After poor performances in back to back games, the defense showed up in a big way on Saturday night. Tyrod Taylor did his usual routine dancing all around the pocket but he was unable to find anybody down field due to excellent coverage in the secondary. He only got loose for one big gain on a play late in the game where he scored from 22 yards out on an incredible run. The defensive line did a great job getting penetration and the linebackers did well plugging holes on running plays. Ryan Williams, the leading rusher in the ACC, was held to only 14 yards on 12 carries, until he finally busted loose for a 66 yard touchdown. Nevertheless, the defense really came up big and made up for a sloppy performance by the offense.

Nesbitt did not have his best game and he made the wrong read almost every single time GT tried to pass the ball. The one correct read he did make, however, turned out to be his only completion
of the game which was a huge momentum swing for the Jackets. He connected on a 51 yard pass to Bay-Bay late in the first half after GT had amassed only 2 yards of total offense on their first 20 plays. VT made two straight stops near the goal line before Nesbitt finally snuck it in for the touchdown and the lead at halftime. This seemed to break the spirits of the Hokies, who had been in control of the game up until that point.

GT came out in the second half focused, and with a few minor adjustments the offense was suddenly unstoppable again. They took the opening drive straight down the field for a touchdown to go up by two scores. Highlights of the drive inlcuded a nice individual run by Anthony Allen for 16 yards and a well blocked run by Nesbitt for 31 yards. On the longer run, Peeples cut down safety Kam Chancellor to spring the play, which would be a common theme of the second half.

Tech allowed a big kickoff return on the next play, but their defense would come up huge to stuff VT on fourth down. The Jackets were in position to put the game away, but Nesbitt missed a wide open Tyler Melton and opted instead to throw into double coverage. The pass was picked off and swung the momentum back into VT’s favor. Williams broke his big run up the middle on the very next play for a touchdown and suddenly VT was back within one score.

It wouldn’t matter though as GT would methodically march down the field, chewing up six and a half minutes en route to another back breaking touchdown. Highlights included a big collision between Allen and Chancellor and a 34 yard run by Dwyer up the middle. The firey-spirited Allen got up and talked trash to Chancellor after the big hit. Nesbitt capped the drive off with a perfect pitch to Marcus Wright on the triple option for the 13 yard score.

VT got another big kick return, but were unable to do anything with the ball after Derrick Morgan got a big third down sack on Taylor. GT would then gobble up another seven and a half and a half minutes of clock as they drove all the way to the 15 yard line. Then Nesbitt made his second bad pitch of the possession and this time the Hokies recovered. GT could likely have put the game away with a touchdown.

VT took advantage of the mistake and quickly answered with a touchdown after the GT defense seemed ill prepared to take the field after the turnover. The Jackets did well to bat down the two point conversion in order to maintain more than a field goal advantage.

GT got the ball back and went for the dagger on the first play, but the pass was well covered by the Hokies. GT went back to their bread and butter and Nesbitt made a good read to pitch the ball to Allen on the triple option. Allen made a solid catch on a low pitch and then gained 23 yards after juking a defender. Nesbitt then showed why he is a baller in this offense by turning a first down run into a 39 yard touchdown run. A great block by Peeples created a huge hole for Nesbitt, who then bounced the ball outside toward the sidelines. He stiff armed the last defender and showed his agility by tip-toeing the sideline in order to sneak inside of the pylon. That TD sealed the deal and soon thereafter the party began on the field.

Anthony Allen had a great individual performance and it would be nice to see him get more carries in the offense. If Dwyer does end up going pro, Allen is a no-brainer to move over to be the featured B-back. He is a tough runner, but also has great moves in the open field and decent speed.

It just seemed like one big turnover was going to change the entire game.

Tech got the ball first in the second half and then on the second offensive play it happened. Nesbitt and Dwyer were on two different pages and fumbled the exchange. FSU recovered on the GT 24 yard line and seemed poised to go in for a likely insurmountable two touchdown lead. However, GT suddenly woke up and decided to play some defense – sort of. Griffin made a nice tackle for loss on first down and then pressure from another blitz finally forced an errand pass by Ponder. On third and long, two FSU receivers broke wide open over the middle of the field and nearly ran into each other. As a result, the intended receiver was distracted and dropped the pass, which would have probably went for six. FSU was forced to settle for a field goal, but their kicker pushed it wide left. This was a huge momentum swing for the Jackets and the defense was fired up on the sidelines. This energy carried over to the offense and Tech scored on the first play – a 73 yard bomb to Bay-Bay. He burned single coverage on the play and fought through a defensive pass interference penalty to catch the pass and take it to the house.

With the game tied once again, Tech’s defense stepped up and forced FSU to kick a field goal. Tarrant made a key play defending a wide receiver screen pass that he had already been burned on twice for big gains. Tech was also able to get some pressure on Ponder with delayed blitzes. GT got the ball back and went on a back-breaking 9 minute touchdown drive. They converted three third downs and one fourth down on the drive to take their first lead of the ball game and totally deflate the Seminole faithful. The lengthy drive also gave the defense a chance to rest. Wright ended up scoring the touchdown on a 19 yard pitch from Nesbitt. Hill and Peeples made key blocks on the play.

GT forced FSU to a three and out and looked ready to put the game away. Derrick Morgan made a tackle for loss and also drew a key holding penalty to eventually force the FSU punt. GT went marching down the field again and gobbled up 4:30 of clock before a bad pitch by Nesbitt resulted in a turnover. Tech needlessly kept FSU in the ballgame with turnovers.

The defense stepped up once again, however, and Tongo made an important play to sack Ponder and force a fumble, which Peters recovered. This time Tech was not to be denied. Nesbitt owned FSU on the mid-line option on four straight plays, but then decided to pitch the ball on the triple option on the fifth play. The pitch was perfect this time, but Roddy dropped it after looking up to find the defender before securing the ball. FSU picked up the fumbled and briefly ran with it, but somehow Nesbitt managed to track the play down and rip the ball away from the defender! This was clearly the play of the game because the defender had a convoy of blockers and might have taken it the distance. Tech also got the ball back with a fresh set of downs due to the change of possession. Two plays later, Nesbitt kept it on the triple option and made a sick inside juke to break into the open field. He then made a nice cut back and Hill sealed the backside with a good block, which allowed Nesbitt to walk in for the 22 yard touchdown. Game, set, match.

Nesbitt played amazing and made the correct reads all game long, which is especially impressive considering that Tech operated out of the triple option for the majority of the game. He also looked unstoppable once again on the mid-line option in short yardage situations. This was instrumental in the fourth quarter to pick up tough yards for first downs in order to salt the clock away. He also of course made that incredible play to rip the ball away from the FSU defender. He only needed to pass the ball eight times this game, but was very accurate on all of those attempts. Nesbitt has now put together back to back incredible performances and it is safe to say that he finally has the offense mastered. It only took 17 games, but hey, when the offense plays this well it’s hard to complain. Tech was also unlucky to lose all three fumbles, but it was a little overdue considering how few they had lost during the previous three games.

The defense had a terrible first half and that includes every single player that stepped out onto the field. However, they made up for it by holding FSU to only 157 yards and nine points in the second half, despite three turnovers by the Tech offense. They used a three man front and blitzed over top of it, which was more effective at confusing FSU’s offensive line to get pressure on Ponder. Our secondary needs a lot of work; every single player Tech used against FSU was burned at least once for a big play.

Special teams did a pretty good job. The hands team recovered both onside kick attempts by FSU and the kick return defense did a good job. They only gave up one long return late in the game. Tanner once again was not tested with a field goal try, but he made all of his extra points. Blair did better with his kickoffs (he kept it in-bounds) but can still be more consistent with his depth.

Miss St. fumbled on their first possession, which turned out to be an omen of things to come. Egbuniwe completed the trifecta on one play with the sack, strip, and fumble recovery to give Tech the ball.

GT could not convert on their first three plays, and CPJ went for it on 4th-5 from the 40 yard line. Peeples took a toss sweep for the first down and Tech was in business. Stephen Hill eventually scored his first career touchdown on a 24 yard reverse that Tech had run so many times successful during the pre-season. This was the first time that they ran it with much success during the regular season. On the play, Hill did a nice job to catch the pitch and then Bay-Bay and Barrick made nice blocks to seal the edge. Hill strided untouched into the end zone.

GT’s kickoff coverage was bad on the first kick return by Miss St. and that would continue the entire evening. Part of the problem was short kicks by Scott Blair but there were also a lot of missed tackles. Miss St. drove the ball down the field with relative ease until their quarterback fumbled the ball. Tech should have recovered, but Miss St got it back and eventually missed a 42 yard field goal.

GT picked up right where they left off on their second offensive possession. Bay-Bay took a flat pass for a 27 yard gain after a big stiff arm put the cornerback on his rear end. Nesbitt made a nice play to stay alive on another passing play and eventually delivered it to Peeples for the first down. It was good to see him look down field to pass first rather than panicking and immediately tucking the ball the run. Nesbitt sneaked for a first down on a 4th-1 from the seven yard line and then Dwyer dove over the top for the 14-0 lead.

Miss St. returned the next kickoff for a touchdown to get themselves back into the game with a bang. It looked like Cox was held on the play, but the officials missed it.

A block in the back on the next kick return set Tech back. Tech gained a first down on a nice draw play to Dwyer, but was then forced to punt for the first time. Miss St got the ball back with a chance to tie and swing the momentum, but instead the back-up quarterback fumbled after carrying the ball carelessly. Tech took over from the Miss St 39 yard line and scored a several plays later. On the drive, Nesbitt picked up yet another third and short and then made a beautiful pitch to Peeples on another third down after the defense collapsed on him. Roddy Jones got the five yard touchdown on a toss sweep.

Miss St was finally able to hold onto the football and they marched the ball right down the field on our defense. Anthony Dixon broke about 80 tackles on the drive and Miss St. gave us a little taste of our own medicine with the triple option read. Miss St also picked up the tempo and often snapped the ball before our defense was even ready. They eventually scored on a reverse, the same exact play that we scored a touchdown on the first drive of the game. Our offenses looked like mirror images of each other except that we hadn’t fumbled the ball – YET.

Nesbitt dropped back to pass on the first play and found a wide open Bay-Bay streaking down the middle of the field. The pass was thrown on the money, but Bay-Bay slowed up in order to make sure that he caught the ball at its highest point. As a result, the safety was able to catch up and tackle him at the three yard line, but the play went for a 64 yard gain. Had Bay-Bay caught the ball in stride, he would have scored easily. This ended up being a costly mistake because Dwyer fumbled on the next play at the goal line. He tried a little too much by reaching the ball towards the goal line where it was slapped out of his hands.

Miss St. resumed where it left off and Dixon gained 24 more yards rushing on two attempts. However, on his third try he was stripped by Brad Jefferson. The fumbled was then picked up by Tarrant who took it 39 yards for the touchdown. Tarrant has now scored both on special teams and on defense.

More bad tackling allowed Miss St. to drive down to GT’s 24 yard line. On a 4th-1, Miss St lined up for a field goal, but CPJ smelled a fake and burned two timeouts in order to get his defense set. Sure enough, the next play was a fake and the Bulldogs still got 10 yards and a first down! They then tried one shot into the end zone before halftime, which Burnett should have picked but he dropped it. They settled for a field goal to make it 28-17.

Tech got the ball first in the second half and put the game out of reach on their first drive. Bay-Bay took another flat pass for 15 yards, followed by a 20 yard pass to Allen, and then a 22 yard slant pass to Bay-Bay. Dwyer then made an amazing play to spin out of a tackle and then completely reverse fields for a 14 yard gain. On second and goal, Nesbitt had a pitch deflected into the backfield for a loss of 20 yards. It didn’t matter, however as Bay-Bay got open again for a 24 yard touchdown reception. Nesbitt did a nice job to avoid the sack in order to give his receiver time to get open.

Miss St. then decided that they wanted to abuse us in the passing game. That they did with five straight completions. They shot themselves in the foot again with a fumble, as Egbuniwe came up with another huge strip. This one was especially costly for Miss St. as it occurred at the one yard line.

Miss St. eventually forced Tech to punt and scored on a 69 yard pass play to Chad Bumphis. Rod Sweeting, Morgan Burnett, and Rashaad Reid were all in the vicinity of the play, but somehow could not tackle the reciever around the 20 yard line. The quarterback did a great job buying Bumphis time on the play, but he should not have been able to score a touchdown. It looked very similar to the play that Jacoby Ford scored on for Clemson earlier this season.

It wouldn’t matter though because Miss St had no answer for the GT passing game. That’s right – The GT passing game! Hill did a nice job using his large frame to shield the defender and made a huge 54 yard catch to set Tech up. Anthony Allen eventually walked in for the touchdown. This made Tech 4 for 5 on touchdowns in the red zone, which was by far their best performance of the year.

Overall, Nesbitt had by far his best game of the season. This game showed how unstoppable the offense can be if we mix in some passes when the opposition least expects them. Tech passed the ball on the first play of the offensive possession four different times. They completed all four of these passes and gained a total of 110 yards on just these four plays! The big difference between this and previous games where they tried a similar approach was that the throws were short passes out into the flat for easy completions. Bay-Bay then did the rest by breaking tackles. He is now 15th nationally in yards per game and I would guess top five in yards after the catch. Nesbitt did a great job making his reads in the option and he also showed his toughness by picking up countless first downs in short yardage situations. Tech will be tough to stop when they get out to an early lead and Nesbitt runs the offense so effectively.

Dwyer had a great day with 158 rushing yards. He became the tenth Georgia Tech player to break the 2,000 yard mark for his career on his first carry of the game. CPJ did a great job to get him the ball out on the edge in space at the beginning of the game. In previous games, Dwyer had taken a lot of handoffs up the middle early and the defense was keying on him. Today, however, Dwyer did not run up the gut on the triple option until the second half, after the UNC defense had softened. CPJ also involved Dwyer on some delayed handoffs up the middle that looked more like draw plays. One of those plays went for a big 39 yard gain, where Dwyer showed outstanding vision to bounce the ball outside. He then turned on the after burner down the sideline and nearly scored a touchdown. Dwyer also had some tough runs up the middle late in the game where he carried defenders for extra yards. It was refreshing to see Dwyer look like the unstoppable force of old. This was his first 100 yard game of the season after a four game drought from cracking the century mark dating back to last season.

Nesbitt has yet to put a complete game together. He looked good during the first and fourth quarters, but made some mistakes throughout the game. He made a bad read to hand the ball of to Dwyer, realized it at the last second, and almost tried to pull the ball away from the running back. It didn’t matter because Dwyer was hit immediately and fumbled. Tech was lucky to get the ball back inside the 10 yard line after they were driving towards the end zone. Nesbitt was solely responsible for the second fumble of the day after he tried to extend for extra yards and had the ball stripped. He also went the wrong direction on a couple plays and made a couple of reads that resulted in a loss of yards. However, he did come up huge on third down and on several mid-line option plays late in the game. Nesbitt also scored two touchdowns on the day and seemed to be able to move the ball with ease when his number was specifically called. Still, this offense revolves around the quarterback making quick decisions. Today the blocking was great on the outside by the A-backs and wide receivers, especially by Bay-Bay, but the decision making by Nesbitt was sub-par. As a result there weren’t any huge touchdown runs on the day.

Stephen Hill made his first start of the season and had a solid game. He did a decent job blocking on the outside and did a great job on a long run by Dwyer to not block the cornerback in the back. Preston Lyons also got some playing time and looked good running the ball up the middle. He is a solid player that has impressed me throughout fall practice and I look for him to gradually play more as the season progresses.

GT was plagued by penalties against Miami, but that was not the case on Saturday. Instead, they had to deal with incompetent officiating. Hill made a nice deep catch along the sideline as the clock expired to end the first half. This put GT in range for a field goal, but the first half ended after the line judge failed to stop the clock on a previous play. On the previous play in question, Bay-Bay caught a pass for the first down and then clearly got out of bounds. The referee, however, thought that his momentum had been stopped and signaled for the clock to wind. Regardless of whether or not Bay-Bay had ended his forward motion, he still got the first down and the clock should have been stopped. Tech lost at least 15 seconds and a chance to score more points before the half. CPJ let the refs have it on the way to the locker room and Mike Hogwood from Raycom interviewed an angry Coach Johnson. CPJ yelled, “The officials blew it, they didn’t stop the clock!” The refs also missed a face mask penalty and they incorrectly spotted a ball 2 yards forward for a first down (which was reviewed and corrected). Stopping the clock and spotting the football are fundamental responsibilities that ACC officials should not screw up.

CPJ finally got someone to jump offside after he pretended to go for it on fourth down in a spot where Tech could not afford to turn the ball over on downs. However, the UNC defensive lineman was able to get back onside before the ball was snapped! The offensive lineman across from the player that moved has got to jump himself in order to draw the penalty. The same situation came up again later in the game and this time Cord Howard alertly jumped in order to draw the penalty and get an easy first down.

UNC did not play a very smart football game. Their defense, despite giving up so many yards, did well to contain Georgia Tech in the red zone. After the first touchdown, they got their act together and held GT to only one field goal in the next three trips inside of the 20. On their fifth trip, Tech drove it to the nine yard line and got stopped for a short gain on first down. However, a UNC lineman came barreling into the play recklessly and drew a late hit penalty that gave GT a fresh set of down from the three yard line. Nesbitt eventually scored to give Tech a comfortable 17 point lead with only 13 minutes to go in the game.

That drive was set up by an intelligent interception by Morgan Burnett. On the play, UNC sent receiver Erik Highsmith on a crossing route and another receiver on a post. Highsmith had already burned GT on a crossing route earlier in the game and he also has been Yates’ favorite receiver so far this season. The Predator anticipated the quarterback’s next move and completely left the deep receiver to duck under the crossing route for the interception. It was a thing of beauty.

The defense overall played an excellent game. They were all over the field on Saturday and flew to the ball. Everybody on the defense showed the energy level that we have come to expect with Georgia Tech football after looking so flat against Miami. Injuries from that game forced GT to go with a more basic 4-3 package on defense and it turned out to be a recipe for success. “Keep it simple” should be a slogan that the defense clings to this season. There were four new starters against UNC: Logan Walls at defensive tackle, Anothony Egbuniwe at defensive end, Rashaad Reid at safety, and Julian Burnett at linebacker. Tech also went further down on the depth chart with their substitutions and it worked out well to keep the starters fresh.

The run defense was special on Saturday. Tech made its only big mistake on defense on a play where they were probably expecting run on third down and one yard to go. With only 12 minutes to go in the game, however, UNC was desperate and threw the ball deep. Highsmith put a nice move on Burnett, who was the only defender within range to stop the play, and then made a spectacular diving catch in the end zone. This put UNC back within ten points, but The Predator would get his revenge later in the game to seal the victory.

On the next possession, GT football showed what it was all about by marching down the field for the back breaking touchdown. In a game that GT dominated statically, they were only up ten points late in the fourth quarter. Nesbitt then led the Jackets on an eight minute drive in which they converted on five third down attempts. Nesbitt absorbed some big hits on the drive and was visibly worn out as Tech prepared for a third down play from the nine yard line. He would not be denied, however, and scored on a ten yard run, his eighth rushing attempt of the drive.

UNC got the ball back one last time and drove it down the field with under two minutes to go in the game. They tried to go deep on Mario Butler, who was beaten by the receiver on the play, but Butler took a rare “smart” penalty to prevent a touchdown. Butler played an outstanding game and he was outshined only by teammate Morgan Burnett, who made his second interception of the game at the goal line to wrap it up for the Jackets. Burnett was rewarded with the ACC defensive back of the week award for his game changing performance against the Tarheels.

GT started things out by consuming 8 minutes of clock and driving the ball all the way down to the Miami 15 yard line before settling for a field goal.

Miami responded by scoring a TD in less than 2 minutes on only 4 offensive plays. Jacory Harris connected with Hankerson over the middle for 35 yards followed by a 40 yard touchdown pass to Byrd.

GT then went three and out and Miami responded with a long touchdown drive. The game was pretty much out of reach from that point forward.

That was the story of the game. Miami had chances to score seemingly every time that they touched the ball and GT could not answer. Tech missed countless tackles on defense and Miami receivers were running open down the field all game long. GT runs a defensive scheme that includes an extra defensive back, yet they still could not defend the pass. The only explanation that I can come up with is that we could not get any pressure on the quarterback. Derrick Morgan was non-existent in this game, which was hopefully a function of fatigue. GT played 3 games in only 12 days and he could be seen visibly winded several times on the sidelines. However, somebody else along the defensive line needs to step up from this point going forward if we expect to have a solid defense. Luckily for Tech, Miami probably has the best offense out of any team that we will face this season. The score could have been much worse than 33-17 if Miami had not missed two easy field goals late in the game, including one where the Canes probably should have went for it instead of settling for the kick.

The offense did not fare much better than the defense. The pass blocking by the offensive line was atrocious late in the game, especially when compared to Miami who did not allow a sack on Harris. The A-backs and wide receivers missed countless blocks along the edge that would have probably sprung a couple of runs for big plays. Tech committed dumb penalties on offense all game long including a block in the back by Kevin Cone to negate a big run and a false start on Zach Fraysier on 4th – 1. Bay-Bay made some nice plays in the passing game and finished with a solid 133 yard game and a touchdown. However, he also missed some key blocks on running plays and dropped a perfect pass late in the game that would have possibly went for a 79 yard touchdown. Tech could have cut the lead down to one score with a two point conversion to make things interesting, but GT did not deserve to win this game.

The lone bright spot was the play of Orwin Smith on kick returns. Smith had several nice returns to set the offense up in great field position. There were some errors on special teams as well. Scott Blair missed only the second field goal of his career from less than 40 yards and Chandler Anderson had an onside kick that did not bounce high enough for the return team to get a chance to recover it. There was also a high snap over the punter’s head that resulted in a safety and a 16 point cushion for Miami.

CPJ showed some wrinkles in the offense with an inside misdirection handoff to Marcus Wright. This play showed some of the creative potential of his offense once we have mastered the basics. I still think that we need to throw the ball more on less obvious passing downs, but this is probably not an option until the pass protection improves. CPJ went for an onside kick with more than 8 minutes still left in the game. The defense did not perform well, but it was too early in the game for an onside kick.

Tech absolutely dominated the first quarter.

Tarrant should have had an interception on the first possession after jumping the slant route, but could not hold onto it. Derrick Morgan made a nice stop in the backfield on fourth down to stop Clemson’s first drive and give Tech the ball.

Nesbitt under threw a wide open B Thomas and Clemson intercepted the pass. If the ball was thrown to the outside shoulder, Bay-Bay might have scored.

Tech played solid defense on the next Clemson possession and forced a 3 and out.

The big play offense was back in action. Anthony Allen took the triple option pitch from Nesbitt 82 yards for the touchdown. Bay-Bay made a great block to create the hole and Roddy Jones made a cut block that gave Allen room to run. Allen is not as fast as the other running backs but he had enough of a head start to make it all the way to the end zone.

Clemson then drove it down to the GT 38 and called a timeout in order to decide what to do on 4th – 5. They eventually ran the field goal unit onto the field for a 55 yard field goal attempt. GT played it safe and put Tarrant deep for a punt return in case the kicker decided to punt the ball. CPJ pulled this maneuver a couple times last year since Blair was both the kicker and punter last season. CPJ guessed correctly and Clemson punted the ball to Tarrant. Tarrant fielded it at the 15 yard line and sprinted towards the sidelines as if he was going out of bounds. Then at the last second, he cut the ball up the field and somehow managed to squeeze between a line of Clemson defenders. Once he broke that first tackle, there was nobody in sight and he ran it back for an 85 yard touchdown, his second punt return in as many weeks.

Clemson looked to get something going on their next offensive possession, but Derrick Morgan set the tone with a big sack on first down. Eventually on third down the Clemson wide receiver dropped a pass from Parker and the ball was tipped into the air, where Cooper Taylor made a nice diving interception.

Georgia Tech then drove the ball down to the Clemson 34 yard line and left the offense on the field while the officials reviewed a third down play. The refs concluded that the pass was incomplete so CPJ rotated the special teams unit into the game for a field goal attempt on fourth down. However, CPJ actually rotated in 5 special teams players for 6 offensive players. Therefore, when Bay-Bay got to the sidelines he stayed on the field and Clemson did not notice. Tech quickly hiked the ball and Scott Blair took a direct snap and lobbed a pass to the wide open receiver. Bay-Bay caught the pass and stiff armed Chancellor to the ground on his way to the end zone. Tech was now up 21-0 and the first quarter still was not over with.

Derrick Morgan continued to have a huge game and sacked Parker and third down to force another Clemson punt. GT then went on their first sustained drive of the game, highlighted by a 32 yard run from Anthony Allen on an inside handoff where he broke three tackles and dragged the last defender for an extra 10 yards. On first, second, and third down, however, Tech displayed no creativity in handing the ball to Dwyer three straight times and eventually were forced to kick an easy field goal.

This turned out to be an important moral victory for Clemson. They got the ball back and scored on the first play to turn the momentum back in their favor. Spiller ran a wheel route and Parker hit him with a perfect pass that he took 63 yards for the touchdown. Cooper Taylor took a bad angle on the play and Spiller did the rest with speed. Taylor is the fastest player on Georgia Tech’s team, but Spiller is the fastest player in the ACC. If it were a running back on any other team, Cooper probably could have made up for his mistake by running the player down from behind.

Tech got the ball back and marched it back down to the Clemson 39 yard line. On 3rd-6, Nesbitt found Roddy Jones wide open on a crossing route, but Jones dropped the ball for what would have been a first down.

Mario Butler made a nice interception on the next Clemson drive to give Tech the ball back. Butler was beat on the play, but Parker had to stop and plant his feet before he threw in order to get enough strength on a long pass to the other side of the field. This gave Butler enough time to recover and he made a great leaping catch.

Tech was unable to capitalize, however, and the score at half was GT 24 – Clemson 7.

GT got the ball back first in the second half and needed to score first after being stopped by the Clemson defense on their last four offensive possessions. The opposite happened and Tech went three and out to give Clemson the ball back. On the first play, Spiller ripped off his biggest run of the game with a 19 yard carry in which he juked Mario Butler out of his shoes. The Clemson fans began to get loud and Morgan Burnett added an extra 15 yards on a late hit out of bounds. That was a questionable penalty call, but it still gave Clemson the ball deep in Tech territory and they eventually scored a touchdown to pull within 10 points.

GT continued to struggle on offense and Clemson got the ball back again. Then it happened. On 3rd-7, Parker hit Ford deep over the middle. Morgan Burnett made a diving effort to bring Ford down, but was unsuccessful and Ford took the ball 77 yards for the touchdown. Suddenly Clemson was only down three points.

Orwin Smith receiving the ensuing kickoff and was met immediately by a sea of orange. Clemson was fired up and Dwyer could be seen on the sidelines yelling at his offensive lineman. GT got the ball back and again ran the ball three straight times. Tech still hadn’t passed the ball in the second half on three straight possessions. Tech was forced to punt, but were given a free first down on a defensive holding call. It didn’t matter as they were stopped again and forced to punt the ball.

Clemson got the ball and Spiller ran for 25 yards on the first play. Clemson then went into a hurry up offense and caught the GT defense napping on a 37 yard pass completion to a wide open receiver. Clemson then had the ball 3rd-1 on the Georgia Tech 3 yard line. Ben Anderson made the biggest play of the game for the GT defense by forcing his way into the backfield to stop Spiller for a one yard loss. Clemson settled for a field goal to tie the game.

CPJ finally decided to throw the ball, but again Nesbitt opted to go deep down the field which hadn’t worked all game. Clemson’s safety, DeAndre McDaniel made another great interception to give Clemson the ball back. They drove it back down the field to the GT 35 yard line, when Parker threw a bad pass, but Griffin dropped the easy interception. Clemson settled for a 53 yard field goal attempt and their kicker drained it for a career long to give them the lead again on 27 unanswered points.

Then Nesbitt decided to step up. After going 0-9 on third down attempts, Nesbitt finally gained a first down in his tenth try. Nesbitt hit Anthony Allen on an easy pass over the middle after he slipped uncovered out of the backfield. Allen had plenty of room to run and went for a 24 yard gain. GT then ran some mid-line option where Nesbitt fakes the handoff to Dwyer and then follows Dwyer’s lead blocking up the middle. Nesbitt went for back to back 14 yard gains to give set GT up at the Clemson 33 yard line. Nesbitt ran the ball three more times for another first down and was visibly winded after running it on five straight plays. Tech was finally shut down at the 17 yard line and Blair came in to make the field goal that tied the game. This was an important 6 minute drive that gave the Tech defense time to rest after they had been scored on the first four Clemson offensive possessions of the second half.

The fifth possession was a different story. Clemson tried some trickery on the first play, but Butler did an amazing job containing Ford on the back side for a loss of yards. The third string running back, red-shirt freshman Andre Ellington, then came in and gained 15 yards for the Clemson first down. Parker then fumbled the exchange with the center and was lucky to fall on the ball. Parker then completed a pass deep down the field to Ford for 38 yards, but the play was called back on a holding penalty. The television announcers questioned the call, but I yelled out holding from my seats in the stands. It was pretty clear to me that the Clemson lineman grabbed jersey and yanked Ben Anderson to the ground.

Clemson was then forced to punt and Tech got it back at their own 35 yard line. Anthony Allen rushed for a 13 yard gain that was called back on a holding penalty. The Clemson player was pancaked on the block – there was no holding whatsoever on the play. Nevertheless, GT eventually had a third and long and then the biggest offensive play of the game came by way of Nesbitt’s arm. Bay-Bay got a step on Chancellor and Nesbitt threw it in the perfect spot for a 39 yard gain. This put the ball at the Clemson 27 yard line and GT eventually got it down to the 18 yard line to set up the game winning field goal attempt. Blair drained the 36 yard kick to put Tech up by three with only 57 seconds left.

Tech then did a great job handling Ford on the return and eventually stopped Clemson on four straight passing plays. Tarrant made a key play in one-on-one coverage deep down the field to knock the pass attempt away from Spiller. Tech got the ball and assumed the victory formation to kneel it and kill the final 24 seconds off of the clock.

Conclusion

All in all it was a great victory for GT to hold on after Clemson scored 27 straight points to take the lead. Tech showed resilience to get the victory, especially Josh Nesbitt, who had a terrible game up until the fourth quarter. In that fourth quarter, however, Nesbitt carried the Yellow Jackets to victory. The Tech defense also stepped up when it mattered the most. If you take away those two long plays in the Clemson passing game, Tech played a pretty solid defensive game.

Derrick Morgan had the best game of his career. He had ten tackles on the day to lead Tech, including four for losses and three sacks. On a day where Clemson tried to solo block him, Morgan made them pay dearly. There were many pro scouts in attendance and Morgan solidified that he is one of the best defensive ends in the ACC, if not the best.

Where was Morgan Burnett? The only times that he showed up were on bad plays. Burnett is normally all over the field making plays but this was not the case on Thursday night. He committed a dumb penalty, got burned deep for a touchdown after missing a tackle, and was juked for a crucial first down by Ellington. I’m not sure what really affected his performance but he is rumored to have played with a broken thumb.

Dropped interceptions and dropped passes. Tech has now dropped four interceptions on the year and at least three passes. This is a bad trend that needs to stop immediately.

Tarrant is a baller on special teams. His punt return on the pooch punt reminded me of when Devin Hester returned a field goal attempt that landed short within the field of play for a touchdown in an NFL game. On that particular play, Hester pretended to jog like he was going to take a knee in the end zone but then exploded through a huge hole for the long touchdown. Tarrant made a similar play by faking like he was going to run the ball out of bounds, but then he shifted into another gear and exploded up the field for a touchdown.

Scott Blair had a once in a life time game. He had never thrown a pass in his life, not even in a high school game and his first one ever went for a touchdown. He also made his first game winning field goal as a Yellow Jacket. It wasn’t all great, however, as he failed to get any of his kickoffs past the five yard line. Blair has a big leg and at least half of his kicks should be reaching the end zone.

On the first offensive play, Nesbitt read the defense perfectly and pitched it at the last second to Dwyer on the triple option. Dwyer took the pitch 74 yards untouched for the touchdown. It looked like he was jogging from the 40 yard line all the way to the end zone. What a great omen for the season.

Anthony Barnes put a good stick on the kick-off returner to force a fumble which was recovered by Jemea Thomas. Tech was back in business, but the drive stalled at the 3 yard line and Blair hit the chip shot field goal from the left hash.

Greg Smith took a huge hit from Brad Jefferson on his first pass target of the season. Jefferson dislodged the ball and Jax State was forced to punt. Welcome back to the A Greg!

Nesbitt threw a nice ball to Peeples on third down but it was just out of his reach. It looked like he could have gotten his hands on the ball with a diving attempt. Peeples had room in front of him to run and a perfect pass would have gone for big yards.

The Tech defense stopped Jax State again and GT got the ball back at their 27 yard line. Nesbitt methodically led the offense down the field, highlighted by an 18 yard run by Anthony Allen from a Nesbitt pitch, an 18 yard completion to Bay-Bay, and a couple of first down runs by Nesbitt. Dwyer capped the drive off with an exclamation point by diving over a defender into the end zone. He nearly did a complete flip after being hit in mid-air.

Jax State finally moved the ball into GT territory with a couple of runs right through the middle of the Georgia Tech defense. Greg Smith also caught his first pass courtesy of soft coverage by Tarrant and to make matters worse Griffin hit the quarterback late to tack on 15 extra penalty yards. On third and 9 from the 22 yard line, The Predator made a great read to jump underneath a wide receiver that had broken open over the middle. Burnett made a diving interception at the three yard line to kill the drive.

Tech took the ensuing possession down the field with some great individual effort by Nesbitt on a couple of quarterback keepers. However, he fumbled the ball near mid-field after attempting to gain extra yards. The football was not secure to his body and this kind of careless play unfortunately carried on all game long by the quarterbacks. Jax State marched back down the field and converted the turnover into their first touchdown of the game.

Nesbitt dropped back to pass on the first play of the next offensive possession and found Bay-Bay wide open down the field. Bay-Bay went for 56 yards on the longest passing gain of the day. Nesbitt rushed the ball in from 10 yards out for the touchdown as GT scored in les than 2 minutes for the second time.

The defense then forced Jax State to go three and out and Tarrant got his first opportunity to return a punt. The first two punt attempts by Jax State were shanked and could not be returned. Tarrant scampered for a nice 25 yard return to set up great field position at the Jax State 38 yard line. Tevin Washington came in for the first time and ran for 17 yards on third down to get the ball inside of the red zone. Two plays later he rushed it for a nice 12 yard gain but fumbled the ball at the 6 yard line. Washington was carrying the ball with only one hand and had it slapped away while diving forward for yards.

Jax State moved it to the 35 yard line, but then Derrick Morgan blew around the corner to sack the quarterback for a loss of 8 yards on third down. Tech called timeout with only 1:13 left before halftime in order to give Tarrant an opportunity for another punt return. Tarrant capitalized by taking the punt return 68 yards for the touchdown! Tarrant made several nice jukes and capped it off by pumping his fist in the air toward the Tech faithful as he ran into the end zone. That put Tech up 31-7 at half and from there on out the game was in cruise control.

Jax State Game Observations

Our quarterbacks fumbled the ball 4 times and lost three of those. This was a recurring problem last year and looked to be corrected in the off-season. We need to take better care of the ball as Jax State scored 10 of their points off of turnovers. We will not have nearly as many offensive chances against a better opponent and giving the ball away three times, including twice in the red zone is absolutely unacceptable. CPJ punished Nesbitt by leaving him for the majority of the game even after it was clearly in hand. I will say that Nesbitt looked good passing the ball. There were a couple of dropped passes and other passes that looked like the receiver had a chance at but just didn’t make the effort. Dwyer on the other hand sat out the entire second half after gaining 95 yards on just 7 carries. He looked to be in mid-season form on his way to scoring two touchdowns.

Our defense played a solid game, but I still question our lack of size at defensive tackle. TJ Barnes was not used at all and I’m not quite sure why at this point. Jax State was able to gash us up the middle several times in the running game. Derrick Morgan looked great as he ended up with two sacks for a total loss of 17 yards. He saw triple teams for the majority of the game. Cooper Taylor needs to learn how to wrap up the ball carrier. Morgan Burnett made the best defensive play of the game to get his 11th career interception. Tech had several other opportunities for interceptions but they were all dropped. Tarrant played soft coverage at times and I look for him to tighten that up. Freshman Julian Burnett had a great game making several textbook solo tackles on his way to leading the team with 9 total tackles. A couple of those were key tackles that he made on third down in order to prevent Jax State from getting first down yardage.

Special teams were a mixed bag. Tarrant looked great returning the ball and he will be a pleasure to watch all season. He showed a quick burst, good decision making, and ability to find the open space by changing directions. His return for a touchdown was the first since 2003 when Jonathan Smith last did it. The kicking game, however, still left a lot to be desired. Blair only kicked it deep one time where the ball made it to the goal line on a kick-off. I’m still unclear whether or not we try to kick it high and short on purpose because Blair has the leg to make it to the end zone every time. Blair also missed an extra point and another field goal from 40 yards and beyond. He is 0-7 now for his career beyond 40 yards. Punter, Chandler Anderson, also did not have a good game despite what the statistics might indicate. Both of his punts were short and he was the beneficiary of fortuitous bounces on both kicks.

The Yellow Jackets will need to tighten up a few loose ends on offense, defense, and special teams before Clemson comes into town on Thursday. I will break down that game tomorrow.