Dozer's Play of the Game

Dozer's Play of the Game - Week 2

tonkaberlin:

It can be tough living in your brother's shadow. Trust me; I speak from experience. At least for me I only had to compete with an older brother. Corey Fuller has been surrounded by older brother Vincent (NFL Safety) and younger brothers Kyle (#ALLDEFENSEEVERYTHING), and Kendall (#1 high school recruit). All this competition has obviously only made Corey better, but it's taken until now for him to prove it.

After spending two years at Kansas running track, and two years on the sidelines at Tech, Corey finally has his time to shine with DJ Coles out for the season. While he made some big plays in the season opener against Georgia Tech, it wasn't until 26 seconds left in the first half versus Austin Peay that Corey Fuller finally got to the end zone. Though Tech was looking to be up 14-0 going into the half, our offense obviously felt it had more left to prove before heading into the locker room. As usual, our typically-stagnant offense started to click in this 2-minute drill. Starting from the VT 29, Logan Thomas clicked off pass after pass to Roberts and Dunn, before getting stuck at 3rd and 12 at the Austin Peay 30 after an incompletion intended for Marcus Davis. Thomas finally targetted Corey and once the ball was in his hands, it was obvious that nothing was going to keep him out of the end zone. He grabbed it at the 12 yard line, surrounded by 4 defenders, and broke 2 tackles on his way to scoring his first collegiate touchdown.

Corey is finally earning his stripes as a Fuller and hopefully he can become Logan's go-to guy this year. At least until Dyrell and Marcus learn how to catch balls again, but that's another story.

I'm wearing black. I took a nap and woke up hungover. That bad taste in my mouth was more likely from thoughts of this game, than beer and ribs. My wife buzzed my hair for me and I took a much needed shower to wash it all away.

You see, I woke up at 4:30am. I slow cook ribs to perfection for gameday and I like to run about 10 miles on the weekends. In the Florida heat, early alarms are the only way this is possible. This morning though, I decided to go back to sleep. Something didn't feel right. Maybe it was the fact that it was thundering and pouring rain. Maybe it was that I had only slept for 5 hours.

In college I ran track and didn't have the luxury of turning off my alarm. I had to get my ass up and throw down some serious miles whether it felt right or not. This football team had to get up and play today, even though my superstitious thoughts wanted to pull the plug. What they did wasn't pretty.

I put on black to mourn our hopes of receiving that elusive crystal ball. The chance of that happening may be gone but we can't get ourselves down. Superstition aside, I woke up 2 hours later and logged my miles. The ribs were amazing. It is only week 3 and there is A LOT of football to play. I'll stay positive and let my brother provide the gloom and doom. I present to you my pick for DPOG week 3 and what follows is an excellent perspective from tonkaberlin.

tonkerberlin:

An ugly game is an ugly game. Offense is stagnant. Defense cannot hold the opponent to under 500 yards of offense. It's truly embarrassing.

But let's be honest. We are not a Top-15 team. We have shown nothing to prove our worth to the nation. Sure, we beat an unranked ACC team. Sure, we crushed an FCS opponent (in an ugly fashion). But at the end of the day, who can point to any evidence and say we are among the best in the nation?

The best in the nation win consistently. They may not beat great teams regularly. They may not put up impressive statistics every week. But they win. At the end of the day, that is the most important statistic on the scoreboard.

But still, through our first two games, we showed nothing on the offensive or defensive side of the ball that proved our worth to the nation. We, in fact, showed our disworth. It took an overtime and silly interception to defeat an unranked GT team. We had to show true effort to overcome a bottom-dwelleing FCS team. This week, we were exposed.

Pittsburgh had been embarrassed. As our coaches had noted, they had been backed into a corner. Combine that with our undeserved and fleeting sense of worth. We came out flat; they came out with something to prove. The ingredients were all there for an upset. It took two electric plays, one from MD7, the other from KJ34, to get back into the game, but even at that point we knew we were overmatched.

Today's play of the game comes from an outstanding effort from Kyshoen Jarrett. If ever a name defined our program, it was Beamerball. If ever there was a chance for us to get back into this game, it was through Beamerball. Kyshoen did something that the rest of the team had failed to do; he took the game into his own hands. The punt likely should have been left to bounce into a touchback.

But Kyshoen fielded it, was aided by several blocks, and then sprung free by Ronnie Van Dyke's double block. He took the punt 94 yards to the opposing end zone and gave us hope. Even though we had all lost everything and become cynical against our team, we were all jumping and screaming and high-fiving. Plays like this are why we watch college football. Maybe this could be the play to turn this game (and hopefully season) around.

In the end, maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. We will find out in the coming weeks. We certainly have enough talent on both sides of the ball. The ingredients are there for a Top-10 team. The coming months will decide if we get that recipe right. For the meantime, let's all marvel at Kyshoen giving this team everything he has in an attempt to get us back into the game. Let's admire his heart. Because we all know that right now we need something to admire in this 2012 Virginia Tech football team.

Dozer's Play of the Game - Week 4

tonkaberlin:

It's been a long career for Dyrell Roberts and he's had some amazing plays over his five years. We all remember Danny Coale's amazing catch-and-run against Nebraska in 2009, but it was Dyrell who came up huge on third down to get the touchdown. After a long and intense scramble by Tyrod Taylor, Dyrell made a diving catch in the end zone to actually seal the deal. Earlier that year, too, he had blasted down the sideline against eventual national champion Alabama to score on a kick return to get us back into the game. Again last year, after being out for the end of the season in 2010 after an injury, Dyrell made an ESPN Top-10 catch, securing the ball between his own hand and an App State corner's helmet. But there has been mostly disappointment lately. After missing half of a season in both 2010 and 2011 due to compartment syndrome and a broken arm, respectively, and many dropped passes this year, Dyrell had yet to make a big play for the team. In fact, he hadn't scored a touchdown since October 23, 2010(!) against Duke. But it seems like this year things are finally looking up for him. Last week against Bowling Green, late in the second quarter, VT was only up 7 over Bowling Green. On first down, Logan Thomas dropped back past midfield and threw a bomb intended for #11 Dyrell Roberts. Logan has struggled with accuracy lately and Dyrell has struggled with holding onto the football. This time, however, the #STRAIGHTBURNER blew past the corner, and simultaneously jumped into the end zone and secured the football before hitting the ground. In the replay, you can see the relief under the helmet as he gets up. After so much frustration these past few seasons, it looks like the Dyrell Roberts we know is coming back. Welcome back, #STRAIGHTBURNER!

I felt this was necessary here:

Dozer's Play of the Game - Week 6
The team is making it hard to keep doing these.

tonkaberlin:

Saturday's game is one I would like to forget. Giovanni Bernard made our run defense look silly, rushing for 262 yards. VT gave up its first kickoff return for a TD since 1993, ending the nation's longest active streak. Our tradition of running the football is seemingly over; we put up 40 total yards on the ground, with our leading rusher, our quarterback, only putting up 20. Yet let's not forget Demitri Knowles, the heir apparent to the #STRAIGHTBURNER title, answering UNC's 3rd quarter touchdown with a 93 yard kickoff return of his own.

Before that play, I had just switched from beer to bourbon. I really thought that I had finally corrected whatever superstitious hurdle was keeping us from winning. I had flashbacks to 2010 NC State where David Wilson's 3rd quarter K.O. return sparked the team to come back and, eventually, win convincingly. That wasn't the case here. After that play, our stagnant offense and underachieving defense went through the same motions with the exception of one set of plays. With 9 minutes left in the game, on 3rd and 10 Logan scrambled, stepped up, and threw a rocket to Corey Fuller who once again put his track speed to good use and beat the UNC secondary for a 66-yard touchdown. More impressive, though, was the offense's ability to line up again, and Corey Fuller was able to catch a bobbling 2-pt conversion to pull VT to within 11. The offense looked like it had finally found that "it" factor and was beginning to click.

I'd like to pretend that that play finally ended VT's offensive struggles. That the defense used that momentum to shut UNC down. That we won that game. But we didn't. It was a beautiful fluke. And that's why this is the Play of the Game, not the Play of the Season.

Dozer's Play of the Game - Week 7

tonkaberlin:
Virginia Tech had no business being down to Duke. But let's be honest; nobody was truly surprised that they were. The major issue was that they were being killed 20-0 in the first quarter. It looked like Duke, at 5-1 simply wanted that 6th win to become bowl eligible, while the Hokies were content to lose their third game in as many weeks. Admittedly, the Hokies were able to rally a little in the second quarter to only be down by 20-10, but Duke was driving with 40 seconds left in the half.

On VT's 29, Duke had 1st and 10 with two timeouts left. A touchdown here would have extended the lead a bit and decimated any hope of a Hokie comeback going into the locker room. Fairweather fans would flee to the exit. Those watching at home might look to see what other noon games were on. I would have cried. But that wasn't the case.

Somehow, somewhere, luck was finally on Virginia Tech's side. Rather than getting a first down at the VT 20 yard line with 34 seconds left, the receiver bobbled the pass and Detrick Bonner snatched it and returned it all the way past midfield.

A few yards out of field goal range, it still wasn't obvious whether Beamer would have Logan take a knee to avoid risking a turnover or run the ball in hopes of gaining a few yards. Instead, Logan chose option C and launched a bomb similar to Tyrod's to Boykin against Tennessee in '09. This time the receiver, Marcus Davis, not only made the catch, but stayed on his feet and took it all the way into the end zone. Lane Stadium (and the Hokie Twitter universe) erupted. Instead of being down 27-10, VT cut the lead to 20-17 with momentum going into the half, knowing they got the ball to start.

The Hokies came out in the second half and played a fierce game, with Marcus Davis and J.C. Coleman having career games and finally giving my brother enough footage for a highlight reel . It's difficult to say whether that would have happened if VT didn't have that momentum and confidence at the half. But at the end of the day, these two plays combined to turn around the spirits of everyone playing and watching. VT scored 41 unanswered points to put Duke away 41-20, discovering a running game in the process. And a heckuva lot of credit is due to these plays: