SOUTH BEND, IND. – Two teams that have minimized the turnover and the penalty as any kind of factor in their games were reintroduced to those painful truths of football Saturday.
Georgia Tech went its opening game without being whistled for a penalty, and suffered only two more inconsequential calls the next week against Tulane.
Saturday, a very meaningful flag landed at its feet when a third-quarter holding call on Errin Joe nullified a 23-yard touchdown run by quarterback Justin Thomas. Tech trailed 16-7 at the time.
That quarter began on a rueful note when on a keeper, Thomas uncharacteristically lost the ball at his own 40 yard line. The Yellow Jacket defense did well to hold the Fighting Irish to a field goal.
(Tech fumbled twice again, in the first and fourth quarters, but recovered them. Thomas’ in the fourth quarter may have dissuaded the Yellow Jackets from trying to convert on fourth down).
Meanwhile Notre Dame had not had a turnover in its previous three games, dating back to 2014 Music City Bowl victory over LSU.
That impressive streak came to an end with just under seven minutes left in the second quarter, when cornerback D.J. White intercepted an endzone lob by DeShone Kizer. Kizer’s throw was over the head of 6-4 Corey Robinson, enabling the much shorter defensive back to make the play.
Quite adept at redeeming such moments for points, Tech went on a lightning, four-play, 80-yard touchdown sequence to tie the game at 7-7.
A Notre Dame fumble at the end of the half — with the Irish trying to move the ball rather than run out the clock — turned out to be a sequence that ,most vexed the coach on the other sideline, Tech’s Paul Johnson.
“Right before halftime was critical,” Johnson said. “They fumbled the ball. We looked like the Three Stooges trying to pick it up. If anybody picks it up, they’re going to run it in.”
The Yellow Jackets eventually did corral it, and were set up on the Notre Dame 34, down six with 47 seconds left.
“Then we take a sack,” Johnson lamented. “We got a freshman receiver that doesn’t go hot. You have to throw the ball away, not take a sack. We don’t get any points out of it, which was also a killer (Harrison Butker missed a 43 yard field goal).
Notre Dame had cracked the door, but Tech declined to enter.
“We had missed opportunities on both sides of the ball,” cornerback D.J. White said. “You’ve got to capitalize on your opportunities. You can’t keep turning the ball over, can’t keep missing opportunities on defense. Good teams are going to make you pay for it.”
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