Some around Georgia Tech will hold up this loss as another of those one-play-away deals. Let’s dispense with such foolishness. To win this game, the Yellow Jackets needed to traverse 84 yards in 16 seconds without a timeout. (And without a passing game, to be frank.) If they were one play away, it was a harmonic convergence of a play — and Tech exhausted its quotient against Florida State.
Tech lost to Georgia 13-7. It was close, figuratively speaking, only because the Bulldogs are the least impressive 9-3 team in the history of humankind. A year after going 11-3 and winning the Orange Bowl, the Jackets are 3-9 and bound only for an offseason of Paul Johnson’s wrath, which can be considerable.
Tech was 3-9 on merit, or the abject lack thereof. Johnson said it earlier in the week: The offense was far worse than last season, and the defense was better but still miles short of good. When a reporter suggested Saturday that the Jackets had done a decent job against Georgia’s rushing attack except for a few long runs, Johnson laughed the suggestion out of court: “You guys need to get (higher) expectations.”
Nothing about this Tech team was of passing grade. Against teams of consequence — Notre Dame, Clemson, Georgia — Johnson’s sleek offense became a clunker. Justin Thomas, mentioned as a Heisman Trophy candidate until the losing commenced, regressed as a passer. (He completed 6 of 18 against Georgia for 82 yards against Georgia. The first of his two interceptions, thrown to no Jacket in particular with Tech in field-goal range, was the dreary game’s second-biggest play.) The defense held the Bulldogs to one touchdown, but Georgia’s offense is pedestrian, too.
The game’s biggest play came with 3:24 remaining and matters in some semblance of doubt. Johnson had ordered a bloop kickoff — not the expected onside dribbler — after the Jackets finally scored. Reggie Davis scooted to grab the ball and knelt on the Georgia 7. With a three-and-out — Tech had two timeouts left —the Jackets would have had a real chance, as opposed to a whimsical one. So what happened?
Greyson Lambert, the quarterback Georgia would rather not have throwing the ball with the game on the line, faked a handoff and found tight end Jeb Blazevich for 25 yards. (Nice call by the lampooned Brian Schottenheimer, by the way.) “We’re playing man-to-man, and we turn the guy loose,” Johnson said. So much for improved defense, huh?
Tech cornerback D.J. White, whose interception sealed last year’s upset in Sanford Stadium, was asked how a team goes from 11-3 to 3-9. “Simple question,” he said. “Loaded answer.”
Said safety Jamal Golden: “We won all the close games last year. This year we didn’t.”
That’s part of it, yes. But some of those close games weren’t really. Tech trailed Notre Dame 30-7 after 59 minutes before losing 30-22. Was that a close loss? Was this? How do you beat FSU and go 0-for-Virginia?
The cold truth is that the offense that sprang to life last season went dormant, and this is a program predicated on that stylized offense. But was last season the exception or the rule? From 2010 through 2013, the Jackets were 6-7, 8-5, 7-7 and 7-6. That’s five middling-or-worse seasons sandwiched around one shining moment.
“It’s all stuff I think we can fix, that I can fix,” Johnson said. “I’m hell-bent to get it fixed. I’m not going through this again.”
But here we ask: Does Tech have the manpower to make the offense purr again? Thomas is considered the best quarterback Johnson has had at the Institute, but he was helpless without a supporting cast. Johnson keeps fuming over his team’s inability to execute — “Three times I counted we drove down to the 30-yard line and miss assignments” — but if he can’t teach it, who can? He designed the thing. He recruited these players.
The worst thing Tech can do is label this season a one-off and continue with business as usual. If the Jackets think 3-9 was a function of luck or youth or injuries, next season is apt to wind up just as lousy.
“I have some ideas what I want to do,” Johnson said, and he’d better.
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