A rainy Saturday marked Georgia Tech’s first step on the road, if not to full recovery, then at least to bowl eligibility. As soggy steps go, it was as nearly as impressive as those produced by the umbrella-toting Gene Kelly on that famous MGM soundstage.
“We took this as a challenge,” B-back Zach Laskey said. “It’s the start of second half. We’re approaching every game like a playoff game — it’s do or die.”
In winning 56-0, Tech looked great on offense and great on defense. Indeed, Tech looked so spiffy as to make you wonder why a team capable of such excellence was in need of recovery, but that brings us to the day’s only asterisk: This bravura performance was authored against a pretty wretched opponent. One thing the Yellow Jackets have consistently done under Paul Johnson is to whomp the stuffing out of a bad team. (Before you ask, Middle Tennessee was a small team, but not a bad one.)
This was Syracuse’s first visit to Bobby Dodd Stadium, and you would have thought this was the Orange’s first appearance on any football field. The Jackets scored two touchdowns and gained 116 yards in a first quarter that didn’t see them face a third down. They had 28 points and 197 yards rushing after a half in which their ground domination was such that they didn’t need to complete a pass.
“The way they were playing, there wasn’t really any use,” Tech coach Paul Johnson said, speaking of Syracuse’s defense. “They really weren’t supporting with the secondary, and we thought we had something going with the option … We only ran about seven (different) plays.”
When finally Tech managed a completion, not quite two minutes into the third quarter, Darren Waller was so open that he could have called a fair catch before Vad Lee’s pass dropped into his hands. That 46-yard touchdown made it 35-0, and 2 1/2 minutes later it was 42-0 and Syracuse’s coaches were calling Jim Boeheim to ask if the 2-3 zone might work in football.
We’ve seen this before: An opponent unaccustomed to defending Tech’s option starts off badly and gets worse as it goes. (Something similar happened to Miami here in 2008, but Syracuse can take heart in knowing that Tech hasn’t beaten the Hurricanes since.) The Orange arrived ranked second among ACC teams in run defense, but it was clear from the Jackets’ first possession that the ’Cuse had no clue.
That was an encouraging sign for a Tech offense that, after the deflating loss to Virginia Tech, was labeled by its creator as being “terrible” at executing the option. This display came with all the frills — the B-back pounding, the quarterback keeping, the quarterback pitching — and only one blemish. Tech didn’t fumble on a wet day, but its turnover came on a reverse pass by receiver DeAndre Smelter that didn’t need to be thrown. The reverse so fooled Syracuse that Smelter could have run for 30 yards.
Then again, the Orange were easily addled. They were flagged for nine penalties (against the Jackets’ none), and when finally Syracuse induced a punt — 26 1/2 minutes into game, mind you — it was stunned that it needed a timeout to dispatch the coverage team. Welcome to the ACC, rotten Orange.
This wasn’t, however, one of those all-offense Tech victories. The defense held Syracuse to 75 yards rushing, the same Syracuse that entered ranked third in the ACC in rushing. “We knew they were going to run the ball because it was starting to rain,” linebacker Quayshawn Nealy said. “Guys just took the challenge and delivered on it.”
Said Johnson, who knows something about the subject: “When a team really can’t run the ball, it makes it tough on them.”
Given that it had been nearly a calendar month since last Tech won, such a powerful display would have been welcome even if the opponent was Elon. (Which, by way of comparison, lost here 70-0.) The Jackets needed a game that could make them feel good about themselves, and winning 56-nil can put a smile on any face — even the crotchety Paul Johnson’s.
“It was a complete victory,” he said. “I’m happy for the guys. We’re going to continue to work and get ready to go to Virginia and play the next one.”
Tech will play two more games against middling opposition before it heads to Clemson, meaning that it’s not unthinkable that this team will rise from 3-3 to 6-3 before its next major test. And if nothing else, beating Syracuse by 56 shows that there’s still sting in these Jackets. “This shows what we can do,” Laskey said, “when we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot.”
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