Game 4 Georgia Tech @ Wake Forest (-7)

[BonafideJacket]

Wake may or may not have a great DL, but they have played two FCS schools and Vanderbilt. I am not sold on just how much credit should be given to their sack total based on their competition so far.

FYI, Old Dominion isn't FCS and hasn't been for nearly a decade.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

FYI, Old Dominion isn't FCS and hasn't been for nearly a decade.

Correct. I had forgotten that.

 

[Root4GT]

No but we got a sack against Ole Miss who is world's better than anyone they have played.

For comparison:

Louisville's qbs have been sacked 3 times through 3 games.

SC State qbs have been sacked 4 times through 3 games.

Ole Miss qbs have been sacked 5 times through 3 games, 1 by Tech.

Elon qbs have been sacked 12 times through 3 games. 3 were by Wake.

Vandy qbs have been sacked 9 times through 3 games, 2 by Wake.

ODU qbs have been sacked 18 times through 3 games, 10 by Wake.

There is more to getting sacks than just how good your front 7 are. The type of offense the other team runs, the mobility of their qb, how good their O line is at holding blocks all have a huge effect. The teams we've played have better O lines and/or are getting rid of the ball quicker like Sc State. Teams rarely got many sacks against CPJ for the same type of reasons.

Lets hope our numbers go up this week

 

[bikeseat]

The OLine has given up 3 sacks all season, one of which was a olè by Corey Robinson early vs Louisville and avg 203 rush yds/gm.

That doesn’t fall under the “not good” category

I am convinced some folks on this board don't watch the games. The OL and the QB play has been the bright spot all season

 

[bke1984]

The OLine has given up 3 sacks all season, one of which was a olè by Corey Robinson early vs Louisville and avg 203 rush yds/gm.

That doesn’t fall under the “not good” category

LOL ok. Do you see the pressure King is under whenever we throw deep? On the play you’re talking about our left tackle didn’t even touch the dude.

We aren’t throwing deep very often because we know we don’t have time.

The point I’m making is that our OC knows what he’s doing. I’m not sure I can say the same for our DC.

 

[Ibeeballin]

LOL ok. Do you see the pressure King is under whenever we throw deep? On the play you’re talking about our left tackle didn’t even touch the dude.

We aren’t throwing deep very often because we know we don’t have time.

The point I’m making is that our OC knows what he’s doing. I’m not sure I can say the same for our DC.

Honestly no. When he did get pressure and moved in pocket and delivered a deep ball to Boyd that he dropped

 

[g0lftime]

Game at Wake is sold out. I have been to Tech games there in the past. Never was a sell out back then. It's been a while.

 

[Root4GT]

I am convinced some folks on this board don't watch the games. The OL and the QB play has been the bright spot all season

King has been everything we hoped for. The OL is much better than last year. Very low bad but clear improvement. Lots of credit to Faulkner for devising schemes that get the ball out quickly.

 

[A Love Supreme]

We are last in the nation in sacks and sack yards. 1 sack for 1 yard. It's interesting see some of the excuses here on this thread. I'm sure Coach Key isn't happy about it. It's obviously bad and the defense needs to get better. But my question is, do we have players on defense that can make plays? Does Thacker need to change something?

 

[Root4GT]

We are last in the nation in sacks and sack yards. 1 sack for 1 yard. It's interesting see some of the excuses here on this thread. I'm sure Coach Key isn't happy about it. It's obviously bad and the defense needs to get better. But my question is, do we have players on defense that can make plays? Does Thacker need to change something?

Thru the first 3 games the answers are no we don't have the players on defense and when the defense is as bad as it has been than it can't get much worse by changing a few things. Last in sacks. Can't get worse than that!

 

[AugustaSwarm]

Wake runs a tricky offense. I don't think they're more physically talented than we are, but they are certainly very well coached AND bought in to what they're doing. That makes them very dangerous. Our D has been awful and an offense like Wake's is setup to pick apart a D like ours. Unless Thacker has a trick up his sleeve, I don't see us slowing down Wake at all.

Our only chance to win will be by winning a shootout. That means flawless execution on offense and ST. Same as Ole Miss game. Despite the final score, we had (and missed) our chances vs Ole Miss. Blocked FG, dropped passes, poor punt, missed tackles, etc. But the game plan had us in that game until the end.

I have no doubts about the offense. I'm looking right at Thacker to step up. I imagine his seat is getting warm if it's not already hot. A coordinator change has transformed this offense immediately. The same could be done on the defensive side. IMO, it's put up or shut up time for Thack.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Wake runs a tricky offense. I don't think they're more physically talented than we are, but they are certainly very well coached AND bought in to what they're doing. That makes them very dangerous. Our D has been awful and an offense like Wake's is setup to pick apart a D like ours. Unless Thacker has a trick up his sleeve, I don't see us slowing down Wake at all.

Our only chance to win will be by winning a shootout. That means flawless execution on offense and ST. Same as Ole Miss game. Despite the final score, we had (and missed) our chances vs Ole Miss. Blocked FG, dropped passes, poor punt, missed tackles, etc. But the game plan had us in that game until the end.

I have no doubts about the offense. I'm looking right at Thacker to step up. I imagine his seat is getting warm if it's not already hot. A coordinator change has transformed this offense immediately. The same could be done on the defensive side. IMO, it's put up or shut up time for Thack.

I have a slightly different take on what I see from many about why our D is so bad.

In general the D looks good to my eye from a schematic point of view; people are where they need to be in general. Sure there are blown assignments but 80% are a failure to execute / tackle. If that's right, then it's not about Thacker having a trick up his sleeve, but the players not executing.

Having said that it's on the players to execute, it's also on the D coaches to get the players ready and coached up. Since the players aren't, I've got no problem in changing coaches.

It can't get worse can it? Or if it does, does it matter overall? We are screwed at this level of D (and ST) play.

 

[bobongo]

Having said that it's on the players to execute, it's also on the D coaches to get the players ready and coached up. Since the players aren't, I've got no problem in changing coaches.

But the coaches can only coach the players up so far. So, the question remains: is it the coaches or the players? I dunno.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

I have a slightly different take on what I see from many about why our D is so bad.

In general the D looks good to my eye from a schematic point of view; people are where they need to be in general. Sure there are blown assignments but 80% are a failure to execute / tackle. If that's right, then it's not about Thacker having a trick up his sleeve, but the players not executing.

Having said that it's on the players to execute, it's also on the D coaches to get the players ready and coached up. Since the players aren't, I've got no problem in changing coaches.

It can't get worse can it? Or if it does, does it matter overall? We are screwed at this level of D (and ST) play.

That's a valid point, and I think you're right. We were in position to make plays, but failed to execute. I just look at it differently. At this point, I've seen enough to conclude that we won't execute on D. So the DC needs to change something to allow us to execute.

After multiple years of watching this D, I'm not sure that Thacker can enact the change that's needed. I'll go further and say that I have confidence that Thacker is unable to change the result. I hope he can, but history suggests he's unable to change things. We all expected some level of regression this year just due to the losses we had on that side of the ball, but the early results on D are MUCH WORSE than anyone would have expected. I don't think we're in a position to wait.

We are statistically one of the worst defenses in college football. We also fail the eyeball test. I don't like mid-season changes, but how long do we tolerate such underperformance? We've already had several years of it now...

 

[RamblinCharger]

If you're looking at a favorable line I like the GT team total over for this one. Louisville has a much better defense than Wake. Line for GT team total should be around 27.5-28.5. I don't see a game where GT scores less than 31 very likely.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

But the coaches can only coach the players up so far. So, the question remains: is it the coaches or the players? I dunno.

At the end of the day, the pine can be a coaches best friend. If a player is unable to execute, why keep trotting him out there? And if you insist on trotting a player out there knowing that he'll fail to execute, a coaches job is to then make schematic changes to allow the player to execute. Right? Either way, the man pulling the strings is responsible for the result.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

If a player is unable to execute, why keep trotting him out there?

Because they're measurably better than the replacement available. Quality depth seems to be a problem on D for us.

 

[bobongo]

At the end of the day, the pine can be a coaches best friend. If a player is unable to execute, why keep trotting him out there? And if you insist on trotting a player out there knowing that he'll fail to execute, a coaches job is to then make schematic changes to allow the player to execute. Right? Either way, the man pulling the strings is responsible for the result.

Is the starter already doing the best he can? Is his backup going to be any better? The question is still not answered. You can hold the man pulling the strings responsible, but if he's already getting the most he can out of the starter, who's doing his best, and if the backup can't do any better, then replacing the coach is just spinning your wheels to no avail. And as has already been pointed out, firing a coach for something beyond his control could well have unintended adverse consequences.

 

[LargeFO]

I guess when I see the same DBs whiffing tackles I don't see how that's on Thacker. I'm pretty confident they're teaching sound techniques so end of the day he can't make what should be pretty routine tackles for them.

 

[bobongo]

I guess when I see the same DBs whiffing tackles I don't see how that's on Thacker. I'm pretty confident they're teaching sound techniques so end of the day he can't make what should be pretty routine tackles for them.

Indeed, if the players are in position and missing tackles, no schematic changes are going to fix that.