Georgia Tech had several chances to beat another ranked ACC team on the road, but they shot themselves in the foot with a short call on fourth down, a fumble returned for a touchdown, a blocked field goal to end the game, and a painful penalty for hitting the kicker on Louisville’s final attempt, resulting in a 31-19 loss and Georgia Tech is now 3-2 as they head into their bye week.
Following the game, head coach Brent Key will be available to speak to the media and we’ll give you all the lowdown.
Opening statement…
“Okay, well, the winner is Coach Brohm of Louisville. Anytime you go on the road in a league game, you can’t play sloppy and make big mistakes like we did. And then you’re minus-six defensive touchdowns in the first half, you score a touchdown on a blocked field goal, you’re down 14. And then, most of the time, watching from the sidelines, watching the tape, I think most of the time, a lot of our guys played hard, but playing hard isn’t enough, right? You’ve got to play smart, right? There were times I thought we didn’t play smart football as well as we could. So that’s what happens on the road and you make mistakes that end up costing you.”
1. On why they couldn’t run the ball, especially in short-yardage situations…
“Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t just a little bit. I mean, the number of yards we had to go was fewer. And I don’t know how many yards it was, 35 and 40. So two of those fourth downs, one was inches. And whether they have six, eight, 12 guys at the line of scrimmage, you’ve got to be able to move them and not let them get in. Going into the bye week, we’ve got to address that. With two losses, we’ve got to address that. We had two chances on fourth-and-1, to keep the chains up and keep the game going. We’ve got to address that. We’ve got a plan to address that and get better.”
2. On some decisions on fourth down…
Well, the first one was, we went back to get a little better angle for the kick. Yeah, I mean, we had to get the points. And, you know, the way the game was playing out, it felt like that gave us the best chance. And if we didn’t get the points, they had to go 99 yards. And we had a chance to keep the ball and get it back. So, it was a rational decision.”
3. On Haynes King’s turnover that led to a touchdown and whether his throwing the ball was part of the play…
“Oh, we had a little read-option type play and we pulled it. And, you know, nobody ran it, he threw it behind the receiver. They had the bat and they pointed the bat at the ball. You know, when you run a play like that, you can’t throw it forward while running, so you have to throw it behind, you have to get the ball in your hands and there’s a live ball coming. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Well, he wasn’t just trying to identify it. No, no, that was wrong.”
4. On the offensive line not being able to move the line of scrimmage…
“No, it depends on the play. It depends on the front. As a head coach, I coach every position. It doesn’t matter if my background is DB, receiver, quarterback or offensive line. I mean, as a head coach, you have a fourth down, one yard opportunity. The expectation is to make sure they can get it. And then, like I said, secondly, it depends on the play. So sometimes you have issues moving guys, sometimes you don’t hit the ball in the right spot on the landmark, sometimes you have a guy on the backside. But at the end of the day, none of that matters. At the end of the day, what matters is getting done, getting the job done, not getting the job done and two of those things are not getting the job done.”
5. The offensive line must not allow sacks…
“No, I mean, there were blitzes, for sure, but the biggest thing was, you’re closer, you’re more pressure, you’re louder, and it just depends on how important the football is. They had some good players, so at the end of the day, you just had to do your job. Like I said before, sometimes a sack, or maybe not a sack, it’s not just about one position or one guy. I mean, Haynes is good at manipulating those things, negotiating them, breaking free. But some plays we had, there was pressure that we could have made a clean play or had a chance to make a throw without it.”
6. Why did the mental mistake happen?
“No, it’s just…yeah, I don’t think there was a game where we didn’t have mental mistakes. But playing smart, when you go into a big conference game on the road, you don’t try to do more than you’re going to do or try to get out of it. If you get emotional, it ruins your fundamentals, your technique, and it really comes down to defense, our defense versus their offense. I mean, they had some explosive passes, but if we put in the work or played the right technique, maybe that wouldn’t happen.”
7. On leading your team to continuous victory
“It’s hard to win, yeah, of course we know that. Every game is hard to win and of course this game is no exception. So they didn’t change their goal. They didn’t change what we were trying to do and what we’re working on now.”
8. Freshman Isaiah Canyon played today and Christian Leary wasn’t on the team…
“Yeah, Isaiah’s a freshman that’s really coming on. He was a danger at my school when he got here earlier this year. He’s going to come back full speed and be a good football player on our team, and he’s earned his chance to get in there. Along with Christian, I wish him the best of luck. He’s no longer on the football team for personal reasons.”
9. On what happened on the blocked field goal that resulted in a touchdown…
“Yeah, I mean, we plugged the edge. I’ll look into it and see exactly what it was. But at the end of the day, it’s not any one person’s problem. It’s my responsibility. I take responsibility for that. And I take responsibility for improving.”
