Three Biggest Takeaways From Georgia Tech's loss to UCF

Georgia Tech played well against UCF, but could not get the road win today

Georgia Tech came into the day as three-touchdown underdogs to UCF, but the Yellow Jackets did a lot of things well in this game and had chances to be in this game with a chance to win. The special team's mistakes and missed opportunities in the red zone cost the Georgia Tech team today, despite outgaining UCF on the day. 

Georgia Tech is now 1-3 after the month of September and now will go on the road to face the defending ACC champion Pitt Panthers. 

So what are the three biggest takeaways from today's game against UCF? 

3. Jeff Sims and the passing game had a bounce-back performance 

Georgia Tech's Jeff Sims had a great day throwing the ball today vs UCF / Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports

Last week, Jeff Sims and the Yellow Jackets' passing game was a disaster against Ole Miss, and even all season, this team has not been able to generate explosive plays through the air, but they were able to against the Knights today. 

For the first touchdown of the game, Sims was able to find Malachi Carter for a 59-yard touchdown reception. Sims looked comfortable throwing the ball deep and that is going to be a welcome development for the offense. Malik Rutherford and Nate McCollum made plays down the field and Hassan Hall did as well coming out of the backfield. 

The red zone issues will stand out of course (see below), but this passing game did well against what I think is a good defense. 

Georgia Tech needs to show this kind of consistency in the coming weeks in the passing game, but tonight was successful. 

2, The Red Zone Issues Kept Georgia Tech out of the Game

Georgia Tech struggled to move the ball and score in the red zone / Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports

Georgia Tech was 0-5 in the red zone and got zero points when down there. Whether it is play calling or just execution, that is unacceptable and not going to win you any football games. 

I thought the play calls on both fourth down attempts were poor and the field goal woes continue to haunt Georgia Tech, despite Jude Kellye hitting one kick today. With such a tough schedule and little margin for error, Georgia Tech is going to have to be much better with its scoring opportunities. 

1. The Special Teams play is embarrassing

Georgia Tech continued to make special teams errors in their loss to UCF  / Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports

The Yellow Jackets had their fourth blocked punt of the 2022 season in this game and missed two field goals. These have been errors that have plagued Geoff Collins at Georgia Tech and they never seem to get fixed no matter how many times he says they are correctable mistakes. When you outgain a team by over 100 yards and lose by 17 points because of special teams errors in part, it is not a good feeling as a team and one that is totally indicative of the head coach. It is embarrassing to see this happen over and over again and is one of many reasons Tech has only won 10 games under Collins. 

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