Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said he decided to go for it on fourth and 1 early in the fourth quarter of Thursday's 37-26 loss to Virginia Tech because his team needed to score.
Trailing 27-26 with 13:39 remaining at his own 31-yard line, quarterback Tevin Washington failed to pick up the yard, giving the ball to the Hokies.
"I think since the second possession of the game, if I am correct, we didn't stop them," Johnson said. "I thought we could make a yard and we didn't.
"We didn't do a very good job with the play, maybe we could have had a different play call. We didn't execute the one that was called."
The Hokies had scored on four of their previous five possessions before Johnson elected to go for it.
Washington said instead of following his blocker he tried to get behind the center and gain the necessary yard.
"That's what Paul will do," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "He's done it successfully a bunch of times, but that was a great effort by our defense."
The decision came back to haunt Georgia Tech.
Taking advantage of the short field, Virginia Tech scored a touchdown to take a 34-26 lead with 9:49 remaining.
The scoring drive didn't occur without Beamer also electing to go for it on fourth and 1 at the 22-yard line.
After calling a timeout to decide between the field goal or first down, Beamer sent quarterback Logan Thomas and company back onto the field.
"I told [offensive coordinator Mike] O'Cain ‘It's up to you, if you want to give me the rock I'm going to go get it,'" Thomas said.
The big quarterback slammed over his left guard for five yards and the first down at the 17-yard line.
The Hokies scored a touchdown a few plays later when Thomas hit tight end Chris Drager on third down.
After the game, Johnson said he's never played against a quarterback as big as Thomas who can run as well. Thomas finished with 70 yards, including a 12-yard touchdown run in the third quarter in which he carried numerous Georgia Tech defenders down the field.
"We've faced some good quarterbacks but none as big and strong as he is," linebacker Julian Burnett said. "But there's no excuse for what he did to us. He was a target to top and we couldn't do it."
About the Author
