Georgia Tech whips U.Va.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- It didn't take Jameel Sewell long to pick up on what was going on -- Georgia Tech was disrespecting the Virginia passing game.

The Yellow Jackets manned the trenches to shut down the run, then watched a combination of missed throws and dropped footballs doom Virginia in a 34-9 loss yesterday.

This one could have been close, though -- Virginia found its way into the red zone three times but mustered just six points from those possessions.

"We weren't able to finish off the plays," coach Al Groh said. "Had we handled the ball cleanly, there would have been two red-zone conversions."

With the emphasis on stopping the run, the play-calling balance shifted to the pass. The Wahoos finished with 30 yards of rushing, and Sewell's scrambling accounted for 24. There wasn't a called run in the second half. The strategy was sound, the execution less so.

"We knew that scoring nine points wasn't going to cut it," running back Mikell Simpson said. "When we got scoring chances, we hurt ourselves. They got touchdowns, and we settled for three points."

It did little to boost the confidence of a defense that was able to shut down Georgia Tech's triple-option offense early.

The Hoos might have had the best success of any team so far against the scheme. With an NFL-style defense and personnel changes to bring more speed into the lineup, they were ready for the first punches.

But the Ramblin Wreck adjusted, and little-used third option Anthony Allen came up big with 103 yards, mostly off a counter-option play that sent him to the weak side of the field. That resulted in a 10-minute, 47-second drive to open the second half.

"It took a lot out of us," defensive end Zane Parr said. "There were a couple times where there could have been stops and we could have got them off the field, but we didn't do that."

Third-down conversions came back to bite the Cavs in both directions. On defense, they allowed 8 of 17 conversion attempts, and on offense, they were successful only twice on 11 attempts.

"We had a lot of good plays, but we didn't have them on the right downs," Groh said.

Most crucially, with Georgia Tech stopped on third down and the lead just 11 points, Ras-I Dowling was flagged for a personal foul that extended the drive and led to another touchdown for the Yellow Jackets. None of their four touchdown drives were less than five minutes.

Linebacker Denzel Burrell said that the instructions to his unit were to "play like a pack of crazed dogs," but once they got there, the team had trouble finishing plays. He said that falling behind put a further burden on the defense, as it tried to create fumbles and turnovers.

After the game, Sewell said he took the blame for a failure to move the offense through passing, but a lack of receiver support came into play as well. Sewell finished 18 of 32 for 168 yards.

A young receiving corps that made big plays the past few weeks seemed to take a step backward in a big-game situation.

The good news for Virginia is that Georgia Tech has been nearly unstoppable this year and seems to be on a march to the ACC championship. Its triple-option was as good as advertised, and the Cavs are only the latest team to be victimized.

"It's hard to play against them," defensive lineman John-Kevin Dolce said. "They have all those opportunities to go from one player to the next."

A multi-dimensional offense is something that the Cavs are going to have to develop. Yesterday, in rainy conditions, it didn't happen -- they dropped the ball, and the game.