Missed tackles leave Georgia on short end

ATHENS, Ga. — Give Georgia’s defense an “A” for assignment football in the first half Saturday against Georgia Tech.

As for the second half? Well, the Bulldogs received an “F” for failing to wrap up.

Missed tackles haunted Georgia defenders in the final 30 minutes as Tech’s triple-option offense turned a 16-point deficit into a 45-42 win. The Yellow Jackets rushed for 409 yards, with 286 of those in the third and fourth quarters.

“It was missing tackles and not wrapping up, and against that offense, there is no room for error,” Bulldogs cornerback Asher Allen said. “We just lost focus in the second half. Those guys are hard runners, but if you go in there with the shoulder and don’t wrap up, that means nothing in college football.”

Tech’s rushing yards were the most allowed by Georgia since Vanderbilt’s option offense racked up 415 in a 43-30 upset of the Bulldogs in 1994.

Digging up that statistic didn’t seem necessary during a first half in which the Bulldogs held the Yellow Jackets to 142 total yards on 28 plays. The lone damaging moment in the first half for Georgia’s defense was a 36-yard run by Roddy Jones that opened up when cornerback Bryan Evans stumbled in trying to get to the perimeter.

“We were getting plenty enough three-and-outs,” defensive coordinator Willie Martinez said of the first half. “I don’t know how many people can run three-and-outs on an offense like that. We were doing it, but when you make a mistake — you just can’t do it. You’ve got to do it on every play.”

Georgia’s first sizable gaffe occurred on Tech’s first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, when Jonathan Dwyer bolted 60 yards for a touchdown that helped get the Yellow Jackets within 28-20. What sprung Dwyer’s run was middle linebacker Dannell Ellerbe failing to wrap him up at the line of scrimmage.

That ignited a 26-0 surge by the Yellow Jackets in the third quarter, but Georgia regrouped to get within 38-35 and force Tech into a third-and-7 at its 46-yard line midway through the fourth. But after Jones got the option pitch from Josh Nesbitt, he blew by safeties John Knox, who missed a high-tackle attempt, and Reshad Jones, who never wrapped up, for the decisive 54-yard score.

“There is no doubt that’s what it was,” Martinez said of the misses. “It wasn’t anything they were doing that we didn’t prepare for. When you play an option football team, you’ve got to play assignment football, keep sawing wood and be patient. They’ll get their yards here and there, but you can’t give up the big play. There is no secret. You just have to execute.

“We weren’t going to let the fullback beat us today. That didn’t happen. We weren’t going to let the quarterback, and that didn’t happen. It was the pitch, and we’ve got to make the plays.”

Though Georgia Tech did collect one of its scores Saturday on an interception return, the Jackets became the fifth team to score 38 or more points on the Bulldogs this season. Georgia entered this season having never allowed 38 points more than three times in a single year.

Martinez has endured the most criticism for the ballooning point totals, but head coach Mark Richt quickly came to his defense Saturday.

“When things don’t go the way you want it, people want to find someone to blame,” Richt said. “I’m not going to do that.”