Jackets try to snap losing streak at Duke

By Raj Sivasubramanian
Mr. Negativity
photo by Carrie Chin

After stumbling through the most challenging and equally frustrating three game stretch of the George O'Leary era, the reeling Georgia Tech football team head to Durham this weekend for a must-win contest with the hapless Duke Blue Devils. Tech is coming off its most frustrating loss of the year, having blown a very winnable game last week against Virginia, and cannot afford to lose another conference game. The game marked the third consecutive loss for the Jackets, who have now dropped to 4-4 and 3-3 in the conference.

Despite last week's dissapointment, the Jackets are still poised to qualify for a bowl game as their next two games are against teams who resemble Nebraska's typical opponents. However, the Jackets must deal with the pressure of having to win both of these games against opponents who have nothing to lose, as well as the increasing discussion of many comparing this year to last year's collapse.

Duke is at the bottom of the conference and does not have the talent that the Jackets have had to face in their last three games. However, the Devils will be a serious challenge as they badly want their first conference win after coming so close several times this year.

Duke nearly pulled out their first win last week against Clemson as they held the lead with under seven minutes to go in the game before giving up the game tying touchdown and losing in overtime. Earlier this year, Duke gave Virginia a scare losing by a field goal. Having come real close to knocking off conference foes at the same caliber of Tech, the Blue Devils should give the Jackets all they can handle.

The Blue Devils have some weapons offensively with wide receivers Scottie Montgomerie and Corey Thomas. Montgomerie, a sophomore, has had an impressive season as he ranks eighth in the conference in receptions and tenth in received yardage. He is the focus of Duke's passing attack having caught six or more passes in three of the last four games. He has also perfomed well returning kickoffs as he has a 24.3 average yards per return. His best game of the year came against Florida State when he caught six passes for 94 yards, returned five kicks for 146 yards and earned ACC Specialist of the Week honors. Thomas, a senior, is approaching the end of a prolific career that has him 18th all-time among ACC receivers and has seen him catch a pass in 40 of the 43 games he has played in. He has been impressive of late with 11 catches in his last two games.

Stopping these two will be a tough challenge for a Tech secondary that yielded 308 passing yards to Virginia last week.

Unlike Virginia though, Duke has unstability at quarterback as freshman quarterback Bobby Campbell is the third different quarterback to start since the beginning of the season.

Defensively, Duke is led by senior inside linebacker Chike Egbuniwe who leads the ACC in tackles, and has had 22 tackle and 19 tackle performances this year. Placekicker Sims Lenhardt has made 15 of 19 field goals and is fifth in the nation in field goals made per game with 1.67.

As for the Jackets, the offense broke out of its two game funk with a very impressive performance against Virginia. After being stifled in back to back games against the two of the nation's top defenses in Florida State and North Carolina, the offense exploded for 458 yards against the Cavaliers. Joe Hamilton had the best game of his career in the game completing a remarkable 21 of 26 passes for 337 yards and no interceptions. Derrick Steagall also has shown he can be a major offensive weapon with his school record 223 yards receiving on seven catches against Virginia.

While the offense has returned to top notch form, the defense, which was the foundation of the team's 4-1 start, has been dissapointing lately, especially in giving up big plays. Virginia exploited this as they converted an astonishing eight out of nine third downs, with seven of those being third and long situations. This is one aspect of the defensive performance that irked O'Leary the most.

"On four of those conversions, we were in a position to make the play, but we tackled poorly," commented O'Leary.

One of the keys to the Duke game is for the Jackets to play a complete game on both sides of the ball. What has been most frustrating about the last two losses is that in each game, one side has played well enough to win the game, but the other has failed to show up. Against North Carolina, the defense yielded a lot of yards but played well when they had to, giving up only one touchdown, but the offense struggled to move the ball.

Last week, the offense was great, but the defense failed to hold onto any lead they were given.

If the Jackets can solid play from both sides, this game could be over early. If not, Tech could be in for a long afternoon.

Whatever happens, the Jackets just need to get a win. to give this team some confidence again as they have not walked off the field victorious in a month.

Eqaully important is for them to show that this year's team is different from last years.

O'Leary feels that the players and coaches know that this team is better, but stated that, "there are others that don't understand anything but wins and losses, and these people need to be fans not frontrunners."

Tech is through the rough part of the schedule, and they can still finish 7-4 if they take one game at a time and do not worry about the past.

Should they win their remaining games, the Jackets would likely secure a bowl invitation.

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