After three weeks of cakewalks, Georgia Tech staggered away from Bobby Dodd Stadium on Saturday with its fourth consecutive victory.
In their ACC opener, the Yellow Jackets employed enough defensive playmaking and offensive clout to withstand North Carolina and a boxful of their own mistakes in a 35-28 win in front of a crowd of 46,849.
Ranked No. 25 by the Associated Press, Tech is 4-0 (1-0 in the ACC) for the first time since 1990, when it won a share of the national championship.
“Our back was against the wall and we were punching back,” said wide receiver Stephen Hill, who caught a career-high six passes, including one for a 59-yard touchdown and a ridiculous leaping, one-handed catch on the sideline. “We know that we can do it.”
In his first opportunity as the full-time starter to reveal his crunch-time mettle, quarterback Tevin Washington led a four-play, 61-yard touchdown drive to lift Tech into a 35-28 lead with 5:20 to play. A-back Roddy Jones bit off a chunk by taking a pitch 48 yards down the left sideline to the 9-yard line, shades of his 2008 touchdown run against Georgia.
Center Jay Finch and guard Will Jackson blew out North Carolina defensive tackle Sylvester Williams to clear the path for Washington’s 5-yard scoring run. Said Finch, “Two heads are better than one. Four legs are better than two.”
Tech’s defense held the Tar Heels (3-1, 1-1) twice after that. Outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu concluded his afternoon of all-field menace by crashing the pocket and quarterback Bryn Renner on the game’s final live play. (An ensuing North Carolina penalty allowed Tech to run off the final nine seconds of the game.) It was the last of seven Tech sacks, two more than it had collected in the first three games.
“As a defense, we got tired of hearing the talk that we couldn’t get to the quarterback,” Attaochu said.
In the first half, a string of drive-killing plays prevented Tech from gaining a safe lead. Still, the Jackets seemed to be in the clear late in the third quarter when they took a 28-14 lead by churning out a 13-play, 81-yard touchdown drive propelled by three third-down conversions. To that point, North Carolina had converted one of five third downs, gained 159 yards and had given up 18 points in Tech’s previous three possessions.
But the Tar Heels evened the score at 28 with 7:22 left in the fourth, the equalizer delivered on running back Giovani Bernard’s unscathed 55-yard touchdown run through the heart of the Tech defense.
That score provided the Jackets the platform to regain the lead in the first game this season when they didn’t enter the fourth quarter ahead by 35 points.
Of Bernard’s game-tying score, Finch said: “it was just another chance for us to come out and show what the triple option’s all about.”
The Jackets, picked to finish fourth in the ACC’s Coastal Division in the preseason media poll, took their first substantial step toward their stated top goal of winning the ACC title. A run to 7-0 overall and 4-0 in ACC play doesn’t seem unreasonable. Their next three opponents are N.C. State (2-2 after a Thursday night blowout loss to Cincinnati), Maryland (1-2 after a humbling loss to Temple on Saturday) and Virginia (2-2 and losers to Southern Miss on Saturday).
One can safely assume that Monday’s video review will keep the Jackets grounded. Tech’s first three possessions produced only three points. Of the Tar Heels’ seven kickoff returns, Tech allowed returners to advance past their 30-yard line five times. Missed tackles and missed blocks provided North Carolina additional opportunities.
Washington threw his first interception of the year after 33 turnover-free attempts and he fumbled inside the Tar Heels 10-yard line.
“We could have done so much better, but as a team, we came together and learned how to fight back,” Attaochu said. “This is going to help us going on into the season.”
