There may not be enough Liquid Paper in the world to cover up all the mistakes made by Georgia Tech during its “White Out” game against Virginia Tech on Thursday at Grant Field.
The Yellow Jackets were beaten 17-10 by the Hokies and committed nine penalties, tying for the most since Paul Johnson took over as coach.
“I’ve never seen so many mistakes,” he said. “It was a comedy of errors.”
Johnson wasn’t immune, saying it was “probably not the smartest decision” to go for it on fourth-and-2 at his own 37-yard line. The Jackets were trailing by one score and there was more than eight minutes remaining. David Sims was stopped a yard short.
The Jackets got lucky though when Virginia Tech missed a 25-yard field goal attempt.
But the cumulative effect of so many mistakes couldn’t be undone.
“For whatever reason, we self-destruct,” Johnson said.
Johnson ran through a slew of mental errors made by the offense, defense and special teams.
On offense, because Virginia Tech was timing the snap count correctly and disrupting some of the running plays, Georgia Tech elected to try to change the snap count. But the players kept jumping before the snap. They were flagged six times for false starts, including three in the first quarter.
The offense couldn’t get into a sync, converting just two of 10 third downs. The Yellow Jackets finished with more yards passing (144) than rushing (129).
“We knew their defense and the defense played a heck of a game,” B-back Zach Laskey said. “We prepared well and didn’t execute as well as we should have.”
On defense, the biggest error came on Virginia Tech’s first series. The Hokies sucked Georgia Tech’s defense in with play action before Logan Thomas hit D.J. Coles running against the flow of the play for an easy 21-yard touchdown pass just a few minutes into the game.
Of course, the defense was working with a short field because quarterback Vad Lee fumbled and lost the ball on the Jackets’ fourth play. Lee threw two interceptions. The Yellow Jackets had three fumbles, losing the one by Lee.
“It’s frustrating but it’s just one game in a big season,” defensive end Jeremiah Attaochu said. “We can’t let it bring us down.”
On special teams, Georgia Tech’s average field position for the game was the 22-yard line. In the second half, it was the 15-yard line. For the game, Virginia Tech’s average start was the 33-yard line.
“We’ve got to play better and we’ve got to coach better, bottom line,” Johnson said.
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