The blocked field goal and return for a touchdown wasn’t the only big play made by Georgia Tech in Saturday’s 22-16 win over Florida State at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Leading 16-13, Florida State had third-and-goal on the 10-yard line in the fourth quarter.
A touchdown would have likely secured the victory.
The Seminoles came out with five wide receivers and quarterback Everett Golson lined up in the shotgun. He fired a pass into the end zone that bounced off Travis Rudolph’s hands and to Tech’s Jamal Golden. Tech took over on its 20-yard line with 8:07 left. It was the first turnover forced by Tech in the game and illustrated how hard the Yellow Jackets’ defense played throughout.
“We played as one unit,” defensive lineman Keshun Freeman said. “There wasn’t anybody who was down on anybody. We had so much enthusiasm and so much unity.”
Tech followed that with another key third-down stop on Florida State’s next drive by forcing Golson into an intentional grounding penalty. After a punt, Tech took over on its 37-yard line with 4:25 left.
The Seminoles’ first 10 points were the result of poor field position because of interceptions thrown by Justin Thomas. After the first turnover, which gave the Seminoles the ball on Tech’s 19-yard line, the Jackets forced a field goal. The touchdown came after an interception return to the 2-yard line.
It was a much different defense than what had been playing in the previous five games. After opening the season with two wins, Tech’s defense had reached a level that even coach Paul Johnson could no longer defend, saying it wasn’t very good.
The Yellow Jackets were allowing averages of 27.4 points and 371 yards per game. The defense had given up at least 200 rushing yards in four of its past five losses.
Florida State was averaging 33.5 points and 445.3 yards per game. But the Yellow Jackets took away the running game by bottling up Dalvin Cook, holding him to 63 yards and one 2-yard touchdown run through the first three quarter. He was averaging 159.2 rushing yards per game. The Seminoles finished with 70 yards rushing as part of 280 total yards.
Golson, who was averaging 241.5 passing yards per game on a 67.2 percent completion rate, had just 126 yards through the first three quarters.
“We just played better against the run,” Johnson said. “We made a couple of tweaks this week in the way we were playing and it worked out.”
