Observations from the game.
1st not having Turner definitely affected our ability to run and why we ran more inside the tackles with Chaney. He's a bigger back but not as quick or explosive. I think at one point our biggest run was for 8 yards.
I don't usually complain about the penalties or lack thereof but there seemed to be a large disparity in the amount of calls against us. If the calls were legitimate, Brohm has to clean that up. Seemed like we had more than double our 1st 2 games. I don't really believe in an ACC conspiracy against us but it sure seemed like the officials didn't want us to win.
Defense seemed like we were playing the bend don't break philosophy we used to have under Petrino or maybe it was under Charlie. It seemed that GT managed only a couple of big plays (one right before the half) that almost cost us the game. We did have some big stops though when we needed it. I mentioned this before in our earlier games, our defense is not getting to the opposing QB often enough. I couldn't tell if we ran many blitzes, but their QB made some big runs. Don't we have a spy on the QB? I also wonder about the lack of interceptions so far. I know Riley was hurt on a few plays and Aaron Williams was out with injury.
On the play we gave up a safety, great goal line stance by the defense. I know that Slough got tripped up by Chaney so I don't know if the play was going to work but I think in retrospect, if Slough is afraid to run, bring in Clarkson and run a QB sneak or something to give you a few yards. We were lucky Slough's pass wasn't pick off for a TD.
In moving forward, I think Turner is out 3-4 weeks, so we need to get the Browns some more touches. Defense needs to find ways to get more pressure on the QB without giving up big plays up the middle or behind the safeties.
Tidbits - Love the accuracy that Slough has. Makes it so much more important that we are able to provide him with enough time. We don't want him scrambling if we can help it. Clean up the penalties! Sorry if this sounds so negative, definitely glad to get out of there with a W. GT has a good football team.
