Georgia Tech quarterback TaQuon Marshall didn’t give himself any breaks in the aftermath of an ugly 24-10 loss at Clemson on Saturday night, saying he took the blame and needed to play better for his team.
With Tech struggling to move the ball outside of a few KirVonte Benson runs, the Yellow Jackets didn’t find the end zone until late in the fourth quarter, when Marshall finally broke loose for a 22-yard touchdown run that firmly placed him in the positive in yards gained for the first time of the night.
“It’s hard. … We tried to make some things happen on the perimeter and get the ball pitched,” Marshall said about Clemson taking away their option game. “It’s frustrating for me because sometimes I tried to make some plays to get the guys sparked up but they took it away.”
Coach Paul Johnson knew things could be tough against a Clemson defensive line that features nothing but NFL talent, so he kept it simple on the opening drive, but a Benson fumble sent the offense spiraling.
“Well, the first series we tried to take some of it off him by doubling the read-key and kind of just handing it off and we got the thing going but then we fumble the ball.” Johnson said.
The reason for Marshall and the offense struggling with reads and keys -- simple … the Tigers talent up front.
“It’s called good players, and they came in there really fast, and they were up-charging him,” Johnson said.
Marshall said the looks and the performance from the Clemson defense was something he hadn’t seen yet at quarterback for Tech.
“This was definitely the hardest reads I’ve had all season,” Marshall said. “It was like a mesh charge. They were coming at the B-back, but at the same time they were coming off of him and making a play on me, and it was hard trying to adjust to it.”
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