God we needed that. (POSTGAME THREAD GT 26 - PITT 21)

[katlong]

I think at some point you just have to admit that Sims is not a great quarterback. He may be the best we have but he is not a difference maker and is more of a liability than someone who is going to come through in the clutch. I hope Key will give the other guys a chance just to see if a change would improve results. It appears to have done so in the case of changing the Head Coach. It seems like we keep playing Sims thinking he is going to have a breakthrough and elevate his play to some superstar status. After 3 years, I think it is what it is and if we are going to play him we best limit his passing and run him as much as possible.

Go Jackets!

yeah, I thought we were going to run 60% of the time and in the red zone, but that hasn't been the case. Sims always scares me. I know he has brilliant moments, but the bad ones are SO bad - a little pressure and he just folds. 11/27 is not a great performance, even if you blame it on the OL.

 

[takethepoints]

The offense has been puzzling the last 3+ years. With Sims, seems you can tell how the game's gonna go with him very early. That being said he throws some really bad passes at times even when he's doing well. I hope we've not seen his ceiling, but how many more games could it be before the light comes on?

It all comes down to how much Long lets him run. If he gets the green light and we have the plays called correctly, he showed in the Pitt game that he can be a game changer with his feet. Then we put in some RPO plays and let him go all Hartman on Ds.

Ok, ok, he'll probably never be as good as Hartman, but if he runs more he'll contribute more as well.

 

[takethepoints]

Nope. That is totally legal today. Rule changed several years ago.

Well … it shouldn't be. This is American football, not rugby. But I guess I can learn to live with it.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

The play earlier in the 4th quarter where the team pushed Hall to a first down on a 3rd and 11 is the perfect snapshot of how our team’s mentality has changed under Coach Key.

 

[RamblinRed]

It was obvious that Hall didn't get the ball across the plane.

The pylon is placed right at the edge of the plane. If the ball is not touching the plane as you are coming at an angle towards it, it is actually impossible for the ball to be across the plane. The ball would have to be away from the body toward the goal line for it to potentially be across the plane.

I had no issue with that call. That was an easy call to reverse on review.

The spot wasn't great though. Should have been a foot closer to the goal.

 

[CEB]

The spot wasn't great though. Should have been a foot closer to the goal.

Hmmmm....
Could that have been because the replay was INCONCLUSIVE?

I mean, if it were conclusive, there would be no reason to question the spot, right?

 

[SidewalkJacket]

...and let him go all Hartman on Ds.

 

[GTLorenzo]

Wonderful win.
My daughter and son in law (who is also a GT grad) visited on Sunday and it was really nice to have positive things to talk about with our program.

Big game against Duke this week (imagine saying that 6 weeks ago).

It was pretty obvious from early in the game that GT was much more engaged in that game than Pitt was. Kudos to the staff and players for really coming to play after everything that happened at the beginning of the week.

Defense played well throughout. Thomas was a terror in the second half.
Great day for the FG team.
No punts blocked.
Offense was inconsistent but had its moments.

This blurb from CBSSports Winners, Losers and Overreactions was perfect

ACC Coastal is wildest division in football: The ACC Coastal has earned a reputation for mayhem. In fact, each one of the seven members has won the division at least once since 2013 with Pitt serving as the only repeat champion over that stretch. However, the final year of the ACC Coastal before divisions are eliminated could be one for the ages.

Georgia Tech shocked No. 24 Pitt -- the expected Coastal favorite -- in a 26-21 decision the same week the Yellow Jackets fired their coach Geoff Collins. Conversely, Duke and North Carolina are the only undefeated teams remaining in ACC play, other than a Miami team that has not played a conference game yet. With Georgia Tech now on the board, virtually any team can win the ACC Coastal this season. It's a fitting tribute for the division.

(my take: whoever comes out of the Coastal is likely going to get beat badly by the Atlantic champ - most likely Clemson), but at least you made the ACC CG, which is going to become harder to make starting next season).

Imagine saying that 3 days ago or 8 days ago....

 

[leatherneckjacket]

It was obvious that Hall didn't get the ball across the plane.

The pylon is placed right at the edge of the plane. If the ball is not touching the plane as you are coming at an angle towards it, it is actually impossible for the ball to be across the plane. The ball would have to be away from the body toward the goal line for it to potentially be across the plane.

I had no issue with that call. That was an easy call to reverse on review.

The spot wasn't great though. Should have been a foot closer to the goal.

The problem is the angle. The football hit the side of the pylon, not the front of the pylon, which he means the ball could have been across the line when his knee hit the group.

 

[CEB]

Imagine saying that 3 days ago or 8 days ago....

To be fair, a lot of us have been pointing to Dook as a big game for quite a while. It has been our “must win” for months!

I’m happy it looks big for other reasons now.... but it’s still a must win!

 

[Creative]

Well … it shouldn't be. This is American football, not rugby. But I guess I can learn to live with it.

It was our fault for subbing too late. The rule was put in with the hurry up coming more and more into fashion (50% play this way). The defense could not get subs on the field. Now, if you wait (on offense) and sub a guy out 15 seconds into the play clock without huddling, you see what happens. So its either hurry up and sub quickly, or huddle up and sub before the snap.

 

[Flajacket]

I wonder if he who is now not to be named watched the game tonight and what were his thoughts on it.

My wife asked the same question. I told her I doubted it but she insisted he did and was proud of the team.

If he did watch the game he was probably mad that so much was different and showed the difference between a coach and an entertainer.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Well … it shouldn't be. This is American football, not rugby. But I guess I can learn to live with it.

I don't think you're allowed to pick up the runner, but the offense can now push the scrum.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

It really pisses me off that we consistently can not make a damn yard when we have to. If I were Key I would practice that until by God our men would make damn sure they get it done the next time it comes up. Enough of this wimping out when you have to man up and beat the other guy's arse! That is what football really comes down to. Now let's get it done.

 

[GaTech4ever]

It really pisses me off that we consistently can not make a damn yard when we have to. If I were Key I would practice that until by God our men would make damn sure they get it done the next time it comes up. Enough of this wimping out when you have to man up and beat the other guy's arse! That is what football really comes down to. Now let's get it done.

I feel like we’ve been successful with the QB sneak early on this year, but I’m not sure why we’ve gone away from it.

 

[bke1984]

I feel like we’ve been successful with the QB sneak early on this year, but I’m not sure why we’ve gone away from it.

We’ve been successful when the defense isn’t aware it’s coming. Third and one in the middle of the field…sure. But when we have to line up and get push against a unit that knows we are going to do it we can’t do it

 

[GT33]

It really pisses me off that we consistently can not make a damn yard when we have to. If I were Key I would practice that until by God our men would make damn sure they get it done the next time it comes up. Enough of this wimping out when you have to man up and beat the other guy's arse! That is what football really comes down to. Now let's get it done.

Yes, but it has only been 8 days since performance counted. I think he'll fix that issue with being soft, not ready, etc.

 

[yeti92]

It really pisses me off that we consistently can not make a damn yard when we have to. If I were Key I would practice that until by God our men would make damn sure they get it done the next time it comes up. Enough of this wimping out when you have to man up and beat the other guy's arse! That is what football really comes down to. Now let's get it done.

I noticed when we were down near the goal line and tried to run it with Sims, he just sort of fell forward onto the OL and laid there, didn't move his feet or really make any effort to keep trying to push the ball forward. I would have liked to see more effort there, or give to a Hall or Dontae coming downhill and let them launch into it with some speed.

 

[bobongo]

I feel like we’ve been successful with the QB sneak early on this year, but I’m not sure why we’ve gone away from it.

We did it in the first quarter against Pitt on 4th and one.

 

[slugboy]

Some of you don’t like From The Rumble Seat. If you don’t, then just ignore this link:

Georgia Tech Football: Pitt Advanced Stats Review - Offense

Did a coaching change improve Tech’s offense? Well........

www.fromtherumbleseat.com

(Defense should be coming soon).

I did post some of the numbers from Bill Connelly here:
Post in thread 'Today in Analytics...'
https://gtswarm.com/threads/today-in-analytics.13496/post-902010

We were great on turnovers, good on the ground, had some big plays, had a solid defense, and were awful passing. Yes, Pitt has a really good defense, but it's not all them. We really need to improve our passing game. We need to improve our running game too, and our play calling, but our running game is a lot better than our passing game.

One of my favorite plays was one of Pitt's screen passes. We did a great job reading the screen out to the right side of the field and blew up that part of the play, but Pitt had a pressure relief receiver behind the line about 8-10 yards away near the center, and they threw to that guy. We need better "plan B" options on our plays.

EDIT: 5 GT plays for 165 yards = AWESOME. (that's 33 yards per play, which is HUGE).
The other 66 for 169 = NOT AWESOME. That's 2.6 yards per play, which won't get you a first down. The success rate tells the story better--on first down, you want to end up no worse than 2nd and 5, on 2nd down you want to end up no worse than 3rd and 3, and on 3rd and 4th down you want the next down to be first down. Alternatively, scoring counts as better than a first down . We're a sea of red there--we didn't score in the red zone, we couldn't move the chains, we were inefficient.