Disappointment Again--Tech Falls To Boston College
The beat goes on. Once again, Georgia Tech followed an unexpected win (the Miracle in Miami) with an unexpected loss. This time the Boston College Eagles were the beneficiaries of yet another dormant spell that seems to befall Tech each week for a variable amount of time. Each team came into this game with a 3-3 record. Each team was coming off a bye week. Tech’s defense had an extra week to.prepare for QB Thomas Castellanos and company. Tech’s offense had extra time to consider how to attack BC’s mediocre defense. You would not have guessed that by the results.
In this most recent episode, dormancy artived in the form of 21 unanswered 4th quarter points by Boston College, a splurge that swallowed the 6 point margin Tech had established near the end of the 3rd period. The Eagles rushed for approximately 150 yards in the 4th qtr alone, taking their game total to 300 and showing once again that Tech’s leaky run defense is a major ongoing problem, appatently without respect to who is the defensive coordinator.
Post-game , Brent Key displayed a mixture of disappointment, annoyance and resolve. He said ” You can’t play a game like that”, This came in concert with his assertion that Tech had played several plays “,,.. with 10 guys on the field”, He did not give much detail as to how or why that happened, but he mentioned it in response to questions about the defensive performance falling off in the 4th quarter.
He did not feel that a missed PAT by the Jackets late in the 3rd quarter carried any psychological effect. That play left the Tech lead at 23-17. From there, it was all BC as the Eagles posted three touchdowns to win going away.
BC’ s two biggest weapons were QB Thomas Castellanos and RB Kyle Robichaux. Together they ran for 293 yards on only 34 carries, with 4 touchdowns. That’s an unfathomable 8.6 yards per carry. Hence Key’s statement that you can’t play a game like that. Hard to argue with that statement. Granted, those averages were puffed up by some long runs. Even so, BC had little trouble moving the ball on the ground and it actually got worse in the final period when Tech QB Haynes King threw an interception and Tech lost a fumble.
Tech’s 3 possessions in the 4th quarter ended with interception, punt, fumble, all while BC scored 3 times and then ran the clock out on their final possession.
Key was reticent to criticize his QB King, pointing out that ” all interceptions are not the quarterback’s fault, and noting that King “made some plays with his legs”.
Both true statements, certainly, though Tech’s offense went ice cold in the final period and King’s play did not change that.
Meanwhile, his counterpart Castellanos was quite effective via the pass- 17 of 29 for 255 yards. All of that led to the Eagles collecting 563 yards of total offense and scoring 38 points. This from a team that got 24 points vs N Illinois, and 27 vs Holy Cross and Army.
But against the Jackets they looked like a juggernaut. Key and his players denied a lack.of effort, and Key made some remarks about plans to “,, build this thing the way it should be built”. Might that be a soft way to say ” We are good with our plan and our planners, we just need better players”?
Maybe so. Detailed answers seem in short supply. But there’s hope for Tech fans. Tech will be underdogs in at least 3 of their next 5 games. So…maybe?
Now Key and his troops face a steep uphill climb to accomplish a 6-6 record and possibly get a bowl bid. At 3-4, Tech needs to go 3-2 or better and they still face UNC, Clemson and Georgia– along with Virginia and Syracuse.
Only time will tell. And while TechWorld can say the football has not been great, no one can say it’s been predictable.
Patrick Conarro
