My problem with Saturday

[chilidogking]

I actually am not going to complain about the conservative play calling at the end. If TB had thrown an interception on 3rd & 20, an awful lot of posters would be yelling for Gailey's head for not running (though I'm sure no one will admit it).

The holding penalty was a killer as well, but I won't complain about that either.

The problem is that this team came out completely flat once again. I'm too lazy to look it up, but can anyone tell me how many times a team under Gailey has won after falling behind by 14 points or more? I'd be willing to bet that the answer is no greater than one.

The offense seemed to execute as well as they have all season in the second half, but yet again it was too little too late.

What's it going to take for a Chan Gailey team to come out and play inspired football more than one or two games per season?

It doesn't matter how much Tech improves recruiting if the players aren't ready to play on Saturday.

 

[LongforDodd]

I actually am not going to complain about the conservative play calling at the end. If TB had thrown an interception on 3rd & 20, an awful lot of posters would be yelling for Gailey's head for not running (though I'm sure no one will admit it).

The holding penalty was a killer as well, but I won't complain about that either.

The problem is that this team came out completely flat once again. I'm too lazy to look it up, but can anyone tell me how many times a team under Gailey has won after falling behind by 14 points or more? I'd be willing to bet that the answer is no greater than one.

The offense seemed to execute as well as they have all season in the second half, but yet again it was too little too late.

What's it going to take for a Chan Gailey team to come out and play inspired football more than one or two games per season?

It doesn't matter how much Tech improves recruiting if the players aren't ready to play on Saturday.

I, for one, truly believe that most of the problems lie at the feet of the O-line. Granted, Choice has had some great success these past two seasons but I think he's gotten most of those outside. Our O-line just can't line it up and punch someone in the mouth. The last series of play-calling against the turtles was some of the worst of the gailey era but he ain't got no O-line that he can depend on...

 

[ncjacket]

If you're talking about the last series, I don't know that anybody was going to run on MD with them stacking the box the way they were. If you're talking about the whole game, I'd say 175 yards rushing is pretty good.

 

[midatlantech]

I was at the game. Tenuta blew it by allowing them to go deep with a rookie quarterback.

However to answer your question, we came out flat on offense for one reason: Bennett and his receivers stunk up the place. And I mean "stunk".

Maybe Bennett's a head case and can't get it going until he's in desperation mode. This happens to lots of athletes and certainly with Chan's "don't make a mistake" attitude, it'd be easy to happen at Tech.

But Bennett needs to take charge more regardless. I saw one throw where his receiver didn't even look for the ball and Bennett said nothing. Rip the guy, fire them up. Tell the coach to get that receiver off the field.

Or, it could be Bebe. He stunk in the first half too. Smith and Johnson might as well disappear. Bebe had a great second half and that's when we started moving the ball. Bebe's young however, but he needs to stand up and take charge some too.

Our top three playmakers are all hurting: Choice, Cox, and Johnson. So somebody better step up regardless of how young they are.

 

[ncjacket]

Well, not to be too obvious, but Tenuta didn't "allow" them to go deep. The first one was a freak play and was a mistake by the LB. The second deep ball was simply a great play by Heyward-Bey. The third big one was a play where our entire defense bit on the fake. No excuses, we just got beat on all 3 plays. But it's not as if they were running free (except for the play action to H-B) or anything. Still the defense's fault though.

The entire passing attack was horrible in the first half...Taylor, the receivers, all of them. In the second half it was like a different team. The real question is "who were those guys, and which ones wil be there the rest of the year"?

 

[TampaJacket]

If you find a team that doesn't come out flat from time to time, please let us know...Mike

 

[SMoney]

If you find a team that doesn't come out flat from time to time, please let us know...Mike

I think the other week everyone was talking about how flat LSU came out against Tulane of all teams. They are once again Kings of football though.

However, we have tended to come out flat more often than just from time to time. 3 games this season that I count so far. 1 a year maybe for most teams. I would also be willing to bet that it wont be our last...

 

[TampaJacket]

However, we have tended to come out flat more often than just from time to time. 3 games this season that I count so far. 1 a year maybe for most teams. I would also be willing to bet that it wont be our last...

Thank you for the response.

I would respectfully suggest that you are watching GT with more frequency, and that only top tier teams (the USCs, LSUs, etc.) are the only ones who limit their "flat starts" to one a year (and I think that's a bit of an underestimate).

Now, one may argue that GT is perhaps less able to overcome these slow starts with our current focus on defense and conservative offense, but I would dispute strongly that we are anything but with the majority with respect to "flatness". It is just the nature of the beast, in my opinion.

Another argument that makes a lot of sense to me is this: Football is a game of momentum. Just because the other team grabs the momentum doesn't mean that our team was flat, just that the other team grabbed the momentum early.

That said, let me be clear... I don't like, any more than the rest of you, that our team has come out slowly three times, and three times we've been unable to recover (even though we were a made field goal away from doing it this past weekend), but to label our program or our coaching staff as out of the norm is, again my opinion, a misrepresentation.

Take care...Mike

 

[SMoney]

Tampajacket-

I disagree somewhat - I still think we have more games than the average team where it just appears that we come out sleepwalking (and sometimes never wake up!).

That being said though, I certainly respect your opinion. You are quite possibly the most civil poster on this board (unless there are some other posts that I just don't recall)! A welcome breath of fresh air...

 

[ncjacket]

My problem is that you'd expect a team to come out flat in a "trap" game wouldn't you? One where the team is overconfident? So I don't know why you wouldn't be psyched as a player for UVA and MD. Those are two teams that are dangerous but that are clearly winnable (maybe should win?) games. That's the killer. You can be flat against Sanford and no one cares. Maybe UVA because of some kind of overconfidence. But after blowing one game one would think they would be on their guard against a team like MD.