Georgia Tech Football: Five storylines for Jackets matchup against Pitt

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets take on the Pittsburgh Panthers this weekend and here are five storylines to follow.

1) Georgia Tech looks for second-straight win

Georgia Tech picked up win No.2 last time out against Miami and will be looking for win No.3 of the season on Saturday when they take on the Pittsburgh Panthers. The Panthers are a good team but they are also quite beatable (ex. Miami’s 16-12 win over Pittsburgh last weekend). The Jackets against Miami found different ways to score rather than just scoring on offense and they’ll need to do that again on Saturday if they hope to have a chance at beating the Panthers. Picking up another win on Saturday would be huge for this Tech team that may just have a chance at getting to four wins this season down the stretch. For a team that looked lost in five of the first seven weeks, getting four wins this season would be quite an accomplishment.

2) Jordan Mason looks to continue his phenomenal play

If we’re going by level of play this season, there have not been many running backs in college football better than Jordan Mason. We looked at Mason’s season last week and just strong he’s played this year. Towards the end of last week, Pro Football Focus helped our case and posted this tweet.

Jordan mason has been the best running back in college football and behind him are some big names. Chubba Hubbard, Jonathan Taylor, and AJ Dillon are all considered among the NCAA’s elite running backs, now Mason doesn’t have the production like they do but if Mason keeps up this level of play, he’ll be considered an elite running back next year.

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3) Can James Graham take a step forward

The Jackets offense has taken a step forward with James Graham at quarterback, there’s no doubt about that. That being said, if the Jackets are going to try to pick up another win or two in the final month of the season, Graham will need to take a step forward himself. He hasn’t played bad this season but through the air, improvement is needed. Perhaps the bye week helped Graham with that aspect of his game. So far this season, Graham is completing just 45.9% of his passes for 666-yards, and five touchdowns. He’s also thrown three interceptions on the season. It’s alright if Graham isn’t throwing for 200-300 yards per game but the completion percentages must go up in the future. He throws a beautiful deep ball but needs to begin to hit the short and intermediate passes.

4) Pittsburgh looking for a bounce-back victory

With a win last weekend, Pittsburgh would’ve been in the drivers seat for the ACC Coastal. Now, the race is wide-open as ever and yes, even the Jackets theoretically have a chance to win the division. On Saturday, Pittsburgh will be looking for a bounce-back victory after losing 16-12 to the Miami Hurricanes last weekend. A poor offensive performance that included three turnovers doomed the Panthers in that one as Miami was able to take advantage of a short field. The Panthers will enter Saturday’s game hungry as they look to get back into the win column against the Jackets.

5) How will Georgia Tech’s offensive line hold up against Pitt’s pass rush?

Georgia Tech’s offensive line this year has been a struggle and that’s no surprised. Over the course of the season, the Jackets have surrendered 21 sacks over seven games, an average of three a game. They’ve faced some top-rated defensive lines and pass rushes this season but they’ll get one of their biggest, if not biggest test against the Panthers.

Entering Saturday, the Panthers lead the country in sacks with 38. That’s almost five sacks per game. Obviously it ranks better but is also just head of some top defenses like Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Penn State. All three of those teams are in the top-5 of team sacks this season as well and are all averaging four or more sacks per game.

The Pittsburgh defense is a very good defense and it will be hard for the Jackets to score if the offensive line cannot handle Pittsburgh’s defensive line especially in the pass rush. The Jackets o-line will need to do the best they can at just slowing down the Pittsburgh pass rush rather than just stop it completely. The motto for them on Saturday should be “just buy time” as in just buy time for James Graham to either find an open receiver, take off and run, or throw the ball away.