Generally, the big problems were that we came out a little bit flat, and Kansas gave a much more inspired effort. At the BCS level, even against a team that is pretty bad, it is difficult for most teams to win when that is the case. As Coach Johnson said, a handful of teams (the Alabamas and Oklahomas of the world) can show up, punch the clock, and win, but most teams need to give a motivated effort to win.
The primary other problem was simply timely, or untimely, execution. Offensively, we would hit a 20 yard run, then fail to gain anything on third and 2. Defensively was just the opposite, it was similarly either feast or famine. They gained approximately 240 yards on their 4 TD drives, out of only 320 yards total they gained. That means on the 8 drives they did not score, they averaged about 10 yards per drive. 320 yards is a pretty good day defensively. That should mean you have held them to a pretty low point total, but of course that is not the case when every time they get near the end zone you move out of their way. To put that in perspective, last week Kansas gained 293 yards, and only had 3 points to show for it.
Added to the strangeness of this game, on two of their TD drives, they needed a great play to convert third and long on the first set of downs. Both times, they got a great throw from their QB into pretty good coverage to convert barely. On a third TD drive, we actually stopped them, and their drive was kept alive by a very questionable roughing the passer penalty. If they don’t get those two great pass plays, and that penalty is not called, and we execute only marginally better on offense, we might have won 35-7. And those things really aren’t all that far fetched.
After reviewing the game tape, I have concluded we looked like a significantly better team. But these things happen in college football, particularly when you have an inspired team playing with nothing to lose and their backs against the wall, up against a heavy favorite who shows up a little flat, and who isn’t that much better on either line of scrimmage. Typically when one team is a big favorite, they are much bigger and stronger on both sides of the ball, so even with a flat performance they will still likely pull out a win. We are successful based on a good offensive scheme and sharp execution. We don’t blow you off the ball with our athletes. When we are flat, our blocking really suffers, and our focus isn’t there for really sharp execution.
I say that we looked flat. This comes from a combination of what I think of our players ability and how I expect us to look as a team. It is possible that we are just not nearly as good as I think. However, at the very least there is no reason to panic. This was a bad loss, but we lost very badly in week 3 last year, then proceeded to run off 8 straight wins and win the ACC, and all that was with a defense that I don’t think was as good as this one will be when we look back on the season. Ironically enough, the game that launched us into that 8 game win streak was UNC. All that is just to say there is absolutely no reason to give up on the season. There is reason to be concerned, but hopefully we come out and play with much more intensity and urgency this weekend. My UNC preview will be up tomorrow night.
For now, here are the stats from last week.
| | Georgia Tech | Kansas |
| Rush Yards | 291 | 141 |
| Yards Per Carry | 5.6 | 3.4 |
| Pass Yards | 116 | 179 |
| Yards Per Attempt | 7.7 | 6.0 |
| Yards Per Play | 6.1 | 4.5 |
| Points | 25 | 28 |
You can see we beat them in every single category except passing yards, but we had more yards per attempt, and of course points, the one that really matters. Sigh.
How did we do on my goals?
Offense
At least 475 total yards, and at least 350 on the ground.
Close to both, but short by a decent margin
At least 42 points
Well short
No more than one turnover
Exactly one turnover. Yay.
Defense
No more than 300 yards
Well this was close, only 320.
No more than 4.5 yards per play allowed
Exactly made this, allowing 4.5 yards per play.
At least 3 sacks and one turnover forced
Got this, 4 sacks and one turnover “forced” (they gave it to us, but oh well)
No more than 14 points
Here, the only miss for the defense. 28 points. WTF?
I am gonna try to do this every week, going through a play by play from the game tape and discussing my thoughts of whatever I think is relevant.
First Possessions.
Good kickoff to the goalline by Justin Moore, they bobbled, great coverage, swarmed under at the 10.
1st down (from 10 yard line). Pass play into the flat. We weren’t really fooled, short completion for 5 yards, had a guy there and tackled well.
2nd down and 4. Had wide receiver screen well covered but he dropped it.
3rd down 4. Not very well disguised middle linebacker blitz. Essentially we rushed 4 and they blocked it well. Threw underneath and should have been tackled a yard short, but a very bad tackle.
1st down at their own 24. Short throw right, well covered, good tackle, gain 3 yards.
2nd and 7. Decent blitz but no coverage on a slant. Easy ten yard gain but they dropped it.
3rd down and 7. Great blitz, sent both outside linebackers, sacked for a loss of about ten, and he definitely fumbled before going down but the ref might have called him down for forward progress.
We made it hard on them, but they should have had a first down on the second down throw and been still driving. Not bad defense though overall.
Punt – Decent kick, ok coverage, fielded and tackled right away at midfield.
1st down (from 50 yard line). Ok protection, quick pass right, easy 5 yards.
2nd down and 5. Option left, pitch to Roddy for 23 yards. They had everything stopped very well except for the pitch to roddy, good block on the edge and he cut inside, down to the 22.
1st down (from KU 22). Allen straight ahead for 2 yards, not much of a push from O line.
2nd down and 8. Allen straight ahead for 5 yards, against only 3 linemen and 5 linebackers playing very deep. Strange formation.
3rd down and 3 from the 15. Option left, Orwin Smith with a really good run to get first down yardage barely, dragged a guy for the last yard and a half. But they jumped offsides anyway, so first down at the 10.
First down (from KU 11). Toss left to Roddy, not much there, he got 2 yards to the 9. Better block on the edge would have given him at least 5 yards.
Second down and 8. Counter option executed VERY well, Nesbitt keeps and takes it in for a TD. They were in the 3 linemen and 5 relatively deep LB’s lineup again. Great block by the left tackle who pushed the outside D linemen back 2 steps before shedding him and cutting the second linebacker from the left edge. The linebackers bit heavily on the fake right and all overpursued, and then when we ran to the left, the pulling lineman easily blocked the D lineman who had been pushed back, the receiver held off the cornerback, and that left only the outside linebacker to try to contain Nesbitt and the running back. Nesbitt did a good job forcing him to commit and taking the space for a touchdown. We ran it just like its drawn up.
Easy touchdown, good drive.
At this point, I am sure I wasn’t the only GT fan who was thinking easy win.
Second possessions – GT 7 KU 0
Kickoff out of bounds. Justin Moore had been doing so well.
First down (from KU 40). Pretty vanilla blitz, sent inside linebacker straight away. Didn’t really get there, but must have been good coverage, and the D line penetrated well to get a 4 yard loss sack.
Second down and 14. Good draw play, had us fooled on a blitz, but we recognized pretty well and held it to 6 yards.
Third down and 8. Didn’t really even blitz but got good pressure. QB did a good job avoiding it and buying time, good throw on a 10 yard out route. It was actually covered pretty well. Good play from them, no real problem that we gave up a 3rd and 8 if they execute that well to get it.
This was key, we didn’t even have to blitz to get pressure, we had plenty of guys in coverage and covered well. Just a really good throw and catch.
And then we just break down completely and let them walk the last 46 yards.
First down (GT46), VERY easy slant for 12 yards to our 34.
First down (from GT 34). Draw up the middle, O line opened a big hole, and we had two atrocious missed tackles. One of our middle LB’s hit him head on and just fell over. Easy first down.
First down (from GT 23). Swing pass to the right for about ten more yards, way too easy.
Second down and 2. Fake handoff, rolls out to the right and throws back across the middle for an easy 15 yard TD. Way too easy. Busted coverage, two crossing routes, one delayed, both safeties jumped on the first crossing route. The safety on the back side of the play is the one who clearly screwed up and overpursued.
Four plays, 46 yards, after the long third down conversion. We have to be tougher.
Kick off, pretty good kick return, broke a tackle, blocking was ok, out to the 33 yard line.
First down (from GT 33). Deep ball, receiver didn’t really appear to have a step on the corner at all. Ball overthrown, but shouldn’t have been thrown.
Second down and ten. Counter option. They were in the same 3 linemen and 5 relatively deep LB’s again. They were not as fooled but it still appeared to be a play with potential. But a lineman ran right by a LB and the A back on that side threw a poor cut block, so Wright only picked up 3 yards.
Third down and 7. Nesbitt roll out right, pretty good pass to an open Tyler Melton on an out route. He was falling down for some reason and tried to catch it over his head even though it was only at chest height, and missed. Should have been caught for a first down.
First example of poor offensive execution, had to punt for no good reason, should have been easy pitch and catch, open ten yard out route.
Punt, pretty good punt and coverage, good return of about ten yards to KU 32.
Third possessions. GT – 7 KU – 7
First down (from KU 32). Fake hand off from shotgun, QB keeper straight ahead, well blocked, pretty good open field tackle by first guy there, sort of stumbled forward for 5 yards.
Second down and 5. Same play but hand off this time, well pursued, no gain.
Third down and 5. Fooled by a screen pass, pretty easy 8 yards.
This happened too much. We have got to be better on screen passes.
First down (from KU 45). Good blitz from right side, hit him as he was throwing, incomplete.
Second down (from KU 45). Good run defense. Jammed the line and the linebackers got him for a gain of 1 as he tried to cut left.
Third down and 9. Blitzed one middle linebacker, pretty straightforward blitz. Good coverage though. Another really good pass play for them execution wise.
Here we go again, we have a good chance to stop them on third and long, they make a great play, then we let them drive for a pretty easy TD.
First down (from GT 40). Good run defense, two yard gain.
Second down and 8. Fake handoff roll right, decent coverage by outside linebacker, almost broken up, shoestring catch by running back, first down.
This was actually a pretty good play as well. Good defense, but a nifty throw and a tough catch. Might have been lucky, cant really tell if QB meant to throw it like that.
First down (from GT 29). OK run defense, straight ahead, hit after 2 yards, fell forward in pile for 4 total.
Second down and 6. Hand off straight ahead for an easy 9 yards.
First down (from GT 16). Straight ahead for an easy 9 yards to our 7.
Second down and 1. Ok run d, pile pushed down to GT 4.
First and goal (from GT 4). Run straight ahead, ok defense, stopped at the 2.
Second and goal (from GT2). Play action WIDE open in back corner of end zone. Totally fooled.
Pretty good defense to start this drive, we made it hard on them and had a chance for a stop, but we seemed to lose our edge when they converted the long third down. We have to be tougher than that.
Kickoff. Pretty good blocking, ok return, broke one ankle tackle, out to 26.
First down (from GT 26). 48 yard run by Allen against a 4 man front this time. 4 linemen 4 linebackers. Good blocking, LB who was right in front of Allen ran out of his way chasing Nesbitt.
Allen by the way is not very fast, got caught from behind pretty easily. I have been saying this for a while. Not sure why anyone ever thought he may be better at B back in any area of the game than Dwyer was, because he is not and won’t be.
First down (from KU 26). Lyons for 2 yards, not much blocking.
Second down and 8. Pretty good pitch triple option to the short side, pitch to Orwin. 6 yards.
Third down and 2. Inside linebacker jumped the snap and sprinted right through and hit Nesbitt before he could do anything.
Fourth down and 3. They crept 9 guys and really almost 10 up to the line and tried to hammer us, but we blocked well on the short side and toss right worked for the first down. Peeples should have gotten it easily, but being Peeples he barely got it.
First down (from KU 15) option left to the wide side of the field, pitch to Roddy, cant quite get the corner, tackled for no gain.
First time of many that Roddy was tackled in pretty open space by one guy fairly easily. Disappointing game for Roddy.
Second down and ten. Allen up the middle to the 4. We had three receivers in, we optioned to the side so that we had no pitch man. Either Allen or Nesbitt only. Give was to Allen. They brought a LB up so it was a four man set really, and they had 3 LB’s in, 3 corners and a safety. Their LB’s were all lined up on the left side, which is where the only A back would have come around for the pitch, which is probably why we ran Allen or Nesbitt the other way, and probably why it worked for 11 yards. Good call.
First and goal (from KU 4). Toss right to Wright for no gain, not a very good block by Peeples, or he might have scored by going wide. But Peeples man turned him inside.
Noticing a pattern yet of missed blocks? There were a lot of those, thanks I hope to us being flat.
Second and goal (from KU 4). Nesbitt keeps himself and ran over a guy at the 2. OK blocking but mostly just Nesbitt saying I am taking this thing to the crib.
Good possession here, pretty easy TD with the exception of the 4th down, but that was only set up by a great jump of the snap count by their LB on 3rd down.
Fourth Possessions. GT – 14 KU - 14
Short kickoff (bc it was Blair) to the 15, they run a reverse on the return, but we still covered it pretty well, they brought it out to our 27.
First down (from KU 27). Quick receiver screen right for 7 yards. Too easy.
Second down and three. Good penetration, made him make a move 5 yards behind line of scrimmage, eventually tackled for no gain.
Third down and three. Rolls left, we got some pressure, but he had a guy WIDE open 11 yards downfield, hit him in the chest, and he dropped it. Not very good coverage. We had a corner and a safety and they had two receivers, and we must have been in some kind of soft zone, because neither guy covered either guy really. He had two options, but chose the slightly more wide open guy.
Lucky to force a punt here.
Punt. Huge punt into the end zone.
First down (from GT 20). Toss right to Wright, ok blocking, 3 yards, big hit on Marcus though.
Second down and 7. Triple option left, four man front and four LB’s. Safety comes up to take the pitch to Roddy, who is in the open field against one guy and gets taken down easily (again), only two yard gain.
Third down and 5. Pass right, good pass from Nesbitt. We brought Smith in motion and overloaded the right side, too much for them to cover, he slipped into the flat and turned it into an 19 yard gain with a good run after a 3 yard catch.
First down (from GT 44). Nesbitt pass, good job escaping immediately pressure, hit Roddy in the facemask for a 20 yard gain but through Roddy’s hands. Pretty good pass though.
One more example of our A-backs/receivers making Nesbitt look bad.
Second down and ten. Option right, good blocking, four man front for them, we got a good push, nifty late pitch from Nesbitt turned a 5 yard gain into an 8 yard gain.
Third down and 2. Option right, ok blocking, Nesbitt keeps and just toughs out about 4 yards, after getting hit after only 1.
First down (from KU 45). Option right, probably should have pitched, but Nesbitt keeps for 2 yards.
Second down and 8. Nesbitt sacked on a blitz, poor protection though, although it was clear Nesbitt’s first look was not open. Loss of 5 or so.
Third down and 12. Delay of game. We didn’t look anywhere near ready to snap it. Strange. They were showing 3 linemen and 3 LB’s, 5 DB’s.
But for this penalty we may have been able to go for it on 4th, since we gained 9 on the next play.
Third down and 17. This time 4 linemen, 2 LB’s, option right pitch to Peeples, gained about nine.
Punt on fourth and 8. OK punt. Fair caught at 18 yard line.
They spent most of the game creeping their secondary up towards the line daring us to throw. Frustrating that on this drive we tried twice, but could not protect Nesbitt and convert any throws downfield.
Fifth Possessions. GT – 14, KU – 14.
First down (from KU 18). Good blitz. Hit and fumbled, Kansas got back on top of it.
Second down and 16. Rolls right, good coverage, lobbed up a pass down the sideline, nearly picked off. Really good coverage here.
Third down and 16. Draw, we read it well, only gained 2 yards or so.
Really good D here.
Punt from own 15 yard line. Good punt and coverage, net 43 yards to our 42.
First down (from GT 42). Good blocking on pitch right, Roddy picks up first down, they were in 4 linemen and 4 LB set again. 12 yards.
First down (from KU 46). Option right, late pitch to Orwin, 12 yard gain.
Nesbitt appears to have learned some of the tricks of the trade here, he has really improved these nifty late pitches that can get a lot of sneaky yards.
First down (from KU 34). Peeples got 6 yards on option right pitch, they ran 3 linemen and 5 LB’s, but crept up the outside guys to the line so really a 5-3 look.
Second down and 4. Nesbitt had Embry WIDE open at the 5 yard line for an easy TD, lobbed it to him but over his head out of bounds. Awful pass. Should have been 6.
Third down and 4. 3-4 look this time, option right, nesbitt got first down yardage on his own, then a very late pitch to Orwin who picks up another ten or so. Nice play.
First down (from KU 12). Option right, they jumped it, but pitch was probably there, maybe for a TD. Nesbitt just hesitated and got swarmed under, loss of two. Second time on THIS drive we should have scored, just gotta make that read faster.
Second down and 12. 3-5 look, Nesbitt QB draw, but not blocked very well, had to run sideways too much, only got 4 yards or so on a play that fooled them pretty well.
Thrid down and 9. Fake option, hit Stephen Hill in the end zone, inexcusable drop. Should have been a TD, for the third time on this drive.
And we settle for a field goal.
Really should have had a TD on this drive, and it ended up really costing us.
Sixth Possessions GT – 17, KU – 14.
Blair kick off to only the 14, not covered real well, brought out to our 34.
First down (from KU 34). Weak run d, right up the middle for 17 yards across midfield. (drive started with only 31 seconds in first half). Timeout KU.
First down (from GT 49). We blitz 5 but got no pressure really, good coverage though bc he threw it away.
Second down and 10. Again blitzed 5, again no pressure, but good coverage, pass over the middle almost picked off.
Third down and 10. Rolls right, throws it away, 8 seconds left.
Fourth down and 10. QB scramble ends half.
Good job stopping a drive that could have ended in points after we sleepwalked through the first play, allowing a 17 yard run for no particular reason.
Second half.
Kickoff to us. Ok blocking, ok return out to 25, but block in the back so we get the ball at our 8.
First down (from GT 8). Against 4 linemen and 4 LB’s, option left, pitch to roddy who is dropped easily by one guy in the open field, again. Two yard gain, could have been much more.
Second down and 8. Against a weird 3 linemen set with a bunch of LB’s and DB’s kinda floating around, option left, Nesbitt keeps and cuts up for 6 yards.
Third down and 2. They run a 3-5 look and then blitz basically ten guys. We had two receivers on the same side so that means one was wide open, but we were running. Allen probably gets the first down, but Nesbitt kept it and got swarmed under by the ten man blitz for a loss of one.
So we miss the read on one play, and Roddy gets tackled WAY too easily again on another, and we are short of the first down by only 3 yards. This, combined with the penalty on the kickoff and the bad punt, really screwed us. We had come back in the first half to reassert control of the game, and a TD drive here might have made them quit. Instead we got them fired right back up.
AWFUL punt about 15 yards out to our own 28.
Kansas ball.
Seventh Possessions GT – 17, KU 14
First down (from GT 28). Pretty easy four yard run, as they knocked us back about 2 yards.
Second down and 6. Swing pass left, defended well, only one yard gain.
Third down and 5. We blitz both middle LB’s and they pick it up well, run a draw up the middle, and get the first down easily, all the way down to our 7.
Another drive where we get a chance to stop it on third down early in the drive, and then after they convert we just let them into the end zone. That has to stop.
First and goal (from GT 7). They controlled the line pretty well and ran right, but running back cut right and easily got 5 yards before hitting any traffic at the 2.
Second and goal from 2. Hand off right and he walks in. Really poor defense there.
Defense hung out to dry by the offense and special teams, but really could have doen better. At least make them work for those last 7 yards.
Kick off to us, into the end zone for a touchback.
First down (from GT 20). Counter option to the right, they bit again, they were in a 3-5 set. We executed and blocked pretty well, nesbitt picked up about 3 yards on his own then pitched to Wright who took it for 21 out to our 41 yard line.
First down (from GT 41). Good blocking on the give to Allen, pretty easy 6 yards.
Second down and 4. 3-5 look again, Option to the right, very late pitch to Peeples who picks up about 20, down to the KU 33.
First down (from KU 33). 3-5 look again but they blitz the two inside LB’s, we give to Allen and he gets 3 yards. Ok blocking.
Second down and 7. Give to Allen again and no push at all, zero yards. The give was the right read though, probably should have been a decent gain, but we didn’t control their defensive tackles very well. Here is a good example of us moving the ball at will, but we get bogged down by poor blocking. This play could have been a big gain if we fire off the ball, but we let the defensive tackle make a play on Allen when he had no one behind him.
Third down and 7. Counter option right, they showed a 3-4 then crept up a safety and a corner, eventually ended up having 8 guys basically blitz, we probably get a big gain except the two linemen who got downfield both missed LB’s who then pursued and helped shut down any running lanes. We pitched to Roddy and he was hammered immediately. If those blocks are made, Nesbitt probably keeps for a solid gain, but they completely whiffed and looked pretty indifferent doing so.
Fourth down and 8. Nesbitt rolls left and throws poorly into good coverage, not really catchable.
Not a good end to a promising drive. Three straight plays of poor execution, especially blocking, which Paul Johnson correctly pointed out, blocking is mostly about “Want to”.
Kansas takes over.
Eighth Possessions – GT 17, KU 21.
First down (from KU 30). Run up the middle for a pretty easy five yards.
Second down and 5. Good safety blitz from Tarrant and he stops a QB draw for a gain of only 2.
Third down and 3. Draw, good play by Egbuniwe from outside linebacker spot to get off block and get to the inside for the tackle, only a 1 yard gain.
Punt on 4th and 2. Stupid stupid stupid roughing the punter penalty. Huge penalty after defense really stood tall when we needed a stop and the ball back.
First down Kansas (from GT 47). Run up the middle, cut back through a seem for an easy 7 yards.
Second down and 3. Fake hand off, roll right and hit tight end open for an easy 10 yards.
First down (from GT 29). Toss right, well defended, 2 yard gain.
Second down and 8. Penalty 5 yards on them.
Second down and 13. Quick pass right, inexplicably bobbled right to our guy, very lucky interception. We did nothing to force this, but at least after the back breaking penalty, we eventually stiffened. They got an easy first down, but we defended a running play well and has this play defended well. If the receiver hadn’t bobbled it it would have been for a very short gain.
GT takes over, First down (from GT 32). Toss right, to Wright, well blocked, easy 7 yards.
Second down and 3. Toss right to Peeples, rare good tough run, could have only been 2 but stumbled forward for close to 8. Proud of Peeples here.
First down (from GT 47). Give straight ahead to Lyons for 3. Ok blocking.
Second down and 7. Option right against a 3-4, but they blitzed the corner from that side, still took a whiffed block by the A back and a poor run from Nesbitt to only get 1 yard though. Seeing the pattern of whiffed blocks?
Third down and 6. Against a weird 4-2 formation with a bunch of DB’s inching forward, Nesbitt fumbled the snap and fell on it. More silly poor execution maybe costing us a scoring drive.
Fourth down and 6. Punt.
Pretty good punt, downed at 15 yard line.
Ninth Possessions – GT 17, KU 21
First down (from KU 15). Quick pass right for 7 yards that probably should have been 3 or 4 with a more urgent tackle.
Second down and three. Good penetration on a toss right but running back got the corner and hurdled a guy who was blocked to the ground, ran out to midfield.
First down (from 50). Good blitz from left side end, they faked a handoff and by the time QB looked downfield he was being sacked for a loss of 8.
Second down and 17. Good pressure, forced him to throw it away.
Third down and 17. Only rushed four, good pressure, but a good scramble and throw for ten yards. They called roughing the passer, so first down though. Pretty weak roughing the passer, our guy put the brakes on and put his hands up gently, and his momentum combined with the QB’s sideways off balance momentum very gently knocked him over. In my opinion a very bad call, not sure what else you want the defender to do but try to stop. I guess he should grab the QB and make sure he doesn’t fall over. Really didn’t hit him at all, QB might have actually fallen over on his own, he was that off balance already. Killer call there.
First down Kansas (at GT 32). This is that atrocious screen pass to the right where he made some good moves to pick up 6 yards, but then we had him surrounded and a guy from behind hit him but didn’t wrap up, and knocked him right by about 5 of our guys waiting to tackle him. He somehow kept his balance and then jogs in to score. Have to tackle better and be smarter (don’t dive and shove a guy when we have 5 guys surrounding him…) Sad.
Kickoff to us. Celebration penalty on them, so kickoff from 15, so we get an ok return out to midfield.
First down (from GT 49). Against a 4-4 look, we try a pass play, and this is where Hill does that stupid pirouette, if he had just keep running straight he may have a 40 yard catch. Awful, turns around and waits for it, then turns again and tries to run when he realizes its going further than the thought. Very stupid play.
Second down and 10. Quick screen right to Hill for 5 yards.
Third down and 5. Counter option left, against a 3-4, but they brought up a safety like they had been doing a lot. Looked promising but we whiffed on a couple blocks, one linemen one A back, and all of a sudden there were three guys there and Nesbitt had nowhere to go, no gain. Very similar to Miami last year. For some reason our running backs, and sometimes receivers and linemen, just kept whiffing blocks.
Fourth and 5. We go for it on fourth here and pass right to an open Hill about 12 yards downfield, and he appears in position to catch it but slips and falls, and cant hold on. Maybe it was a little low, but I blame this mostly on Hill. Should have been an easy conversion, play was drawn up well. More stupid execution where Kansas didn’t really do anything to stop us, and we could have continued the drive.
Tenth Possession GT 17, KU 28.
Kansas takes over, First down (from KU 46). Pretty good pressure, forcing a throw out of bounds.
Second down and ten. Good blitz, could have stopped running back for a loss of 3, but whiffed tackle and he gets loose for about 7 yards.
Third and 3. Pretty good defense on a run right, but again a more urgent tackle probably stops him well short. He gets very close to the first down, but is barely short.
Fourth down and inches. They go for it and get absolutely no push at all on a QB sneak. Stopped short.
Huge Defense here. We really needed a stop and we got it. Proud of the defense there.
GT takes over, First down (from GT 44). Option right, late pitch to Smith, who fumbled as he was about to get laid out. Tough spot for Smith, but he really should have hung on to the pitch there. Catch it and take your hit. Nesbitt probably should have seen the guy coming and just hung on to it, since the pitch was going nowhere.
Really killer example of poor execution. Must be sharper.
Eleventh Possessions, GT 17, KU 28
KU takes over, first down (from GT 34). Good pressure, sack for a loss of about 1.
Second down and 11. Shotgun sweep right, good pursuit by the whole team, cornerback in the end gets off block and does a good job containing the sideline, loss of 3 or so.
Third down and 14. We bring 5 on a blitz and don’t really get there, but fortunately good coverage downfield leaves him nowhere to throw, incomplete and almost picked off over the middle.
Fourth and 14, punt, good punt, pins us at the 5.
Another huge stand by the defense. This either means we just happened to stand up when we needed to, OR that when the defense decides to play hard, they can actually stop Kansas.
First down (from GT 5). Completely fool them with a throw here, hit Embry crossing into the flat on the other side of the field, and he runs for 46 yards, tackled only by getting his legs crossed with Hill or he may have gone 95 yards to the house. At least he is fast.
First down (from KU 49). Give to Allen on the option, pretty easy 5 yards.
Second down and 5. 3-5 look, they creep up two LB’s, we toss right to Orwin for a tough run for 8 yards. One of a handful of really good runs from Orwin.
First down (from KU 38). False start.
First down and 15. Give to Allen for 3 yards.
Second down and 12. Poor screen pass, wasn’t there anyway but Allen dropped it just to make it worse. Some silly execution on this drive as well, but we are bailed out by…
Third and 12. Good job by Nesbitt to avoid a rush and make a nice throw to Hill, who finally makes a play catching the TD pass. This play. Really good play by Nesbitt. I would talk about how it’s a heisman caliber play, but he has no chance. Not only bc GT isn’t really that big of a brand name, and he is a QB who doesn’t pass much, but his receivers don’t help him out much when he does pass well.
We go for 2 and get it with an easy looking pass play to Hill.
Twelfth Possessions, GT 25, KU 28
Kickoff to KU. Good coverage, we stop them at the 17.
First down (from KU 17). We stop a run up the middle for no gain, good tough defense.
Second down and 10. Blitz, good pressure, but we lose contain and let him scramble for about 6.
Third down and 4. Blitz, fall for a screen set up way too easily, easy first down. Gotta see that coming sooner. We have to stop those screens on third down. I am sure Richt is watching and licking his chops, that screen loving mother&*^$%&.
First down (from KU 39). Up the middle for a very easy 8 yards.
Second down and 2. Up the middle again, good penetration and tackling this time, no gain.
Third down and 2. Good tough run defense, run to the left, only 1 yard maybe, big play. Way to step up by the defense when they had to to give us a chance to win.
Good punt but very stupid play by their guy roughing up Tarrant, easy 15 yards for us.
First down (from GT 34). Drop back to pass, no protection, scrambles for 5 yards, tough run.
Second down and 5. Same play, scramble again, should have gotten the first down but a very poor job running hard, rare for Nesbitt, tackled by first guy he came to right before first down marker. Don’t think I have ever seen Nesbitt not get a first down in a situation like this. He didn’t really even have to knock the guy forward much. But he got flattened. I did laugh though at the commentators surprise that Nesbitt popped right up and the LB was shaken up, after he drilled Nesbitt.
Third and 1. We throw long, and they interfere. Good call, easy 15 yards. Not sure if we would have caught it without the interference, but oh well.
First down (from GT 49). Allen tough run pushing the pile for 5 yards.
Second and 5. Option right, probably a good choice by Nesbitt to keep, tough run for 3 yards.
Third and 2. Inexplicable poor blocking up front, Allen stuffed straight ahead for a loss of 1, actually fumbled but we got it back. I mean we blocked nobody, on a very key play. More really bad execution. How, on a play this big, do you let the tackles go unblocked. I mean three guys met Allen head on with a head of steam. I don’t know what our O line did. Maybe they thought it was a screen pass.
No we jump offsides to make it 4th and 8. EXECUTION!!!
4th and 8, Nesbitt with a bad throw, Hill was there and this probably should have been a completion. Not as bad as I thought during the actual game, when I reviewed it on tape this throw wasn’t off by that much, but not very good. Would have been an amazing diving catch, and he was open enough for this to be a completion with a good throw.
Believe me, that was a very painful process. But I think it makes it clear how much better we could have played. It was a bad performance, but there is still reason to be excited. If we can get a good performance this weekend, and believe me it will take a much better performance than this game to beat UNC, then we will have a chance to get a rhythm going with a few wins. It won’t be easy, since NC State, UVA and Wake have all looked better than I thought they would. Especially state, who did cover tonight. Just like I said in my week 3 picks, take it to the bank again. Boom! Anyway, those games may actually all be tough, but if we show up to play we can win them all, I think relatively easily.
But for now, big game this weekend. Let’s see how the team responds. UNC preview to come out tomorrow.
Go Jackets!
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