Bad Advice, Bold Prediction and Something Else: Week Five

(Morgan Burnett had two INTs against UNC. That's a lot of acronyms in quick succession, don't you think?)

Week Five offers the less meaningful of Georgia Tech's two match-ups with Bulldogs, as the Jackets travel to Starkville, Miss., to take on Mississippi State. The game is the second half of a home-and-home that started last year in Atlanta, and it is, remarkably, the first time Georgia Tech will play a regular-season game inside Mississippi.

The new-look Bulldogs offer a sterner test for Tech than last year, when the Yellow Jackets rolled to a 38-7 win that was probably not that close, if that's possible.

Tech, however, finds itself facing a team that came a hair's breath (whatever that is) away from beating LSU last week. Mississippi State is a team both hungry and capable.

Moreover, though I loathe the term "trap game" with all my being, this would seem to fit such a bill, if it existed. The Yellow Jackets face Florida State in a week, and Virginia Tech the week after that, so Mississippi State is going to be hard to keep on the front burner.

And so, with that, let's play our game, shall we?

Bad advice

Stop the run.

Sage wisdom, I know. But not only is Mississippi State's hands-down best player, Anthony Dixon, their running back, but the Bulldogs pass the ball to the cacophonous tune of 151 yards per game, 112th-best in the country. Ouch.

But seriously, take away the run, and you take away Mississippi State's best playmaker, and make them do what they DO NOT do well.

It won't be that simple, obviously.

Dixon leads a rushing attack ranked 26th in the country, comparable to Tech's No. 30 rushing defense.

Moreover, Dixon is a stud, plain and simple, and studs make plays and win games. This one will be trying to do it at home, in front of thousands of rowdy fans armed to the teeth with cowbells (insert joke here).

It won't be an easy or a pleasant task, but stopping Dixon, and thereby the run game, and forcing Mississippi State to the air will be crucial. Do it, and this game's over early. Don't, and Tech will find out what it feels like to be in a nail-biter in an SEC night game in October.

Bold prediction

Tonight is Josh Nesbitt's night to break out his passing arm.

Why? Because, why not?

No, seriously, Mississippi State's run defense ain't great, but it did shut down a talented LSU bunch a week ago.

That said, it takes a disciplined effort to stop the option, and Mississippi State's defense as a whole is solid, but not spectacular. It will take a full-on team mentality to stop the option.

If they can't, then they can't, and the Bulldogs are in for a long day. But if they do, then methinks it will be because they roll the extra body or two into run defense, creating favorable-beyond-favorable match-ups for Georgia Tech's big receivers.

Just sayin', it's got to happen sometime.

Right?

Something else

It's almost a sin to say this, but Georgia Tech proved it: Even in today's college football climate, simplicity isn't always a vice.

After getting smacked in just about every conceivable way against Miami, Georgia Tech burned the old defensive playbook and brought in a third linebacker, shifting from their original 4-2-5 system to a more basic 4-3.

Not only that, but according to coach Paul Johnson, that shift was accompanied by some tweaks and changes that actually made Tech's defensive schemes simpler, thereby making it easier for players to play, at least in theory.

Theory became practice a week ago, when Tech completely shut down North Carolina, limiting the Heels to a bare-bones 154 yards total yards and one fourth-quarter touchdown.

It seems too easy to work, but for a team full of engineers, simplifying the system made it run more smoothly and productively. Can that carry over?

Finally, a prediction

Yes, OK, if there was such a thing as this mythical "trap" game (there isn't), this would be one.

Two big conference games on the horizon, pretty smooth sailing after that through the last third of the schedule. Just some puny team, worst in its conference, standing in their way.

It's so easy for the Jackets to look past this one.

But I don't think they are.

I think this team learned a valuable lesson on preparedness and focus when it got thoroughly undressed against Miami on national television. The response 10 days later was emphatic, decisive, and complete.

I still don't know if this is a championship caliber team, but I am confident that it's not the kind of team that let's games like this away because of lack of character.

It won't be a walk like last year's 38-7 drubbing was—Mississippi State are better than that now. But Georgia Tech will emerge victorious.

Jackets 33-BullPups 24