Seeking Answers After Miami

You can't sugarcoat what happened in Blacksburg on Thursday night. Offensively and defensively, the Miami Hurricanes physically dominated the Hokies. When the game concluded, the catcalls were loud. Fans screamed for everything from a quarterback change, to a new offensive coordinator and some believe it may have been a nail in the coffin for the tenure of Frank Beamer. I turned off the broadcast absolutely disgusted that I left Avalon Pier in Kill Devil Hills, NC in the midst of a hot trophy red drum bite to watch a first half in which the offense could not manage more than a first down while the defense was manhandled up front. Perhaps most frustrating was that my negativity during the game was exceeded by the paying audience's, who permeated a sense of frustration that has grown from unrealized national championship aspirations in 2010, to a complete lack of faith that the program is going in the right direction at this present moment in time.

An in-depth review of everything that went wrong in the first half could make a War and Peace look like a Berenstain Bears book, so this instalment will focus exclusively on the offense.

When I watched Pitt and Miami live, I thought that perhaps the offensive struggles were in part a result of personnel changes. Even though the Hokies did not particularly run the ball very well last season, the design of the running game complimented the design of the passing game. The quick slant to D.J. Coles that was often run in the red zone last season came off of inverted veer action. Many of the quick counter routes to Willie Byrn in the flat came off of outside zone read play-action. Linebackers were being influenced in one direction, and the ball would go a different direction.

Since Ohio State, the offensive passing game and running game has not seemed to build off each other nearly as well. I thought personnel was part of the problem. Perhaps since Michael Brewer isn't a power running threat on inverted veer, and despite his quickness he has not kept the ball enough on bootlegs and zone reads for defenses to tie up defenders on contain responsibility. Perhaps Williams downhill running style was ill-suited for the style of play action that helped get Cline, Byrn, and Knowles open last season.

Well, I was wrong. While the Hokies use Williams more on inside zone style plays than the stretch plays from last season, and while Brewer may not be a major threat on read option plays, both Pitt and Miami both respected Brewer's threat of keeping the football. Therefore, without the threat of back side pursuit, the Hokies had a numerical advantage at the point of attack.

To be frank, the answer is simple. The offensive line is not playing as well as they did last season. Fundamentally, the group is not as sound, and athletically, they are not as quick and strong at the point of attack. Despite what you have read elsewhere, outside of picking up stunts, the offensive line last season was very solid at the point of attack, and the Hokie running backs couldn't always take advantage because of poor reads on zone plays or some of the edge blocking by the inexperienced tight end group was shaky. This season, the running backs are better. The tight ends, with the return of Ryan Malleck, are far better at blocking. The offensive line isn't as sharp, either assignment-wise or physically.

Here is a great example. The Hokies run an outside zone stretch play with a fullback lead from a split back shotgun set. On the back side, Brewer is a threat to run on a fake handoff, and the Hokies have a screen package set up for Ryan Malleck. The play design works. Three Pitt defenders commit to containing Brewer and stopping the screen. This leaves six blockers (including Rogers) and the ball carrier (Coleman) to defeat six Pitt defenders at the point of attack. (You will note as you watch the play, the remaining two Pitt defenders never come into the screen shot.) Six blockers and a back should defeat six defenders every time. This is a well-designed play.

But, the offensive line doesn't get the job done. Even though the Hokies end up with a first down, there are multiple busts on the play. It starts at the point of attack with Augie Conte.

Up front, Pitt has a defensive tackle aligned as a wide one-technique on Conte's inside shoulder. It appears that center Caleb Farris adjusts the blocking scheme to allow himself to pull instead of trying to scoop that defensive tackle.

By alignment, Conte has a relatively easy block on the defensive tackle. The ball is snapped, and Conte's head hits the defensive tackle on the outside shoulder. Everything is in place, now Conte has to drive his legs and seal the tackle inside. Instead, Conte looks like he is pass blocking. His feet are moving, but there is no downhill momentum at all. The defensive tackle crosses his face with ease, and despite leverage and angle advantage, the tackle barely breaks stride. For Conte, who is likely the strongest player on the Virginia Tech roster, to not even turn the tackle's pads with that initial contact spot just is not good enough. He doesn't even stay engaged.

Elsewhere, other breakdowns occur. Laurence Gibson fails to scoop the back side defensive tackle (something that is happening far too often this season.) Wang doesn't get enough of a chip to help Gibson either. Rogers path indicates this is an outside zone, but Jonathan McLaughlin has his head on the inside. McLaughlin still has a pretty decent block, but if he gets outside leverage on the end, Coleman can go outside and take away the backside pursuit as a factor. Farris looks terrific pulling, but gets no movement on the linebacker (No. 8). A well-executed play should gain significant yardage here, but instead it turns into a minimal gain.

Once Wyatt Teller was inserted into the lineup, the Hokie running game looked better against Pitt, and all of the best runs came off space his speed and push created. The rest of the offensive line was more aggressive and played at a higher tempo. Unfortunately, the failure to score a touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter seemed to put Scot Loeffler back into pass-only mode (which will be a more in-depth discussion down the road). During the week of practice, it was clear that an emphasis on being physical and more downhill in the running game was a focus. From a physical perspective, the offensive line was much more aggressive and attacking than they were in the first half against Pitt, but the production wasn't there. Why? Here are two plays from the first drive that show the stark contrast in how the offensive line performs play to play.

First, here is a well-executed play. On second down, the Hokies run an outside zone read.

The left side of the Hokie offensive line (Gibson and Teller) starts with a double team on the Miami defensive end. They push the end five yards down field, right into the laps of the scraping Miami inside linebackers. Both linebackers have to retreat in order to get around the block. If you watch the speed and downhill push here versus the above highlighted play against Pitt, the contrast is startling. Malleck seals the edge. The rest of the offensive line effectively scoops the back side pursuit (although you would like to see McLaughlin put the back side defensive end on the ground with that cut block). Brewer's threat to keep on the back side ties up No. 17. This is well done and Williams gets a nice gain.

On the resulting third-and-one, the Hokies bring Caleb Farris in at center and move Wang over into The Wang Package tight end power set. You would expect that Loeffler would run the G Lead here, with Teller pulling and kicking out, and the combination of Malleck, Wang, and Gibson blocking down inside. Instead, Loeffler calls a true power play, with the entire left side blocking down, Rogers kicking out, and Conte leading through. Miami's DC even helps Loeffler by calling a cross stunt by his linebackers. The left inside linebacker (Kirby, No. 56) stunts into the left tackle-left guard gap, and the right inside linebacker (Perryman, No. 52) has to scrape all the way across to help on the left side. Loeffler has the perfect play call here, but the execution is terrible.

Power plays, as I have discussed at length, are rule blocking plays. It does not matter what the defense does, you must block your rule. The rule here for Malleck, Wang, Gibson, Teller, and Farris is gap-down-linebacker. That means each player has to account for the gap to their inside (in this case, right shoulder) first, before then following a path inside until they find a down lineman or a linebacker. For technique, each play side blocker should make contact with their left shoulder on the right hip of the Miami defender to their inside. Malleck should have the outside linebacker on the edge. Wang should have the down lineman (No. 91) aligned on the outside eye of Gibson. Gibson should be stepping through his inside gap. If a linebacker blitzes through the gap, he takes the linebacker. Teller should be stepping through his inside gap. If a linebacker blitzes or a defensive tackle shoots the gap, Teller should drive him inside. Farris occupies the gap vacated by Conte pulling.

Instead, this play is a disaster, starting with executing blocking rules. Gibson and Wang block this like a zone play instead of following the basic blocking rules! Gibson, instead of stepping through his inside gap, chips the down lineman like he and Wang are combination blocking a zone play to the right! The Miami linebacker (Kirby) runs right through Gibson's assigned gap to make the tackle in the back field. If Gibson steps through his hole, he runs right into Kirby (who had time to go inside and then change direction back to the outside.) Meanwhile, even with the help by Gibson, Wang doesn't get any movement inside on the down lineman (Olsen Pierre, No. 91), and Pierre roles off Wang to help Kirby make the tackle. Meanwhile, Rogers doesn't get much movement on his kick out block. Malleck engages well, but is too high and doesn't cave his man inside. What should be a huge gain based on formation, the play call, and how Miami defended it turned into a huge loss.

On other plays, Miami's defense just wins one-on-one battles. Here is another outside zone play.

Trent Harris (No. 33) aggressively gets up field to prevent Malleck from reaching him, then works back across Malleck's face to force the cut back inside. Everywhere else, the play is well blocked. Teller and Wang execute a beautiful combination block to scoop the nose tackle and the back side linebacker. McLaughlin seals the play side inside linebacker. Conte struggles a bit with the defensive tackle, but gets enough contact that he wouldn't be a factor if Malleck can reach or stretch Harris effectively. The play design leaves the deep play side safety unaccounted for. Without the threat of the deep passing game, the safety attacks aggressively, and you hope that Williams can win the battle. Here, he doesn't. Again, if you want to be critical of Loeffler, the only fair critique is that there isn't a threat of a deep pass off play-action, which is more of a by-product of Brewer's lack of arm strength and deep ball accuracy than a fault of Loeffler.

The fact of the matter is, Miami, on both sides of the football, was bigger, stronger, and faster than the Hokies. Perhaps more troubling is that they executed far better. I have heard a ton of criticism of Scot Loeffler over the last few weeks, and my gut reaction immediately after the game was not particularly favorable. But, the failings offensively in the first half against Miami had little to do with play design or calling.

As I wrote above, Loeffler had a perfect call in place on third and one on the opening drive, and the offensive line botched the blocking on the play side.

The second drive got behind the sticks when Michael Brewer made a poor throw on a screen to Hodges, putting the offense behind on down and distance. Then on third down, whoever sets the pass protection (center or quarterback), sets it to the left, even though Miami is showing an extra man on the right side.

The Hokies end up with four blockers accounting for two pass rushers on the left side, while Rogers and McLaughlin remain to account for three pass rushers to the right side. Unsurprisingly, Brewer gets sacked. There isn't a hot route to throw to, but if the protection is set correctly, a hot route would not be needed.

On the third Hokies drive, Josh Stanford took a lazy, completely unnecessary holding penalty to put the Hokies in an unmanageable third and long.

All Stanford has to do is put his head on the outside of the defender and drive. This may not be egregious, David Pollack, but it was lazy. Again, the play call is fine, and effective. The only criticism of Loeffler would be to reinsert Stanford after his leave of absence instead of using Cam Phillips (who I saw very little of early in the game). And that decision may have been above his paygrade. Nobody is open for Brewer on the resulting third-and-long, which gets batted down.

On the next drive, coming off their own goal line, Tech runs play-action on first down with a clear out route concept play side (Malleck and Hodges running deep to clear out for Rogers in the flat) and a back side drag route by Stanford from the left slot.

Stanford is wide open on the back side drag route, but Brewer, for reasons only he knows, looks at Stanford after his first read (Rogers) is covered but decides to pull the football down. Then Brewer reconsiders and throws the ball away. A quick check down to Stanford would result in either a first down or a very manageable second-and-short. Then on third down, Brewer makes the correct read on a smash route (throwing to Ford on the corner route when the corner jumps Hodges on the short out), but completely misses the throw high.

Again, this is a poor throw by Brewer. Ford is open for a first down. I don't particularly like that Loeffler isn't running the ball, but two of the three plays completely fooled Miami's defense. The players didn't execute.

The theme goes on and on. Johnson makes a house call after a poor Hughes punt. First down the next drive, Hokies run outside zone.

Rogers gets stuffed on the kickout and Conte misses the linebacker on his combination block. On second down, Brewer goes immediately to the check down (Malleck) for a short gain. Again, the Hokies find themselves in a third-and-long situation, and Wang and Conte botch a simple delayed cross stunt by the two defensive tackles.

If Tech's zoning pass protection, Conte and Wang shouldn't be chasing. If they are manning pass protection, Wang isn't good enough to block a four year starter in Anthony Chickillo one-on-one. Fact is, Miami was physically superior to the Hokie offense, and the execution wasn't there to make up for that difference. With what I saw on film, I don't think that Chad Morris, Chris Ault, or the ghosts of Pop Warner and Bill Walsh calling plays would not have made much of a difference.

It certainly did not help matters when Tech's defense spent most of the first half being completely manhandled by the Hurricanes' offensive line effectively zone blocking. I hope to have the time to review the Hokie defense in detail later this week, but Miami's offensive line, which featured a true freshman at one guard and a converted guard at right tackle, drove the Hokie defensive line and linebackers past their appropriate gap fits time and time again. Without depth, and at a distinct size disadvantage to the Hurricanes, all the advantages that numbers and speed gave the Hokies against a spread option system like Ohio State's were completely negated when those undersized defenders had to take on and shed blocks. That pursuit which the Hokies are known for, just was not there. I saw more poor tackling from senior safeties Bonner and Jarrett, and far, far, far too many plays where defenders were not flying to the football and gang tackling. Unlike against Pitt, where the defense played well minus a handful of big plays, the Hokie defensive unit got whooped physically. The offense's lack of production and the resulting damage to moral and legs could have played a factor, but I have seen bad offense from the Hokies before and more often than not, the defense was able to overcome it (or at least make the game competitive). The Hurricanes, are one of the worst teams in the country in converting third downs (28.41%), but converted 7 of 15 against Tech (46.67%). The offense was bad in the first half, but so was the defense.

The second half was a different kind of strange. I actually found myself far more critical of Loeffler even though the Hokies ran the ball much more effectively, because the way he called the game seemed to be more about proving a point—that the offense could run the football. The first drive featured five consecutive inside zone plays (all of which ran right, leveraging Wyatt Teller as the key back side scoop block to create a cut back bubble) before the offense started using some variety again (ending with a power call on the Williams fumble at the goal line). The third drive (after the Caleb fumble) started out with the I formation and power to the right side two consecutive plays and ended with four consecutive inside zones and Wright's fumble. The offensive line looked much quicker and more aggressive, but it seemed to be more running for the sake of running. Where were the downfield passes that the better running game should've opened up?

I finished my look at the film utterly perplexed. The offense is essentially the same personnel-wise on the offensive line. Brewer doesn't have the physical tools that Logan Thomas has, but most people reading this column would agree that Marshawn Williams is at least comparable to a healthy Trey Edmunds last season. Malleck and Hodges are major upgrades at tight end. Ford and Phillips have beaten out guys in Stanford and Knowles that both had over 40 catches last season. The offense should be better. Right?

Unfortunately, guys who were key contributors to that success last season have not performed as well this year. Coach Searels effort to bulk up the offensive line seems to have backfired, as the returning starters looks slower and are getting less push than last season. Caleb Farris, who still appears not to be getting push and extension (with his bad shoulder) has not been as effective at center as he was at guard last year. David Wang's return to center hasn't mitigated the errors in setting protections and picking up stunts that have plagued the Hokies the last two seasons. The offensive tackle flip-flop has both Gibson and McLaughlin floundering. Benching Teller after the Wright fumble, when he again was the best lineman all night, sends a bad message. The lack of consistent run push and protection has put the Hokies behind the sticks, and the young receivers seem to be struggling to get separation after starting the season so well. Key contributors from last year (Stanford, Knowles, and Coleman) have given the offense next to nothing. Hodges is being misused, likely because Brewer's shaky play has resulted in Loeffler being very conservative in the passing game. The offense is a mess.

Loeffler's job status will be questioned heavily in Blacksburg this week. His tinkering is frustrating. His inability to establish a mentality up front to pound the football and get push, and then design a passing structure that supports that ethos ultimately will have him in conflict with what Beamer wants. The need to use misdirection and influence last season to manufacture offense last season has become the enemy of the mandate to transition into a true power team this season. Philosophically, what Loeffler has demonstrated to be his most effective philosophy, spreading a team out and then using misdirection to get good matchups and then take advantage of those matchups, runs contrary to Frank Beamer's desire to have a physical offense that can control the clock and play field position (much like Miami's offense did on Thursday.) Ultimately, that conflict in philosophy may be the reason Loeffler leaves town, provided Beamer stays.

While Loeffler's complex system could be attributed for the lack of a running game and the bevy of pre-snap penalties that have haunted the Hokies all season, the system was not responsible for the performance on Thursday. Ultimately, Thursday night showed how desperately the Hokies need more mature talent on offense. Wyatt Teller again had a strong game, but you need five guys on the offensive line generating the same kind of push. The young wide receivers looked physically outmatched for the second week in a row. Tailback depth again looks like an issue as result of Wright and Caleb now joining Coleman on the persona non grata list due to their fumbles. And, quarterback is now as big of a question mark as it was at the beginning of the season.

I would not be shocked to see a quarterback change this week. Brewer has not been good the last two weeks. While Leal lead a touchdown drive against Miami's backups, Miami was playing prevent defense and most of Leal's throws were to wide open underneath receivers. Leal short-armed a post route to Ford that made me maintain my status as a "Non-be-Leal-ber." Has Motley been good enough in practice to get reps this week? I am not sure that it matters at this point. Because of the closed practices, I have no idea how close Chris Durkin and Andrew Ford are to being ready, but both have more upside than the available options. I can't imagine that it is worthwhile to blow a redshirt at this point even if they are the answer long term. Unless the offense can execute better and physically impose their will on the Boston College defense, a quarterback change won't turn this lost season around.