In a season where most everything has not played out as hoped or expected, at least one thing has gone right for Georgia Tech’s defense.
The Yellow Jackets made a pointed effort to improve its third-down conversion rate, which last season ranked in the bottom 15 of FBS schools, at 46.1 percent. Going into the Jackets’ anticipated matchup with No. 9 Florida State on Saturday night, Tech ranks solidly in the middle of the pack, at 36.6 percent.
However, that is among the few positives that Tech can point to out of a defense that had considerably higher aspirations than what it has achieved. Asked his evaluation of his defense after seven games, defensive coordinator Ted Roof replied, “I think I’d probably pretty much keep that in-house.”
Coach Paul Johnson was more forthright following the 31-28 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday.
“Right now, we’re not very good on defense,” he said after the Tech defense gave up 200 rushing yards and failed to record either a turnover or a tackle for loss. “Facts are facts.”
It is one of the many dispiriting realities of the Jackets’ 2015 season. Tech brought back eight returning starters and added what many hoped would be a star in defensive tackle Jabari Hunt, back from academic ineligibility. But, as with just about every aspect of this team, not much has gone right for Tech’s defense through the five-game losing streak.
Against Notre Dame, the Jackets were torpedoed by a 46-yard touchdown pass (Johnson said Wednesday that the ACC office told him that a pass-interference penalty should have been called) and a 91-yard touchdown run. Against Duke, the Jackets allowed 7.4 yards per play in the first quarter but 3.1 thereafter, but were done in by three special-teams mistakes.
North Carolina was limited to 2-for-8 on third downs, but quarterback Marquise Williams escaped containment to run for 148 yards and two touchdowns and caught another on a gadget play. Clemson steamrolled Tech with 537 yards of offense. Pittsburgh had two three-and-outs in its first three series, but ended four of nine possessions in the end zone, three times traveling 75 yards to get there.
“We’ve played some very good offenses that have gone up and down the field against a lot of people, but we’ve got to find a way to get stops,” Roof said.
Tech has forced 10 turnovers in six FBS games, which isn’t bad, but not the frenzied rate of the second half of last season, when the Jackets ransacked opponents for 19 in their final seven games.
“We haven’t gotten the turnovers that we got last year, and minus that, it’s probably not a whole lot different,” Johnson said.
The four-man defensive line, backed by two linebackers in the standard 4-2-5 alignment, has had trouble fencing in run plays to the perimeter and staying in gaps and also rushing the passer. Defensive tackle Adam Gotsis has played at an All-ACC level, but his line cohorts, three of them returning starters, have had trouble keeping pace.
As a result, FBS opponents are completing 62.4 percent of their passes, 86th in the country. With the average inflated by eight runs of 20 yards or more, they’re also averaging 5.01 yards per rush against FBS teams, tied for 98th in the country.
The easy answer for pass pressure, blitzing more, isn’t necessarily so easy. Against North Carolina, Roof said the defense blitzed more than 50 percent of the time. Williams was sacked twice, and his completion percentage (54.2 percent on 13-for-24 passing) and yards-per-attempt average (5.6) were well below his season averages (64.1 percent and 8.6).
However, Tech also paid a price for its risk taking. Williams’ game-breaking 27-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-5 defeated a blitz in which Tech sent seven. The Jackets have often had blitzes turn out poorly.
Florida State, with the No. 2 rusher in the country in Dalvin Cook, offers no mercy.
“We’re all working, we’re all prideful,” Roof said. “And that’s the only way I know how to do it, is keep grinding and keep scratching, keep clawing, keep biting, keep fighting and keep working. That’s what we’re going to do because that’s how we’re made up.”
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