Georgia Tech was averaging 299.5 yards per game coming into Saturday’s game at UVA, which, yes, is banged up on defense, but still.
The Yellow Jackets had 131 yards on its first two offensive possessions, 265 at halftime, more than they had gained in two of their games, and not far off their total output in a loss to The Citadel, from the FCS.
It was a track meet for a half, but then …
“We just decided at halftime that we had to step up,” junior linebacker Zane Zandier said after a solid second-half effort from the D helped preserve a 33-28 Virginia win.
“Our offense was playing really well, and we were not giving them much help. As a defense, we came together and said, we have to get a stop and get our offense back on the field as fast as we can,” said Zandier, who had nine tackles in the win Saturday, tying Jordan Mack for the team high.
UVA led 24-21 at the half, and had the advantage of great field position in the third quarter, but was not able to translate the field position into points.
The defense took over, limiting Georgia Tech to 34 yards on their first three second-half drives, enough time for a Brian Delaney field goal and a Wayne Taulapapa touchdown to push the lead to 33-21.
The one good Georgia Tech drive of the second half was at least extended by the defense, which forced the Yellow Jackets to take 5:27 off the clock ahead of its late score.
That allowed the UVA offense to run out the final 5:30 by picking up a pair of first downs.
The defense is a bit of a MASH unit right now. Bryce Hall was lost for the season back in the Week 6 loss at Miami, then Brenton Nelson went down last week in the win at UNC.
The unit just got back Heskin Smith for Georgia Tech, but then lost starting safety Chris Moore in the second quarter on Saturday.
Moore remained in uniform and was seen lobbying coaches in the second half to return to action, but he was kept sidelined.
The bye week can’t come soon enough, basically.
“It is big time for us,” Zandier said. “We have a lot of guys who are banged up. The extra week of rest and recovery will be really good for us. We don’t really look forward to bye weeks, but as soon as the game is over, we can celebrate the win. Then, we use the week as best we can to recover and get better. We will show up and make the most of it.”
Story by Chris Graham
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