A key for Georgia Tech improving its chances of defeating Virginia Tech in their ACC football game Saturday in Blacksburg, Va., will be to limit big plays.
The Yellow Jackets (3-5, 2-3 ACC) were gouged for 10 plays of at least 20 yards in Saturday’s 41-16 loss at Florida State. That was the second most allowed by the team this season. Tech allowed eight such plays two weeks ago in a loss against Virginia. That is now the third most allowed this season and is a troubling trend for a team that doesn’t have a large margin for error and has allowed 40 big plays this season.
Georgia Tech interim coach Brent Key used a 78-yard touchdown pass by FSU as an example. Had a tackle been made, or teammates been there to help, the pass would have been stopped for a 20-yard gain. Instead, neither happened. Wide receiver Johnny Wilson ran up the sideline for a touchdown in the first quarter to give the Seminoles their first touchdown. That was the first of three touchdowns by FSU on big plays.
“It’s not a fluke,” Key said of the missed tackles. “... if you do try to sugarcoat it, it’s not going to get fixed. So we have to be technical in every detail. We have to show the mistakes and things that happen.”
Tech’s coaches are working with the players this week on attacking the front hip when making a tackle. Other areas addressed are for the players to trust their practice sessions. Key said sometimes errors happen, not just on big plays made by opponents, but in other situations because players are trying to do more than they should.
“Trying to make every play or trying to make the big play,” he said.
Key stressed that no one on the Friday or Saturday before a game isn’t confident. The difference is, he said, that for the great competitors, the game slows down. Fundamentals are there. Routines are there. Execution is there. That’s especially a challenge for the younger or lesser experienced players.
“They’ve got to understand that there’s a right way or a wrong way to do things,” Key said. “Do things the wrong way, it’s going to cost you an opportunity to play.”
Virginia Tech (2-6, 1-4 ACC) has amassed 39 plays of at least 20 yards this season, including 10 on kickoff returns. And the Hokies appear to be getting hot. They posted their longest play this season on an 85-yard touchdown pass to Kaleb Smith from Grant Wells in Saturday’s 22-21 loss to N.C. State. Smith and Wells also hooked up for a 50-yard pass play in that game. Twenty-three of Virginia Tech’s big plays have come on passes.
Linebacker Charlie Thomas said he thinks that the Yellow Jackets will be better prepared Saturday.
“We missed tackles,” he said. “But, yeah, it was more so a combination of everything. We’re just trying to work on all that, working with leverage, squeezing a little bit more. It happens in football. You learn from it and move on.”
About the Author
