Georgia Tech-NC State

[Galaxy]

Anyone watching tonight? Glad to see ESPN finally put on a bigger matchup (not that I don't mind watching the Mountain West, C-USA, ect), but I like the bigger matchups.

[RPI-Fan]

Anyone watching tonight? Glad to see ESPN finally put on a bigger matchup (not that I don't mind watching the Mountain West, C-USA, ect), but I like the bigger matchups.

It's not really ESPN's choice, but I agree, nice to see at least one good football team playing. :D

[BigDPW]

I love the fact that my Wolfpack will be on Thursday night 2 weeks in a row... I will be at the game in Raleigh next week against Clemson... I won't get back to Greenville until abotu 1 AM and won't be worth much at work the next day but that's OK especially if we don't have a bunch of penalties and blow that game too...

[Recoil]

Sweet. C'mon Tech. 14-10

[VPI97]

GT needs a new kicker. Bad.

[Recoil]

GT needs a new kicker. Bad.

WTF is up with Bell?

[VPI97]

Dear Lord.

[General Mike]

Chan Gailey sucks as a coach.

[Recoil]

You gotta be fucking kididng me. Eh, atleast the Braves won.

[VPI97]

Chan Gailey sucks as a coach.Yep.

[digamma]

I don't want to talk to anyone for the rest of the weekend. Luckily, my wife is out of town for the weekend.

[Recoil]

Chan Gailey sucks as a coach.

He seems like a good guy and all, but I hope this is the last season I see him at Tech.

[Wolfpack]

From a Wolfpacker's perspective, the appropriate sentiment is "Take the money and run." We definitely did not deserve that game at all. I'm still a little stunned that Johnson didn't catch that thing. He caught everything else.

[ISiddiqui]

HAW HAW!!

[Celeval]

I don't want to talk to anyone for the rest of the weekend. Luckily, my wife is out of town for the weekend.
Ditto. Unforrtunately, I"m going back into town for the weekend, so she'll be pretty upset if I don't talk to her after not being home all week.

WTF. I feel like Clemson must have felt last season.

[Celeval]

Yep.
How that? I can't see how coaching blew this one. We dropped how many passes in the first half? The call at the end was a good one, I think - if CJ catches the ball (which he should have), it was the game. Two field goals that both should have been made; the only times NC State did anything on offense were on two big plays... goddamn it, we should have won that game.

[VPI97]

How that? I can't see how coaching blew this one. We dropped how many passes in the first half? The call at the end was a good one, I think - if CJ catches the ball (which he should have), it was the game. Two field goals that both should have been made; the only times NC State did anything on offense were on two big plays... goddamn it, we should have won that game.- P.J. Daniels is one of the best running backs in the conference
- NC State's defense was on the field for 90 plays
- Reggie Ball had far more success running the ball than he did passing it.

With that said, when you get 1st and goal from the three, do you:
a) Spike the ball, then pound the ball in the middle and save your timeout for a worst case field goal
b) Spike the ball, throw a corner fade to the best wide receiver in the country who has a six inch height advantage over the defensive back
c) Spike the ball, give your high mobility, low accuracy quarterback a roll out pass/run option
or...
d) Call your timeout while the clock is stopped to move the chains and let the aforementioned low accuracy quarterback throw over the middle into double coverage.

Yes, Johnson got his hands on it, and yes, the interception was a fluky play, but IMO Chan chose the most high-risk option out of anything he could have done. GT should have scored and GT should have won. The play calling did nothing to help the team achieve that goal.

[Tekneek]

Hmmm. So, should I watch this on the TiVo or just delete it when I get home from work?

[Tekneek]

He seems like a good guy and all, but I hope this is the last season I see him at Tech.

This is something I hear all the time. My father says it every week. There is almost nothing Gailey could do to win over a lot of people.

[Easy Mac]

Reggie Ball is the worst QB in the ACC. There, I said it.

[Celeval]

With that said, when you get 1st and goal from the three, do you:
a) Spike the ball, then pound the ball in the middle and save your timeout for a worst case field goal
b) Spike the ball, throw a corner fade to the best wide receiver in the country who has a six inch height advantage over the defensive back
c) Spike the ball, give your high mobility, low accuracy quarterback a roll out pass/run option
or...
d) Call your timeout while the clock is stopped to move the chains and let the aforementioned low accuracy quarterback throw over the middle into double coverage.

a) Would likely have gone nowhere. Our O-Line, to use a FOF term, is all about finesse running - we've consistantly had problems winning battles of strength up front. We ran the ball well on that drive, but notice that our third and fourth down conversions (with, I think, the exception of the QB draw) were passes.

What's wrong with d)? I've got no problem calling the timeout when you figure there are 30 seconds left (plenty of time), and you have to figure this play and at least one fade are in the plan - any of those either score or stop the clock. The pass was a good one, and this is a spot where Reggie usually puts the ball into good spots - if Calvin didn't get his hands on the ball, it would have been out of the end zone. I saw it essentially as a fade in the middle of the field. The play call was fine, the turnover could have happened just as easily on a fade, especially if it was one of those where the receiver turns around and falls back.

Yes, I'm bummed, yes I felt like I was going to be sick all night. But I can't see this as a playcalling problem. In fact, offensively we had five good, solid drives last night. Two ended in missed chip-shot field goals, two ended in touchdowns, and one ended with that pick. We should have put up 27 points last night and won handily.

[digamma]

- P.J. Daniels is one of the best running backs in the conference
- NC State's defense was on the field for 90 plays
- Reggie Ball had far more success running the ball than he did passing it.

With that said, when you get 1st and goal from the three, do you:
a) Spike the ball, then pound the ball in the middle and save your timeout for a worst case field goal
b) Spike the ball, throw a corner fade to the best wide receiver in the country who has a six inch height advantage over the defensive back
c) Spike the ball, give your high mobility, low accuracy quarterback a roll out pass/run option
or...
d) Call your timeout while the clock is stopped to move the chains and let the aforementioned low accuracy quarterback throw over the middle into double coverage.

Yes, Johnson got his hands on it, and yes, the interception was a fluky play, but IMO Chan chose the most high-risk option out of anything he could have done. GT should have scored and GT should have won. The play calling did nothing to help the team achieve that goal.
e) Call the timeout because your QB is gassed from running the ball four times for 40 yards on the drive. Make sure you get set up to run at least two good plays.

Strategically, I get what you're saying, but the reality of the situation was that he had to call the TO there. He got the defense he wanted--stacked line from NCSU with no LB or safeties in the middle of the end zone. Reggie put the ball behind CJ, but it was a throw that CJ catches or no one does. CJ just happened to get his mitts on it and put it back in play for a trailing defender.

I have my problems with Gailey, some of which manifested themselves last night, but the final play call was not one of them.

[gstelmack]

Hmmm. So, should I watch this on the TiVo or just delete it when I get home from work?
State or Tech fan? I couldn't watch this game as a State fan because:

1) Our offense just can't sustain anything. Score a TD on the first drive every game, then any decent opponent figures out your offense quick and you can't do anything but pick up a first down or two on every drive. They can't sustain ANY momentum. It's all up to the defense to win the game for them.

2) After watching CJ push off on his first TD catch, and then a holding call on a State DB when CJ RAN INTO HIM just off the line of scrimmage, I just got too mad at the officiating and Amato. Why Amato? Because he's got this team committing so many penalties that the refs just ASSUME State's going to commit a penalty now.

3) The stupid broadcast couldn't follow key plays. Personal foul on a punt return that gives Tech the ball back, and first they show the wrong player on the sidelines, and then they never pull up any footage to show what the guy did that gave Tech the ball back. Key play and I still have no clue what actually happened.

It's very frustrating to be a State fan right now, as this team is committing way too many mental errors. They show flashes of brilliance, and then do something boneheaded.

[Tekneek]

State or Tech fan?

Tech fan. It being a loss, I might just delete the game without watching anyway.

[Buzzbee]

Tech fan. It being a loss, I might just delete the game without watching anyway.
Don't delete it until you see CJ's non-pushing off TD reception. It looks like he pushed off, but that is simply because he has tremendous ability to adjust his body to make the catch. I admit that when he made the catch in real time it looked like he pushed off because his momentum changed so drastically, but in the slo-mo replay I didn't see him even touch either of the two NC State defenders.

[gstelmack]

Tech fan. It being a loss, I might just delete the game without watching anyway.
Then you definitely don't want to watch Reggie Ball's abysmal first half performance. Things get better in the second half, though, so you might want to just watch the second half where they've already spotted State 10 points but still almost take the game.

[digamma]

Don't delete it until you see CJ's non-pushing off TD reception. It looks like he pushed off, but that is simply because he has tremendous ability to adjust his body to make the catch. I admit that when he made the catch in real time it looked like he pushed off because his momentum changed so drastically, but in the slo-mo replay I didn't see him even touch either of the two NC State defenders.
CJ gets away with his share of pushes but that wasn't one of them.

On the holding call he did initiate the contact, but the NCSU CB hung on to him--and you saw the cloth being grabbed.

Tech did get a couple of breaks from the officials last night, but I don't think either of those plays were them.

[scooper]

Reggie Ball is the worst QB in the ACC. There, I said it.
I haven't seen all of the ACC QB's to agree with this, but he has some serious accuracy issues. Accuracy, I might add, is a somewhat important trait for a QB.

[Buzzbee]

I haven't seen all of the ACC QB's to agree with this, but he has some serious accuracy issues. Accuracy, I might add, is a somewhat important trait for a QB.
Well, if you include the catches by the players on the sidelines, he's pretty damn accurate. He throws the ball away too much, IMHO.