Georgia Tech doesn’t need its defense to be great. It just needs it to be better.
“It’s got to be a lot better,” defensive coordinator Ted Roof said Tuesday.
The Yellow Jackets, who play at Pittsburgh on Saturday in a game that they’ll likely need to win to keep alive any hope of winning the ACC Coastal Division, have set about that objective this week. After getting sliced apart by North Carolina in a 48-43 loss Saturday, Roof upped the level of live hitting in practice this week in his search for solutions for his defense.
The Jackets have allowed an average of 28.3 points and 415.6 yards. The yardage average is higher than any season-ending average for Tech since 1997. The scoring average is nearly identical to the 2012 average, which was the highest since the school-worst average of 30.3 in 1999, which was Roof’s first season as defensive coordinator in his first term as a Tech assistant.
“I’m accountable for everything that happens on defense, and they’re accountable for their performance and their preparation,” Roof said.
There is no shortage of problems to address. Asked if there was anyone or anything on the defense that he could consider a strength, Roof said that there wasn’t.
Better tackling, the reason for the increased live-hitting drills in practice, might be the first place to start. Across the field, tackling has been inconsistent. Playing with effort and attention to detail also ranks high on the list. Roof and defensive line coach Mike Pelton said that players abandoned assignments in an effort to make plays and slow the Tar Heels.
“From pursuit angles to fits to blitz lanes to everything,” Roof said. “That was part of the problem.”
On the critical fourth-and-6 play on which the Tar Heels scored on a 36-yard touchdown pass, coach Paul Johnson said that a blitzing linebacker took the wrong route to quarterback Marquise Williams, possibly missing a sack or at least a chance to disrupt Williams. Pelton said he watched game video Tuesday with one of his players, reviewing mistakes. The player made fundamental mistakes in what he was watching, his footwork and how he used his hands. The problem was not a gap in talent, but execution.
“He understood that it’s fixable, but you know what?” Pelton asked. “He has to fix it. And he has to trust in the defense to do what’s called and the techniques that he’s coached with.”
In previous games, Virginia Tech in particular, coaches made a concerted effort to sub in backup defensive linemen such as Patrick Gamble and Francis Kallon to keep starters fresh. With each possession so critical in the North Carolina game, Tech didn’t do that nearly as much — defensive end Roderick Rook-Chungong didn’t even get in the game — and it probably was costly in the end.
“I’ve got to do a better job rotating ’em early and getting us to a point where we’re fresher in the fourth quarter,” Pelton said. “I made some mistakes in that game with that, and like I said, we all learn from it.”
Clearly, the pass rush needs to improve. While Duke and North Carolina threw a combined 72 passes in Tech’s past two games, the Jackets came up with one sack, though North Carolina’s Williams threw several quick passes ahead of the rush. Tech ranks last in the ACC in pass attempts per sack, at 25.9 passes for each sack. Roof has tried to rely on a four-man rush, to leave enough help in the secondary for pass coverage, but that usually has been insufficient to pressure passers.
“We’ve got to be help them,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to be creative with it. We’ve got to bring enough people to get pressure.”
All told, it won’t be an easy fix, but a necessary one.
“I think we can do better,” Johnson said.
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