OK, we wanted annihilation and only got a closely fought victory. Winning by fifty or winning by seven all counts the same in the win column, but close battles give keyboard warriors like myself something to get all worked up about before the next game against our version of the 800-pound gorilla. Most importantly, that’s EIGHT straight games over the Tri-Lambs (would be nine if they didn’t run away during the COVID year) and they’re losing approximately 90% of their offensive production with Haynes King’s exhausted eligibility following 13 years of college football. On to the grades…

Quarterback: D+

• I hate doing it, but that was not Gunner’s finest hour. When Kirby Smart publicly says, “It obviously wasn’t very good…” about Gunner’s performance, that’s very telling. I’m willing to bet there were some things Bobo could have done to put Gunner in better positions (more on that later), but that was tough to watch after seeing Gunner play so well in other big games this year. His first drive looked promising with a couple of runs for first downs, but the interception was of the really bad variety and things never improved from there. 11/21 for 70 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT is a bad line by any standards…but against one of the worst P4 defenses we played all year, that’s not going to get it done in tougher games. I don’t know if the pick got in his head and he played tight the rest of the game, but he seemed to be seeing ghosts out there for the final three quarters. He’s given us a big enough sample of great games over the course of the season, so I’m not going to believe he’s only as good as his last game. Let’s call this game an exception to the rule and he’s ready to ball out against the Tide this week.         

Running Back: B

• It was a tale of two halves. We got “Mississippi State” Frazier in the first half and he looked poised to put up about 200 yards for the day. McCray even had a couple of decent totes in the first half. Then, Bobo went down and the ground game went down with it. Maybe it was a perfect storm for Tech’s defense…they saw Gunner was off his game, we’re already one dimensional before our Center goes down, so play a run heavy defense…just a theory. We got almost nothing outside of Frazier and McCray…save one Cash Jones carry that barely eeked out an important first down. Biggest takeaway I have is that Frazier is looking like an All SEC back when he gets a little blocking. I’m a little disappointed (not surprised) that we didn’t throw in 2-3 special package plays for Dwight Lightning against a bad Tech defense…feels like he could have hit on an explosive or two.             

Offensive Line – C-

• See above on a tale of two halves. The running game looked good to great in the first half and Gunner had some time to throw (even if he wasn’t playing great). I won’t put the missed first half scoring opportunities on the OL, so solid effort there. Once Bobo went down, the entire complexion changed. There was no room to run and we couldn’t move the ball through the air. This Georgia Tech defense should have never had 7 TFL’s and 2 Sacks, yet they did. I’ll give Toliver a little less criticism due to lack of experience and playing time in big games, but it is what it is. I believe it was Gaston who completely missed an assignment that resulted in one of Tech’s sacks. Couple of false start penalties that hurt down and distance…just a bad effort in the second half. I’d bet Bobo is a no go for the rest of the year, so they’ll need to solve this puzzle…very quickly.   

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – Incomplete

• I don’t like doing this and know it’s a copout, but I couldn’t tell you how this group performed because they were seldom involved from a statistical production standpoint. Tight ends caught zero passes (one target?) and WR’s caught all of 7 balls on the afternoon with 5 of those going to Branch and 2 to Bell. I don’t have good enough game footage to know if we had receivers running open that Gunner wasn’t hitting, or if these guys were not getting separation. I’m generally not concerned about the blocking efforts of this group, they’re generally strong in this area. It felt like the first half gameplan was to beat Tech on the ground and the defense was allowing that, but when that was taken away in the second half, Gunner couldn’t elevate this group’s production. Credit to Sacovie White for a nice 15 yard punt return…he seems like he’ll be a good option for this when Branch is no longer with us (insert sad face emoji).    

Defensive Line – A

• Candidate for most improved position group from the beginning of the year to present. Gabe Harris was phenomenal and looked like Travon Walker on Tech’s first series…explosive as hell and made two big plays in a row (that was a Safety that didn’t get called). Christen Miller was winning battles, getting pressure and earned a sack on the afternoon. JJA seems to get better every game and has been a disruptive influence…same can be said of Elijah Griffin. Guys like McLeod have been steady and Ogboko seems to have carved out some solid playing time. I think the most important thing with this group is to look at one of the games from earlier in the season (e.g. Tennessee or Bama) and compare it to Texas or Georgia Tech…looks like a completely different group. They’re consistently getting pressure and being disruptive…can’t be a coincidence that our secondary play has also improved as the DL has picked up performance.    

Linebackers – A         

• This group has been a consistent force the past several weeks. Quintavious Johnson would be a candidate for most improved player on the team from the beginning of the season to present…physical as hell and having a bigger impact on games both in statistical and non-statistical fashion. Raylen Wilson had an important shoestring tackle on a Haynes King run and HUGE solo tackle to force Tech into a FG attempt in the first half. Another productive day for Chris Cole making tackles and assisting on a TFL. Credit to CJ Allen for being tougher than Mick Foley for starting a game less than two weeks removed from surgery. Bottom line, no touchdowns allowed on the day against one of the best offenses in the country…hard to do a lot better than that.       

Defensive Backs – A

• Yep, the entire defense balled out on Saturday. The highlight had to be the Ellis Robinson interception…is he turning into a shutdown corner? Great post from fellow GTP Refugee teammate eethomaswfnc yesterday showing how great Ellis has been following the tough outings against Tennessee and Alabama…essentially the most efficient CB in the conference since those games. We got word that Daniel Harris will be entering the portal (seriously, best of luck to him and hope he plays great wherever he lands) and I don’t think anyone would second guess that decision based on the play of Ellis and Demello…should we pull a “Gurshall” with these guys next year and just call them Demellis? KJ Bolden had a huge statistical day and Jacorey/Branch held down the other Safety spot adequately. If I want to nitpick…giving up a 30-yard completion on 3^rd and long with Tech backed up on their goal line, that pissed me off a little (especially considering it was Seither) and think it was KJ who got caught out of position on that one. The Aguero DPI call was frustrating as hell and he just never seems comfortable in one-on-one coverage situations…still not sure it was DPI because the contact looked very light and don’t think it influenced anything, but close call either way. I’m not going to overthink it…these dudes are playing their best ball as a unit and like the LB group, not a touchdown allowed all day to a damn good offense with a damn good quarterback…great day.      

Special Teams – A+

• Woodring is more Automatic than Weaver D’s. 3/3 on FG attempts and every single one of them mattered a lot…especially the 50 yarder that pushed it back to a two score game when our offense was looking awful. He has missed all of ONE FG this year…and SEVEN in three years as our starting kicker. He’s a certified badass…and no kickoffs out of bounds either. Thorpedo got his mojo back with 4 punts that averaged 51 yards, with a long of 61 and no punts were returned…good to have the Aussie back on his game going into the postseason. I mentioned Sacovie’s solid punt return, and the lone Tech kickoff return attempt was botched for a mere 2-yard gain. Can’t do better than that.     

Offensive Coaching – C- (or D+)

• I’ve stated before that I’m neither a Bobo hater, nor a Bobo apologist. He’s put together some great games this year, and he’s missed the mark on some games this year. Chalk this one up to the latter. I’ll give some leniency to Bobo in that Gunner was off his game and his offspring was out in the 2^nd half. But, Georgia Tech’s defense has been lousy for the last several games. NC State put up 48 points against this defense…hell, Boston College put up 36 against this defense. News flash, our offense is better than either of those squads. Let’s get to the list of grievances. The 2-minute drive play calls and clock management was abysmal. When something was working (like Frazier slaughtering Tech in the first half), we don’t stick with it until they stop it, or we sub out the hot hand, or get cute with some sort of reverse that goes for nothing. If we’re ever in 3^rd and long inside our 30-yard line, every defense can plan on one of two plays…inside run or WR screen…and they know it’s coming…can we at least try a different risk averse play? Another frustration (just my observation), this is at least the third game of the season where our offense has looked bad and Kirby has said, “They were playing a lot of Drop 8…” Do we not have any kind of solution for a “Drop 8” defensive game plan? Surely, we must have something in the playbook that can take advantage of that defensive approach? And finally, is it me, or do a lot of Bobo’s play calls seem to be very long developing and depend heavily on the OL providing protection for longer than normal? I don’t know this for sure…maybe some of this is on Gunner not playing confidently, maybe it really is on Bobo. What I do know is we could only produce 260 yards and 16 points against a very bad defense…and had early opportunities to bust the game wide open and didn’t.     

Defensive Coaching – A

• Take a look at everything above for the offensive coaching and go the exact opposite way. For all of Tech’s faults on defense, their offense is damn good and Schumann and company absolutely shut them down. No touchdowns, only 9 points and 250 total yards surrendered. Whatever light turned on for the DL, the entire defense has kicked ass since that moment. The pressure on Haynes was consistent, we shut down their running game, gave up only a few explosives, grabbed a highlight interception…basically cut Tech’s offense almost in half from their normal yardage output, and way under their average PPG. If we can keep up this kind of defensive performance in the postseason, I would not want to play Georgia.

Lane Kiffin Drama – A+

• Do I really need to go into detail here? Whatever security detail they’re planning for Lane Kiffin on that trip to Ole Miss next year…just go ahead and double it.       

I said a couple of weeks ago that I wanted another shot at Bama in the SECCG…knowing it was a little bit insane/delusional to wish that. Well, looks like I got my wish. I’m not so bold as to make a prediction (yet) on this one because they do seem to have some sort of voodoo curse against us (save the 1/10/2022 National Championship game…or as I like to call it, the greatest night of my life). What I will offer is our team is better than they were in late September. Our offense (while it sucked against Tech) has improved and shown what they’re capable of in big games (Ole Miss, MSU, Texas). Our defense has been peaking these past few games and Simpson has shown some vulnerability when pressured. I get those who argue it would have been better for us to avoid the SECCG…but any week with a big Georgia game isn’t a bad week, right? We’ve eventually gotta beat these a**holes, right? Might as well be this Saturday!

Go Dawgs!