You ever feel like your team sucks? Well, that’s Georgia Tech no matter what our record is, and that’s exactly what it felt like for the overwhelming majority of Tech’s 36-34 win over 1-win Boston College.
The Jackets overgame an 11-point 2nd half deficit with a 54 yard touchdown by Jordan Allen then a game-winning goal by Aidan Birr with 11 seconds left before surviving a Hail Mary attempt to survive.
It felt like a repeat of the NC State game basically from start to finish. Tech despite having 628 yards of total offense and another incredible Haynes King day never broke away and consistently hit field goals in situations they had available touchdowns in the 2nd half.
The difference this time was two incredibly crucial stops by the Tech defense in the 4th quarter, giving Tech’s offense the opening to go ahead twice in the quarter and getting the win to become 9-1 overall and 6-1 in ACC play. Tech needs to beat Pittsburgh next week to guarantee an ACC Championship game appearance. With Virginia winning today as well, if they win their next ACC game (vs. Virginia Tech), they also are one win away from reaching Charlote.
How It Happened
Things really got spicy when Marshall Nichols landed a punt downed by Will Kiker at Boston College’s 1 yard line. Tech held them to a 3rd & 8 where the most predictable thing that could happen happened, we allowed a 67 yard completion on busted coverage. Thankfully the defensed bowed up and forced a punt on the next series of downs.
Tech’s first scoring drive came next with multiple first down’s by Malachi Hosley who capped off the drive with a great 27 yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead.
Tech had BC slowed on their next drive, but the Eagles were able to get enough chunk yardage on early downs for short conversions before Turbo Richard hit a 42 yard run to set up goal to go, eventually punching in a 1 yard score to tie it at 7-7 early in the 2nd quarter.
In our pursuit to hit a deep ball, King finally connected well with Eric Rivers only for Tre Maddox to fumble on the next play and give BC the ball back. Thankfully, our defense forced a three and out.
After King hit a 2nd & 1 first down, he found Malik Rutherford on a perfect jailbreak screen to the left that he sprung for 71 yards, the touchdown, and a 14-7 lead.
Penalties by Akelo Stone and for a moment a targeting on Tae Harris (was negated) had Boston College driving, but at 3rd down conversion by Kaelen Chudzinski was called back for illegal touching, which happens to be a loss of down penalty, forcing a BC punt.
Tech’s next drive had good plays by Malik Rutherford and the first Haynes King short yardage conversion, but in midfield we couldn’t convert a 3rd & 7 and had to punt.
BC then marched it right down our throats with super soft pass defense coverage and a 3rd & 11 conversion put the Eagles in the red zone, which they easily converted on a 4 yard touchdown pass to tie it at 14-14 with 22 seconds left. BC had a unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the PAT and assessed on the kickoff, which Tech took advantage of with short field starting at our own 47.
King completed passes to Isiah Canion and Eric Rivers to set up a 50 yard field goal for Aidan Birr, which somehow landed a yard short despite being right on range leaving us at 14-14 at half.
BC came right at us to start the second half on a 37 yard 4th & 1 conversion by Turbo Richard to put the Eagles in field goal range, which they didn’t need after a 14 yard touchdown run by McDonald to give BC their first lead at 21-14.
In a possession where Tech had to respond, they ran the plays to get the necessary first downs with conversions by Brett Seither, Haynes King, and Malachi Hosley. But, on a wide open 3rd & 4 dump off pass to Jamal Haynes in field goal range that would’ve resulted in a touchdown, Haynes muffed the catch. Birr had to settle for a 34 yard field goal making it 21-17 with dire points left on the board.
Y’all should know what happened next. Our defense did absolutely nothing, missing tackles everywhere leading to an easy touchdown for the Eagles to go up 28-17 late in the 3rd quarter. At this point, we couldn’t tell if this was the Boston College game or if the NC State was still happening.
Tech again was able to get down the field enough with a critical 3rd & 15 conversion by Hosley (this dude keeps coming up). Tech got an extra 15 yards after on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on Bill O’Brien for arguing that Haynes King had crossed the line of scrimmage while passing to Hosley (he was clearly behind enough). King then moved Tech to 11 yards to go, but couldn’t hit Canion in the endzone on 3rd & 8, forcing Tech again to settle for a field goal in a touchdown-necessary situation, making it 28-20 with 13:52 in the 4th.
Somehow, beyond all imagination, Tech managed to get a defensive stop on the next drive, giving Haynes King the ball with a chance to tie the game. A Rutherford first down conversion and Eric Rivers catch at the 3-yard line set up Tech with goal to go with Jamal Haynes getting the touchdown to make it 28-26. Tech went for the two-point conversion, but did some cutesy stuff that made no sense and failed on a King rush.
Then the defense held BC to a three and out. Without that, we’re toast.
With a chance to milk all the clock on the final drive, King and Rivers nearly got all of the yardage to score on the first play, but King’s deep shot was inches from hitting Rivers perfectly in stride and was dropped. King hit a big third down and Hosley converted another first down before Jordan Allen converted a pitch pass for his own first down, forcing Boston College to start burning timeouts under the 2:00 warning. Tech got the ball down inside the five with a 3rd & 2 and under :30 seconds left, but King was stopped 1/2 yard short.
With 2 timeouts, that should’ve been no problem, but Brent Key called timeout with 14 seconds left instead of letting the clock run all the way to single digits. Nonetheless, Birr hit a chip shot field goal to go up 36-34 with 11 seconds left. Boston College got inside the 50 on their one pass play before failing a hail mary attempt, and Tech escaped with a win too close for any kind of comfort.
