Georgia Tech Gift Wraps A Win
A Good-Not-Great Louisville Team Is Savvy Enough To Accept Tech's Generosity
It was former Pittsburgh Steeler coach, the late Chuck Noll, who said.." The first thing you have to do to win a game is to not lose it". Sounds so simple. But games like Georgia Tech's loss to Louisville show how hard it can be. Tech actively lost the game. Which is a shame.
Because make no mistake, this was a big game. Of course, you say. They're all big! But this is one of those games that will haunt Tech players, coaches and fans in the rear view mirror at season's end. Because it easily could have gone the other way.
It's too easy to blame this gift 12-point loss solely on two here-you-go touchdowns and PAT' s. But those two scores were pivotal. And 100% preventable. The first was an ill- conceived and poorly executed run / pass option that Tech QB Haynes King improvised into a jump/ overhand lateral, one that a Lousiville DB tipped into the Tech end zone where it was recovered by the Cardinals' Ramon Puryear for six points . The play call was curious, on 3rd down deep in your own end. The execution was flat-out "un-Haynes King - like", given his generally safer play in 2024 versus a year ago. No matter. It counts as a gift.
The second was even worse mathematically speaking as it represented a 10 point swing. An Aidan Birr FG attempt was blocked/ recovered and then returned 55 yards for a score by Louisville DB Tayon Holloway. Gift.
Coming into the day, Tech had plenty to be concerned about. Louisville's potent offense and stingy defense seemed to match up well with Tech's strengths. And yet when all was said and done, Tech did fairly well in the stat sheet– meaning they held the Cardinals' vaunted running game in check, and they crafted another productive passing day for King and his wideouts. King hit 21 of 32 passes for 312 yards, with no scores but also with no picks. And he did hit several big throws to Eric Singleton and Malik Rutherford who combined for 12 catches for 201 yards.
Tech out- gained Louisville, out- rushed them, out- possessed them and once again did not allow QB King to be sacked. The one glaring weakness was – again- the Jackets' pass defense. Glaring . Tech had no sacks and only a few hurries.
The result was that Louisville QB Tyler Shough averaged 20 yards per completion. Per completion! That's hard to do even in a passing drill in practice. And that type of spectacular passing success more than compensated for the firm control Tech had on the Cardinals' run game. (They rushed 24 times for only 63 yards).
To be clear, Louisville also played erratically at times . The most obvious example was a safety "scored" by their QB Tyler Shough when he slid down in his own endzone while dropping back to pass. Tech could do effectively little with the gift possession though, and in fact did not score again in the game.
Brent Key was measured in his post game remarks, emphasizing how hard it is to win a road game when you make glaring mistakes, which he euphemized to "...sloppy football at times."
Louisville coach Jeff Boehm summed things up well, saying " We were definitely tested in a back-and-forth game with a lot of momentum swings."
It was an odd contest in many ways, and there certainly were several momentum swerves that bordered on whiplash.
For example– Tech scored first on a Haynes King 27 yard run up the middle. This came after Tech had blocked a Louisville FG attempt. The Jackets held Louisville on their next possession and got the ball back on what would then become Gift #1. 7-7 at that point.
A few minutes later Tyler Shough found a wide open Chris Bell on a crossing route . Bell caught it in stride and was so wide open he looked to be under quarantine. He cruised into the endzone without being challenged. Louisville added another score on a short field goal before kicking off to Tech with a 10-point lead and just under two minutes left.
From there Haynes King engineered a fine drive, taking Tech 75 yards 10 plays in 1:52 to score on a 1 yard plunge by Jamal Haynes. Thus the half time score showed the Cardinals up only three points which felt like a mental boost to Tech.
But the Jackets would score only five more points in the entire second half. They moved the ball and had their chances, going for a fourth down conversion a whopping five times in the game, of which they converted three. There was only one turnover, the aforementioned rugby play fumble toss by Tech's QB that gave the Cards a score. And Aidan Birr hit only one of two field goal attempts--and that's not counting the one that was blocked.
In the end, Tech was a tired and frustrated team that lost a game that it could have won. QB King reminded all that",, its a game of inches".
This is the type of team performance that Brent Key has been looking to excise from his team's habits–and so the search for consistency goes on.
Georgia Tech has a welcome bye week next, followed by a home date with Duke. The Jackets are suddenly 1-2 in the ACC and the giddy days of late August following the win over FSU in Ireland seem to be long ago.
And the ACC seems much different than anticipated. FSU is down. Virginia Tech is middle of the road. Duke is up. NC State is down. Given all the parity ( Miami excepted, so far), there is plenty left for Georgia Tech to achieve . They are 3-2 with five ACC games left, along with Notre Dame and Clarke County.
To do better next time, Tech must fix its suddenly anemic running game and must– MUST- find a way to at least occasionally pressure the opposing quarterback.
Without those two remedies, the year could go sour. That's unlikely to happen, but the trick is not in the saying. It's in the doing.
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports.com