The Yellow Jackets have improved on third-down in the second halves against No. 3 Clemson and No. 10 Miami, but Georgia Tech coaches and players agree that success needs to occur for the whole 60 minutes in future games.
“There’s been peaks and valleys and ebbs and flows, but if we can gain some consistency where we’ve been, that would be a really good thing,” Jackets defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “The Clemson first half we weren’t very good on third-down and part of that was because kind of where we’ve been. We were living in third-and-one and third-and-two and third-and-three, and that’s not a recipe for success. But we’ve done a better job as of late, but that needs to continue.”
Miami converted 1-of-7 third downs on Saturday after Tech forced a third-down on six of Miami’s seven second half possessions and a punt on five of those drives. In the first half, Clemson only had one third-down.
As Tech turns their focus toward Pitt on Saturday, the Yellow Jackets (3-2) face another high scoring, high yardage team that ranks third after North Carolina and Miami respectively in the ACC Coastal in scoring this season (187 points).
“They’ve been operating at a high efficiency,” coach Paul Johnson said. “They’ve probably played as well offensively this year as anybody we’ve played this year. Maybe, Miami had been scoring at a very high rate, but the competition has been very different for Miami opposed to Pitt.”
The Panthers average 434.6 total yards per game and have scored at least 28 points each game this season, but have struggled when they come to third-down, converting just under half of their third-down opportunities.
Working to bring back the defensive power displayed in the second half against Miami, defensive lineman Antonio Simmons thinks some of the issues in creating third downs the first half are due to nerves and sometimes being too excited to focus on the game.
“We just have to settle down in a game and focus,” Simmons said. “I’ve just feel like we have to adjust to the pace quicker and get adapted to the game quicker because the past couple of games we struggled on the first series and then we adapt after that.”
Simmons has 12 total tackles and one forced fumble for the Jackets this season.
After allowing a touchdown drive on their opponent’s first possession for the past four games, defensive end Rod Rook-Chungong and the defense wants to change the “embarrassing” pattern of first half play this week against Pitt.
“We have to start fast and we can’t be the nail, we have to be the hammer every drive, but especially on the first series,” Rook-Chungong said. “We don’t want to depend on the offense. We want to go ahead and shut (Pitt) out and give the ball back to the offense, because we know how dynamic they can be.”
About the Author
