ACC Power rankings, Week 5: Virginia Tech suffers upset of the year
Some people thought Georgia Tech’s triple option might cause real problems for the Clemson defense, but the Tigers handled the Yellow Jackets pretty well. The end result was a pretty uninspiring loss for Paul Johnson and company.
The play of quarterback TaQuon Marshall continues to be a real issue for this team. Lots of signal callers will struggle against the Clemson defense, but he only managed to throw for 29 yards on six attempts. Even worse, he only rushed for 47 yards on 25 carries. Marshall is clearly not the dynamic engine this Georgia Tech attack needs.
Wake’s defense has been torched two weeks in a row. After giving up 41 to Boston College last week the Demon Deacons followed it up by letting Notre Dame roll up 56 this week. In particular, the secondary needs to get much better if this team is going to make it to a bowl game.
The only bright spot for Dave Clawson in this one was the play of running back Cade Carney. He carved up the Irish defense for 79 yards on just 13 carries. Wake Forest will need to run the ball in the future to take some pressure off their weak defense.
The Deacons aren’t the only bad defense in the ACC. Pittsburgh can’t stop anyone either. They put up 35 points on the road in Chapel Hill but still managed to lose the game.
It’s pretty difficult to lose a game where you rush for 228 yards but that’s exactly what happened to the Panthers against North Carolina. Perhaps they needed one more play from quarterback Kenny Pickett. He threw two touchdowns in the game, but only averaged 5.3 yards per pass attempt. Pickett needs to get things going down the field to help this offense reach its full potential.
Hosting UConn was a classic trap game for Syracuse after their emotional victory over Florida State last week. Credit the Orange for validating their win over the Seminoles with a decisive victory over the Huskies.
That’s enough to move Syracuse up three spots in this week’s power rankings. Dino Babers can thank Moe Neal for this week’s win. He carved up the UConn defense by running for 116 yards on just 13 carries. Maybe the Orange should give him some more carries in the future.