Bowling Green Post Game... 😢

[GTJake]

I waited a day for things and myself to calm down, gut wrenching is exactly what this was and to be honest I stopped watching after the pick-six. But, in retrospect, being out-talented by a 1-3 MAC team isn't the issue, as probably was said already quite often, this one falls directly on the coaches. But here's the glass half-full side, Key is in his first year as a first time HC, we talk about inexperienced players all the time, well Key is an inexperienced HC. I for one will stick with the program and put this one in the rear view mirror.

 

[devcon]

It's Monday and I'm still in the denial stage. I simply cannot believe this game happened.

 

[Lotta Booze]

Very surprised to see us over on the bottom left

 

[CEB]

Very surprised to see us over on the bottom left

Turnovers (or turnover margin) accounts for most of the teams on the left side of this.
BG flipped the script on us… they had been the turnover prone team up to this point.

 

[slugboy]

Turnovers (or turnover margin) accounts for most of the teams on the left side of this.
BG flipped the script on us… they had been the turnover prone team up to this point.

They’re still a team we should beat, even with the turnovers (like the punt snap ), but statistically the turnovers show up huge.

 

[Lotta Booze]

Looking back it's really shocking how quickly it got out of hand.

14-10 with 8 minutes left in the half, GT has the ball
Proceeds to stall out on offense, muff the snap on the punt giving BGSU great field postion
They march down and score a TD. 14-17 BGSU
GT gets the ball back drives down the field and has 1ST & 10 on the BG 21....and winds up punting after moving backwards 22 yards
Halftime
BG gets ball drives the field and 14-24 BG
GT gets the ball drives but leads to the infamous failure to get 1 yard in 2 downs
BG gets the ball back and scores 31-14 BG with 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter

Coaches frequently talk about how important the "middle 8" is...this game is a prime example. BG had a 21-0 run. Before the pick 6

 

[GetYourBuzzOn]

They’re still a team we should beat, even with the turnovers (like the punt snap ), but statistically the turnovers show up huge.

Our postgame win expectancy was 75.3%- you are right, the turnovers and context around when and where they happened show up huge.

 

[kittysniper101]

Very surprised to see us over on the bottom left

For this particular chart remember success rate is just the % of successful plays (getting x% of needed yards on a given play, eg 100% on 3rd and 4th down). With that you can see how we’d be more successful on an average play as we held them to plenty of 3rd and long which they’d end up converting. On our side, we had plenty of yards and converted to first downs but “just” failed to turn those into points. Others have already mentioned the impact turnovers have as well.

 

[CEB]

Coaches frequently talk about how important the "middle 8" is...this game is a prime example. BG had a 21-0 run. Before the pick 6

the “middle 8” has been our nemesis all season so far.

 

[GaTech4ever]

A couple thoughts…

1.) In my opinion, it’s getting ridiculous with what’s happened to Dontae Smith’s playing time. What is Cooley giving us? Cooley’s played (and graded out) very poorly for three straight weeks now. Haynes and Cooley aren’t breaking tackles and Smith runs extremely hard. He’s not injured. Key has seen what Smith gives us and needs to override Faulkner or whoever’s making this call.

2,) Haynes King was the highest graded player on our offense against Bowling Green, according to PFF. I was surprised by this, but it’s not like I’m positive someone else played better. Blaylock was #2.

3.) Key should privately rip Moala for publicly acknowledging the team overlooked Bowling Green. You just don’t say that, even if it’s 110% true.

 

[RamblinRed]

The biggest takeaway from this game for me is that is just confirms what we have seen in the previous 4 games in terms of 2 things we do poorly on offense and 2 things we do poorly on defense.

On offense we are a poor running team. Our RB's are good in space, but not between the tackles and the run blocking by the OL is suspect.
On defense we are unable to stop the run consistently. Our DL does not get a good push on running plays.

For the season against the 4 FBS opponents we have been outrushed in every game. GT is avg 142 ypg rushing against FBS opponents and 4.1 ypc. Opponents are avg 231 ypg rushing and 5.5 ypc.
So offensively we are a pretty inefficient team because we do not control the LoS so we rely on King slinging the ball around to receivers and hoping we get big plays to get down the field.
On defense we are not able to stop the run - even in long yardage situations, which allows opponents to control tempo, clock and move consistently down the field and ultimately tiring out the D.

The 2nd thing we door poorly is halftime adjustments - both offensive and defensive.
Our 3rd Quarters are atrocious. GT has been outscored 51-13 in the 4 FBS games in the 3rd quarter. It feels like the other team always makes better half time adjustments than GT does. That goes to in-game coaching.
GT has 15 first downs in the 3rd quarter to 26 for opponents - take out the BG game and it is 7 to 18. GT's opponents have more yardage and more points in every FBS contest this year than GT does in the 3rd quarter.

Those 2 items have to change for GT to have a chance at becoming a winning program.

 

[Jacket Bracket]

The biggest takeaway from this game for me is that is just confirms what we have seen in the previous 4 games in terms of 2 things we do poorly on offense and 2 things we do poorly on defense.

On offense we are a poor running team. Our RB's are good in space, but not between the tackles and the run blocking by the OL is suspect.
On defense we are unable to stop the run consistently. Our DL does not get a good push on running plays.

For the season against the 4 FBS opponents we have been outrushed in every game. GT is avg 142 ypg rushing against FBS opponents and 4.1 ypc. Opponents are avg 231 ypg rushing and 5.5 ypc.
So offensively we are a pretty inefficient team because we do not control the LoS so we rely on King slinging the ball around to receivers and hoping we get big plays to get down the field.
On defense we are not able to stop the run - even in long yardage situations, which allows opponents to control tempo, clock and move consistently down the field and ultimately tiring out the D.

The 2nd thing we door poorly is halftime adjustments - both offensive and defensive.
Our 3rd Quarters are atrocious. GT has been outscored 51-13 in the 4 FBS games in the 3rd quarter. It feels like the other team always makes better half time adjustments than GT does. That goes to in-game coaching.
GT has 15 first downs in the 3rd quarter to 26 for opponents - take out the BG game and it is 7 to 18. GT's opponents have more yardage and more points in every FBS contest this year than GT does in the 3rd quarter.

Those 2 items have to change for GT to have a chance at becoming a winning program.

That 3rd quarter 51-13 stat really speaks to an inexperienced coaching staff. Not saying they can’t learn and improve, but we would be getting better results had we hired a veteran coach instead of a guy in charge for the first time.

 

[ibeattetris]

Very surprised to see us over on the bottom left

The stat removes turnovers (it’s actually the point of what the guy is trying for). If you remove our offenses turnovers, we probably do look a bit better than we did. (7 of their points were on a pick 6, another on a short field from a fumble).

 

[roadkill]

The biggest takeaway from this game for me is that is just confirms what we have seen in the previous 4 games in terms of 2 things we do poorly on offense and 2 things we do poorly on defense.

On offense we are a poor running team. Our RB's are good in space, but not between the tackles and the run blocking by the OL is suspect.
On defense we are unable to stop the run consistently. Our DL does not get a good push on running plays.

For the season against the 4 FBS opponents we have been outrushed in every game. GT is avg 142 ypg rushing against FBS opponents and 4.1 ypc. Opponents are avg 231 ypg rushing and 5.5 ypc.
So offensively we are a pretty inefficient team because we do not control the LoS so we rely on King slinging the ball around to receivers and hoping we get big plays to get down the field.
On defense we are not able to stop the run - even in long yardage situations, which allows opponents to control tempo, clock and move consistently down the field and ultimately tiring out the D.

The 2nd thing we door poorly is halftime adjustments - both offensive and defensive.
Our 3rd Quarters are atrocious. GT has been outscored 51-13 in the 4 FBS games in the 3rd quarter. It feels like the other team always makes better half time adjustments than GT does. That goes to in-game coaching.
GT has 15 first downs in the 3rd quarter to 26 for opponents - take out the BG game and it is 7 to 18. GT's opponents have more yardage and more points in every FBS contest this year than GT does in the 3rd quarter.

Those 2 items have to change for GT to have a chance at becoming a winning program.

Got to to hand it to BG’s coaches and scouts. They did a good job of exploiting our weaknesses.

5 games in, our coaching staff must surely be well aware of our strengths and weaknesses, at least from a player performance standpoint. On offense, they may have to scheme around our weaknesses and get creative with play calls, if they haven’t already. On D, I’m not sure what is practical to change short-term other than fixing fundamentals like tackling. Maybe our newly appointed head coordinator can do some things to put our guys in a better position to succeed.

Coaches have also got to be aware of our 3rd quarter swoons. We’ve been getting outcoached after the half and I’m not sure we can fix that without more game experience.

Unfortunately, our opponents now have the formula to beat us even with inferior talent.

 

[RamblinRed]

A couple thoughts…

1.) In my opinion, it’s getting ridiculous with what’s happened to Dontae Smith’s playing time. What is Cooley giving us? Cooley’s played (and graded out) very poorly for three straight weeks now. Haynes and Cooley aren’t breaking tackles and Smith runs extremely hard. He’s not injured. Key has seen what Smith gives us and needs to override Faulkner or whoever’s making this call.

2,) Haynes King was the highest graded player on our offense against Bowling Green, according to PFF. I was surprised by this, but it’s not like I’m positive someone else played better. Blaylock was #2.

3.) Key should privately rip Moala for publicly acknowledging the team overlooked Bowling Green. You just don’t say that, even if it’s 110% true.

I wish I could remember who is was now but I saw an article today where someone on the offensive side of the ball made a similar comment to what Moala did.

Not surprised about King. The rushing attack was just really poor on Saturday and the receivers can't make high scores unless the QB can get them the ball.
King did not have a great game or anything, but everyone else was just so poor.

 

[FencePost]

You may have unrealistic expectations in today’s college football. I put up a video of Urban Meyer yesterday explaining what the 3 groups goals are in conferences and imo Ga Tech falls into winning the division and fighting for an ACC championship. Ga Tech isn’t built to win NC’s because they can’t get the talent that it takes. Sure they can sneak up and beat Georgia or any other team on any given day but getting into the playoffs when the intensity of the game is sky high I just don’t see it happening in a 12 team playoff system. Way too many hurdles. Ga Tech will always fight hard to win but we have to be realistic about what our goals are. The great Ball coach Steve Spurrier said “the goal when the season starts is to win the conference” he knew how hard it was after that. Brother, what you seen happen under George O’Leary and CPJ is as good as it’s going to get. Get behind this team and let’s try and get 6 wins…that’s the goal this year!

That attitude, it's no wonder we have Brent Key at HC.

 

[Jazzchaz]

That kind of ridiculous hyperbole is not attractive on you.

That kind of ridiculous hyperbole is not attractive on you.

No? Well, I'll give my closet a look. Surely I've got a more attractive ridiculous hyperbole in there somewhere.

 

[awbuzz]

Middle Tennessee/The Citadel/Northern Illinois/ and now Bowling Green and a last minute win over Gardner-Webb!....but why must we suffer like this?
I keep reminding myself of the night we beat Florida State on the legendary blocked fg attempt that was run back for the winning TD for a ray of hope, or the upsets of Pitt and UNC last year......but this was awful, we were outcoached, "out-adjusted" again, and outplayed and outhustled. Did I leave anything out?

... out scored...

 

[yeti92]

@Augusta_Jacket any way to require a minimum post count for the week after a loss like this? The amount of absolutely terrible takes from fonts that do not contribute to this site at all for years only to pop up in these type of situations is ridiculous.

 

[Southern psu fan]

That attitude, it's no wonder we have Brent Key at HC.

I have a realistic attitude in Ga Tech Football. The great George O’Leary, Ralph Freidgen and CPJ, 3 of the best coaches to ever step on a football field didn’t win a NC as head coach coaching the big boys so that tells me how hard it is to win a NC at Ga Tech, UCF and Maryland. If these 3 dudes didn’t get it done when looking at their track records, it’s a gigantic uphill battle. IMO Ga Tech’s goal is to win the division and fight for the ACC championship every year. Because of the school work it’s hard to get the top talent on defense. Ga Tech is up there with Stanford and Purdue and them 2 teams ain’t goi g to win a NC either…sorry but they just ain’t. Brent Key does have O’Leary, Freidgen and Saban blood in him so if I’m telling you I was wrong in a few years…. I’m okay with it