The Georgia Tech defense checked a lot of boxes Thursday night.
The Yellow Jackets forced two turnovers, returning one for a touchdown. They held Virginia Tech to a respectable 5.0 yards per play. They made big plays, with four tackles for loss. The last time Georgia Tech had that combination against a power-conference opponent – at least two takeaways, limiting the opponent to 5.0 yards per play or less and four tackles for loss – was the win over Clemson last season.
The opponent undoubtedly was a factor, as Virginia Tech’s offense is one of the most punchless in the ACC. And the Yellow Jackets didn’t secure the ultimate objective Thursday night, a victory over the Hokies. Regardless, the Yellow Jackets played one of their better defensive games of the season in a losing effort.
“We just wanted to get the ball down when they run it and just try to make plays when the ball’s in the air in our secondary,” freshman linebacker Brant Mitchell said. “Our plan was just go out and execute our assignments and go dominate the game.”
Mitchell made the defensive play of the game, intercepting Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Brewer on the Hokies’ opening drive of the second half and returning it 32 yards for a touchdown.
Said Mitchell, who has earned an increasing amount of playing time over the course of the season, “I wasn’t expecting it to come right to me.”
Safety Demond Smith led with nine tackles, one shy of his career high. He made one of the better plays of the night for the defense on a second-and-7 play from the Georgia Tech 20-yard line in the third quarter. He read a swing pass to tight end Bucky Hodges and dropped him for a 3-yard loss. Virginia Tech ultimately missed a field-goal attempt that kept the score 21-17 in the Jackets’ favor.
The defense rose to the occasion again in the fourth quarter, after Georgia Tech punted the ball away with just under six minutes to play trailing 23-21. Defensive tackle Patrick Gamble stopped running back Travon McMillian for a 3-yard gain. Nickel back Lawrence Austin got off a block to limit running back J.C. Coleman to a 2-yard run on second down. Austin broke up a Brewer pass to Hodges on third-and-5 to force a punt.
It was not the sort of play that was expected after the team lost defensive tackle and captain Adam Gotsis for the season with a knee injury in the Virginia game. The Jackets were also down leading tackler P.J. Davis in the second half after he reinjured his ankle.
First-year freshman Kyle Cerge-Henderson played most of the snaps in place of Gotsis and Jabari Hunt, serving the second game of a two-game suspension for violating team rules. He finished with five tackles. Defensive tackle Patrick Gamble played nearly all of the defense’s 68 snaps and had four tackles.
“I thought they gave us a chance to in the second half,” coach Paul Johnson said. “They went out and got some stops and made some plays. That was encouraging.”
But it wasn’t enough.
“There’ve been times where we couldn’t get a stop and they were scoring,” Smith said of the Tech offense. “It goes both ways. We just can’t seem to put everything together right now.”
