The Main Event

My initial thought after Thursday night's game was that we severely regressed. After re-watching the game I've come to the conclusion that my seat high up in the south end zone and a morning, afternoon and evening of tailgating clouded my judgement.

Let me be cliché for a moment–that game was a heavyweight grudge match and Georgia Tech took the opening rounds. On their first two drives the 'Reck took the ball and bullied us down the field for 138 yards and two touchdowns. I knew Georgia Tech would get their yards, but we had to make them earn them. Their first drive was methodical, but we gave up the big play, again, the second time around.

A few guys were responsible for that gaping hole, but Kyle Fuller (who played most of the day at whip) got his jock turned around by Joshua Nesbitt mashing down on the L2 button.

Down 14-0 I thought our prospects for winning were bleak. The defense was struggling, the offensive line was playing mediocre, and Al Groh was proving that he was indeed a Bill Parcells' disciple. But then we began battling back.

Out first scoring drive featured Ryan Williams gobbling up yards. He took a screen pass 9 yards out of a nifty little bunch formation that I hadn't seen Stinespring run before.

He then added carries of carries of 8, 10, 2 and 1 yards before scoring on a 4-yard stretch play to the left pylon.

Credit Danny Coale for throwing a beautiful block that sealed off the edge on the score to start the second quarter.

Even though he looked beastly, Williams was pretty much absent from the remainder of the game plan (3 more touches for 0 total yards). It didn't look like he re-aggravated his hamstring. I think his lack of play was a combination of the coaches being cautious with overusing him, and Evans and Wilson performing at a high level. Or maybe they are being more true to their weird and giving each back a more equitable amount of reps.

The next 30 minutes of game play went back-and-forth. Both teams moved the ball, but neither could put points on the board. Tyrod threw a bad, bad, bad interception on 3rd and goal that could have been three points. Georgia Tech played a max zone and he had too much time to throw the ball. The receivers broke off their routes and Tyrod tried to fit a ball to Marcus Davis during the scramble drill.

That ball should have never been thrown.

Before the interception Tyrod was 8 of 10 for 102 yards, after he was 7 of 14 for 34 yards with a 2-yard TD pass to Andre Smith. He really hit a wall throwing the ball in the second half of the game. It was apparent Groh respected his arm, because Georgia Tech routinely dropped 7-8 guys in coverage. We tried to beat it, but couldn't. We took to the ground.

Darren Evans (68 yards) and David Wilson (39 yards) shared the bulk of the remaining carries. They took advantage of the holes and ripples in Groh's 3-4 defense. The offensive line blocked well late, as the game progressed they got a better handle on what the defense was doing. Tyrod also contributed 57 of our 198 rushing yards.

Even without Joshua Nesbitt Georgia Tech would not go away. It was actually kind of scary how well backup quarter Tevin Washington played. He handled the pressure well, made some impressive runs, put a couple of passes right on the money, and directed a scoring drive.

But David Wilson's 90-yard kickoff return was the counter blow to Georgia Tech's gut that put the Bees on the ropes.

But again, they wouldn't go down. Washington moved the 'Reck 64 yards from the GT 20 to the VT 16 in just 2 minutes and 14 seconds. With 8 seconds left he tried going to the end zone for six, but Rock Charmichael delivered the knockout blow, intercepted.

The most important thing I am going to take away from this game is we didn't fold. Our biggest rival came into our house bloodied our lip and gave us a shiner, but in the end we stood tall and answered the bell.