Yellow Jackets Comfortably Take Down UNC
Yes, UNC was banged up, but Georgia Tech played solid football on their way to a 33-7 win. It took a little while for the offense to get going, but the defense was all over the Tar Heels right from the very beginning. Taquon Marshall was solid on the ground and KirVonte Benson had a great game as well. AJ Gray was the star on defense grabbing two picks. There were some downsides. This team continued its struggles with ball security by giving up two fumbles, one at the goal line. They also struggled through the air going just 5-10 for 53 yards, three sacks, and several scrambles.
Both the AP and Coaches polls had the Yellow Jackets ranked 28th following the win this weekend. This puts them right around teams like UCF, FSU, and Navy. That loss to Tennessee hurts because this team would likely be ranked in the top 20 had they been able to pull that game out. That loss might continue to haunt this team. I think the team is reasonably ranked.
Georgia Tech Offensive Line Injuries Testing Depth
Coming into the UNC game starting tackles Jahaziel Lee and Andrew Marshall as well as backup guard Brad Morgan were on the sideline with injuries. Then, during the game, Shamire Devine went down with an upper body injury. This led to play time for both walk-on tackle Bailey Ivemeyer and freshman guard Connor Hansen (playing his first snaps). Luckily the team is heading into the bye week so hopefully we can get some of these linemen healthy.
The AJC released their weekly report card for how the various units performed this week. I disagree with some of the rankings and feel that they were too generous. Special teams struggled once again with generally poor kickoffs and kickoff coverages and the punt team had some of the same issues. This could be something that comes back to bite this team as they play tougher competition. I also felt they were too kind to the pass offense.