GT - VT game thoughts

[bat_082994]

Time to move on to Miami and play a complete game.

That's another thing, and this will be the last thing from me tonight. GT has not played a full game this season. That is something that Vad HAS to get better at. He can't just sit out the first half of every game.

 

[ToddM]

Guys I know I will get yelled at but no coach can over come the lack of concentration we saw tonight. Our offense acted like they had no idea what the snap count was, the OL was a step to slow and this new thing that defenses are starting to do- where they are jumping over the OL is very problematic for a cut blocking OL.

Waller showed his lack of aggression going for balls and Vad was rattled the entire game ( mostly because of the OLs failure to adapt ).

My overall point being that I would imagine it was hard for CPJ to call the more evolved plays because our guys weren't able to handle lining up and snapping the ball much less blocking the perimeter.

Just a disappointing offensive effort by the players in my view. No concentration equals mistakes and there ain't no coach who can run the game plan with players playing so badly, pro style, option or run and shoot, the players have to play intelligently.

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

Frustrated by the offensive playcalls. All I'm gonna say tonight. This one is on coach.

 

[John]

Not counting this team out. Hate that it had to be against a division opponent, especially VT, but this was a good wake-up call for the rest of the season.

Post-game quotes:
http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/092713aaa.html

 

[GTJason]

We need to stand up and block. The cutting really killed us tonight because we miss on athletic players. Even if you get rolled over standing up you at least slow the guy gown. VPI was just side stepping us diving at ankles. this will happen against Miami, Clemson, and UGA if we don't fix it. For the record I don't think cutting is a bad thing if we can hit the block, but we missed key blocks just about every play.

Vad did try to do too much, but he was running for his life the whole time and you could tell he wanted the win. I was waiting for him to have a coming out party, but it didn't happen.

Last thing to remember is this defense held Bama to 2 touchdowns, fwiw

 

[SoCal_GT_Fan]

Game thoughts:
1) 3-0. We lost the turnover battle and usually if you lose that, you are losing the game. It doesn't help to set the tone of the game by having two turnovers in our first two possessions.
2) I know many didn't like the 4th and 2 call with what 6 mins left in the game but I was ok with it. For me, it was CPJ's way of telling the offense, "If you can get me 2 measly yards, we deserve to lose this game." We didn't get it and we did lose the game.
3) Too many 3rd down and longs. Too many penalties. Penalties were killers.
4) Defense did give up 17 pts to Logan Thomas but the offense and Special teams didn't do 'em much favors with the field positions on two of those three scoring drives.

Conclusion: We just didn't show up to play.

 

[GTonTop88]

Defense kept us in it, Logan was more accurate tonight than I have seen him since his sophomore year. Their receivers were makin plays, but I am proud our defense only gave up 17 points. The offense put them in bad situations on a couple of the scores. Was very dissappointed in the O and play calling. We could not run the ball at all. Despite tryin to establish it well into the 4th quarter. Vad from the shotgun rolling out away from pressure was the only shot we had at moving the ball. We'll see how this team responds against another tough opponent next week

 

[ATL1]

A 190'lb corner shut down your offense !!!!
Your No Offensive Genius....
I dont want to hear anything more about his base offense. . His base offense has been getting Molly Whooped up front for 6 years. I don't know what the hell he saw in the film room to call a game like that.

 

[GTrob21]

Horrible game, our Coach deserves much of the blame.

 

[heeled soul]

so, PJ lost this game but most agreed that he won the game for GT vs. UNC. so... nets out so for the season so far?
i know you guys like TR but maybe PJ needed to have hired foster instead ("...keep your enemies closer").

 

[IronJacket7]

Lol. Pathetic.

CPJ has lost me with some of his calls tonight.

The play calling in this game was horrid. When the defense stacks 8-9 guys in the box and also bring their safeties down you CANNOT run smashmouth flexbone football with success. Waller and Smelter both had 1 on 1 coverage the ENTIRE night and CPJ just looked narrow minded and ignorant with his play calling.

 

[John]

I don't think the play calling would've looked as bad without all those false starts.

CPJ agreed the 4th down call was dumb so cross that off.

We have to be able to give Vad more time. The pocket was non-existant last night.

Of course as the head coach CPJ is responsible. The team didn't look like they were ready to play.

 

[John]

Oh and according to the post game quotes, we knew exactly what they were going to do with Fuller and practiced it. I remember teams doing that against although I can't recall if it was VT. Thought it was miami.

 

[IronJacket7]

I don't think the play calling would've looked as bad without all those false starts.

CPJ agreed the 4th down call was dumb so cross that off.

We have to be able to give Vad more time. The pocket was non-existant last night.

Of course as the head coach CPJ is responsible. The team didn't look like they were ready to play.

Its all in how you look at it. You could say we had a lot of false starts and the o-line played pitiful because their were too many guys to block (i.e. 8-9 guys in the box). The pocket collapsed when we passed because they were sending 6 guys on average during their blitzes. Really disappointed in CPJ. I don't care if you have the best o-line in the country... You can't run the ball to success if the numbers are skewed in the defenses favor. CPJ knows this and he knows that he coached a bad game. He may figure it out before the season is over, but for right now Vad is not comfortable in the flexbone at all. CPJ knew this and this is exactly why he has tried to bring in the pistol over the last 2 years. He knew the QBs in Vad and JT that he had waiting in the wings. I love our offense. I love it. But if we are going to be successful Vad has to get comfortable in the flexbone or CPJ has to put him in something he is comfortable in.

 

[John]

There were plenty of times when Vad was lined up in pistol and VT rushed only 4 and yet Vad was STILL flushed out of pocket almost as if it was a designed screen.

 

[IronJacket7]

Oh you are correct there were definitely times when they sent only 4 and got pressure. But there was also alot of blitzes and stunts by VT that disrupted our o-line. But at the end of the day the bottom line is the offense played pitiful and CPJ's coaching was horrible.

 

[GaTechYellowJackets]

I don't think we did much different than last year? We didn't the option as much but VT shut that down last year so I'm glad we didn't. Other than that we put the same product on the field as we did in '12. I was dumbfounded we didn't come out in the diamond in the second half. QB was getting no time so the diamond could only have helped? This was the most disappointing performance I've watched as a student. It's up there with MTSU.

 

[CuseJacket]

Here are my three main thoughts on the game. I know some of this is redundant from previous posts but I want to paint my full picture -

1) Offensive line is a mess. Yesterday seemed to be a combination of lack of focus, lack of prep, and lack of a good scheme. I understand VT's D will do damage against every offense they face this year, however we continue to allow complete jailbreaks against strong DLs under CPJ, especially when passing. I never see VT, UGA, etc get into the backfield as quickly/consistently against other teams as they do against us, so I'm starting to believe it's either scheme or lack of coaching. Either way it's on CPJ to fix it.
2) Vad is still learning. Duh. But what's the deal with Justin Thomas? For now I'll continue to give Vad the benefit of the doubt due to lack of (big) game experience, especially playing for the first time against a top 10 D. That said if CPJ is truly as high on Justin Thomas as has been reported then what happened yesterday? After Vad's performance on the first two series and first half in general, there would have been no better time to put in a backup QB who was theoretically in the starting QB conversation throughout fall camp.
3) I still don't know what kind of team we have. We beat Elon, Duke, and UNC... all teams that GT should beat most years with any coach. The UNC game was just bizarre with the weather and therefore I come away thinking I know what we have on O or D. VT has a nasty D that exposed our O a lot. They'll expose a lot of O's. Our D has been pretty good so far this year, but they should be pretty good given what we've faced i.e., no explosive O's yet. Next week at Miami will be the decision point for both the O and the D, and at that point we'll have a much clearer picture of what to expect for the rest of the season.

Here's hoping our team has the maturity to show up motivated in Miami and not revert to what we saw against MTSU last year. We'll be an underdog next weekend for sure but it's not unreasonable to expect a much cleaner game from the O. I think we have the leaders to do that this year, but I have to see it to believe it.

 

[CuseJacket]

Also for those of you guys who caught the game on TV, what sort of commentary did the ESPN crew provide during the game yesterday? Anything regarding the state of our program, game progression in general, questionable calls, players, coaches, etc? How about 100 yrs at Grant Field?

I have the game DVR'd but I'm not sure I want to punish myself and re-watch. Thanks in advance!

 

[Eric]

Next week is huge for us.