ATLANTA — For the past year, few groups of people in the state of Georgia have been more maligned than Georgia’s defense and defensive coordinator Willie Martinez. Georgia’s defense was gutted a year ago by Georgia Tech, giving up 409 rushing yards in Georgia Tech’s 45-42 win in Athens.

On Saturday, it was redemption time for Georgia ’s defense, which held Tech to 205 yards rushing. When facing an offense like the Yellow Jackets’ triple-option, sound tackling and playing assignment football are vital. Doing so can help force an option offense into long-yardage situations. That’s exactly what the Bulldogs were able to do against Georgia Tech, which converted 7-of-13 third down conversions.

“We just wanted to win. We wanted to force them into long yardage, and take away the fullback first and the quarterback second and so forth,” Martinez said. “The bottom line is that if you tackle well, you can play good defense, especially against this offense.”

Even more pleasing for Georgia’s defense was the fact that when a victory over the Yellow Jackets was on the line, Georgia head coach Mark Richt wasn’t afraid to put the game in his defense’s hands, and the unit delivered. When Georgia lined up for a 55-yard Blair Walsh field goal with less than five minutes to play, the risk of giving Tech the ball in good field position existed if Walsh were to miss the attempt.

“I knew that if we didn’t make it, our defense would have to do it one more time,” Richt said.

And when he missed the kick, the game was on the defense’s shoulders.

But Georgia’s defense did its job. After forcing Tech to use four plays to get a first down, running time off the clock, the Bulldogs then turned away three deep pass attempts before a fourth down pass from Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt to Demaryius Thomas bounced off Thomas’ hands.

On Saturday, no Yellow Jackets player gained more than 50 yards on the ground, and just one, Nesbitt, amassed more than 40 yards.

Jonathan Dwyer, who has tormented many a defense for most of the season, was held to 33 yards by a Georgia defense that did what it was unable to do a year ago — prevent the big play. Georgia Tech’s longest gain against the Bulldogs was 26 yards, on a reverse to wide receiver Stephen Hill.

That’s a far cry from what Georgia Tech was able to do a year ago, when Dwyer rushed for 144 yards and Roddy Jones lit up the Bulldogs for 214 yards.

“Our coaches did a fantastic job of having the plan ready as quickly as possible. Our players bought in 100 percent of what we were trying to get done on both sides of the ball,” Richt said.

In the time since the loss to Georgia Tech a year ago, perhaps no defensive player has faced more criticism than safety Reshad Jones, whose missed tackle allowed Roddy Jones to race 54 yards and all but seal last year’s win over the Bulldogs.

Like his teammates, Jones enjoyed the feeling of redemption against the Yellow Jackets. His interception of Georgia Tech back-up quarterback Jaybo Shaw in the second quarter led to a Georgia field goal.

“He had a great game. That interception was phenomenal. He did a great job, like all of our guys on defense,” Martinez said.