Even though the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets lost to the Virginia Tech Hokies in overtime on Monday night, there were a lot of positives to take from the game.
In their postgame thoughts, our Georgia Tech blog From The Rumble Seat was quick to praise quarterback Tevin Washington, who was the reason the Yellow Jackets were in a position to win late in the contest.
Tevin Washington - Yes, I'm aware he threw the game-changing interception. However, you have to look at a great overall game of managing the offense and making big plays when they counted. Tevin had 19 rushes for 63 yards (including a 22-yard scramble on the final drive), as well as 10-15 for 96 yards (pinpoint on the final drive as well) for 1 TD 1 INT on the night. Most importantly, until the overtime period he took care of the ball with no turnovers. Accept it or not, he kept us in the game and should have been the hero had the game ended in regulation.
Another positive was the special teams play, which was even more impressive considering the way Virginia Tech focuses on special teams.
Special Teams - When was the last time you could ever remember Tech's special teams outplaying anyone...let alone VPI's? Whether it's related to the coaching hire of Dave Walkosky or not, we witnessed solid, competent special teams play. With the kickoff moved up to the 35, David Scully took advantage and booted 2 of his 4 kickoffs into the endzone for touchbacks. The punt coverage unit downed one inside the 5, and could have had another downed at the 1 if NFL rules were in effect (unfortunately college treats the endzone as a plane for touchbacks). And lastly, the FG was taken with confidence and hit dead-center.
While there was a lot to be happy about Monday, there were some negatives as well, led by the wide receivers' poor performance.
The WR unit - The inexperience showed. By my count, only 4 balls thrown to them all night. Furthermore, the edge game of pitches and sweeps was continuously broken up by VPI's CBs shooting through to the LOS unblocked by the WRs. All in all, a very bad showing albeit against possibly the best secondary Tech may face this year.
For more in-depth coverage of the Battle of the Techs, visit Georgia Tech blog From The Rumble Seat as well as Virginia Tech blog Gobbler Country. For more news and notes from around NCAA football, head over to SB Nation's college football hub.