Waffling Jackets fans might consider the mindset of team members after they let a percolating blowout transform into an uncovering of blemishes in a 45-35 win over N.C. State Saturday in Raleigh. Not surprisingly, no players gave forecasts of falling skies.
"I think we did good in spots, but it wasn't consistent enough to where we want to go," defensive end Jason Peters said.
After holding the Wolfpack to 15 plays and no points in their first three series, the Jackets defense seemed to ease off the gas. N.C. State wandered through a 19-play drive that consumed 81 yards and almost 10 minutes but gained no points. The Wolfpack scored touchdowns on their following two possessions.
N.C. State, which entered the game averaging 2.8 yards per carry and 85.0 rushing yards per game, gouged out 5.1 yards per rush and 195 rushing yards. Tech's defense harassed and largely controlled N.C. State quarterback Mike Glennon, but also gave him enough time to complete 11 passes for first downs. Tech's defense was vastly improved in third-down efficiency – N.C. State was five of 14 – but also allowed a 100-yard rusher for the second consecutive this week.
Peters said he wasn't sure how James Washington broke free for a 46-yard scoring run, "but I'm sure we're going to go in film (and) we're going to see things we could have done 1,000 times better."
It is a Rorschach test – is it a good thing that Tech can win despite making so many mistakes, or is it impending calamity?
Perhaps most concerning, the Jackets allowed N.C. State to score 21 of the final 24 points of the game after taking a 42-14 lead with 10:07 remaining.
"We're going into next week with a totally different mindset of how we've got to go throughout the whole game but not just part of it," inside linebacker Julian Burnett said.
A neurotic Tech fan might even wonder about the explosive Tech offense. While the Jackets have scored in 19 of 20 quarters this season, the offense went into neutral, relatively speaking, after Tech took a 21-0 lead five seconds into the second quarter. Just barely 25 percent through the game, the Jackets had acquired 42 percent of the yards and 47 percent of the first downs they would ultimately gain.
A more optimistic approach would be to consider that Tech scored 24 points in a little less than three quarters on the road against an ACC opponent.
"We just have to keep going," A-back Orwin Smith said. "Because in my mind, we haven't played real competition to really test our skills."
About the Author
