The Turning Point – Georgia Tech

With Virginia’s offense struggling this season, the defense has a preciously thin margin of error. Against Georgia Tech, life on the edge cost the Cavaliers as two defensive mistakes led to 14 points thanks to Calvin Johnson touchdowns. The first of the two errors proved to be “The Turning Point” as a manageable 10-0 score became a halftime blowout in the matter of seconds.

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So what happened? As JHoo and Greg Waters discussed in earlier EDGE articles, the defense got caught with the wrong play call in the wrong situation. To make it worse, the Cavaliers didn’t check out of the defensive set when a mismatch was almost certain in the secondary. Let’s delve a little deeper.

Starting with GT’s offensive formation, there were three receivers and two backs. Quarterback Reggie Ball stood in shotgun with one back immediately to his left – the other back was offset in an H-Back position to his right. Two WRs split to the left of the formation with Johnson lined up as the slot man.

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