Georgia Tech’s defense devoted practice time Tuesday to make sure that players were reading their keys and not letting their eyes wander towards the ball. It was a problem for the Yellow Jackets in their 17-14 win over Boston College last Saturday in Dublin.
“Had some mistakes (Tuesday),” cornerbacks coach Joe Speed said. “Need to continue to harp on them. If their eyes are in the right place, it’s a simple game. But as soon as you start to try to see too much, do somebody else’s job, that’s where we get ourselves in trouble.”
When a player peeks into the backfield or follows the ball, he may lose track of the player he is supposed to be reading and get out of position to defend that player.
“We’ve got problems with our eyes,” coach Paul Johnson said Monday. “We get in trouble. We were fortunate there at times, too. We turned a couple guys loose not looking at ’em and they just didn’t throw it to ’em or whatever, but we can be much better than we were. Need to be. Have to be.”
Tackling technique was also often poor in the game. Defensive coordinator Ted Roof said that players’ tracking angles were faulty. He counted three sacks that were missed because of how players pursued Boston College quarterback Patrick Towles.
“The guys this week are cutback guys, too, so the angles of pursuit are critical,” he said.
Roof stresses forcing the ball-carrier back towards a teammate by running towards him at the proper angle. Attacking from the wrong angle can give the ball-carrier the space to run away from the defensive pursuit and into open space.
“We made some mistakes and we’ve got to get those corrected,” Roof said.
They are part of a week of work in which Tech is trying to address its own mistakes as it prepares for Mercer Saturday.
“The week’s not about Mercer,” defensive tackle Patrick Gamble said. “It’s about ourselves getting better and taking that next step forward.”
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