Razor thin line...

[dressedcheeseside]

between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. How much better was the ‘14 team or last year’s squad? How much worse was the ‘15 team? Not a whole lot if you ask me. Each of those seasons had games that came down to single plays that either went our way or did not.

Well, look on the bright side, at least we’re storing up some serious karma.

 

[katlong]

I agree...that's what is special about GT football under CPJ - the TEAM has to play well to win, not one or two players. It's exciting because we aren't always the fastest or the biggest or the most talented, but for the most part, we are in every game. Heart matters. And unfortunately, sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don't. (don't get me wrong, though, I'm furious about the D on the screen passes, as I am every game)

I'm angry and heartbroken over the loss because victory was in our grasp. I had told some friends of mine that I don't mind losing as long as we don't get blown out, but the truth is, I always mind losing! It's just a different feeling when you "almost" won than if you get blown out. And as angry as I am, I'll take this feeling any day over getting blown out.

I hope our team bounces back and gets fired up for our upcoming really tough schedule. Attitude can make or break the season. I believe they can overcome this!

 

[Yaller Jacket]

'cheese, one thing that has helped me through the last couple of days is the realization that almost every year has a share of heartwrenching losses but also has a share of unexpected wins and sheer joy. Maybe we knock of Clemson. Or win every game but Clemson. Still a lot of football left.

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

I agree...that's what is special about GT football under CPJ - the TEAM has to play well to win, not one or two players. It's exciting because we aren't always the fastest or the biggest or the most talented, but for the most part, we are in every game. Heart matters. And unfortunately, sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don't. (don't get me wrong, though, I'm furious about the D on the screen passes, as I am every game)

I'm angry and heartbroken over the loss because victory was in our grasp. I had told some friends of mine that I don't mind losing as long as we don't get blown out, but the truth is, I always mind losing! It's just a different feeling when you "almost" won than if you get blown out. And as angry as I am, I'll take this feeling any day over getting blown out.

I hope our team bounces back and gets fired up for our upcoming really tough schedule. Attitude can make or break the season. I believe they can overcome this!

We have a talented, but young team. The Tennessee and Miami games have shown we don't have the ability to bounce back from adversity yet. It also appears to me that on offense, we have ten guys waiting for the qb to make a play. Might even be ten players and one head coach relying too much on Marshall. When Miami took TaQuon out of the picture, we had no back up plan. We have six games left to get some of that fixed. Realistically, the rest of the year will be a learning experience focused on next year.

 

[BobintheATL99]

Strict comparison:
Offense is slightly better than '14 due to the full playbook being open. The "peaks" at the skill potions may be better from '14, but the overall talent and depth of the squad as a whole is better on this team.
Defense is lots better - Our two losses are by 1 point... The '14 team had big problems getting opponents off the field.
Special Teams a good bit worse. (We lost a LOT of seasoned talent that will take time to replace)

 

[dressedcheeseside]

We have a talented, but young team. The Tennessee and Miami games have shown we don't have the ability to bounce back from adversity yet. It also appears to me that on offense, we have ten guys waiting for the qb to make a play. Might even be ten players and one head coach relying too much on Marshall. When Miami took TaQuon out of the picture, we had no back up plan. We have six games left to get some of that fixed. Realistically, the rest of the year will be a learning experience focused on next year.

Some of that "no backup plan" was due to injury and some of it was due to rain. Some of it was due to facing a good/athletic defense, too.

 

[stech81]

Special Teams are extremely bad this year maybe as bad as I have seen ( not sure if 1981 ST was as bad because most games we could not get close to try a FG and didn't score much so we didn't kickoff much that year) . OL as far as the starters and 1 backup as a whole unit are better than past years. Depth behind them are weak or with injuries are nonexistent which can hurt late in the game. Offense can be better but it would help if we could keep the same starters on the field to get timing down. Passing game is not as strong as last year. Running game to me is better and more depth. WR's are the same as last year but have not seen any improvement over last year catching or blocking. ( this has been surprising to me thought I would see an improvement over last year )

As for the defense I know most will not agree but they are better than any year CTR has been here at Tech. I know some will say but look at Pitt ,UNC,and Jacksonville State they are so bad they made us look better. But in the past no matter how bad they were we could make them look good. Defensive backs are a lot better as long as we get some kind of rush, no DB can stay on his man if the QB has all day to wait. As long as CTR calls an aggressive game we can be better than average on defense. Which the last few years the best we could hope for was almost average. If the LB's and DL improve any more this year our defense could be good.

 

[ilovetheoption]

Ted roofs defense is average. That's a big improvement. If he can maintain an average defense in years to come, you will win lots of games when you don't have the hardest schedule in the country

 

[BobintheATL99]

We have a talented, but young team. The Tennessee and Miami games have shown we don't have the ability to bounce back from adversity yet. It also appears to me that on offense, we have ten guys waiting for the qb to make a play. Might even be ten players and one head coach relying too much on Marshall. When Miami took TaQuon out of the picture, we had no back up plan. We have six games left to get some of that fixed. Realistically, the rest of the year will be a learning experience focused on next year.

Respectfully disagree. We have a huge amount of depth and experience at pretty much all positions outside of the O line and linebacker. QB is the only one that we were lacking experience with at the beginning of the season. We caught lightning in a bottle with Taquon.

As far as the season goes, let it play out. We may not be in the national title conversation, but we can certainly remove other teams from that equation. As far as our chances for the division, there hasn't been a Coastal Division winner without a conference loss or two since... well... ever. Miami has a few games they could stumble in, starting with this weekend. Syracuse has a decent shot against Miami at home this weekend. Maybe now is when the magic runs out for them. VT also always plays them tough. Our season boils down to one game now. Wake. Win there, and move on to the next game until our chances are spent... We can beat anyone else on our schedule. Not to say that we will be favored, but we can win them all.

 

[katlong]

Respectfully disagree. We have a huge amount of depth and experience at pretty much all positions outside of the O line and linebacker. QB is the only one that we were lacking experience with at the beginning of the season. We caught lightning in a bottle with Taquon.

As far as the season goes, let it play out. We may not be in the national title conversation, but we can certainly remove other teams from that equation. As far as our chances for the division, there hasn't been a Coastal Division winner without a conference loss or two since... well... ever. Miami has a few games they could stumble in, starting with this weekend. Syracuse has a decent shot against Miami at home this weekend. Maybe now is when the magic runs out for them. VT also always plays them tough. Our season boils down to one game now. Wake. Win there, and move on to the next game until our chances are spent... We can beat anyone else on our schedule. Not to say that we will be favored, but we can win them all.

YES! We do have a lot of experience. I hope that experience will pick up the slack in terms of excitement for what's to come. It's only half-way through the season. There is a still a lot of football to play, and with our tough schedule, a LOT of opportunities to shine.

It's interesting to consider:
1. We almost beat a #11 team when we weren't ranked
2. 5 three-and-outs (I think that's the right number?) against a team that was ranked #11
3. We still have the #3 offense in the country
4. We just played an entire game without a fumble or INT - with an entire quarter in a monsoon - there is some cause for celebration on this point in my mind.

 

[redmule]

The most hurtful thing is that we are two plays away from being in the Top 10. We may be that good. If CPJ can get the players to buy into that, and we get out share of the breaks, then we most likely win out or lose just one more game. If they guys begin to feel they are snake bit and the breaks go against us, we might only win one more game. GT football never ceases to amaze me with how unique it is. How fragile but also how resilient. My solace is that we still have left to us to win our annual game that we should not have a chance in. Clemson or uga is in for something special.

 

[BobintheATL99]

The most hurtful thing is that we are two plays away from being in the Top 10. We may be that good. If CPJ can get the players to buy into that, and we get out share of the breaks, then we most likely win out or lose just one more game. If they guys begin to feel they are snake bit and the breaks go against us, we might only win one more game. GT football never ceases to amaze me with how unique it is. How fragile but also how resilient. My solace is that we still have left to us to win our annual game that we should not have a chance in. Clemson or uga is in for something special.

This is a great description... I am excited for the rest of the season.

 

[Dustman]

I love this team. The Tennessee loss hurts a lot worse than this one. I agree we are way overdue on some breaks, although that second half kickoff was a big one in our favor. We finally cleaned up our turnovers but it wasn't quite enough.

We've finally got our desired night game coming up. It's homecoming. I hope to see lots of support for the team at Yellow Jacket Alley pregame. They've earned it.

 

[UgaBlows]

Lets kill Wake and put this in the rearview mirror

 

[stech81]

I love this team. The Tennessee loss hurts a lot worse than this one. I agree we are way overdue on some breaks, although that second half kickoff was a big one in our favor. We finally cleaned up our turnovers but it wasn't quite enough.

We've finally got our desired night game coming up. It's homecoming. I hope to see lots of support for the team at Yellow Jacket Alley pregame. They've earned it.

I also love this team. but because Miami is in the ACC this one hurt me more.

 

[Dustman]

I also love this team. but because Miami is in the ACC this one hurt me more.

I don't disagree with that at all. I meant quality of opponent. We dominated the Vols and didn't get it done. Back to the OP - it's a razor thin line between 3-2 and 5-0.

 

[JorgeJonas]

This is the issue for the entire middle class in the sport. Miami is two plays away from having two conference losses and being out of the division race. Florida has lost to LSU and A&M by a combined three points. This is the nature of the game. There aren’t many teams getting drilled or doing the drilling every week.

 

[alagold]

We came close on the score but realistically we had no real offense in the 2nd half as the stats show and we were lucky on that KO return,
-we are decent team but with obvious STs weaknesses ,a questionable pass game and if injuries hit very thin at many positions --should be 4-1 but are not ,look for more of same

 

[Yaller Jacket]

This doesn't really fit here, but what the heck. One bright spot was the new punter. He did his damndest to keep us in it. I don't know what his average distance was, but it had to be good.

 

[JorgeJonas]

We came close on the score but realistically we had no real offense in the 2nd half as the stats show and we were lucky on that KO return,
-we are decent team but with obvious STs weaknesses ,a questionable pass game and if injuries hit very thin at many positions --should be 4-1 but are not ,look for more of same

This isn’t really compelling, though. They had an extra possession in the first half, and because we scored on a kickoff, we “lost” that possession, too. The offense didn’t really bog down until the third possession of the second half. A lot of the difference in yardage can be explained there.