Johnson say option not to blame for fumbles
When Georgia Tech had three consecutive fumbles that resulted in three consecutive touchdowns against Duke, there were some who were quick to point at the high-risk option offense as the culprit. After all, when you toss the ball around a lot, it’s bound to end up on the ground more often. Right?
In this case that wasn’t the problem.
Although coach Paul Johnson promised the staff would continue to stress ball security, he said any attempt to label those fumbles against Duke as option-related were simply wrong.
“One of the biggest myths, I guess if you say it enough it becomes true. None of those things had to do with the option offense,” Johnson said. “They weren’t on the mesh, they weren’t on the pitch … they were ball security issues.”
The three fumbles were a season high for Georgia Tech. They lost two fumbles against Alcorn State, one against South Florida, one against Pittsburgh and one against Clemson. There were some poor pitches in that stretch that put the ball on the turf. It just wasn’t the case against Duke.
A closer look:
Fumble No. 1 came with 2:41 left in the third quarter. Jerry Howard took the handoff and rumbled up the middle for a seven-yard gain and a first down when the ball popped loose and was recovered by Duke. At first the player was ruled down by contact, but the video review overturned the ball and Duke had the ball.
“The first one the offensive lineman knocked out from the side,” Johnson said. “If you really slow it down and look, it was just kind of a fluke. Some of those are going to happen. Now, you’ve got to have the ball high and tight. We preach that all the time. We’ve got to do a better job teaching.”
Fumble No. 2 came with 1:46 left in the third quarter. TaQuon Marshall was tackled for a one-yard run on a keeper when the ball came out and Duke recovered. The officials reviewed the play and affirmed the ruling on the field.
“The second one was ball security,” Johnson said. “We did not have the ball secured and that comes back to coaching.”
Fumble No. 3 came with five seconds left in the third quarter. Juanyeh Thomas returned the kickoff, ran into a wall and tried to bounce out and make some yardage when the ball was fumbled and Duke recovered.
“The third one was a really young guy who was trying make something happen, made about five guys miss and their guy made a really good play. He punched the ball,” Johnson said. “It was on the kickoff return.”
Tech fumbled six times and lost three against Duke. The Yellow Jackets have a total of 19 fumbles and have lost eight.
“We work on ball security every single day,” Johnson said. “Having said that, we have to do a better job coaching it.”
