member of Georgia Tech’s offense to write his name into the school record
books with a big play.
This time, it was quarterback Jaybo Shaw and receiver Demaryius Thomas in
the Yellow Jackets’ 27-0 win over Duke.
In addition to their single-game superlatives — 230 yards in the air,
giving Shaw the most yards by a Tech quarterback in his first start and
Thomas the second-most yards by a receiver in school history — the pair
hooked up for an 88-yard touchdown pass that pretty much broke the game open
in the fourth quarter.
The play was also the third-longest passing play in school history,
trailing only Brandon Shaw’s 96-yard strike to Charlie Rogers against
Central Florida in 1996 and a 90-yard toss from Ted Peeples to Drew Hill
against Duke in 1978.
Go fourth and prosper:
Tech’s confidence in fourth-down situations continued on its first drive
Saturday as Jonathan Dwyer converted on fourth and 2 with a dynamic 10-yard
gain in which he dragged two Duke defenders with him to keep the drive
alive.
The Jackets came up short on their next two fourth-down plays in the
second quarter, but their success rate is still and impressive to 50 percent
(4-for-8) for the season.
Two more attempts at a fourth-down conversion were cut short when Tech was
penalized 5 yards for a false start each time, forcing the Jackets into a
punt.
Third time’s the charm:
While the offense has been adept at picking up third- and fourth-down
conversions all season long, the defense’s ability to stop opponents on
third down has been one of the few gripes coach Paul Johnson has had about
Tech’s defense.
He was considerably more pleased with that statistic after Saturday’s game
as the Duke converted just 2 of 12 times on third down (16.7 percent).
Tech came into the game with opponents converting 28 times in 64 attempts,
good for 43.8 percent.
