Steele says defense got physically whipped

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Oct 30 02:57:37 GMT-04:00 2011

ATLANTA, GA. – It didn’t take long for Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele Kevin Steele
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The Yellow Jackets rushed 67 times for 383 yards, and the defense gave up 443 total yards on 76 plays.

"In a nutshell, we just physically got whipped,” Steele said in postgame. “We got out-executed. All of us from the defensive side of the ball, from our standpoint, we didn't play to our expectations and to what we demand. Too many big plays, too many opportunities to get off the field and we didn't take it. Having said that, Georgia Tech did what they had to do. They're a well-coached team. We all know that. They lined up and physically whipped us."

The linebackers appeared to be in the wrong position too many times, and the Jackets ran the toss sweep with great results as Tiger defenders time and time again took bad angles to the ball carrier.

Steele said there was plenty of blame to go around.

“Just talking about us, defensively, probably the biggest thing was we come out and give up the first touchdown,” Steele said. “I think I'm correct in saying it was off a turnover in the red zone, then we gave up a 46-yard run, a big play, and they put it in the end zone. We come back and they march 80 yards on us. I think we had two penalties in that drive. We come back right before the half and we have a 40-or-50 yard pass thrown. Then they scrambled for a 60-yarder in the second half.”

The killer drive of the night was the fourth quarter drive that saw the Jackets take over with 10:33 remaining in the game and keep the ball for 16 plays and just over nine minutes off the game clock. Four times on the drive the Jackets were able to convert on third down opportunities.

"We did get them to fourth down, but it took too long,” he said. “We had opportunities way before that."

Quarterback Tevin Washington burned the defense for 176 yards on 27 carries, and Steele said Tech head coach Paul Johnson found something that worked and kept doing it because the Tigers couldn’t stop it.

“The quarterback scramble - they worked that,” he said. “They were scrambling to run. Receivers were blocking down on that. You run it like you're running a route, then at some point he turns up the field. I thought they out-leveraged us a couple of times on the toss sweep. You just have to play with your eyes and do your job. But there were some runs in there where they just lined up and physically pounded it."