Why Georgia Tech Will Lose Clean Old Fashioned Hate Game
After a thrilling 30-27 overtime win against Virginia, Georgia Tech travels to Sanford Stadium to face the 5th ranked Georgia Bulldogs.
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have won 6 of their last 7 games including the most recent 30-27 victory over Virginia in overtime. Now, this resilient team will travel to Sanford Stadium, where they have had recent success winning the last 2 and 3 of the last 5 at Sanford Stadium.
Clean Old Fashioned Hate almost always provides a great game with only 2 of the games in the last 10 years having a margin larger than 14. Unfortunately, one of those came last year with Georgia winning 38-7 in Bobby Dodd Stadium. The good news is that Georgia Tech is a MUCH better team than last year. The bad news? Georgia is a very similar team.
This is the second part in this series. For why Georgia Tech will win, CLICK HERE
Why Georgia Tech Will Lose: Passing Defense
Virginia carved Georgia Tech’s defense for 273 yards through the air on Saturday. The problem isn’t with how many yards, although allowing over 250 passing yards is a problem, it’s how they were given up. Georgia Tech has had an aggressive defense this year in the form of turnovers but unfortunately most of the game, Nate Woody opts for conservative play calling.
Virginia averaged about 12 yards a completion but unfortunately almost all of them were completed 8-10 yards down the field. Woody opted, as usual, to play Tech’s corners 7-10 yards off in a soft zone but he also rarely blitzed. This soft zone is getting tiring as teams can easily dink and dunk until they score.
Georgia Tech has a good defense when used correctly. The soft zone and constant non-blitzing kills this defense. On 2 of the 3 Virginia drives where they didn’t score a point, Georgia Tech was aggressive.
They not only blitzed but also played man coverage on the receivers. That aggressiveness from Nate Woody paid off and should be used more vs. Georgia. Georgia is a good passing team (even though rushing is their specialty) so Georgia will need to put pressure on Jake Fromm and make him make plays.
Tech’s defense has been phenomenal this year at stopping the run. Currently ranked 40th in the nation while only allowing 137 yards, Tech will need to at least contain Georgia’s 10th ranked rushing offense in check. If they do that, Georgia Tech will force Georgia to throw. Unfortunately, that could spell disaster for Tech if Nate Woody continues to play the soft zone and call conservative defense.
Why Georgia Tech Will Lose: Home-Field Advantage
Tech boasts a 5-2 record on the road this season but will face it’s hardest road tests yet this Saturday. Not only does Tech have to play the 1-loss UGA team, the game will be played at Sanford Stadium. The 92,000 capacity stadium is consistently sold out as well as loud so it will be a huge test. Georgia Tech visited Lane Stadium earlier this year and even though it isn’t as big as Sanford Stadium,Lane Stadium is consistently in the top 15 of most intimidating along with Sanford Stadium. That atmosphere didn’t seem to intimidate Georgia Tech though as they destroyed Virginia Tech 49-28.
Fortunately, Paul Johnson and Georgia Tech have won the last 2 as well as 3 of the last 5 at Sanford Stadium. With great senior leaders, Georgia Tech shouldn’t be intimidated but it’s possible the crowd becomes a factor in this game.
While all signs point to a Georgia blowout victory, I don’t expect a blowout like last year. In fact, I expect this game to come down to the wire, or at least the 4th quarter. Bias aside, I still think Georgia wins it but it could get close due to the reasons I stated but also the fact that Georgia could be looking ahead to the SEC Championship.
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