Saturday, October 17, 2009

3 Key Plays - VT vs. Georgia Tech

1) With 3:57 left in the first quarter, and the score still 0-0, Tyrod Taylor tried to throw an out route and Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jason Peters leapt up and got his hand on the ball which flew up into the air. Peters then supposedly made a leaping interception before the ball hit the turf. Replay seemed to indicate the ball was loose on the ground but there certainly wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call on the field which was an interception. If it would have been ruled incomplete on the field, replay wouldn't have overturned it to make it an interception. But the reason this play was key was because honestly, the 1st quarter is where this game was lost for Virginia Tech. Three separate times in the first quarter, they had a 1st and 10 inside the Georgia Tech 50 and all three times they scored zero points. While the Georgia Tech offense was self-destructing early in the game, the Hokie offense could have put points on the board and changed the ENTIRE complexion of the contest. The Jackets would have been a totally different team playing from well behind (see the Miami game earlier this year, the Jackets' only loss). But the Hokies couldn't execute early in the game and that was the difference.

2) With 8 minutes left in the game, Georgia Tech was up 21-10 and had a 2nd and 8 deep in Hokie territory on the 14 yard line. A touchdown on this drive and the Jackets would likely ice the game. But on a pitch to the RB the Jackets fumbled and the Hokies' Davon Morgan recovered the ball ending the threat. This turned the game completely around and led to a quick Hokie TD drive to make the score 21-16.

3) With the game on the line at the 3:08 mark of the 4th quarter, facing 3rd and 7 from the Hokie 39 yard line, Georgia Tech QB Josh Nesbitt kept the ball on an option play and took it to the house to make the score 28-16. On this particular play, DE Nekos Brown came crashing down on the FB Jonathan Dwyer instead of leaving that to the defensive tackles and LB Barquell Rivers. Cody Grimm played the pitch man so if Brown would have gone after the QB on the play it would have very likely been stopped short of the 1st down. I'm willing to bet Coach Paul Johnson had recognized Brown crashing down on this play several times throughout the game and told Nesbitt to keep it because from the replay it definitely does NOT look as though Nesbitt ever considered actually handing it off to Dwyer. As it was, the Jackets blocked the play very well and Nesbitt made a big play to win the game for his team.

Gut-wrenching loss. I'm totally ill.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

MadJay...ESPN's highlights of the game points out several misreads made by Kam Chancellor. Did he really play that badly or were his misreads caused by other players being out of position?

MadJay said...

I will cover this more in-depth in the review that will post tomorrow or Tuesday (I really don't have the heart to watch the game footage today to do a breakdown).

What I noticed watching the game last night was that Kam played a monster first half and Georgia Tech changed their blocking scheme (and quit running misdirection) in the 2nd half to bring a blocker down on Kam and force the linebacker on whichever side the play went to to take the QB. Yes this would leave the pitch man in a one-on-one matchup with an unblocked corner but Georgia Tech won that matchup about half the time and CPJ was obviously fine with a 50/50 shot at positive yards after how badly the first half went. Yeah it led to that turnover on a bad pitch but it also meant Georgia Tech didn't punt the entire 2nd half either.

It also led to the TD at the end when Nesbitt kept and the LB (Cody Grimm) chose to double the pitch man because there was a blocker that time out on the corner and he couldn't know if Rock Carmichael would come off of that block or not.

It still could have been stopped if Jason Worilds wouldn't have come down on Jonathan Dwyer but all credit is due to Nesbitt for simply making a great, great play. We both know if Georgia Tech was stopped at the end, the Hokies were going to score to take the lead.

I was mad at Kam for not coming off of those blocks and making plays. He is a good tackler this year and made some good hits in the first half when he wasn't being blocked, but the Jackets were able to almost eliminate him with a blocker in the 2nd half and dammit he should have won some of those battles. I wouldn't call those misreads.