Georgia Tech carried hopes of an exhilarating afternoon and a vanquished rival. Instead, the Yellow Jackets were left with the same hollow feelings they’ve absorbed 10 of the past 11 years.
“I guess it’s mainly disappointment that that’s the way we leave Bobby Dodd Stadium,” said A-back Roddy Jones following his last game at his home field.
“I’m definitely going to hurt today,” linebacker Steven Sylvester said.
Said cornerback Louis Young, “Nobody’s happy.”
The Yellow Jackets lost to Georgia 31-17 on Saturday, suffering wounds inflicted by their red and black rivals, as well as self-inflicted wounds. The loss revisited a handful of unpleasant themes from the season -- lapses in pass defense, a failure to generate efficient offensive play and the inability to mount a comeback -- as well as the all-too-familiar despair of what might have been against the Bulldogs.
“They wanted to play well and win the game, and you hurt that you couldn’t help them find a way to do it,” coach Paul Johnson said.
The No. 23 Jackets (8-4) lost their third in a row to Georgia and finished the back half of their season 2-4 after starting 6-0. The teams that defeated Tech entered Saturday with a 33-12 record; the seven FBS-level teams that Tech defeated began the day 30-46.
The statistics show that Tech had opportunities. The Jackets generated 243 rushing yards against a team that was ranked No. 2 in the country with 81.3 yards allowed per game. They held a slight edge in time of possession. Tech held Georgia to a reasonable 4 of 10 on third-down conversions.
But a 60-yard kickoff return to start the second half, and two third-quarter interceptions by quarterback Tevin Washington that gave Georgia three possessions of four inside the Jackets’ 40-yard line, helped expand Georgia’s 17-10 halftime lead to 31-10 and tested Tech’s margin of error.
“I think we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot a lot,” Jones said.
The Jackets rarely made Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray uncomfortable in the pocket and left receivers running loose in the secondary. Murray completed 19 of 29 passes for 252 yards and four touchdowns, and threw one interception. His passing efficiency rating for the game was 177.1.
Whether it was missed assignments in zone defense or getting beaten on man-to-man coverage, Tech’s secondary came out on the short end again. In Tech’s past three games, Virginia Tech’s Logan Thomas, Duke’s Sean Renfree and Murray were a combined 52-for-84 for 711 yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions, and were sacked twice.
Tech coaches had anticipated that Georgia running back Isaiah Crowell would play, and prepared a game plan to stop the run. Crowell’s ankle injury kept him out, and Georgia simply put the ball in the air.
“We had to get to the quarterback, though,” Sylvester said. “That’s the name of the game, especially the defensive front seven. If you give a quarterback like Aaron Murray time to throw, he has plenty of good receivers over there that he’s going to find. And that seemed to be our problem today.”
It led to a wider problem -- another year of Bulldogs’ supremacy.
