Three Biggest Reasons Why Georgia Tech Is 1-3 Heading Into Their Bye Week

Georgia Tech fell to 1-3 on Saturday night after a loss to Stanford. Today, we look at why the Yellow Jackets are 1-3 to start the season and the main reasons they have been struggling.

1. Penalties and undisciplined football

Not something you think you would be typing about a Brent Key-led football team. However, this is where we are after four weeks. The Yellow Jackets are not disciplined enough and far too often, when they get big plays, they get behind the eight ball because of penalties and inconsistent play from the offense and defense. On offense, pre-snap and holding penalties stand out and catch your eye. Defensively, roughing-the-passer penalties, pass interference penalties, and pre-snap penalties have hurt the Yellow Jackets.

When you talk about building a good series, it starts with the plays on the field. On offense, producing a good drive only to have multiple penalties take it away is deflating. On defense, you get a stop, but having a penalty by the secondary or defensive line after a solid series is gut-wrenching. These kinds of things change games. Head Coach Brent Key said it best: this team needs accountability.

"We talked about everyone being accountable and everyone being able to look themselves in the mirror after the game, right? And we talked about at halftime, everyone going to look themselves in the mirror. And that's what I think about is that everyone has to look themselves in the mirror and be accountable for everything that we do. That was not saying that was saying players; coaches, staff, me, everyone. Everyone has to be accountable,” said Key.

2. Defense hasn’t been consistent

The defense has been up and down all season long. When they look like they have their pass defense and coverage figured out, their run defense is porous. When their run defense is better, like it was Saturday night vs. Stanford, the pass defense gives up 396 yards and three touchdowns. You can look at missed tackles as a big issue for this team, and it doesn't fit the run well. The pass defense with starters was solid, but on Saturday night against a pedestrian offense, it gave up a lot of plays downfield. This unit was expected to take a step forward and be a major contributor to the Yellow Jackets' success. That simply hasn’t happened. Georgia Tech still doesn’t generate enough pressure on the quarterback, gives up big plays, and misses a lot of tackles in run defense. If the defense was better, it could be a different story on how the start of the season has went.

3. Injuries

I am not in the business of making excuses and especially using injuries as a point of emphasis for struggles, but when the injury list looks like this going into a game:

RB Malachi Hosley (backup RB)
DB Jayleb Mbakwe (starting CB)
DE Jordan Walker (starting DE)
S Savion Riley (Starting Safety)
WR Darnell Collins
CB Trae Stevenson Jr (backup CB)
S Fenix Felton (backup safety)
S Will Kiker
LB Kyle Efford (starting LB)
OL Jameson Riggs (starting center)
OL Josh Petty
OL Ethan Mackenny (starting LT)
WR Kentrell Davis
WR Coi Jean-Noel
DE A.J. Hoffler (backup DE)
DT Derry Norris Jr
DT Shymeik Jones (backup DT)

It will be very difficult to win games at a high level. Georgia Tech had to rely on a lot of true freshmen to come in and be ready to contribute, and to put it simply, they weren’t ready to do it. The Yellow Jackets were also down three offensive line starters vs. Stanford, a unit that hasn’t been healthy all season. Tough to gauge how good a team is when there is a myriad of injuries to key players. The big thing moving forward will be the team's health and whether they can get healthier after the bye week. It could be a big reason for a potential turnaround for the football team.

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