My impressions:
The Good
• Normally, when an opponent turns the ball over 5 times you might say they gave us the ball game. This is not what happened last night. What happened is that our D took the game. It is hard to believe that the D that collapsed against Ole Miss sacked Griffis 8 (count 'em 8) times and had 10 (count 'em 10) TFLs! I've been complaining here for three weeks about the DL. They didn't look like the same outfit last night. True, Wake rushed for 224 yards, but they were continually stymied by DL penetration. That's why the other side coughed up the ball 4 times and lost 2. It is also why Griffis threw 3 INTs; Tech's D was in his face on almost every play.
• We tackled! We tackled! We tackled! I propose that Coach run tackle drills from Monday to Thursday for the rest of the season. It worked.
• I said earlier (I just checked) that our WRs were faster then theirs. Also, I neglected to mention, faster then their DBs. Sure enough.
• King looked good last night. They got good penetration too, but he moved around in the pocket effectively. He ran the ball well; I was glad to see a couple of QB run plays.
• The special teams looked both organized and effective. Another "Who are those guys?" moment for me.
The Bad (though this was a win):
• The OL didn't open many holes for the RBs and when they did the RBs often didn't take proper advantage of them. Still, we ran enough to keep them sorta honest.
• The OL also didn't give King the time he needed to pick them apart. He created that time himself on a couple of plays and they only sacked him once, but if he got a pocket he delivered. Again, however, that was a pretty good rush D. This is more of a quibble then a real complaint.
• Too many penalties. Still, penalties are often the result of aggressive play. My freshman year in college we had the most openalized team in our conference. At the banquet our head coach mentioned that, stopped, then said, 'I just want thank you." Still, this was perhaps the only major flaw in the game.
I thought we had a chance to win this one, but I had it marked as a probable loss. I'm very pleased that we went into a hostile environment against a confident program and won. I now think 6 wins is a real possibility.