Initial Reactions to Georgia Tech's Loss to MTSU

You know, it's really hard to write an article talking about this game when most of the game had me speechless. Maybe I'll just use someone else's words instead. Vince Lombardi may have said it best when he once so philosophically remarked,

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE?!"

As much as that probably sounds like it's meant to be a bit of a joke (which it is), it really does apply to this team. The stadium today was empty (reported attendance under 40,000....no, that's not a typo), the team came out flat, and put on a straight up miserable performance.

Tevin Washington played a mediocre game at best, especially when it came to passing. A lot of his passes were on target, yes, but had no steam whatsoever on them, resulting in receivers getting lit up as soon as they caught the ball (sometimes forcing a drop). At one point Jeff Greene was wide open down the field for a pass, only to have Tevin underthrow the ball, at which point Greene came back to get the ball, got lit up, and the ball bounced into the hands of a Blue Raider defender. That was just the kind of afternoon it was -- one where our team missed opportunity after opportunity.

On this afternoon, the Tech defense was the talk of the town in the worst way imaginable. The one glaring issue was missed tackles -- Quayshawn Nealy mentioned in a postgame interview that he thought they missed over 25 tackles in the first half alone. A little while ago I saw a replay of a touchdown run from Benny Cunningham where he appeared to break about 3 tackles over the course of a 25 yard carry. The thing is, he didn't break any tackles, because no tackles were really attempted. I don't think any of the guys he ran into made any remote use of their arms in a way that would allow them to wrap him up.

A lot of eyes are being turned to our coaching staff right now. The fans are ready to light a few torches and form an angry mob en route to seeing that Al Groh is fired, it seems. Some even want Coach Johnson out. I always try to stay reasonable about firing coaches at the first sign of struggles, but even I can't help but think that Coach Groh has done himself no favors in the last 6 games Georgia Tech's played, with 4 of them being losses that defensive breakdowns have contributed heavily to. I don't think Groh will be fired before season's end, regardless of results, but if nothing improves before then, his time on the Flats may be a lot shorter than we thought it would be.

The fans have become restless. With Georgia Tech sitting at 2-5 in their last 7 games, there's not a lot of reason to feel confident about this group going forward. I want to be confident and consider this game an outlier, but it's so hard to be confident in a group that can't win games it's supposed to. With a loss to MTSU, the Yellow Jackets leave September with 3 losses already. Want to hear something scary? We have 7 games left, and have to win 4 of them to go to a bowl game. Think we'll beat Clemson? Think we'll beat georgia? Think we'll beat BYU? Hell, think we'll beat Duke? I don't know what to think any more, outside of the fact that if we don't make a bowl game that the season will have been a complete and total failure.

This article's a bit ramble-y, and I apologize for that, but my thoughts are just so scattered after such a befuddling loss. Who would have guessed that we would lose to MTSU by 3 touchdowns? We need to get this season back on the rails, pronto, before all is lost.

What are your thoughts? Trying to join the mob that wants Al Groh's head? Trying to start a mob that wants Johnson's head? Think we'll make a bowl game?