Postgame GT 23 - Ole Miss 48

[bke1984]

nm

Key and Thacker have a history, they were both on the UCF staff together, so I don't think Thacker is on as short of a tether as others here.

This is ridiculous. Thacker needs to be held accountable just like everyone else. This is his fifth year and it’s looking like he will have fielded one competent defense during his tenure.

I like what the offense is doing. We just need better play from the O line - another issue we’ve had for five years.

Fixing the issues left by Collins was never going to be an overnight thing. Maybe some of these issues improve over the season. If so then great, we are moving in the right direction. If not then I think looking at our DC is top of the list.

 

[billga99]

I think the key for us is how do we do next week against Wake, a much lesser team than Mississippi. If we win we have a shot at a bowl game. If we lose, the season will be a disappointment.

the only games we will be favored is Bowling Green, Va and probably Boston College. Need to steal two and in my opinion most likely are Wake and Syracuse. I think Miami, UNC, Clemson and Georgia will be big favorites

 

[orientalnc]

I was disappointed last night because I actually thought we might win the game. It was 24-17 in the 4th quarter and our offense was cooking. We held Miss to a FG and I was almost certain we were about to make it a 3-point game. So, what happened?

The last seven minutes of the game our gassed defense stopped being even a wee bit effective at slowing Miss. But, let's not lose track of the fact that for 7/8 of the game we were the equal of a Top 20 team. I could quibble with some plays or decisions here and there, but our coaches called a good game. The defensive trauma in my mind is mostly about missed tackles. A number of plays we just did not wrap up the ball carrier. I am not sure that's the coaches' fault.

We are probably a year away from being competitive for an entire game with the likes of Miss, but we're getting there. We are not going to be Colorado. We, as fans, need to ease off on the vitriol aimed at coaches. There was a talent level difference last night and those last minutes of the game highlighted that difference.

 

[HurricaneJacket]

i agree that they can improve over the course of the season but there’s a fine line between progression and us just lacking some fundamentals and basic qualities a football team needs to have.

we cannot keep making so many errors on special teams. from shanked punts, blocked field goals, not having an idea who the best kicker and punter are on the roster, this is something that’s been going on since 2019. it’s not new and it’s killing us. i think that also carries into other areas of the game. nothing more demoralizing than getting deep into enemy territory and not getting points, or even worse getting blocked and giving the defense awful field position.

we also cannot tackle in our secondary. i have lost count on how many plays that were 3 yard gains have turned into 15, 20, 25 yard plays because we have awful tackling.

both of those things are not new to this week, they’re not new to this season and they aren’t new to this coaching staff.

our offense really does look promising and i do think we are one or two outside playmakers away from really tearing teams apart and i think our RBs are punching way above their weight. i just don’t see how we can pretend to be happy about progression when this is YEAR 5 for part of the staff that is dragging us down the most

The shanked punt was due in part to Shanahan getting his foot injured during the blocked fg per ESPN.

 

[GTJake]

Didn't read through the whole thread, way too much negativity IMO. If we took an honest vote, I think the vast majority of us would have predicted our record going into the WF game at 1-2, so the run for a Bowl berth starts next week. We have little margin for error but we knew that from the start. And finally despite the imperfections, anyone who thinks we are not vastly improved over the Collins regime is fooling themselves.

 

[bke1984]

The last seven minutes of the game our gassed defense stopped being even a wee bit effective at slowing Miss.

I’m not sure I agree with this excuse for the poor defensive play. How are they gassed from only playing 20 min?

D just has to be better. We have several other teams on our schedule that will flat out abuse us if we keep playing that way on that side of the ball.

 

[4shotB]

Didn't read through the whole thread, way too much negativity IMO. I

I don't think it is as bad as you think. As always, people with the dour attitudes tend to post both more frequently for whatever reason and, even more annoying, repetitively. I think most posters have similar views to the ones in your post.

 

[orientalnc]

How are they gassed from only playing 20 min?

From the box score on ESPN, 29 Ole Miss players recorded at least one tackle in the game. We had 18. But the key defensive stat is that they had 15 players with at least four tackles. We had 7. Our core defensive unit was playing almost every play and Kiffin was able to rotate his guys. There is clearly a talent difference that gets greater the deeper you go into the two rosters. Thacker can't fix that with schemes.

 

[GTRambler]

I

I was disappointed last night because I actually thought we might win the game. It was 24-17 in the 4th quarter and our offense was cooking. We held Miss to a FG and I was almost certain we were about to make it a 3-point game. So, what happened?

The last seven minutes of the game our gassed defense stopped being even a wee bit effective at slowing Miss. But, let's not lose track of the fact that for 7/8 of the game we were the equal of a Top 20 team. I could quibble with some plays or decisions here and there, but our coaches called a good game. The defensive trauma in my mind is mostly about missed tackles. A number of plays we just did not wrap up the ball carrier. I am not sure that's the coaches' fault.

We are probably a year away from being competitive for an entire game with the likes of Miss, but we're getting there. We are not going to be Colorado. We, as fans, need to ease off on the vitriol aimed at coaches. There was a talent level difference last night and those last minutes of the game highlighted that difference.

I agree, oriental. Especially with your last sentence. The guys on our team were in the game until the fourth quarter, and there was never any quit in them.

Sadly, if I could opine objectively and truthfully … at least from my perspective. Our guys were simply out-athleted in the end.

In order to win big and become a national player in today’s ultra-competitive, money-oriented college football era, Georgia Tech simply needs to change its focus from the recruitment of student-athletes to football-athletes.

 

[bke1984]

From the box score on ESPN, 29 Ole Miss players recorded at least one tackle in the game. We had 18. But the key defensive stat is that they had 15 players with at least four tackles. We had 7. Our core defensive unit was playing almost every play and Kiffin was able to rotate his guys. There is clearly a talent difference that gets greater the deeper you go into the two rosters. Thacker can't fix that with schemes.

Still doesn’t make intuitive sense to me. They played twice as many minutes with less than twice as many players recording tackles. I’d like to see snaps per player to make that assessment, but I don’t see those stats available.

The talent difference argument still falls on Thacker. He’s been here five years and still doesn’t have the guys he wants? That’s got to reflect on him as well.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

I’ll just agree to disagree on how well-coached we look versus Collins. But I don’t understand why tf you’re immediately bringing up Collins in a post game thread in 2023. It’s weird.

Either that's Geoff still posting or he has a deep love for "pop and sizzle". Hit the ignore button - it'll instantly improve your mood.

 

[bke1984]

To be clear I’m not super down on the team. I think we are probably better than last year overall and can win some games. But the defense looks really, really bad early in the season. The offense will have to carry us, and that means we can’t miss field goals, drop touchdowns, turn the ball over, etc. - all things that created issues against Louisville and Ole Miss.

 

[slugboy]

One of the criticisms of the Western Carolina, Texas Tech, and Lincoln Riley offenses is that the practice pace speeds up to give the offense reps, but the defense gets sloppy.

I didn’t think it would happen to us, but the timing aligns.

It’s the B12 “win games 44-43” scheme

 

[Eli]

One of the criticisms of the Western Carolina, Texas Tech, and Lincoln Riley offenses is that the practice pace speeds up to give the offense reps, but the defense gets sloppy.

I didn’t think it would happen to us, but the timing aligns.

It’s the B12 “win games 44-43” scheme

We aren’t really to that extreme for instance we controlled the clock in the first half Ole Miss only had four possessions.

 

[CuseJacket]

I respectfully disagree with any argument that our D simply wore down. Our D was very very bad in the first half, before any reasonable argument about depth and being gassed should enter the conversation.

Ole Miss had 3 drives, not accounting for the 4th where they ran out of time. In those three drives, Ole Miss scored on two (10 points) and failed on the third due in large part to dropping an open pass in the end zone. It's hard to be much worse on three drives.

Then we stopped them on a single drive in the second half.

We gave up 9.8 yards/play on defense over the course of the game. Ole Miss had 56 total plays. That is not a significant number of plays.

I think folks are distracted by our clock-eating offense (that was a good strategy, by the way) as a sign that our defense was ok at any point. They were not. The D performance was bad from the opening drive, and "bad" is understating what I saw last night on the field and in the box score.

 

[InsideLB]

Still doesn’t make intuitive sense to me. They played twice as many minutes with less than twice as many players recording tackles. I’d like to see snaps per player to make that assessment, but I don’t see those stats available.

The talent difference argument still falls on Thacker. He’s been here five years and still doesn’t have the guys he wants? That’s got to reflect on him as well.

Agree with the caveat that in today's game with pace it is helpful to rotate guys during individual drives because guys get winded quick. Or just have the chains malfunction.

I do think our D has a chance to get better. DL need to keep improving, new LB need to gel with scheme, secondary needs to tackle.

To me, while the outcome last night was disappointing, last year this team EMBARASSED us 42-0 in our own building. This year we were down 17-24 in the 4th on the road at night in a loud, hostile environment. And that's with leaving some points on the field, and giving Ole Miss two short fields.

I have to say we are a better team than last year at this time.

I missed the fake punt. Who got held? The receiver? Don't mind the call if we really thought we had something that would work. Tells your team you are playing to win.

Last week Ole Miss pulled away on the road from a ranked Tulane team that supposedly has a tough defense. To be fair Ole Miss had some key injuries to offensive players this week .

Replacing Ace, Charlie and Keion was never going to be easy. That said our D can and should play better than it has. If they can improve we could end up being a darn tough team to play.

 

[slugboy]

We aren’t really to that extreme for instance we controlled the clock in the first half Ole Miss only had four possessions.

I’ll see if I can find the articles. The criticism wasn’t time of possession—it was that the practices gave the defense the short end of the stick, and that they got bad at things like tackling

Same thing is going on at USC—they just score a ton

Staples: It's the same story for Lincoln Riley. Offense is elite but the defense stinks

If Riley would like to deliver the national titles USC expects, he’ll have to fix what appears to be a top-down issue.

theathletic.com

 

[bobongo]

I respectfully disagree with any argument that our D simply wore down. Our D was very very bad in the first half, before any reasonable argument about depth and being gassed should enter the conversation.

Ole Miss had 3 drives, not accounting for the 4th where they ran out of time. In those three drives, Ole Miss scored on two (10 points) and failed on the third due in large part to dropping an open pass in the end zone. It's hard to be much worse on three drives.

Then we stopped them on a single drive in the second half.

We gave up 9.8 yards/play on defense over the course of the game. Ole Miss had 56 total plays. That is not a significant number of plays.

I think folks are distracted by our clock-eating offense (that was a good strategy, by the way) as a sign that our defense was ok at any point. They were not. The D performance was bad from the opening drive, and "bad" is understating what I saw last night on the field and in the box score.

It's bad, but the question is whether it's personnel or coaching.
We lost a lot of talent off the defense - some of it playing on the other side of the ball last night.

 

[Eli]

I’ll see if I can find the articles. The criticism wasn’t time of possession—it was that the practices gave the defense the short end of the stick, and that they got bad at things like tackling

Same thing is going on at USC—they just score a ton

Staples: It's the same story for Lincoln Riley. Offense is elite but the defense stinks

If Riley would like to deliver the national titles USC expects, he’ll have to fix what appears to be a top-down issue.

theathletic.com

There is one thing we can finally put to rest.
“Paul Johnson has bad defenses because of the triple option.” Haha

In all seriousness our d-line is soft. These guys are juniors and seniors I am not impressed with Marco during his time here

 

[CuseJacket]

From the box score on ESPN, 29 Ole Miss players recorded at least one tackle in the game. We had 18. But the key defensive stat is that they had 15 players with at least four tackles. We had 7. Our core defensive unit was playing almost every play and Kiffin was able to rotate his guys. There is clearly a talent difference that gets greater the deeper you go into the two rosters. Thacker can't fix that with schemes.

For what it's worth:

• GT offense: 89 plays (5.4 yds/play)
• Miss offense: 56 plays (9.8 yds/play)

We defended a fairly low number of plays, in large part because our first string was ineffective from the start.