It was a possession banished to irrelevance, but Georgia Tech’s defense actually started Saturday’s loss to Pittsburgh with a stop. On third-and-8 from the Tech 46-yard line, the pass rush of defensive tackle Ja’Quon Griffin, linebacker Ayinde Eley and defensive end Kyle Kennard chased Panthers quarterback Kenny Pickett to the sideline, from where he threw the ball out of bounds to bring on the punt team.
The remainder of the afternoon did not live up to the standards of those first six plays. Falling behind 14-0 after quarterback Jeff Sims threw two interceptions in the Yellow Jackets’ first four plays from scrimmage, the Tech defense gave way, coach Geoff Collins and defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker said Tuesday.
As Pickett got hot, the Jackets did not rise to the challenge, variously not playing with full effort, trying to do too much and losing focus on the task at hand. The end result, following largely solid performances in the first four games of the season, was one of the least effective defensive showings in Collins’ two-plus seasons.
“The culpability’s on me, for sure,” Thacker said. “But as a defense, we did not respond well to adversity.”
In Tech’s 52-21 loss at Bobby Dodd Stadium, the Jackets gave up season highs in points, total defense (580) and first downs (27), among other lowlights. Pitt’s 7.4 yards-per-play average was the fourth highest recorded by a Tech opponent in Collins’ tenure.
It all followed a good week of practice, Collins said, following the Jackets’ 45-22 win over then-No. 21 North Carolina, when Tech sacked Tar Heels quarterback Sam Howell eight times and pried the ball away from him three times.
The win over the Tar Heels followed a commendable performance in a 14-8 loss at Clemson, and a 45-17 win over Kennesaw State in which the Jackets forced three turnovers.
But, Saturday, the Jackets “let go of the rope against a really good team, and you can’t do that,” Collins said. “All the things that we preach, all the things that we believe in in our program and our culture weren’t realized against a really good team, and when you do that, you’re sitting in this situation.”
Collins has sought to instill a mind-set of playing with toughness and resilience in the face of setbacks, encapsulated in the mantra “Put the ball down.” Perhaps the season’s best example of that grittiness was displayed by safety Juanyeh Thomas, who forced a fumble out of Clemson running back Will Shipley that led to a safety and kept the Jackets’ chances alive in the 14-8 loss to the Tigers.
“But just adversity set in very, very early in the game and, uncharacteristically, we didn’t respond to that challenge,” Collins said. “Once we fell down early, had some internal things that happened and some busted coverages and got flustered and all those kind of things, but it’s a really good football team that we have.”
For the first time this season, Tech failed to record a takeaway or a fourth-down stop, a string that actually extended into the final four games of last season. The number of missed tackles also was higher than previous games, Thacker said. Players played outside the framework of the defense out of a desire to make a game-changing play.
“And then that only makes things worse as opposed to just playing one play at a time,” Thacker said.
Thacker went so far as to say that some of the trust and chemistry that players had built with each other through four games was lost Saturday.
Pitt obviously played a role in foiling the Jackets. Thacker called Pickett “a first-team All-American” at this point of the season.
However, “objectively, we did not play to the level of effort that we normally play to,” Thacker said.
Asked about the secondary, which did not hold up well against Pickett in part because of the time he was given to throw, Thacker declined to comment specifically on their play.
“We need better play out of the entire defense,” he said. “You asked a specific question about the secondary. Certainly don’t want to just focus on them. It was certainly not the outing that we wanted from top down, from me from a leadership position in front of the defense.”
Through four games, the Jackets had made clear progress in creating turnovers and tackles for loss.
“It wasn’t perfect,” Thacker said. “We had bad series in there, but we had a strong identity, and we’re proud of a lot of what we did. We weren’t very proud of what we did on Saturday.”
Thacker said that the defense has responded well, having practices Monday and Tuesday that he rated as “excellent.” After Pitt receivers Jordan Addison and Taysir Mack seemed to have little trouble getting open downfield Saturday, both clearing 100 receiving yards with a touchdown apiece, coaches committed more practiced time pitting the top receivers against the top defensive backs.
“So we can get those moment-of-truth wins for us to improve and learn from our mistakes this past week, of which there were plenty to go around,” Thacker said.
Duke is not nearly as explosive as Pitt, although the Blue Devils lead the ACC in rushing yards (224.6 yards per game) and have a running back in Mataeo Durant whom Thacker and Collins both compared with Tech running back Jahmyr Gibbs. After a drubbing, the Jackets defense faces another test of its resilience.
“One of our big focuses this week is how do we learn from the tough day,” Thacker said. “That’s the ultimate goal.”
