UVA football coach Mike London talks with reporters after the Cavs (4-5, 2-3 ACC) lost at Georgia Tech (7-2, 4-2 ACC) on Saturday, 35-10.
Opening remarks: “We didn’t play a good enough football game to keep us in this thing. A couple of things I talked about early on with this Georgia Tech team that is tops in the country in terms of time of possession, is when you get your possessions you’ve got to make sure your opportunities to score count as well. They got up on us early, and they made big plays on us. You can’t come from behind and surpass a team that has such a prolific ground attack, and at the same time you’re dropping passes or having penalties and being non-productive. with the ball yourself.
“They’re (Georgia Tech) a very good football team. They have their formula for success. We have to do better. It doesn’t get any easier for us to get ready to go down to Tallahassee and play Florida State. We have to leave from this place knowing that when you get down in the red zone, you have to score touchdowns, and minimize mistakes defensively as far as assignments. This was an assignment-oriented football game, and there were more than a couple where we didn’t do our jobs.”
On going away form the running game after falling behind: “A little bit it had something to do with it, but again, you want to try and move the ball. They average a lot of time of possession, and in the third quarter they started with a seven-minute drive. When you have your possessions, you have to make sure that you have opportunities to move and get yourself in scoring position. We just didn’t do that today.”
On running the ball 16 times against Tech defense that ranks 93rd nationally in rush defense: “Like I just said, when you get down 14-0 early like that, you’ve got to find plays to move the ball and be productive. We weren’t productive early enough, often enough, and end up toward the latter part of the second quarter trying to move the ball. We didn’t do a good enough job.”
On significance of dropped pass in the end zone and kicking FG: “That’s the whole part of this red-zone opportunities to score. It would’ve been 17-21 at that point if we make the catch. It’s frustrating. The guy feels bad about it, but you have to have those plays if you’re going to keep yourself in the football game.”
On end zone interception on fourth down with 18-point deficit: “As I said, their time of possession was grinding up the clock pretty good. We felt that we’re going to take our chances to score right now, because they were doing a good job of moving the ball, and we weren’t stopping them like we needed to.”
Was Georgia Tech picking on CB Maurice Canady: “I don’t know if they were picking on Maurice. No. 88 (Darren Waller) is a tall receiver, 6-5, 6-6 plus, and they were utlilizing the matchup where they thought he could go up and get the ball. It worked out for them. Maurice is our best corner. They got the best of him today.”
On not challenging fourth down spot on Tech’s first possession of second half: “From where I was standing, I thought it was short. But again, the official said he marked forward progress. It was hard to tell.”
On lack of offense in second half: “The lack of execution, No. 1, the lack of performance that doesn’t lead to any production, and that’s a critical part if you’re going to move on and move forward in the second, third and fourth quarters. We’ve got to do a better job of that.”
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