Ken's takeaways from the Duke game

Akinji07

Moderator you deserve
Staff member
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Messages
39,958
http://georgiatech.blog.ajc.com/2015/09/27/8-takeaways-from-georgia-tech-duke/

This caught my attention:

By yards per carry, it ranked fourth from the bottom in Johnson’s 98-game tenure at Tech.

Year Opponent Att. Yds. Avg.
2008 Gardner-Webb 47 79 1.68
2009 Miami 39 95 2.44
2011 Miami 48 134 2.79
2015 Duke 60 173 2.88

Not to diminish how the offense played, but the chart goes to show that games like Saturday’s aren’t new. The Jackets offense has been stopped before and will be again. Those two Miami teams came at Tech with excellent players and a good plan. Tech was deficient in various ways. Thorough defeat ensued. (The Gardner-Webb game will remain the strange outlier.)

That said, given the returning experience of the offensive line and Thomas, it didn’t seem likely that a sub-3.0 yards-per-carry game would happen this season, obviously.

“I’m not shocked,” Johnson said. “I told you two weeks ago. You guys might be shocked, I’m not. I’m disappointed that we didn’t play better, but we weren’t playing great in the first two weeks. We had people overmatched.”

Give Ken a click and read the rest of the article.
 
This bit is also good.

Saturday’s game caused me to think a little bit about last year’s North Carolina game, the wild last-possession-wins 48-43 loss in Chapel Hill, N.C.

After that game, it appeared that, despite how well the offense was playing, the season might be in jeopardy because the defense evidently was a bit of a mess. I think you could have won a lot of bets on the night of Oct. 18 wagering on Tech finishing the season with an Orange Bowl victory.

What made me think about the game was that the games were similar in at least one regard besides their taking place in the Research Triangle. In large part because of the play of one unit and in spite of another, Tech had a chance to win inside the final three minutes. Saturday, it just happened to be the unit that hasn’t typically played that role in recent years.

I think with football fans in general but perhaps maybe Tech fans particularly, given the long run of success the Jackets have had scoring and moving the ball under Johnson, it is probably more aggravating or dispiriting to lose because the offense isn’t producing rather than because of the defense.

I imagine most fans, if their team had to lose, would rather go down 45-42 than 9-6. But, perhaps that’s the Jackets’ fate this season. It may be that this turns out to be a year that the offense just doesn’t function at the high rate that it has often had with Johnson and that the season is a flipside of the way many of his teams have been – can the defense play well enough, with the offense kicking in some plays here and there, to win?

(That said, just like Tech’s offensive performance can be weighted against Notre Dame and Duke’s strong defenses, the Blue Devils offense is probably not a juggernaut.)

I would think the offense would come around sooner or later. The track record is too long to ignore. But in the meantime, the Jackets may have to look to the defense to lead the way. It’s not the norm. But it may be how the season unfolds.
 
Side point:
The Gardner Webb game was a game where we were playing our third string QB for the entire game. He was not an option QB by any standard. The kid deserved the start after transferring from Auburn and waiting in the wings, just to have Gailey fired and him with no other options.

That said, we've definitely been here before. Blocking needs to get fixed in a hurry. The defense is playing very well. That won't always be the case. High producing offenses are going to beat the tires off us unless we can figure out blocking again.
 
Sometimes Coach seems more happy to be able to say "I told you so" rather than "this is what we are going to do to fix this".
 
Sometimes Coach seems more happy to be able to say "I told you so" rather than "this is what we are going to do to fix this".

That's pretty much like most of our fanbase so I think it fits.
 
Sometimes Coach seems more happy to be able to say "I told you so" rather than "this is what we are going to do to fix this".

That's a little bit silly don't you think?

When did he say "I told you so."?

And don't you think if he knew what the fix was it would be fixed by now?
 
That's a little bit silly don't you think?

When did he say "I told you so."?

And don't you think if he knew what the fix was it would be fixed by now?

inb4 somebody gets called a hillnerd / hillwipe / nerdwipe
 
That's a little bit silly don't you think?

When did he say "I told you so."?

And don't you think if he knew what the fix was it would be fixed by now?

CPJ said:
I told you two weeks ago. You guys might be shocked, I'm not.

.
 
FWIW, I was down on this team in the summer before doing so was cool. I StingTalk way better than all of you.

Discuss.
 
Sometimes Coach seems more happy to be able to say "I told you so" rather than "this is what we are going to do to fix this".

Pretty much...

That's pretty much like most of our fanbase so I think it fits.

Also a very fair assessment. The only counter I would offer to this is that perceptions have changed somehow from last year to this year. We need to manage this better, or we will be back where we started from as that "flash in the pan" team that was relevant some time ago at some point... Whatever happened to them?

If we can right this, we can return to being the giant slayer and build off what we were at the end of '14.
 
My takeaway from the Duke game:

AJ Gray is going to be a serious baller for us. And probably leave after his Junior year.
 
Back
Top