Jackets planning on better defensive effort

Brandon Adams remembers a lot of yards. On a November afternoon last season in Durham, N.C., there were an even 500 of them accrued by Duke in a 43-20 win for the Blue Devils over Georgia Tech.

“I just remember that from the start of the game until the end, they were putting up yards,” said Adams, Tech’s second-string nose tackle. “Yards on top of yards on top of yards.”

As the Blue Devils won on the line of scrimmage and broke tackles downfield, it was among the more pun- ishing defeats that Tech has absorbed in coach Paul John- son’s tenure. Duke scored four touchdowns and three field goals on its first seven possessions, punted, scored one more touchdown and then ran out the final 6:23 of the game. It followed a heated-up run in the 2016 game, when Duke scored four touchdowns in its final five possessions of the game in a wild 38-35 win for Tech.

“We haven’t slowed them down,” Johnson said Tuesday. “The same stat I just gave you (about Tech’s near-per-

fect scoring efficiency in the past two games), that’s about what they’ve done to us.”

For Tech’s Saturday matchup with Duke, the Blue Devils will bring a sig- nificantly more effective defense than the Jackets have seen in their touchdown binge the past two weeks. As such, the Jackets also need to continue developing their defense, partic- ularly against the pass, or else risk another dissection at the hands of Duke and quarterback Daniel Jones.

Tech safety Juanyeh Thomas’ interception against Louisville on Friday night gave the Jackets eight picks for the season, tied for 12th nationally and two more than all of last season. But the Cardinals also threw for 370 yards on 27-for-44 pass- ing. Of the 370, 130 were gained in the fourth quarter when the game was beyond reach. But 148 of them were gathered (on 10-for-15 pass- ing) in the second quarter when the Cardinals rallied from a 21-0 deficit to close to within 31-17 at halftime.

For the season, Tech ranks 66th nationally in defensive passing efficiency rating, at 131.01. It finished last season ranked 62nd, at 127.79.

Cornerback Tre Swilling said that, against Louisville, the Jackets again had problems with aligning properly before the snap and carrying out assignments after it. Louisville’s up-tempo pace caused problems, as was the case with Bowling Green, Clemson and South Florida. As Swilling explained it, if he were to line up five or six yards off the line of scrimmage as opposed to the prescribed seven on a particular call, then it could mess up his read on a play.

“Now I’m kind of reaching and guessing rather than being able to move and react off of my receivers, or whoever my key is,” he said.

Tech is young in the secondary, with sophomore Tariq Carpenter at strong safety and Swilling, a freshman, and Jaytlin Askew, a sophomore, at the corners. Only free safety Malik Rivera, a graduate transfer, has past experience with the defense, when he played in a similar version at Wofford.