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Let’s hope this one doesn’t get ugly
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets hit the road down to South Beach this weekend to take on the Miami Hurricanes and first-year head coach Manny Diaz. After some more improvement on offense for the Jackets last week against Duke, Geoff Collins and Co. are hoping to see some more improvement this weekend. Will it happen? The stats don’t look hopeful.
Georgia Tech Offense vs. Miami Defense
Well, this doesn’t look very promising. Miami’s defense has been a large highlight of the team this year. The one thing that Georgia Tech has been moderately successful at this season has been rushing the ball (43.19 percent success rate), and a lot of that is because of Jordan Mason. Miami just happens to have one of the top run-stuffing defenses in the country. The thing that really concerns me here are the stuff and havoc rates. Miami has been really good and stuffing the ball and causing havoc. Tech, on the other hand, has been really bad at preventing teams from doing that.
Georgia Tech Offensive Explosiveness vs. Miami Defense
Tech’s best chance at getting on the board is explosive plays, which unfortunately is not a sustainable offense, but I’ll attribute that to growing pains. One thing that has been nice to see has been seeing progression on offense, since they’re actually scoring now. James Graham has also been doing a little better each game, and he’ll face a tough test this week and will probably be running for his life the whole game. Despite that, if Tech wants to win, they’ll need to find success on first and second down, which will not be easy against this defense.
Georgia Tech Defense vs. Miami Offense
Georgia Tech will have a bit of an easier time here. Miami’s offense is still trying to find itself, though not as much as Georgia Tech is. Something interesting to keep an eye on here is that Miami recently switched to N’Kosi Perry at quarterback, replacing Jarren Williams. The switch first happened during the Hurricanes’ game against Virginia Tech, which saw Williams throw three interceptions in just seven passes. To win this game, Tech is going to need to do something they haven’t been good at: causing havoc.
Georgia Tech Defense vs. Miami Offensive Explosiveness
One thing that bodes really well here for Tech is the down-by-down success rate. Georgia Tech is really good with success rate on first down, but what stands out to me is how bad Miami is on third downs. If Tech can force third downs, it’ll definitely help them somehow pull out a victory.
Conclusion
This game has a very good chance of not ending well for Georgia Tech. I’m trying to stay optimistic, and if I’m being honest, I don’t know that Miami is quite as good as the stats indicate. I think the defense is legit, but the offense still has a lot of question marks. The Yellow Jackets will need to find a way to score, which will be the hardest thing to do in this game. I think Miami’s offense is a good match-up for Tech’s defense, but I’m not sure about the opposite.
How do you see this weekend’s game going?