Florida State running back Dalvin Cook, the Heisman Trophy candidate whom Georgia Tech made its top priority to slow down, was limited to 82 rushing yards and one touchdown Saturday against the Yellow Jackets.
Tech coach Paul Johnson said he was proud of how his team adjusted to the No. 9 Seminoles’ offensive power.
“I’m really proud of our defense,” Johnson said. “We made enough mistakes offensively to get ourselves in trouble, but defensively we played the run so much better.”
In the third quarter the Yellow Jackets’ offense kept possession for over than 12 minutes which contributed to Cook’s 19 rushing and 24 receiving yards in the second half.
“We just played better run defense,” Johnson said. “We made a couple tweaks this week in the way we were playing, and it helped out. We just kind of played the run better.”
Defensive end KeShun Freeman said the defense did well executing and trusting each other to do their jobs on the field against Cook and the Seminoles. It had been a shortcoming in recent weeks. The Jackets had allowed 200 or more rushing yards in each of their previous three games.
They had sabotaged themselves with missed assignments and poor execution, leading to explosive run plays by the opposition. Not so Saturday night, when FSU’s longest run was 17 yards and the Seminoles averaged 2.9 yards per carry, their lowest of the season by a small fraction. Gaps were filled, tackles were made and mistakes were few.
“The game plan for us was just to execute, dominate and do your job,” Freeman said. “Dalvin Cook is an outstanding running back.”
Freeman said he was proud of the team’s consistency and energy throughout the game, despite mistakes along the way.
“We played with so much energy and so much intensity,” Freeman said. “We played as one unit.”
Freeman had seven tackles and one sack Saturday.
Cook, the sophomore running back, averaged 159.2 rushing yards per game entering Saturday’s matchup, leading the ACC in rushing yards per game. He cleared 1,000 yards for the season in the second quarter. His rushing touchdown was the eleventh rushing touchdown of the season.
“We played good red-zone defense,” Johnson said. “We overcame some of our own mistakes, but again I’m proud of our kids. They fought and fought.”
