The Running Game Saga: Episode Six, North Carolina

It wasn't always pretty, but Scot Loeffler's commitment to run the football was the critical component of the Hokies' 34-17 win against North Carolina. A combination of determined Tech running backs and blockers cranked out yards on the ground. The Virginia Tech offense held onto the football for 41:03. That allowed Bud Foster's shallow defensive front to play at wrecking ball speed for under 19 minutes. You can't underestimate the impact this had on the Hokies' ability to pressure the quarterback and play significant amounts of zone coverages for the first time this season. Also, the lengthy Hokie possessions seemed to disrupt the rhythm of North Carolina's offense. Larry Fedora never got into any kind of play calling comfort zone. The offensive line had slow stretches, but they were dominant as the Hokies took a big lead early. At the most critical stretch in the game, after the Michael Brewer interception, the Hokie hogs responded with a long, well executed drive that saw a major improvement in intensity. The drive, which produced the Slye field goal, ate up almost seven minutes of clock, and gave the Hokies a comfortable margin to withstand a furious Tar Heel comeback.

Still, I am sure there were catcalls through long stretches of the game about the blocking. It is apparent that the offensive line is inconsistent, and seems to struggle most often against defensive fronts that use movement and stunt frequently. This is an ongoing theme over the last two seasons. The o-line plays really well against teams that work to win battles at the point of attack, like Alabama and Miami. The exception has been East Carolina, but the Pirates had dominant nose tackle, and matchup nightmare, Terry Williams. However, the offensive line tends to struggle against teams that stunt frequently. Boston College created problems last season. Ohio State, East Carolina, and Western Michigan gave the the Hokie running game trouble by stunting and using movement. Frankly, it is baffling, because when the Hokies use a zone scheme, everyone should be blocking the playside gap. Each lineman should step into his assigned gap, get a hat on whichever defender shows, and drive them out of the hole. Yet, against stunting looks by North Carolina, the Virginia Tech offensive line didn't seem to be on the same page and suffered breakdowns.

The Inside Zone Series with Jet Sweep Motion

Let's see how much confusion a simple stunt can create the Hokie front. Virginia Tech has a third-and-one from its own 39-yard-line. On the first touchdown drive of the game (which I will review in a moment), Loeffler used the slot receiver motion to freeze UNC's safeties. On this play, Loeffler uses the same motion to freeze the field safety (No. 2) and then runs what appears to be an outside zone back to the boundary.

The play breaks down. Williams' alignment to the side of Brewer means he is most likely going to have to run the outside zone behind left tackle Laurence Gibson and left guard David Wang. To the top of the screen, UNC runs an "X" stunt. The defensive end crashes inside between Gibson and Wang, and the defensive tackle loop behind him to the outside to take the edge gap. The middle linebacker blitzes into the center-guard gap. The Heels hope that the movement will cause one of the linemen to chase the looping defensive tackle, creating a lane for either the end or linebacker to crash through unblocked.

UNC creates the confusion it was hoping for. It is difficult to tell if this run left is an outside zone or an inside zone. Williams' alignment to the side of Brewer indicates that this play is an outside zone. However, David Wang, Caleb Farris, and Ryan Malleck block the play like an inside zone, and Williams takes a path indicative of an inside zone. The play call, which I can't be one hundred percent sure of without being in the huddle, would indicate who made the error.

If it was an outside zone, then the following scenario played out. Laurence Gibson stepped hard to the outside, as he should, and the defensive end crashed hard inside. Wang should've stepped laterally through the guard-tackle gap. If he did, he would've collided with the defensive end and driven him to the sideline. Instead, Wang's first step was straight ahead, and he chased the defensive tackle up field and outside on his loop stunt. Gibson should've sealed the stunting defensive tackle inside, but when he sees that the end is unblocked, he tries to recover and drive the end inside. Farris took the blitzing middle linebacker. Conte took a hard lateral angle inside, helped Farris chip the blitzing linebacker and found himself in perfect position to seal the other linebacker to the right (which is correct if the running back goes outside and to the left). McLaughlin tried to scoop the three-technique defensive tackle but got driven into the backfield. However, if the run went wide to the left, the defensive tackle wouldn't factor on the play. Malleck sealed the defensive end on the back side. Williams saw the defensive end take away the designed path of the run, so he ad-libbed and cut back to the small seam created between McLaughlin and Malleck. Conte was out of position due to the cutback, and the linebacker came in to tackle Williams. Williams' effort, first leapfrogging the defensive tackle and then pushing forward until he is just short of the marker, salvaged the play.

However, if the call was an inside zone, Conte should have taken a more straight ahead approach, chipped the three-technique defensive tackle and then hit the linebacker squarely. Gibson should have also taken a more north-south step, although frankly with that stunt, any piece he would have gotten on the defensive end would have been a bonus. With the chip from Conte, McLaughlin would have pushed the defensive tackle back, and Conte would have squared up on the linebacker. It is difficult to determine who failed to execute their assignment without knowing the play call, but against movement, it was clear that there still isn't great timing and chemistry up front.

When the offensive line played with confidence and aggression, the zone runs yielded much better results. The very first offensive play of the game speaks to the possibilities for success that better chemistry can yield, but note, UNC played a very static front early without much stunting.

Hokies run an outside zone, but instead of Caleb Farris trying to scoop the middle linebacker vertically, he pulls to intercept the middle linebacker in the hole. David Wang reaches the defensive tackle and Laurence Gibson absolutely manhandles the right defensive end. Marshawn Williams finds the seam outside and gets a solid gain.

On the following play, Williams scores a touchdown on the exact same play that the Hokies butchered in the first clip—a zone play with Ford faking the jet sweep. This time, North Carolina plays a base look without a stunt, and Wang and Gibson get so much push off the left side on their combination block that they force the safety to take a bad angle at Williams without even blocking him. Williams strolls into the end zone.

Upon a second review, Ryan Malleck does a really strong job of sealing the defensive end outside. Caleb Farris scoops the one-technique trying to cross his face. Augie Conte pushes middle linebacker Jeff Schoettmer (who had a spectacular game) almost back to the goal line. McLaughlin doesn't get a great scoop block (you'd like to see his head on the inside of the crashing defensive end and turning him back out), but he gets enough contact to prevent the end from catching Williams from behind. Williams scores even though Hodges does a figure-eight drill without blocking anyone on the back side. Hodges made up for it later with his beautiful touchdown catch.

The jet sweep motion was clearly designed to distract the UNC safeties, who struggled in coverage and run support against East Carolina and Clemson. This was critical on the Hodges touchdown catch. The motion also occupied the edge player to the sweep side, which prevented him from crashing on the inside zone.

Deon Newsome runs jet sweep motion to the top of the screen. The UNC safeties are both playing deep, with the safety to the sweep playing deep outside leverage on Hodges' post route. The safety to the bottom of the screen should rotate into the middle with the motion and take Hodges on any inside-breaking route. Instead, his eyes are in the backfield and on Newsome, and delays before rotating towards the post route. He is late and Hodges is wide open. Trey Edmunds does a terrific job of picking up the UNC blitz. Not only does he pick up the correct man; Edmunds also turns him to the outside to give Brewer a throwing lane. Brewer delivers a beautiful soft ball right into Hodges' hands. The motion was the key. The safety fixated on the inside zone and jet sweep combination due to both Williams' early success running in the game, and the established success of the jet sweep on film against Ohio State and UCLA. Without either, the UNC safety likely slides over from outside Brewer's line of vision and intercepts the pass. While I think Loeffler can improve in areas, this kind of play design, where one play compliments two others, demonstrates his strength as an offensive mind and was sorely lacking from the system run by Bryan Stinespring and Mike O'Cain.

Rule Blocking the Counter

When UNC started to have more success against the inside zone by using a variety of stunts and shifts up front, Loeffler tried to mix in some counter plays to re-ignite ground production. The results again were wildly inconsistent. When the line could get a helmet on helmet, they effectively executed their blocks. But, with the counter being a rule blocking play, the Hokies seemed to struggle with following their blocking rules. Let's examine a counter from the second quarter.

Jonathan McLaughlin's rule is gap-down-linebacker. That means he must step play side to make sure no defender shoots through the gap to his inside. If there is a three-technique tackle, he drives him inside. If not, he should take an angle to intercept the linebacker. UNC runs a scrape exchange with the end crashing and the linebacker going outside, which screws up McLaughlin's assignment. McLaughlin takes a very flat angle which would only work if the middle linebacker is fitting a gap inside. Unfortunately, the linebacker stunts to the outside to take contain. McLaughlin is too far inside to recover and get back out to seal the linebacker. David Wang pulls and finds the defensive end crashing inside. You would like to see Wang get more movement, but if McLaughlin intercepts the linebacker the run still can be successful because of Malleck's strong trap block to the outside of Wang. Williams trying to bounce outside of Malleck's block instead of cutting inside doesn't help matters. Those little execution errors can derail a play quickly.

When UNC played a static front, the Hokies had much more success. Here is a similar counter play with Williams gaining a nice chunk of yardage.

This time, UNC uses a more static front without the scrape exchange. Teller is in as the pulling left guard. The end now has contain responsibility, so he plays wider. Teller blasts the defensive end to the outside and up the field, which creates a large bubble between the end and the next available defender. Malleck pulls and turns up to the inside and absolutely rocks the linebacker sliding across trying to fill the gap. Williams gets a big run.

Note how McLaughlin executes his gap-down-linebacker rule. This time, the defensive tackle shows in his face. McLaughlin seals him inside. The linebacker also fits the same gap, trapping himself inside. That takes a solid play and turns it into a highlight.

Loeffler Breaks Out the Wang Package

After two seasons of hand wringing over short yardage and goal line blocking, Scot Loeffler turned to the "Wang Package" as a difference maker Saturday. Almost every short yardage play saw Wyatt Teller replace David Wang at left guard, and Wang lined up as the play side tight end. Early, the Wang package didn't deliver all the punch Loeffler had hoped for, like on this third-and-one in the first quarter.

The Hokies use a two tight I formation with Wang as the left tight end. The play is "G Lead". The front side guard pulls play side to kick out the first defender along his path. The fullback leads through the hole, the play side tackle blocks down, the rest of the o-line work combo blocks to prevent back side pursuit.

Wyatt Teller pulls, the combination of Wang and left tackle Gibson block down and Rogers leads. UNC defensive end Norkeithus Otis (No. 8) shoots through the gap between Wang and Gibson, and the corner blitzes off the edge. Teller absolutely destroyed/pancaked the cornerback, but Wang doesn't take a sharp down block step and completely missed Otis. Fortunately, Williams is able to bounce outside of Otis to find all the space created by Teller's pancake. In order for the Wang Package to continue to play a role, he'll need to stiffen up on those down blocks.

Late in the second quarter, with the Hokie defense playing strong, Loeffler again used the Wang Package. This time it was on a critical drive which resulted in the lead extended to three scores. The Hokies ran the "G Lead" again, this time to the right, with McLaughlin and Wang blocking down and Conte kicking out.

Wyatt Teller (who had a terrific game minus a false start and a really borderline holding call) delivers a beautiful, beautiful scoop block on the back side defensive tackle. Wang and McLaughlin cave in the right side. Rogers has a nasty collision in the bubble to make a hole. Unlike the previous play where Teller pancakes the edge player/corner, Conte is faced with a tougher challenge and has to kick out the defensive end. Conte seems to lose his feet (perhaps he gets tripped up a bit by Rogers leading through the hole), and doesn't get much movement on the end. Williams has to cut back slightly inside of Conte. On the back side, Laurence Gibson works his way through the inside gap and gets just a bit of contact on the defensive end before moving to the second level. Defensive end Dajuan Drennon (No. 17), a highly recruited redshirt freshman from New Jersey, should not be able to make this play. However, he bounces outside of Gibson, changes direction to go flat down the line, and crushes Williams as he goes for the first down marker. You could argue that Gibson needs to secure Drennon before moving to the next level, but the moment Drennon went to his outside rather than inside, you don't expect that he can make the play from that distance. Perhaps Hodges could have gotten a piece of Drennon, but he plays a passive contain technique and would unlikely have done much other than pushed Drennon towards the play. This was one of several spectacular plays Drennon made on the day, and I don't relish seeing him against the Hokies the next three years.

A Third Quarter Lull

Unfortunately, at the moment where it seemed that North Carolina was ready to roll over and die, the offensive line seemed to lose continuity. The Heels amped up their aggression and blitzing, and the line struggled to adjust. Coach Searels tried several options at both guard spots to try and stem the tide.

I am not sure what Conte is doing here. He has the responsibility to scoop through the inside gap, but he is a step slow and the UNC defensive tackle blows right by him into the backfield. David Wang also missed a linebacker assignment on a combination block on several zone plays. After Conte's struggles, Wang's and Teller's false start penalties, a frustrated Searels tried a combination of Alston Smith at left guard and Wang at right guard. Smith too struggled to get that block at the second level, as Jeff Schoettmer (who had a terrific game, yet somehow was only credited with 6 tackles) ran in behind Smith and rocked Williams in the backfield.

After the defense maintained a tenuous grip on the three touchdown lead through the third quarter, Michael Brewer threw an interception on an eerily similar smash route combination to the pick that sealed the Georgia Tech loss, and the defense finally broke. It seemed that the failure to finish North Carolina off was going to come back to haunt the Hokies. At this dire moment, the offensive line responded with a big time, game winning drive.

Execution and Aggression in Winning Time

When the Heels seemed to have all the momentum, the Virginia Tech offense responded with a 6:47, 16 play, 76 yard drive that gave the Hokies the breathing room they needed to close out the game. The drive, which featured strong runs by forgotten running backs Trey Edmunds, J.C. Coleman and Joel Caleb, as well as several confident completions by the maligned Michael Brewer, was energized by a significant improvement in aggression and execution of the offensive line. All the grinding yards early started to pay dividends as the Hokies started to control the line of scrimmage. Not surprisingly, the drive kicked off with an inside zone read, sparked by the original starting group of Conte, Farris, and Wang.

What stands out is how aggressively Conte and McLaughlin get off the football. They are not moving laterally looking to catch a defender. Conte especially explodes into the linebacker and drives him towards the bottom of the screen. McLaughlin turns his man outside, and Farris gets just enough of the stunting defensive tackle to let Edmunds slash into the bubble created by Conte. After Brewer's interception, and almost a full quarter with next to nothing positive happening for the Hokie offense, this run seemed to energize the offense.

After a first down, the offense found itself back in a critical third-and-short situation, and Loeffler again turned to the Wang Package. This time Wang lined up on the right side, with Hodges flanking him at H-Back and Malleck on the left. This is the Stanford-style, three tight end power look that I have been waiting to see. Loeffler called power, and the offensive line (along with Rogers and Hodges) delivered.

Hodges seals the initial edge defender to the outside. Wang and Gibson block down to create a bubble between Hodges and Wang. Rogers leads into the bubble and has a violent collision with the linebacker. There is such a nice hole formed between Wang, Hodges, and Rodgers that Teller almost has nobody to block. He steams through the hole, and Caleb (who along with Coleman had some impressive slashing runs while replacing Williams and Edmunds) bursts into the hole for a critical first down. After a couple of additional first downs and more time burned, Joey Slye finished the drive with the field goal that should have put the game on ice.

Unfortunately for Virginia Tech, UNC scored quickly, and the Hokies were not able to capitalize on the short field after a Joel Caleb kick recovery. While it was unlikely that the Tar Heels could have come back, a punt to All-American, and electric return man, Ryan Switzer had me on edge. However, Switzer fumbled a fair catch attempt. The Hokies' offensive line then sealed the deal with two dominant plays, both of which again featured Wyatt Teller's huge potential as a star in the making up front.

First, Loeffler kicked the drive off with a fullback kickout on the power play.

Focus on the combination block on the three-technique lined up on Teller's outside shoulder at left guard. Teller chips the three-technique's inside shoulder so Gibson can scoop him. Teller then peels off to get the strong safety. Once Teller finds the safety, he drives the outmatched defensive back completely out of the picture. Credit also goes to Coleman for a strong run. Gibson loses leverage on the defensive tackle but Coleman runs right through his arms down to the goal line.

Loeffler effectively ends the game by running another power play. Darius Redman (in the game as the left tight end), Gibson, and Teller all block down.

Teller chalks up another pancake, this time on the defensive tackle. Wang pulls around and leads through the hole. Hodges and Rogers seal their defenders outside. This is a beautifully executed dagger right to the heart of the North Carolina football program and a fitting end to the game for a much-maligned group of warriors in the trenches.

After a much-needed week of rest, Loeffler and the rest of the offensive staff will need to get his battered front and running back group as healthy as it can be leading into a slugfest at Pitt. Coach Searels will review the various combinations up front, and try to identify the most effective rotation through the next bye week, while Shane Beamer and Loeffler will work to get Caleb and Coleman ready to shoulder the load if Marshawn Williams ankle isn't ready to go by October 16th. But, for a team that had struggled so much to run the ball consistently, the response at the most critical juncture of the win against North Carolina is a much needed jolt of positive energy heading into some much needed time off.