It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win. Georgia Tech needed one after a rough outing against Pitt the week prior and the Tech defense bent a lot in the second half, but the Yellow Jackets pulled out a team win by being the better team in all three phases against Duke.
Tech’s offense overcame a pair of bad Jeff Sims interceptions as he continues to struggle with looking off his primary receiver at times and Duke cashed in. Peje Harris gets a special shoutout for his touchdown-saving tackle on one of the interceptions. The Tech defense yield no points off either turnover forcing a turnover on downs on the first interception and a missed field goal on the second one. Tech’s defense yielded four field-goal attempts in the red zone and just two touchdowns in six trips. Even with all the yards, the Jackets yielded to Mataeo Durant he had just 152 yards on 43 attempts or 3.5 yards per carry. You will take that.
Was the defense sharp? No, but it was functional and they made the key stops when they had to despite several injuries on the defensive line and in the secondary throughout the game.
Wesley Walker had a really big game quietly stepping in for Juanyeh Thomas at strong safety and also playing nickel throughout the game. He cleaned up some plays in the run game and was good in coverage as well. Jaylon King had a key play on the game-clinching interception by Thomas with good coverage and he continues to make his case to be one of the two starting safeties for the Jackets. Zamari Walton, Jared Ivey, Mike Lockhart, Tariq Carpenter, Ace Eley, Quez Jackson, Charlie Thomas, and Miles Brooks all caught my eye during the game with some key plays. Kaleb Edwards came in for Charlie when he got hurt during the game and he was really impressed with his tackling. I do think they need to consider mixing it up more as Tre Swilling played better at the nickel than he has been playing at CB and Swilling continues to struggle in coverage in one-on-one situations with no help over the top.
I expect Keion White to make his debut against Virginia in two weeks, I thought he was maybe an emergency field end on Saturday with Antonneous Clayton out and just Ivey, Sylvain Yondjouen and Josh Robinson available.
DEFENSE CHECK
Special teams, Tech made their kicks and David Shanahan had one bad punt and several better ones. Azende Rey had the longest punt return in six years in the game and Jahmyr Gibbs nearly broke a kick return loose as he was caught by one defender on a play. Brent Cimaglia hit his kicks and Gavin Stewart had good kickoffs and the kickoff and punt coverage was good again despite some injuries on those units as well.
Tech got to be on the other side of someone having a rough day kicking as Charlie Ham struggled against his hometown team.
SPECIAL CHECK
Offensively, it was still a bit of a mess running the ball. Not having a healthy Jordan Williams, no Nick Pendley or KJ Kirby at all and then having to shift the line around when Williams went down for the game to put in William Lay at right guard and flipping Ryan Johnson to right tackle a position he had played just a handful of snaps at while at Tennessee in 2019 was not a recipe for success on the ground. Duke loaded up to stop the run and played man-to-man outside daring Jeff Sims to beat them. He did it enough times to win the game.
Tech still needs to figure out the run game and hopefully with the bye week, they can get to a situation where more than one of their top offensive tackles is healthy and they can get both Kenny Cooper and Mikey Minihan healthy as well as both battled through their own injuries during the game. Cooper missed the Pitt game the week before. The offensive line is like a mash unit right now and they need the bye badly to try to fix it. Brent Key still has a lot of young talent on the team, but they are young and completely inexperienced to this point and Geoff Collins and his staff need to win now so I understand why they did not put in Wing Green for his first action for example at right tackle.
Tech had both starting tight ends out for the game, the two Dylans and Jack Coco and Billy Ward were thrust into action and they did okay under the circumstances, but Ward had a key penalty and couldn’t come up with a pass that Sims slightly overthrew to him on a key down as well on a good concept by offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude. Either Dylan probably comes up with that ball.
Adonicas Sanders who had been the odd man out as Kalani Norris saw his playing time increase in a major way had the game-winning catch and that was cool to see for Sanders who has just been a grinder since arriving in Atlanta under the previous regime. He is low-key and does his job and has been one of the most reliable receivers the last two seasons for Tech. Malachi Carter and Kyric McGowan battled through injuries to contribute big plays, as well as the receivers, were hurting on Saturday with a lot of bumps and bruises.
I thought they might turn to Jordan Yates to spark things, but Patenaude stuck with his guy Sims and it paid off in the end.
OFFENSE CHECK
This is a game this team would’ve lost last year or the year before to a team like Duke so that is encouraging. The team has equaled the win totals from year one and two in just six games and to be honest they should be 4-2 right now had they not imploded against NIU in the first half of that game.
The officiating remains suspect but Tech didn’t have anything that killed them on that side and they got one break on a 4th down play with a spot and had another bad spot against them. Overall that was not a huge factor in the game.
Collins and company have a bye week to figure some things out and get ready for Virginia who are plugging along as above average this season despite having no run game and questionable defense.
Was it an A-effort? No. Was it a B? Probably not, but a C is passing and they got the win.
Tech’s offense overcame a pair of bad Jeff Sims interceptions as he continues to struggle with looking off his primary receiver at times and Duke cashed in. Peje Harris gets a special shoutout for his touchdown-saving tackle on one of the interceptions. The Tech defense yield no points off either turnover forcing a turnover on downs on the first interception and a missed field goal on the second one. Tech’s defense yielded four field-goal attempts in the red zone and just two touchdowns in six trips. Even with all the yards, the Jackets yielded to Mataeo Durant he had just 152 yards on 43 attempts or 3.5 yards per carry. You will take that.
Was the defense sharp? No, but it was functional and they made the key stops when they had to despite several injuries on the defensive line and in the secondary throughout the game.
Wesley Walker had a really big game quietly stepping in for Juanyeh Thomas at strong safety and also playing nickel throughout the game. He cleaned up some plays in the run game and was good in coverage as well. Jaylon King had a key play on the game-clinching interception by Thomas with good coverage and he continues to make his case to be one of the two starting safeties for the Jackets. Zamari Walton, Jared Ivey, Mike Lockhart, Tariq Carpenter, Ace Eley, Quez Jackson, Charlie Thomas, and Miles Brooks all caught my eye during the game with some key plays. Kaleb Edwards came in for Charlie when he got hurt during the game and he was really impressed with his tackling. I do think they need to consider mixing it up more as Tre Swilling played better at the nickel than he has been playing at CB and Swilling continues to struggle in coverage in one-on-one situations with no help over the top.
I expect Keion White to make his debut against Virginia in two weeks, I thought he was maybe an emergency field end on Saturday with Antonneous Clayton out and just Ivey, Sylvain Yondjouen and Josh Robinson available.
DEFENSE CHECK
Special teams, Tech made their kicks and David Shanahan had one bad punt and several better ones. Azende Rey had the longest punt return in six years in the game and Jahmyr Gibbs nearly broke a kick return loose as he was caught by one defender on a play. Brent Cimaglia hit his kicks and Gavin Stewart had good kickoffs and the kickoff and punt coverage was good again despite some injuries on those units as well.
Tech got to be on the other side of someone having a rough day kicking as Charlie Ham struggled against his hometown team.
SPECIAL CHECK
Offensively, it was still a bit of a mess running the ball. Not having a healthy Jordan Williams, no Nick Pendley or KJ Kirby at all and then having to shift the line around when Williams went down for the game to put in William Lay at right guard and flipping Ryan Johnson to right tackle a position he had played just a handful of snaps at while at Tennessee in 2019 was not a recipe for success on the ground. Duke loaded up to stop the run and played man-to-man outside daring Jeff Sims to beat them. He did it enough times to win the game.
Tech still needs to figure out the run game and hopefully with the bye week, they can get to a situation where more than one of their top offensive tackles is healthy and they can get both Kenny Cooper and Mikey Minihan healthy as well as both battled through their own injuries during the game. Cooper missed the Pitt game the week before. The offensive line is like a mash unit right now and they need the bye badly to try to fix it. Brent Key still has a lot of young talent on the team, but they are young and completely inexperienced to this point and Geoff Collins and his staff need to win now so I understand why they did not put in Wing Green for his first action for example at right tackle.
Tech had both starting tight ends out for the game, the two Dylans and Jack Coco and Billy Ward were thrust into action and they did okay under the circumstances, but Ward had a key penalty and couldn’t come up with a pass that Sims slightly overthrew to him on a key down as well on a good concept by offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude. Either Dylan probably comes up with that ball.
Adonicas Sanders who had been the odd man out as Kalani Norris saw his playing time increase in a major way had the game-winning catch and that was cool to see for Sanders who has just been a grinder since arriving in Atlanta under the previous regime. He is low-key and does his job and has been one of the most reliable receivers the last two seasons for Tech. Malachi Carter and Kyric McGowan battled through injuries to contribute big plays, as well as the receivers, were hurting on Saturday with a lot of bumps and bruises.
I thought they might turn to Jordan Yates to spark things, but Patenaude stuck with his guy Sims and it paid off in the end.
OFFENSE CHECK
This is a game this team would’ve lost last year or the year before to a team like Duke so that is encouraging. The team has equaled the win totals from year one and two in just six games and to be honest they should be 4-2 right now had they not imploded against NIU in the first half of that game.
The officiating remains suspect but Tech didn’t have anything that killed them on that side and they got one break on a 4th down play with a spot and had another bad spot against them. Overall that was not a huge factor in the game.
Collins and company have a bye week to figure some things out and get ready for Virginia who are plugging along as above average this season despite having no run game and questionable defense.
Was it an A-effort? No. Was it a B? Probably not, but a C is passing and they got the win.
