There is a lot of pundit chatter regarding the Hokies passing defense, which was ranked first in the ACC only allowing 168 yards per game. Strong and Delane had excellent seasons in coverage.
But the stat is a bit of a misnomer. The Hokies schedule was loaded with teams that struggled all season to throw the football. The best passing team the Hokies faced was Florida State (45th in the country out of 130 teams after the late season drop off thanks to the loss of Jordan Travis), who got pretty much whatever they wanted with the passing game before turning to the run game to close the Hokies out. Virginia Tech's best defensive game against the pass was against UVA (ranked 46th), where the pass rush forced a lot of bad throws.
Louisville was ranked 56th.
Marshall was ranked 61st.
Pitt was ranked 76th.
Purdue was ranked 84th.
Wake was 98th
Old Dominion was 99th.
NC State was 100th.
BC was 108th.
Syracuse was 114th.
Rutgers was 124th.
The Hokies will open with Vanderbilt, ranked 64th.
Comments
Weren't many good QB's on our schedule this year, no doubt about that. I think you're right to contextualize that stat.
Note on Vanderbilt: They have lost both of the QB's who played meaningful snaps for them last season and at least their top three WR's to the portal.
Situations like this are why people turn to advanced metrics these days. They aren't perfect, but they cover up some of the weaknesses of traditional stats like yards allowed.
Just some quick extra context, because I was curious. Obviously this also isn't a perfect reflection, but we held ACC opponents below their passing averages for the season in 5/8 games, and in those five, they were only passing for 75% of their season averages. Including all ACC games, teams were 10% below their season average in passing yardage against us.
So, that's definitely an above average passing defense, but doesn't sound as dominant. It also doesn't take into account game script, and the rushing yards above expectation, which I suspect we would see comfortably on the bad side of the average.
I'm perfectly fine banging the 1st in the ACC drum /s
That isn't a knock on the corners. But, there were yards to be gained against that secondary at times, and the opposition couldn't exploit those opportunities.
We cannot control how good or bad our opponents are, we can only control how we play against them.
Seeing us actually not shoot ourselves in the foot all season long against teams that struggle to pass is actually a good sign for us going forward. The breakdowns we have seen in recent years just stopped after some early struggles this year.
No matter what you say, we're still #1
Well you know, Strong is a Fuente guy.
Ducks
/SSSSS
Banish him!
NC State - 100- lol- We made Armstrong and that frosh receiver look like Montana to Rice with little resistance.
SUPER frustrating to watch bc it was entirely predictable too. 18 completions on the day, 7 to concepcion
But also a lot of those hybrid RB/WR types wind up getting matched on LBs and we all know how we struggled there this year -- definitely room for improvement and hopefully we see that materialize
They finished with 220 passing yards against a season average of ~194 yards. Concepcion had a hell of a day, but it's not like they lit the world on fire as a team.
More like Young to Rice. Armstrong did a lot with his legs, too.
Something else that factors in is that, if a team is ahead late in the game, their offense starts to run more in order to burn time off the clock. That could skew the pass defensive stats.
And last year, we were either behind, or really ahead, the latter of which tends to skew opponents' passing, so that tends to make what we did look better.
A lot of good reasons to write off this ranking. Meanwhile, I'm over here like:
I think that's how Pry wants the defense to work. Not to say that we can't and won't improve in the secondary, but I think our pass rush will make or break our pass defense.
For my insolence I tossed another $41.20 to Triumph NIL.
This is good context but aren't these bad ACC passing offenses the same that other ACC defenses played against? First in the ACC is still an accomplishment.
We'd be ranked even higher if we still had to play Paul Johnson's vaunted triple option passing offense.
It was extremely efficient. Or effective? I can't remember...
eff'd either way
Except we probably would have lost that game badly due to poor fits and tackling.
And we wouldn't have gone bowling....
And we'd have a vocal 'Fire Pry' contingency here.
sooooooooooooo, you're sayin' there's a... chance?
That attempt at satire aside... Eye wonder what our run-fits woulda been like had we had any credible high-anxiety or aerophobia to aerially worry, us?
🤔
b.street
I need to eat a gummy and then read your comments.
...could not hurt... +1 if it is an O or M one too.
; )
b.street
Would you like me to post a creepy gif to view with your gummy?
Please don't.
Nope, nope, nope.
I ate one the other night and watched that movie "Leave the World Behind." That was not exactly pleasant.