Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson Quotes
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On Georgia Tech’s penalties (five for 40 yards):
“The penalties killed us offensively in a game where we had a hard time getting them off of the field. We killed ourselves twice in the first half. When we came in for the half, we talked about taking a second half drive. I thought that was a heck of a drive (at the start of the second half). We converted some fourth downs, some big plays. Again things should have been over after the very first play but we got pinned by a penalty to call us back from a long touchdown run so we ended up eating the clock. If you play with fire for long enough, you get burned.”
On Georgia Tech’s defense:
“I’m frustrated – just as frustrated as I am with the offense. We are not good enough to have penalties and kill ourselves and they did exactly what they needed to do. That’s the way everyone is going to play us. They are going to run the ball and hold the ball. They were able to get ahead and in the end it worked. They were able to run the last six minutes off of the clock. It is what it is. You are not going to win too many games when you throw for 24 yards either.”
On tackling:
“They were getting blocks and we missed a lot of tackles. I don’t know if we ever set the edge on outside plays. Give them some credit. They played a good game.”
On Virginia coming off a bye week:
“We talked about it repeatedly. I talked about it today. I said ‘their backs are against the wall and they’re going to give it everything they have.'”
On whether Georgia Tech bought into their own hype:
“Well, I don’t know. We’ve gotten away with just going through the motions the last few weeks. You can see it in pregames. There’s no intensity. There’s no emotion. It’s hard to play this game without that. We’ve got to fix some things. That’s four weeks in a row that their backs have rushed for 100-plus yards. Offensively, we are less than ideal. We didn’t execute anywhere. We had chances on the perimeter. We got the ball pitched several times where it was two-on-two with blockers and we didn’t get it done. We had a hard time running.”
On the start of the game:
“They couldn’t have scripted a better start – take the ball, run time off the clock. Then we get the ball and get two penalties in the first four plays. We made some bonehead plays.”
On the interception at the end of the first half:
“The interception at the end of the first half was not a very good play. I just didn’t think we could run the ball. When you get the ball deep with two or three minutes to go in the half, you need a play to get it down there. You’re not going to be able to drive it like we did at the beginning of the second half. At least throw an incompletion or something.”
On their last drive:
“We had a chance to win the game because we got the ball back on offense on the 40-yard line and we self-destructed.”