Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson’s comments following the Yellow Jackets’ 38-28 win over North Carolina.
Opening statement:
“It got a little crazy there. I thought maybe when we came out and opened the third quarter and put together a nice, long drive for a touchdown and then we got ’em pinned back inside the 20 on the kickoff that maybe we’d get away from them a little bit. But to their credit, they kept playing and they fought back and we did most everything we could to try to help them. Two fumbles when we were going down the field and the fourth-down play, we bobble the snap. I was watching when we were running the play, we had it sealed pretty good; I thought it was going to be a pretty big play and I look and we dropped the snap. I thought the defense did a great job there at the end getting a couple of turnovers when we had to have ’em and we did what we had to do to get out of there winning the game.”
On three lost fumbles:
“The fumbles are frustrating. And we’ve got to do a better job coaching that. They’re coming from the same position. We’ve got to do a better job coaching that.”
On play of B-backs:
“We need to be able to finish those runs. Those are the ones that KirVonte (Benson) could finish a year ago. They’re capable. My thing with our guys, too, is, and this comes back to coaching as well, we have to be more aware of the situations. When you come up this short of the first down on third down because you’re trying to break one, you’ve got to get your pads turned and get your pads turned and get the first down. It came back to bite us in the first half.”
On Brad Morgan playing right guard in place of Connor Hansen:
“It didn’t matter. They beat the fool out of us in the tackle box. They beat the fool out of us in there. You can say what you want. We rushed for 460 yards. Everybody talk about what a great job they do. Keep telling them that. They got their (butt) whupped.”
On playing TaQuon Marshall and Tobias Oliver:
“I went into the game, and I said this morning in the meeting, we’ll play ’em until they don’t score. And really, we weren’t scoring, but we weren’t punting either. We were driving the ball and then taking it down the field, and we’d turn it over. At the time, this game, I felt like that with what we were running, (Oliver) gave us the best chance. The next game might be the other guy. TaQuon went in and led us on a touchdown drive to start with. He didn’t really do anything wrong. It was a gut thing, a feel thing. Probably the rest of the way, that’s kind of what it’ll be.”
On cornerback play:
“We don’t play the ball very well. The reverse pass they threw, we’re right there. (Lamont Simmons) probably got pushed, but we were right there; we don’t make a play. There were two or three balls where they throw it, we’re right there. We just don’t play the ball very well.”
On winning:
“Anytime you can win. I told somebody before the game, this team has some talent. They’re just kind of snakebit. I told Larry (Fedora) before the game, they’re probably not any different than anybody in our division in fact, they may be as talented or more talented than some. but sometimes, we’ve been there where you find a way to lose. We tried to today where you find a way to lose the game and that’s just kind of been what’s happened to them. But they’ve got some talented kids, especially skill kids offensively.”
On second-guessing going for it on fourth down in the second quarter:
“When I didn’t make it, I was. We’ve been pretty good on fourth-and-ones and fourth-and-twos. My thought process was, it’s 21-10. If we can get this in the end zone and go up 28-10, we get the ball first in the third quarter and go up 35-10. Then we don’t have to worry about a whole lot; you’ve kind of got the game in order. And we didn’t make it. All the other fourth downs, I think we did make except the one we dropped the snap. It’s just like at the end. You can second guess yourself, but you could also have kicked the field goal on fourth-and-2 when we went on in and scored the touchdown to go ahead. I don’t think anybody would have felt real comfortable over there up three.”
More from Chapel Hill:
Backup Tobias Oliver gets in the game and goes the distance
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