Georgia Tech Football: Grading The Defense in Loss To Florida State

Georgia Tech had its worst defensive performance of the season on Saturday against Florida State

Despite playing well against Pitt, Duke, and Virginia the past couple of weeks, the Georgia Tech defense collapsed on Saturday against Florida State. 

The defense allowed over 600 yards of offense to Florida State, including nearly 400 yards through the air and nearly 250 on the ground. It was the worst performance of the season and one that is a setback for a unit that was hoping to show that it had made real improvements. \

Georgia Tech is going to face two subpar offenses in the next two weeks when they play Virginia Tech and Miami., but they will face two elite offenses at the end of the season when they face North Carolina and Georgia. 

Here are the grades for each unit on the Georgia Tech defense?

Defensive Line: F

Georgia Tech defensive end Keion White had trouble in coverage vs Florida State / Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports

Florida State has one of the better pass blocking units in the ACC and Georgia Tech could not get any pressure on them. No defensive linemen had a sack and the only tackle for loss came from defensive tackle Akelo Stone. 

The other thing that brings this grade down are the plays in which Keion White was caught in coverage against a Florida State running back and it turned out poorly. Brent Key spoke about this after the game and here is what he had to say:

"They caught is in a sim pressure where the defensive ends, the hook dropper to that side and it happened on a play where the running back was a fast our running back on a wheel route and that is the major conflict in that call and they hit it right and it was Keion (White) and they caught Keion up the sideline and he was running foot for foot with the guy and the guy made a really good play and we were not able to secure the tackle after he made the play up the sideline."

Kyle Kennard led the way with five tackles for the unit and was followed by Zeek Biggers with three and Stone and White had two each. 

Linebackers: F

Georgia Tech's linebackers had a lot of missed tackles against Florida State / Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports

It was a rough day on the field for the best position group on Georgia Tech. Charlie Thomas did have the fumble recovery early in the game that gave the Yellow Jackets a brief 3-0 lead. However, both Thomas and Ace Eley struggled with missed tackles during the game and that helped Florida State have a great game on the ground. 

Eley finished with 11 tackles and one quarterback hit and Thomas had nine tackles and a quarterback hit. Backup linebacker Trenilyas Tatum had the team's only sack. 

It was a tough performance for one of the few bright spots on the team this year and they will need to have a stronger performance over the final month of the season. 

Secondary: F

Georgia Tech's secondary had a rough day against Florida State's passing attack / Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports

This will be short and sweet because this was a tough day for what has been an improved Georgia Tech secondary. 

While it is not entirely the secondary's fault (lack of a pass rush did not help), Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis had 396 yards on 24-38 passing. 

Freshmen Clayton Powell-Lee led the entire team with 14 tackles and nickel K.J. Wallace had nine. The secondary got no interceptions and had only four pass breakups. 

It was a disappointing day for what had been a better secondary, but hopefully the defensive backs will bounce back in the final month of

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