Duke Postgame

[MikeJackets1967]

Yes, but some teams like Louisville are not motivated, some teams like Bowling Green are not talented enough, and some teams are just not willing to commit to one on one coverage and filling the gaps quickly enough. Unless you are willing and able to sell out to stopping the run the triple option will kill half measures.

I think Louisville was flat because they know head coach Bobby Petrino is on his way out

 

[UgaBlows]

Virginia’s coach has a hard-on for shutting down the triple-o, they will def beat us if we can’t pass

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

First I want to thank YJAlleyCat and GTpdm for letting my brother and I use their tickets for the game. They are great Tech fans and we enjoyed the chance to get to know them a little bit and spend some time at their tailgate. We also had a chance to say hello to DrJacket and his wife while picking up the tickets. Always fun to meet the folks behind the posting handles.

It was beautiful day for football and despite the outcome of the game we had a lot of fun interacting with other Tech fans and taking in the pageantry of college football. The trumpet solo of the National Anthem was awesome followed by the flyover of the F18's which rattled everything around us and reminded me of how great it is to live in the best place on earth. The entrance of the Ramblin Wreck followed by our beloved Yellow Jackets to the refrain of the finest fight song ever written was just a joy to behold.

It was a hard fought game and I think the 2 teams were fairly evenly matched. The defense looked shaky at the start but they rallied to play well for the most part the remainder of the game. Our offense had problems getting untracked and I credit Duke for just making it tough on us to make any chunk yardage all day. We could get 3 to 6 yards pretty consistently all day but just could not break any big plays. I think that frustrated us and led to some mistakes late in the third quarter. It was an even game until we gifted them with 3 fumbles, which they converted to 21 points and effectively closed the door on us. As Coach has said so many times, our margin of error is thin and when we make mistakes like turnovers and penalties it is going to be hard for us to win.

I think those of you who feel that Duke has a vastly better program than Tech are overstating the situation. For sure our programs are comparable at this point but I think both would be considered middle of the road in the overall scheme of college football today. Would I like to see us in the top 10 competing for National Championships, well hell yeah I would. But we are not there and have a lot of work to do to get there. But that does not mean we can never aspire to be there. For now we need to keep working and trying to get better at everything involved with the program.

Next game is Virginia Tech. A team that we can beat if we minimize our mistakes and play with some passion. Looking forward to that and hopefully a better outcome for our Yellow Jackets. Let's hang in there and continue to support our boys. There is still a lot of football left to played in 2018.

Go Jackets!

 

[RiseUpATL]

Virginia’s coach has a hard-on for shutting down the triple-o, they will def beat us if we can’t pass

Bronco has played us well every year. Unfortunately we don’t match up with UVA at all. They have a stout defense and a mobile QB. That game has trouble all over it.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Only thing that can make me smile right now is the sheer volume of sh*t uga fans are getting on the sec board from lsu fans.

That's where we are, folks. ...

That’s kind of a you problem.

 

[WreckinGT]

I’m not gonna lie, this game stung. I guess I bought into the hype a little too much after the Destruction of Louisville but I thought the team had turned a corner. While the fumbles were obviously the big problem, watching us look anemic on offense against a team like Duke was more frustrating to me.

 

[alagold]

The sad part about it is that Coach Cutliff said at halftime that it "wasn't that hard" or words to that effect. Indeed, it is easy to flood the pitch lanes, disrupt the line blocking, and pinch down on the backside to get the quarterback IF there is no credible passing attack. No receiver who can repeatedly burn one on one coverage because to commit to an 8 man front leaves no one to cover the middle of the field provided that you can pass protect, get open and pass the ball.

yep,
its been this simple for a several yrs at times

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

We have to keep defenses honest. TQM doesn’t keep defenses honest and hasn’t his whole career. Nesbitt(or should I say Thomas?) kept defenses honest. JT kept defenses honest. We don’t need to pass 50% of the time, but we should be able to pass well enough that defenses have to actually think about it.

Unfortunately, our passing game was respectable in 08 and 09 because we had a 1st round draft pick at WR and ‘14 and ‘16 we had a QB who has proven to be a once in a blue moon kind of recruit for us under CPJ. I’m not sure those stars align again anytime soon.

If Vad Lee bought into our system, maybe he would have shown recruits what could be as a true duel threat QB at GT, but that ended up being a debacle, partially because he didn’t buy into the system and struggled with the option and partially due to coach mishandling the situation and I don’t see another recruit taking that chance again.

 

[Sheldon's]

Painful game to watch. Very hard to win when you gift the other team three touchdowns. Oliver has an elusiveness, better throwing motion and much more zip on his passes. I’m not one of those people that always wants the backup quarterback, but TQM doesn’t seem to have the tools to get it done in the passing game. Maybe if we still had Megatron I’d feel differently. The ball from TQM floats and with his motion and release point no way it is going to have zip. If we can’t pass going to have a hard time beating average teams.

 

[GTonTop88]

Virginia’s coach has a hard-on for shutting down the triple-o, they will def beat us if we can’t pass

I think we’ve proven we can’t/won’t pass

 

[takethepoints]

Well, they're pretty good and we gave them the game. Some observations:

• We gave a good defensive effort against a good offense. We sacked Jones 4 times and intercepted him once. We held them to 304 yards total offense, 77% of their average. We had 6 TFLs. This was easy enough to win, if we had kept down our mistakes.

• They were pretty good on D as well. They sacked TM 3 times and had 11 TFLs. They held us to 354 yards total offense, 78% of our average. Also, enough to win, provided they kept down their mistakes.

• But it was the mistakes that lost the game for us. It wasn't so much the fumbles: they fumbled 4 times and lost 2, we fumbled 6 times and lost 3. No, it was where the fumbles took place. All of ours - btw, TaQuon did not fumble the ball on the second; he was already down - took place on our side of the field and two gave them a very short field to work with. The one that hurt the most was Howard's at our 44 (I think). He had just run for 15 yards on two straight dives and it looked like we were starting to drive them. Three plays later, Jones barely avoided a sack and they hit a big play.

• Add in the untimely penalties - they lost as many yards to penalties as we did, but, again, ours worked against us more then theirs did - and the blown assignments on short yardage 4th downs. Just too many mistakes to overcome.

• But it was the mistakes. The talent on the field was equal: they were better throwing, we were better running, and the Ds were even steven. If we execute, we win. Even a few less mistakes and we win. Duke has improved over the last few years, mainly because they gave Cutliffe what he said he needed. We have to do the same. Now.

• As was mentioned above, this was a game - like Pitt and USF - where we could have really used Kirvontae Benson. The BB two-headed monster combined for 101 yards rushing, but, fast as Mason is, Benson would have broke a couple, especially on the speed options. Too bad that.

• I continue to hear complaints about our recruiting. I've said before that if Mills hadn't been fired, there would be no such given. I'll extend that some: if Benson was still on the field, there wouldn't be so many complaints either. You can't lose players like that in two successive years and show as well as you would like. Btw, the reason we are playing so many freshmen and sophs is that they beat out our seniors. Occasionally, you pay for that, as on the third fumble, but that's the right way to handle talent.

• Final regret: if we had beat Puke, the Coastal would be wide open after Da U lost to UVA yesterday. Shoot, given the way supposedly established teams are falling this year, it may still be. If ever there was a year where a 5 - 3 team could win the Coastal, this is it. So let's gird up our loins and go after VT in two weeks.

• And, for heaven's sake, no more whining.

 

[stech81]

It can only be one of 2 things , Coaching or the Players, right now I'm going to say coaching.

 

[kg01]

That’s kind of a you problem.

Have some sympathy you heartless meany.

 

[JorgeJonas]

Winning brings in fans. Not the other way around.

Nope. You don’t get to demand better wih shi—y fans. Are you under the impression that it’s a coincidence that the same teams that are really good every year also have the biggest stadiums with the most fans?

 

[GTonTop88]

Nope. You don’t get to demand better wih shi—y fans. Are you under the impression that it’s a coincidence that the same teams that are really good every year also have the biggest stadiums with the most fans?

Some schools have the luxury of selling out a stadium no matter what. Uga probably has 3 million fans in the state and GT may have 200,000. We would have to get 1/4 fans to come to BDS to sell out. To pull that you’d better be winning. Uga can get 1/30 fans to show up to sell out. That’s not nearly as hard.

 

[tech_wreck47]

It can only be one of 2 things , Coaching or the Players, right now I'm going to say coaching.

Why not both?

 

[jacketup]

The sad part about it is that Coach Cutliff said at halftime that it "wasn't that hard" or words to that effect. Indeed, it is easy to flood the pitch lanes, disrupt the line blocking, and pinch down on the backside to get the quarterback IF there is no credible passing attack. No receiver who can repeatedly burn one on one coverage because to commit to an 8 man front leaves no one to cover the middle of the field provided that you can pass protect, get open and pass the ball.

One thing I learned from Ralph Friedgen is that you create matchups with your offense that you can win. He liked coaching offense in college because the other team almost always had a defensive weakness that he could exploit (maybe not those powerful FSU defenses of the 90's).

Johnson is a genius at changing blocking schemes to create matchups, and it works a lot of the time. Still, as Cutcliff's comment points out, this offense has its limitations. The type of option attack Johnson employs can't suddenly become an effective passing offense, as Cutcliff is well aware. This limitation allows defenses to dictate the matchups they can win. That has happened more and more as other coaches and players see this offense year after year.

 

[JorgeJonas]

Some schools have the luxury of selling out a stadium no matter what. Uga probably has 3 million fans in the state and GT may have 200,000. We would have to get 1/4 fans to come to BDS to sell out. To pull that you’d better be winning. Uga can get 1/30 fans to show up to sell out. That’s not nearly as hard.

Yes, I’m aware of that. Now ask yourself why uga has consistently better players and a better funded operation. Then ask yourself why you think we’d be able to compete with that.

 

[Bogey]

I think we beat UNC and UVA and pray that we have the APR to get us into a bowl at 5-7.....

Who cares about a bowl game at 5-7? Geez!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[AlphaBuzz]

I think this is spot on. We have all heard the reasons (although the 6 posters who hate yhe option and/or CPJ call them excuses) why we aren't where we want to be. I get that we're all tired of losing, but firing CPJ won't change the underlying dynamics of football at GT. Make the commitments like Clemson and Duke (and just about everybody else we play) to hire more guys to help the coaches prep and recruit and then let's see what happens. It isn't an over night change. Butcliffe asked for/demanded more something like 7 years ago and look where they are. They have more majors and can hide kids yo keep them on APR track than we can, but they have some real athletes on that team.

CPJ knows how to coach and he knows multiple systems. He also knows what we have and what those guys can (and can't) do, so he has to work with what he has. We are down to BBacks #4 and #5 based on the recruiting plan. Mills was supposed to be here this year, Marshall was supposed to be here and Benson was supposed to be playing. They aren't and we're hurting in the position. Let Benson break a couple of those runs yesterday that our guys didn't and see how the game turns out.

A new coach won't be smarter, better or more accomplished, but he will be different and that seems to be enough for a lot of people at this point.

Edited to add: tried to include Takethepoints post above as my lead in working on a phone and apparently fat fingered the +quote.