It was not a summer afternoon on Saturday at Sun Life Stadium in Miami – the calendar said October 22. However, the weather was summery by most Americans’ standards – 78 warm degrees marked the kickoff-time temperature in South Florida for this ACC encounter between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Miami Hurricanes. Therefore, because summery conditions existed, one would be entirely fair in saying that Georgia Tech experienced a dog-day afternoon at the ballpark. This was the kind of day in which nothing went right for a team that has gone from unbeaten to unhinged in the span of two short weeks.

It all seemed so wonderful for Georgia Tech on October 8. The Jackets had just polished off Maryland to move to 6-0 on the season. Coach Paul Johnson’s team wasn’t perfect – it encountered hiccups in the passing game and did not flex its muscles as consistently as it should have – but it still steered clear of every landmine on the schedule and rose to the top of the ACC’s Coastal Division, ahead of defending division and league champion Virginia Tech. With road games at Virginia and Miami the following two weekends, the Rambling Wreck had every expectation of entering the big Oct. 29 tilt against Clemson with an unbeaten record.

Instead, Georgia Tech will step onto the gridiron against Clemson with two league losses… and a must-win scenario staring the program in the face. That’s all because Tech gacked against Virginia and then faltered this past Saturday against a revived Miami team that, under first-year coach Al Golden, is learning how to compete. Miami almost beat Virginia Tech on Oct. 8 but fell short in the final minutes. UM could have crumbled in the face of that setback, but the Hurricanes instead rallied to win at North Carolina on Oct. 15. This win over Georgia Tech will give even more ballast to the Canes as they try to produce a solid season before the NCAA hammer arrives in the near future.

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As mentioned earlier, this was a game in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Georgia Tech. A tired-looking bunch of Yellow Jackets had very little in the tank against Miami, and that’s why the one brief glimpse of Georgia Tech excellence got swallowed up in the Hurricanes’ superiority.

The one time Georgia Tech flourished came in the second quarter. The visitors from Atlanta produced a 20-play, 92-yard, nine-minute-and-15-second touchdown drive to trim a 14-0 deficit to 14-7. Everything about the triple option offense clicked on the drive, so when it ended on a Tevin Washington one-yard scoring run with 62 seconds left in the first half, the Jackets – down by only seven points – had reason to feel good about themselves.

Then the house came tumbling down.

In just 37 seconds, Miami responded to Tech’s nine-minutes-and-change drive by scoring seven lightning-quick points. When Lamar Miller strolled into the end zone from 14 yards out, the Canes took a 21-7 lead to the half. More importantly, they crushed Tech’s spirit and will. The Jackets got shut out in the second half, bowing meekly after their collapse at the end of the second quarter.

Just how awful was Georgia Tech? Consider the performance of Miami quarterback Jacory Harris. UM’s signal caller hit just 8 of 23 passes for 140 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. And that was the WINNING quarterback. Georgia Tech mustered just 77 passing yards and did not complete a pass longer than 17 yards. This is precisely why the Jackets scored only seven points – they need a big-play passing game to supplement their option attack.

Georgia Tech had a dog-day afternoon. The Jackets can’t have another similar outing this season if they want to win the ACC Coastal Division.