GT-UM HALFTIME REPORT: A Tale of Two Quarters

There's no sugarcoating it -- the first quarter was ROUGH. Tech came out flat against a physically dominant Miami team and was unable to produce anything, on either side of the ball. In the first quarter the defense only got one stop while the offense was largely ineffective. We shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly with stupid penalties and otherwise awful plays (no, we will not be speaking about that safety ever again).

Then the second quarter started with a drive assisted by a couple of Miami penalties where Tech was able to score, and a great play by the defense to force a fumble set Tech up to score again. 6 minutes into the second quarter, the game was entirely different. The once-dead crowd had come alive, the once-dead Tech sideline was more amped than I've seen them this year, and Miami was starting to shoot at their own feet. (Damn it, Joey....why THIS game in the box? You KNOW you want to be a part of the student section right now.)

We get a stop on Miami, who then punted. The punt was caught by Jamal Golden around the 20 yard line, as he was surrounded by a ton of traffic. I thought he was going to get lit up and drop the ball. Then, he didn't. Instead of getting caught up in it all, he said "Screw you, coverage team" and ran all the way down to the Miami 25. I consider it the best return of a punt off of an ill-advised catch that I've ever seen. A few plays later and the Tech offense saw Tevin carry 10 yards out of the pistol on 3rd down for a score, on a play that I didn't see coming. A 2-pt conversion put Tech up by a field goal. Just like that, in 11 minutes, Tech had gone from dead as a doornail to leading and ready to deliver the killshot.

The biggest takeaway from the first half for me was the success that our offense saw out of the pistol. Running, throwing, using different ballcarriers -- it was all working. This is a dangerous weapon in our arsenal if we can get it to work at will.

Readers, Georgia Tech started off by giving new meanings to "sloppy" and "slow", and yet leads 22-19 and would appear to have plenty of momentum on their side as they get the ball back to start the second half. How you feeling about the rest of the game?

Note from the editor: I need some bourbon...