Tech fall just short in a slugfest with #6 Clemson

CLEMSON, SC- Georgia Tech entered Saturday’s game as a four-touchdown underdog and came just a few yards shy of upsetting in the #6 team in the country falling 14-8 in a weather-delayed Saturday afternoon game that turned into a nighttime ACC showdown. The Jackets were railroaded last year in Bobby Dodd Stadium to the tune of 73-7 so Saturday’s result and chances to win the game showed how much progress Geoff Collins team has made three games into his third season on the Flats.

“Our guys battled,” Collins said after the game. “They fought, I’m so proud of that locker room, obviously the goal was to come here and win. But they battled from the opening snap till the very final whistle. Now we've got to turn around and we've got a really good opponent (UNC) in seven days at Mercedes Benz stadium. That team that played tonight. They can play with anybody, and I’m just really proud of them, and just we got to find out how we can respond and put this behind us and learn from it.”

Tech matched the total offensive output of Clemson’s first two foes, #2 Georgia who scored three points on offense, and South Carolina state who had just a field goal. The Tech offense was two for three in the red zone and should’ve had a touchdown in the first half, but a phantom holding call wiped out a score by Jahmyr Gibbs on a long catch and run.

“Just the size the attitude, the demeanor, the fight, the attention to detail, the willingness to compete toe to toe, is what we need in this program. And now we've got to find the next step to win those kinds of games against an opponent like this,” Collins said.

The Jackets actually outgained the Clemson offense 309 to 285 and Tech quarterback Jordan Yates accounted for much of the offense in his second career start passing for 203 yards on 20 of 33 passing while heralded Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei was just 18 for 25 for 126 yards. Clemson’s run defense was the real difference in the game as they held Tech to just 106 yards on 39 rushes in the game.

“They're a really tough defense, really well-coached, real discipline and you never really catch them in blown coverage or missing an assignment. So overall, there's really good defense,” Yates said. “I think the offense played really hard, of course, there's some plays we'd like back, and some mistakes, we'd like back but I think overall we're showing improvement each week.”

Yates got the nod over incumbent starter Jeff Sims after a week of competition between the two quarterbacks. He liked the way the offense ran on Saturday though they had to work to move the sticks against the tough Clemson defense.

“I want to say I found out on Tuesday or Wednesday I was going to get the start,” Yates said. “I think at that point the urgency kicked up a little bit. I think throughout the game tonight we played with great tempo and pace and we were aggressive all the time, but we had to change it up a little when we were down.”

Offensively, Kyric McGowan continued to play well with four catches for 82 yards including a 35-yard catch. McGowan gave credit to Yates for the success in the offense had on Saturday.

“Really proud of the way you know Jordan’s playing. The confidence he's playing with, him having that confidence in the pocket only makes us more confident out there on the perimeter,” McGowan said. “I’m glad the way he stepped up and made plays when he needed to today. We have all the trust in him and all the trust in the rest of our quarterbacks.”

In a twist from the normal 4-2-5 effort-based defense Tech has employed for two years-plus on the Flats, the Jackets switched to a 3-3-5 look with one defensive tackle, two ends, three linebackers and the normal five defensive backs.

Coach Thack and our defensive staff did a lot of studying this offseason with our personnel on what we can do, who we can be. We practice that package a bunch throughout the preseason, but didn't really feel like it was game ready in games one and games two,” Collins said. “Then once the guys were really confident in playing it so we rolled it out there tonight. And, you know, they did a really nice job with it. So just continue to layer in all the different things that we do schematically, but I thought coach Andrew Thacker did a great job preparing our defense scheming up their offense and getting the guys to play really hard.”

Charlie Thomas who had back-to-back big games defensively had 12 tackles on Saturday at the SAM linebacker spot in the new-look D.

“I’m playing more of an overhang position in that defense. We have three linebackers on the field,” Thomas said. “Just basically we got to get more speed on the field so we can get to the ball faster, play right and just mix it up.”

The game ultimately came down to red zone execution and Tech was two-for-three but hit two field goals and had a turnover on downs while Tech’s defense held Clemson to two touchdowns and two non-scores on their four trips in the red zone.

“Just so we're all on the same page that's one of the best defenses in college football. Right,” Collins said.” They're really good, they've got really good players and they have a really nice scheme. I don't think they've allowed a touchdown all season. I thought our guys battled and fought, and we had some really explosive plays which you don't see very often when you see teams play them. Coach Patenaude and our offensive staff had some good things designed and did some things in the third and fourth quarter to change it up.”

Coming off the loss last year there was a real pride factor of the Tech defense that had given up a 100-plus points in the last two meetings between the teams.

“We really wanted to show everybody what we can be,” junior linebacker Quez Jackson said. “Last year we really didn’t show that and we wanted to come out here and put on a better show and compete. We expected to win. We didn’t come in here just trying to do what we could to be in the game. I feel like our defense played good and unfortunately, things didn’t go our way, but we are going to come back tomorrow and get this win in the Benz.”

Clemson jumped out to a 7-0 lead after stalling on their open driving, punting to Tech and downing the ball inside the five. Tech picked up a first down but then had a penalty and a sack to force a punt out of their own end zone. That led to a short touchdown drive for the Tigers riding Will Shipley to take a 7-0 lead.

The Tech defense held Clemson at the 18-yard line forcing a turnover on downs on a fourth and two play to keep points off the board. The Tigers went 43 yards on 13 plays before the turnover on downs.

Tech had the first sustained drive of the game coming off the turnover on downs going 38 yards on nine plays before stalling out at the Clemson 43. The Jackets got another shot after a three and out for the Tigers and the Jackets drove down to the Clemson 17 with 32 seconds left before lightning was detected in the area and the game entered a weather delay. The Jackets had a touchdown called back three plays before the delay on a Jahmyr Gibbs catch and run down the sideline. There was a phantom hold called against Tech that negated the touchdown. The delay was one hour and fifty-two minutes. Tech drove down to the five before having to settle for a short field goal by Brent Cimaglia to cut the Clemson lead to 7-3 to end the half. Tech drove 66 yards on 14 plays.

Clemson started a long drive at their own 17 going 12 plays and 69 yards before Ja’Quez Jackson punched out the ball from quarterback DJ Uiagalelei and Myles Sims came up with the ball in the first forced turnover of the day to start the fourth quarter.

“I knew they had two downs to get the first down so I had to bump up my alignment and I knew we as a defense had to bow our necks and come up with a stop,” Jackson said. Everybody did their job, the frontline, and I was able to get over and across and had a free shot at the quarterback and I did what we do every day in the tackling circuit, just made the tackle and fortunately it was a forced fumble and we were able to recover it.”

Tech stalled out on the ensuing drive with a three and out and Clemson drove the length of the field on the next series converting on a third and long on a quarterback draw. Tariq Carpenter was ejected for targeting with 8:46 left in the game.

Cimaglia hit his second field goal of the game with 1:19 left in the game after Tech drove 70 yards on 16 plays taking up almost seven minutes of clock.

Jude Kelley’s onside kick got recovered by Malachi Carter. Tech drove down to the Clemson one-yard line before turning it over on downs when a shovel pass got stopped just a few inches from the end zone. The Tech defense then forced a safety with 7 seconds left to make it 14-8.