I watched another Georgia Tech - Georgia game on Saturday in which Georgia Tech outplayed Georgia and lost. This is the third year in a row that this has happened.
In 2004, The Tech Defense dominated the final three quarters only to watch Reggie Ball throw the ball away on fourth down thinking it was third down.
In 2005, I watched an inept Tech offense finally get something together late in the game, drive to the shadow of the Georgia goal line only to turn the ball over when Reggie Ball threw an interception at the goal line.
Now, in 2006, I watched Reggie Ball turn the football over 3 times in the second half in a 15-12 loss. This was after Reggie had played horribly in the first half of the game. At the half, as John and I talked, I said that Reggie should sit and that Taylor Bennett should play inthe second half. Yes, that's right Tech's backup quarterback. Why? A couple of reasons why:
- Reggie is just flat out too emotional. Emotion is good. I respect emotion. I love it. However, Reggie's emotion tends to get the better of him during the game.
- Reggie was already having a horrible day. Could Bennett have been any worse?
- Reggie doesn't play to his strengths, he plays to his weaknesses. His bigggest weakness is that he is fairly small. You can't take onl bigger players when you are small.
- When he scrambles, he goes backwards in an attempt to get away from the defeners, yet he always gets sacked. The result is a large number of negative plays.
For the first two years, I thought that Reggie would grow up and be a really good player. After all, his first two years, he was 7-5 both years. I felt sorry for him in his third year when he got viral meningitis. He had played well upto that point, but after that, he just didn't have what it took and Georgia Tech folded after that. This year, he started off fairly well, but after watching the stats the last few games, he has really reverted to his old self. I've seen the turnovers go up and the number of completions go down. The Georgia game was the same as it ever was. He played poorly in the first half and then tried to force the issue several times in the second half resulting in turnovers.
Here is the bottom line for the ACC Championship Game. Do you go with Reggie Ball or Taylor Bennett? Do you go with the devil you know or the devil that you don't know? If it was up to me, I've seen enough of the devil I know, I would roll the dice and go with the devil I don't know. It can't be any worse that what we have already seen..............