In the first quarter of Georgia Tech’s game Saturday against Temple, the Yellow Jackets looked like a legitimate Top 25 team.
In the second quarter, they looked like a team that merely had happened to win its first three games of the season.
In a game that, beyond the final result, mattered most for how they would follow their emotional and satisfying win over Clemson the previous Saturday, the Jackets sprinted, tripped and then completed the rest of the game without incident.
Most notably, No. 18 Tech defeated Temple 45-24 at Bobby Dodd Stadium to improve to 4-0 for the first time since 2014 and to protect its aspirations for a historic season. But, beneath the final score, the Jackets faced the reality that all that they’ve worked for can be taken from their grasp if they don’t play more consistently than they did against the Owls.
“We can’t have those stall-outs,” coach Brent Key said. “We can’t have those ebbs and flows in a game. Anybody can see that and know that.”
Tech started the game as if it were closely heeding Key’s warning — borrowed from his former boss, the legendary Nick Saban — “that more people die on the way down from Mount Everest than on the way up,” his somewhat morbid way of emphasizing the risk of losing focus after a monumental win.
In their first three possessions, the Jackets needed only 16 plays to drive a total of 199 yards for touchdowns to take a 21-0 lead as the defense held Temple to 28 yards and one first down. Among the highlights, quarterback Haynes King hit passes of 34, 24 and 37 yards, the latter two for his first touchdown passes of the season.
And then a malaise settled upon the Jackets, apparently believing that they had safely returned from their Everest expedition. (Although, after Saturday, perhaps beating Clemson would be better compared with scaling Stone Mountain.)
They were outgained 89-9 yards and went three-and-out on their three possessions in the second quarter amid a flurry of penalties and botched assignments. Key said that the offense allowed one failed drive to influence the next.
“It was poor football on our part, and we’ve got to do better than that,” he said.
The torpor continued after halftime. A fumble by King on the second play of the opening drive gave the ball back to Temple on the Tech 31-yard line. The Owls were in the end zone two plays later to cut the lead to 21-14.
This followed Key’s own stated objective before the game to play better at the start of the second half.
The Jackets got a break on the ensuing drive when King was sacked on a second-and-7. It would have set up a third-and-long and potentially led to a punt to return the ball to Temple and give the Owls the chance to tie the score at 21. But defensive lineman Allan Haye was flagged with a face mask penalty to wipe out the sack and give Tech a first down.
On the next play, running back Malachi Hosley bounced a handoff to the outside and outraced the Temple defense for a 34-yard touchdown run. (Give a helmet sticker to former walk-on running back Daylon Gordon, who cleared Hosley’s path with a block that made it look like the object of his ferocity was on roller skates.)
The lead was now 28-14, and the Jackets had regained their stride. The game never was in doubt after that.
But the lingering feeling was that a better team than Temple — which plays in a lesser conference, was 3-9 last season, has a new coach and got smoked a week ago by No. 11 Oklahoma — probably wouldn’t have fallen behind 21-0 and could have made the Jackets pay more dearly for their second-quarter sleepwalk.
Tech likely will be the favorite in their next seven games before the anticipated showdown with now-No. 5 Georgia. But, with the target on their back growing and the level of competition rising as the Jackets return to ACC play, their margin for error will shrink.
“We’re only guaranteed eight more (games),” safety Clayton Powell-Lee said. “We want to play 15 to 16 games this season. We’re happy about the win, but we know we’ve got more work to be done, honestly.”
In reality, Key probably didn’t mind too much how the game unfolded Saturday. His team remained undefeated but made enough mistakes that he and his staff have all the ammunition they need to coach players hard. And he has a team smart enough to embrace it.
King was asked how he would describe his emotions.
“A little bit of both,” he said. “Like, happy we won, for sure, but still, like, we do have to play better. We do have to keep the standard of who we are and what we’re going to do offensively.”
The Jackets are 4-0 for the first time in more than a decade, were unimpressed with themselves after a three-touchdown win and still have plenty of room to improve.
Could a Tech fan want much more than that?
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
