The Hokies' demoralizing, deflating 28-21 loss to East Carolina ended pretty much the way it started.
After letting the Pirates take a 21-0 lead thanks to a barrage of deep passes by talented quarterback Shane Carden in the first quarter, the Hokies' defense tightened up in the second half.
But when it really mattered, after Tech tied the game with just 1:20 left in the game, the secondary got burned once again for a 31-yard pass and a 28-yard pass to put Carden in the position to run it in for an easy score to take the lead.
Yet it wasn't just the long passes that let the Pirates steal the game. A pair of illegal substitution penalties, an issue that was plaguing Tech all day, and a kickoff that sailed out of bounds near the goal line gave ECU the extra yards it needed.
"They were good and we helped them," said Frank Beamer. "I don't like kicking the ball out of bounds and giving them good field position to start with. I don't like having too many guys on the field and giving them those yards, I don't like that a bit."
The sudden jolt of offense from ECU came as a bit of a shock, considering how well the defense was playing. After letting the Pirates throw 370 yards of offense on the scoreboard in the first half, Bud Foster's group allowed just 13 in the third quarter alone.
But the defense couldn't come through when it mattered most.
"As a defense, if it's going to be a close game, you want it in our hands," said linebacker Chase Williams. "And we can't help them out with those penalties, that's something we're going to look to eliminate."
Just the fact that Tech was even in position to send the game to overtime with a defensive stand seems like a minor miracle.
Everything that could possibly go wrong for the Hokies in the first quarter did go wrong.
Carden went off for 174 yards, feasting on Brandon Facyson and the Hokies' safeties. Tech allowed passes of 35, 22, 47 and 23 yards in just the first 15 minutes of the game.
"They've got some receivers that can go up and go get it. And their quarterback, I don't think anyone throws it any better than he does," Beamer said. "He put some deep balls right on the money."
While some of Carden's throws were excellent, others were lobs that merely managed to get Tech's cornerbacks turned around. Even Kendall Fuller was guilty of losing a few passes, and Facyson struggled so that the staff turned to last week's hero, Donovan Riley.
"He's missed a lot of time, missed a lot of practice time and you can't make that up," Beamer said. "He's a terrific athlete and a good kid, he'll be a better guy next week. And Riley is a tough guy that played his heart out."
ECU's offensive barrage wouldn't have been quite so damaging had the Hokies managed to put any sort of offense together to counter them.
Instead, Tech finished with a grand total of 14 total yards to end the quarter.
"We knew they were going to be tough defensively, we knew they were going to be ready to play, they did some things up front and were able to stop our run game and get some pressure early," said Michael Brewer. "There's really no excuse other than they outplayed us in the first half."
Brewer looked erratic and uncomfortable in the pocket, a strange sight after how poised he seemed against one of the best defensive line's in the nation a week ago. He threw a pair of very ill-advised picks early in the second quarter that just kept putting Tech's defense on the field.
"We need to eliminate those turnovers," Brewer said. "One of them was just an uncharacteristic throw, throwing back across my body, trying to make something happen when I should've just thrown it away. The second one, the DB made a good play, I was a little late on the throw. But then again, that's a credit to their defense."
Even with all the long throws and offensive miscues, the Hokies were still very much in the game as the second quarter came to an end. The defense tightened up, and the offense finally found some rhythm, scoring on an Isaiah Ford catch that could've easily been overturned had there been a clearer view of the ball.
But Tech went into the locker room down just 21-7, a minor miracle after ECU failed to convert a fourth down on the 11-yard line and then fumbled on Tech's 24-yard line earlier in the second.
The offense couldn't get any points in the ensuing quarter, but controlled the time of possession and gradually looked more functional.
"I've seen some times when we started out bad and ended bad, but offensively I thought we started out slow and got better as the day went along," Beamer said. "We've got some improving to do, but I think we can look at our blocking, at why we weren't able to run the ball early and again late."
It helped that the pass rush, led by Ken Ekanem's 1.5 sacks and Deon Clarke's two, hounded Carden relentlessly in the second half.
"We just got a better feel for the offensive line and what they were doing protection wise, we had a few scheme changes during halftime, so we got to the quarterback more and I got a better feel for my tackle," Ekanem said.
Yet Tech failed to convert a fourth down of its own on the 2-yard line as the final quarter opened, and that largely sealed the Hokies fate.
"We had an opportunity in the red zone. We had a play that had a shot and it just didn't work out," said offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler.
But on their next drive, the Hokies marched 80 yards down the field for another Ford touchdown, and suddenly it was 21-14.
Two drives later, they were gifted with starting field position on the 47, and made it count, tying the game with an 18-yard catch by Cam Phillips.
At that point, it seemed overtime was inevitable.
"I've got complete faith in the defense, I thought we had a chance all the way down (the field)," Phillips said. "We have a great defense at Virginia Tech, but in tight games things can flip in an instant."
Then Carden burned Riley and Chuck Clark on those long completions, and the game came to a stunning end.
"I'm going to blame myself for the deep ball, I should've faded to that side more," said free safety Detrick Bonner. "We made some minor mistakes substitution-wise, but that doesn't mean that we can't correct it."
Now the Hokies are left wondering how they're back talking about games like 2013's losses to Duke and Maryland, or even 2010's letdown against JMU, after achieving one of the biggest wins in program history.
"That was one thing we preached to our guys all week was, we're not taking a step back and not doing the thing we did last year, which was play great one week and then fall down the next week," said receiver Willie Byrn. "We just came out a little slow and then the defense played great in the second half, and the offense was getting first downs, but we weren't doing the ultimate goal, which is punching it in. We just ran out of time."
Beamer was still oddly positive following the heartbreaking loss.
"I'm more convinced than ever that we can really be a good football team," Beamer said. "We got down and never once did we panic, we hung in there and gave ourselves a chance to win. So we can learn from it and be better and I think the potential is good. Last I week I thought the potential was good, and this week I think the potential is good."
His calm likely comes from the fact that he knows that, the win over the Buckeyes notwithstanding, the talk of making the playoff or winning the ACC was likely premature given how young this squad is.
"I don't think I've ever had a game that I felt like when we look at it we can learn as much as we can from this one," Beamer said.
Winning the division remains a realistic objective for the team, even if the effort looked brutal at times against the Pirates.
"We didn't finish today and that's on us and that's on me, and I'll take ownership of that," said defensive coordinator Bud Foster. "As good as we played last week, we weren't very good in the back end today."
Comments
It's ok, eCU was who we thought they were. Time to focus on GiT, let's tighten up boys and get that coastal division!
Injuries?
Right, I thought I saw Dadi holding his wrist gingerly.
Mcglock? Malleck?
That's right we were not surprised very much.
I've pointed out a few players that I thought played well or poorly on other threads, but I forgot about Ekanem. He is starting to become the player I think we all expected him to be coming out of high school. Glad to have him taking over one of the end positions.
He played really well
A little surprised our defense let so
Many passes through and that their defense played so well against our O.
I'm not. Thanks to the long term agreement with ECU, we might as well consider them a conference opponent. That team we played today, we beat last year. Many of those players on the ECU team circled this game and wanted to win it because we beat them last year at their home stadium. When we started getting national press, it just made the upset so much sweeter for ECU. That ECU team is a veteran team that had a good season last year. Many of those players were on this years team.
Familiarity sometimes works for you, other times, it works against you. I still think the team kinda slept on them, but I don't have solid proof, just supposition.
I think they pulled in a couple of stud JUCO guys, too. If that DT and one of those receivers (not Hardy, obviously) were two of them, then I'd say they won out on that.
Not saying that they are a bad team or are not familiar with us at all. I'm saying that it seemed as though a lot of the balls were able to be battled for in the air if our DB's had turned around and played the ball instead of playing the reciever the entire time. Their recievers won those jump balls the majority of the time. That's why I was surprised at how well their recievers did against our secondary. We do have one of the best secondaries in the country and they just got outplayed on saturday. I didn't see that coming. But I guess there's always next year....and the year after that....and the year after that....
DBs always play the receiver, not the ball in man coverage. Playing the ball will get you burned more often than it gets you an INT or pass defensed.
I agree. I feel like those passes weren't bullets, a lot of them floated. Bad guys came down with every jump ball.
On the whole, our DBs played one of the worst games I've ever seen them play from a technique standpoint. Time after time, they got turned around and never looked back to find the ball. As you say, ECU's QB was just throwing "jump balls" a lot of the time. ECUs receivers simply won too many of those one-on-one matchups.
I believe the technical term for that style of pass is "arm-punt."
It was an effective game plan: lull them to sleep with underneath crosses and quick slants, then hit them with a floater when they put their DBs on an island and brought pressure. Last week we won more of those one-on-ones than we lost, this week we lost way too many. We were putting them in usual favorable down-and-distance situations, but they were converting long 3rd downs which is backbreaking for a defense.
Observations of the ECU game that really bothered me:
1) Michael Brewer was not moving well. His body mechanics seemed more stiff. Maybe too many hits from the OSU game?
2) What in the world happened to our WRs (Stanford and Ford)? They dropped at so many passes, especially in the 2nd half of the game.
3) Our O-line was as effective as swiss cheese in pass protection and I'm just hopping they continue to improve like they did in the 2nd half of this game.
4) DC Foster made adjustments because ECU was throwing it all over our DBs. Unfortunately, DC Foster did not make adjustments until the 2nd quarter. By then, we were down 21 points.
5) ECU is a veteran team. How many times did the game announcers kept pointing out all the players that were on the field for ECU today and said they remembered the loss against VT last year in Greenville, NC?
6) They Luther Maddi'ed us. i.e. That mountain of a Nose Tackle/D-lineman for ECU pretty much stuffed our run and made us one dimensional. Then our WRs started doing observation #2.
7) How many of us believe that the team was focused all week on ECU? I just don't know, we came out of this game completely flat.
8) We need better blocking for our RBs. In the 2nd half we were running over that team. Then in the last two drives we stopped running against ECU. What happened? We cannot wait until the 2nd half of a game to get the running going, especially when #2 happens.
9) One particularly galling decision by HC Beamer:
I believe it was the 3rd Quarter, still down 21 to 7 at the goal line on 4 & Goal. Why not kick the Field Goal instead of going for it? And if we are going for it, why not a run play?
10) I think we found out in this game how important Corey Marshall is in establishing the pass rush. The good news is that towards the end of the game, some of the younger LBs started stepping up in their play.
I still think we have a good chance to compete for the Coastal Division this year. I still believe we will win 9-10 games. Go Hokies!
Regarding #9, I don't blame Beamer for going for it, there was 13 minutes left in the 4th quarter. We were on the 2 yard line, what bothers me is Brewer throwing to an empty spot in the end zone hoping the ref's would throw a flag for the receiver that was prevented from running his route. They hadn't reliably thrown PI flags all game.
Hard to throw that flag when it was one of our own WR, albeit with help, that prevented our other guy from running his route. I still think we should have kicked that Field Goal.
I have no problem going for it there. Passing was also the better choice. We haven't proven we can rush for needed short yardage yet.
At that point, a FG is almost worthless. We hadn't been that close in all but one of our drives in the half, kicking a FG means you are banking on being able to score 2 more TDs in the game. I was all for going for it. If it works out, you are down 1 TD, which is about what you might have thought our Offense was able to produce at that point.
agree with going for it however not sure why the fade to bucky wasn't thrown when he had what looked like a munchkin from the land of oz lined up against him. I think they tried to go quick on that that Brewer didn't even see it. I think the DB for ECU thought it was coming his way pre-snap because he was looking like he was calling for help when he saw he was lined up against Bucky. I also believe that we had had some decent runs up to that point so wasn't sure why didnt' run either. Would have liked to have seen that backfield with bucky, sam and marshawn in it. Or maybe a jet sweep. Ah well.
I turned to the well-educated fan behind me (Sec. 16, Row GGG, are you on TKP?) and said, "fade to Bucky?" His eyes lit up like, "we just scored!" Then ... nothing. I think rolling Brewer to the right with a pass option and a pitch option is our best short-yardage play.
I really get tired of the comparisons to JMU, as I have seen and heard it a few times today. JMU is FCS, we are FBS as well as ECU. ECU is a good team that reminds me a lot of the 90's hokies that played with that blue-collar approach and fear of no one. They came in and they silenced the crowd immediately. They are no pushover team and it is time we stop looking at ECU as this mediocre pushover team, which they are not. Are we the better team? I think so, but the scoreboard didnt show that today. I think this is a very young team and they finally showed their youth. Think about how many true freshman started. A lot of these mistakes are mitigated by experience which we are lacking in several areas. Beamer is positive for the same reason I am--this team is loaded with very young talent. The past two weeks the talent showed; today the youth. It sucks, I hate losing to ECU because I have several friends who will rub it in...but to compare this to JMU that just isn't fair to our Hokies nor to the Pirates. I have a lot of respect for their program (esp. after 4/16) and believe they are an upcoming program.
Hokies need to keep their chin up, learn and move forward.
Definitely agree. ECU has a lot of good, fast, athletic players. There's no shame in losing a close game to them. That's why we were only favored by 10 points. They should have beaten S. Carolina last week.
The thing that's frustrating is that VT didn't play nearly as well as we'd played in the first two games. We made a lot of mistakes today that we didn't make against W&M and OSU.
Did you just actually write "only favored by 10 points?"
10 points is a boatload.
10 points says they win 1/4th of the time. That's pretty accurate from what I saw, we played awful for a qtr and they caught everything and they still barely won.
I take the opposite feel from the game.
If it's possible to say this based on a team scoring with 16 seconds left, the game really felt further away than the final score.
There are 4 quarters in a football game, your offense and defense can't simply take a few off.
ECUs offense and defense took a few qtrs off.
And they still beat us...so not sure of your point. If anything that's worse. They have enough talent to beat us in 12 minutes. They took advantage of our side sleep walking. And I wouldn't say their D took anything off. Their big guy got tired destroying our O line more than anything.
They did go for in inside our 25. They were going for the death blow. They missed that FG then fumbled inside the 5 after picking Brewer off. The score could easily have been 31 or 35 nothing at the half. VT was very lucky to go into the half only down 14.
ECU executed better for 85% of the game. The fact that VT tied it showed a lot of guts and heart. But if we won that game, ECU fans could argue that they let one get away and VT fans would feel that they stole one.
we played awful for 4 quarters
I up-voted just in case those two down-votes were based on opinion (my understanding is we down-vote for offensive content, not for opinions with which we disagree?)
But I completely disagree. We played awful for 15 minutes -- the first 13:40 and the last 1:20. The rest of the time we played less well than we did the week before, but this was a team against which we didn't match up well. There were mistakes on both sides of the ball that ended up costing us, but in my vocabulary that's not the same as "awful." The first quarter was awful.
Gotta disagree about the no shame. Vt should never lose to an ECU. It should be a solid warmup game and a chance for the defense to stretch its legs prior to conference play or prior to a p5 opponent. Other than that there's no real upside to beating the pirates and certainly no upside to losing. The fact that the talent levels are as close as they are between the Hokies and the pirates is a testament to the programs recruiting prowess prior to 2013.
Edit: there is an added level of shame to this loss because mark May was proven right when he picked the Hokies to be upset. Making mark may look smart is the greatest shame of all.
That's what I've been trying to say. If you're going to lose, then lose to a team that's really great.
So losing to a veteran team that exploited our weaknesses and didn't back down is shameful just because E$PN and the rest of the media does not respect them? Their talent is on par with any ACC team (sans F$U), if not better, even if the stars don't match. How many times have we heard another team (Miami, Florida State, Clemson, OSU, Texas) complain about losing to our Hokies? Is that really the fanbases we want to emulate?
My point is they have built a program much like we have, win games the way do, and you say it is shameful. They look at us like we looked at Miami in the early 2000's. We knew we were just as good, and we proved it. Give another blue collar program the respect they deserve. They beat us with our own formula again, let's move on. It's time to help pick our team up and move on to the next game.
[Steps down from soapbox]
I don't think so. If that's true, how exactly?
You mean like that game against USCe?
They take under recruited guys and coach them up to produce a solid team that wins together, not on one that relies on stars. They ranked 82, 71, 79, 69, and 76 over the last 5 years in the 247 composite team recruiting ranking. They also beat us, North Carolina, and NC State as they are moving up the ranks and attended 4 bowl games in those 5 years.
As far as style of play yes we have different schemes. However their offense and defense are designed to be unique, hard to prepare for, and target the weakness of their opponents. This means that every time they step on the field and you are not 100% prepared you are in for a bad day, just like the buckeyes against our defense?
You mentioned USCe. ECU had an uber talented team on the ropes last week, they just didn't seal it. This week they did. That's a sign of a great team, building on each mistake to get better each week.
I have a lot of respect for the Pirates and look forward to seeing if they can put a full season together this year.
[I also legged your post because I see no reason for 5 downvotes for questioning my opinion.]
I still don't see how that makes them more like us and it certainly does NOT make them blue collar (as they are not originally a blue collar school). How many of those bowl games did they get a W? How many of those bowl games were BCS?
They are working to get where we are now. They are like the mid 90's tech teams before we were established. Give them 3 years and they will be a household name competing with the big boys (much like Louisville, and us when we each moved to the big east).
They are a blue-collar team by their approach, I can not speak to the college environment. Bowl wins definitely don't separate us, our bowl record is fairly poor too.
Sorry. Still not seeing it. You make it sound as if their program will exceed ours. Not possible.
Not exceed, we are still growing as a program as well. I just see them on the same path that we followed. 3-5 years they will be consistently competitive with major programs, and we should be consistently in the playoff picture. My point is I think we just played the second best team on our schedule, the rest of the world won't accept that until they finish the season strong.
Well I'm sorry, but based on the fact of their performance yesterday I'm not impressed and I gotta disagree. Assuming we make it to the ACCCG (which I do) they will have been tied for 3rd or 4th "toughest" on our schedule (and that's excluding our postseason opponent). I mean what if they lose to UNC? That puts a pretty big-ass hole in your esteem of them. Face it. We came out flat, they took advantage, ended up winning, but they still almost lost.
Don't get me wrong. They're good. But they're not really great (anOSU, halFaSsU, insert $ec team). They are not equal to us. What would've happened if the team that showed up last weekend in the horseshoe showed up yesterday? We would've absolutely dominated them. Exposed them and shown them for what they are. I consider BC and Pitt a more challenging opponent then ecu.
You could replace VT in your post with OSU and sound exactly like one of the fans over there (no disrespect to them). But same scenario for them. Although I don't believe that we should ever lose to ECU, I do know that it is always going to be a tough game. They are a quality team. Fact is we got outplayed on Saturday. Can't change that now. The boys battled back and gave VT a chance. If we would have played like we did in the Shoe then, I'm sure we would have beat them, but we didn't. Plus Carden and his WR's were way than Barrett and his WR's last week. Right now ECU has the better QB and better WR's than OSU.
Foster had a game plan for anOSU's injured QB should he have come to play. It may have been closer but we still would've won. You can't say that Carden and his WRs are the best set our D has faced because we haven't faced anyone else yet. Haven't even played a postseason game. Once we have, if that is the case, then maybe we can confirm it. But I didn't see a whole lot from ecu that impressed me. Just a bunch scenarios where our guys didn't capitalize or take advantage. Also, just because they or we played close the past few years doesn't mean it will be that way next season or even unto the end of the contract. They're good. At times really good. But not really great or what I'd consider quality.
It seems clear that some people won't accept it because of the conference they play in.... but just like Louisville, they are a good team no matter the conference, Louisville had a better team last year, but now since they are in a major conference the perception changes
For the record, Mark May also picked us to beat OhState. Meanwhile, Sputterin' Lou picked the opposite both times while mocking May's picks. Seems like May needs to ask Lou just how he likes those apples about now.
ECU would be a solid ACC team. Shame would have been if the team had quit. Young guys showed me a lot. Unless you actually think this hokie squad was going to make a push for the top 4 playoff, then the first loss had to come from somewhere. I'm glad it was out of conference and the team showed real grit.
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SMH, it felt like I was watching the Boise State game again; so many what ifs in this game.
like "what if a DB had turned around and played the ball?"
All is not lost. there is so much for this young team to learn from this loss. I believe the hokies can still win the coastal if they learn from the mistakes.
I loved Ekanem today, and Clark backed up last weeks performance. We need to run the ball, which shows slow progress.
Beamer is practicing the old Lombardi strategy of picking the team up when they're down and keeping them level when they're riding high. Historically, he's much better at the former than the latter.
Yup.
ECU played great, and we made mistakes and blah, blah, blah.
I was getting that bad mojo feeling when in the 1st qtr we had them 3rd and long and tipped the ball and their TE(?) caught it and ran for the 1st down.
There was scarce little 50/50 that broke our way.
Well, as far as 50/50s are concerned, there was that one snap where Farris apparently thought Brewer was under center and it bounced right into Brewer's hands
I got nervous when I saw the line was the same for us as it was for OSU last week. I thought oh man, same line, same scenario. Nothing they would love more then to come in and knock off VT at home. At least we weren't ranked in the top ten or below 15 actually when we lost. I'd rather lose ranked somewhere from 15-UR.
Unfortunately in my opinion it's to much of the same old stuff that plagues the Hokies every time they beat a ranked opponent the week before, a loss 4 out of the last 5 times I beleive. Coaching? Not sure, however one can only think about the possibilities that could have been. A lot of football left this year lick your wounds don't get to low and realize the sun is coming up tomorrow. Now let's go kick GT arse.
The difference, it seems to me, is it's usually the offense that looks cocky and unprepared the next week. If you had told me just before kickoff, "this game will depend on whether their OC can outsmart Bud Foster and their receivers -- not just their one NFL-ready guy but their whole corps -- can outplay the D-Block," I would have breathed a sigh of relief. I won't say I can't believe we lost, but I will say, I can't believe we lost because our defensive backs couldn't cover any of their receivers and Bud Foster couldn't make adjustments until we were behind 21-0.
Trivia question for everyone, because off the top of my head I can't remember...When is the last time the Hokies went undefeated at Lane Stadium for an entire season? This is something that bothers me a lot...the fact that we constantly have disappointments ON OUR HOME FIELD!!! We've played flat or uninspired during Maryland and Duke last year, Clemson in 11', of course JMU in 10'...and those are just off the top of my head, if I did research I could find more. I was hoping with Miami on Thurs night, we'd have a good chance to go undefeated at home. Ugh this just sucks...
2008, I believe.
Happened five times in the Beamer Era: 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2008.
EDIT: Stupid Matt Ryan
We lost one at home in 2007...grumblegrumbleMattRyangrumblegrumble...
Ugh, you're right. I thought I had successfully forgotten about that game. Fixed.
Sorry for digging up old ghosts fellas, I was just reminiscing about disappointing home games and was hoping the home slate this year would be one of those undefeated seasons...but then today happened
I still root against him -- I cheered when I saw he threw two INTs yesterday! Every time they say his name, everyone in my family looks at me and waits for me to say, "hate, hate, hate." It's totally illogical and unreasonable, and seven years ago.
FUCK THAT WAS SO SADDENING! i STILL HAVE FAITH THT WE WILL BE A GOOD TEAM BUT I THINK HTAT OUR YEAR WILL BE NEXT YEAR OR THE ONE AFTER THAT. wE CAN STILL WIN THE COASTAL THIS YEAR THOUGH. LETS GO HOKIES!!!!!!
With all the momentum going our way I just thought the kick out of bounds late broke our back. Just can't do that kinda stuff in close games like that.
When you put your heart and soul into this team, and scream you lungs out every week cheering them on, a loss like this is just so devastating. Last weeks win put me on such an emotional high it was unbelievable. I was so happy people were talking about us again, and really thought this season was going to be more than special. Then, to watch them claw back and tie it during a game where they clearly didn't have their best, just to lose in the end is so tough to deal with. I know almost every goal this team wanted to achieve is still out there, but I just cant get that depressed feeling out of my body. Lets hope we don't let ECU beat us two weeks in a row, and give a strong performance against Georgia Tech next week. I know this team has what it takes to take the Coastal, and lets take this a lesson for all the young guys. As bad as it seemed at times, this game today will be a learning experience and could help us in the long run. Go Hokies!
In terms of realistic expectations, this loss has almost no negative impact. Just get through those saddening water cooler conversations this week and know that this season could still be special. This team still excites me.
I put 100% of the blame on Gobbler Country.
I put 100% of the blame on UVA. The world is off its axis. Somewhere pigs are flying. And hell is freezing over.
But that's pretty much how my whole week has been, so I can't say I'm surprised at Saturday's football outcomes.
Tech now needs to figure out how to win the game after winning a big game, we just came out flat and I'm pretty sure it was hangover from last wk. Were young tho and hopefully this was a game that showed these guys you have to be ready every wk.
I still have hope for this season with all the young talent just learning from this experience moving on and growing wiser and focus on stopping the option attack this Saturday. I said this on the game thread and I'll come back to it here. I absolutely hate when we wear All White at home and hopefully this will put an end to it like All Orange and the Duke game last year.
+1 Someone mentioned to me on Friday that the helmets VT wore were nearly identical to the helmets UNC wore when ECU hung 55 points on them last year. I'm not saying this is why we lost the game, but I am saying is that we gave ECU a psychological advantage.
1) Home team wears the dark uniforms while visiting team wears the light. We were the home team, so we should always wear the dark uniforms at home!
2) Lets wear helmets that remind ECU of a game where they obliterated an ACC team.
Part of the home field advantage is to make the visiting team feel uncomfortable, getting into their heads and disrupting their rhythm. We chose to not fully embrace this concept yesterday.
I hate to break it to you guys but the white home uniforms aren't going away. I don't like them any more than you guys but we're going to have a white out game every year...
I think we were ready to play but not locked like we were last week. It seemed like the team was just drained from the Ohio St victory. Also it seems possible that after beating the Buckeyes, they felt like the goals for this season was accompished..there is still allot to play for this year! Go Hokies!
While we're on this topic, how about the job Ruffin McNeill has done with East Carolina, huh? Guy came from Texas Tech (oh sh*t just realized this again) to coach his alma mater after Skip Holtz left for USF and has done a bang-up job at his alma mater. Respect this man!
I can't say I'm too shocked at the outcome. It still hurts though. The offense was a typical VT offense at home after a big win...slow. I'm glad they finally showed up. Embarassing to see a coach demonstrating fundamentals to an O-lineman during the game. I am shocked at how the defense seemed to meltdown due to communication errors. Illegal substitutions? At home? WTF?
I think the team hates noon games just as much as the fans. They show up fashionably late.
I wonder if the school is regretting the "mission accomplished" shirts?
Disappointing loss. Unfortunately I think we may see the same type of stuff from the 2014 Hokies as we did in 2013 and 2012, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The silver lining is that we are going to that type of inconsistency because of the youth on the team whereas in 2012 and 2013 VT was completely dependent on LT from an offensive perspective. At least VT now has playmakers all over the field even if they are young.
I love our DBs, but seriously, who the hell taught them to NEVER turn around to look for the ball? I don't understand it. Every game this year we could've had 1-3 interceptions if our DBs just TURNED AROUND.
I think it was mentioned somewhere, but the main reason they weren't looking back is that they were a step behind and trying to catch up.. people run faster with their head facing forward, so that would probably be the main reason... there were a few plays that the DBs were looking for the ball but just not in good enough position to make a play on it - the play with Facyson comes to mind where he turned himself around and wasn't close enough to get a hand on the ball even though he saw it coming
This is a technique that Coach Gray teaches. You are more comfortable running forward, and in a better position to make a tackle. The key is timing the breakup, as the receiver puts their hands up the defender places his arm between them and rips back when he feels the ball. Kendall and Kyle are great at face guarding and allows them to stay on an island against a faster receiver.
[Just my opinion on the subject, I have no inside information, I defer to French if I am mistaken]
"I don't think I've ever had a game that I felt like when we look at it we can learn as much as we can from this one," Beamer said
This, so much this, when the coaches say you cannot overlook an opponent and have to focus every week, they just point to this game. Hopefull this sinks in to this young team and they won't need a reminder for a few years.
Did anyone else see the parallels to the OSU game. They played our part and we obliged with OSU's part. They got up early and we made a small comeback taking the score 21-7 at half. We stormed back in the second half to tie then kicked off out of bounds, just like OSU. They then proceeded to walk down the field for the go ahead loss and the upset win on the road. It was almost sickening when we kicked off out of bounds. I will say, for the first time in awhile our offense looked like it could score quickly when needed and brewer kept finding receivers and giving them a chance to make the play. Lots just get the offense and defense playing consistently and head on down to Charlotte.
OSU also had a kick go out of bounds...not sure if it was after they tied it. Also the line was the same for OSU as it was for us this week. Creepy.....
I don't think it was just the players that overlooked ECU, I think the coaching looked ahead also. You have to do more than just the talk. What I really saw was, with a good QB and some good receivers, our corners will get smoked time and time again. It is time to stop the DBU talk until they can do it every play, every game. Otherwise, it is bulletin board material.
The worst defensive outing, I have seen in over a decade. Now move on to next week because this milk is on the floor.
Well we still have one of the best secondaries in the nation and we still put a lot of DB's into the NFL so I think DBU can stay. Granted they didn't play lights out on Saturday and have some work to do but I think the moniker is fine.
I'm with ScottyB on this one. I want to see them prove it consistently. They didn't have to prove it against W&M. They didn't prove it against OSU. And they sure didn't prove it Saturday. Kendall has shut down one side of the field each game. The other side of the secondary is not getting the job done.
My hope is that this is the game that galvanizes this young team. Like someone else said, thank God this bed-shitting happened out of conference. We have some tough football ahead (Boston College, anyone?) and this young team needed something to piss them off and light a fire under their asses. Now it's time to tear shit up in the Techmo Bowl.
As far as dealing with this loss on a personal level, I'm a Hokie. I've seen my share of head-shaking heartbreaks over the years. This one sucks, but I've seen a lot of those heartbreaks where we never even got it together enough to mount a 21 point comeback to lose it in the last minute. And I'll take the way we lost this one over if we'd just laid down and rolled over any day. Keep fighting no matter how hopeless it looks or how shell shocked you are. There's fight in this team. And that bodes well.
Go Hokies.
+1 for Techmo Bowl reference!
I watched a little of the BC game. I love watching anyone beat the University of Spoiled Children. But I am not looking forward to Nov 1 now.
Any injury updates? Marshall, Malleck, McLaughlin? Will Cline be ready this week if Malleck can't go?
Malleck did try to give it a shot in the second half but it was clearly bothering him. Hopefully that just means its a minor injury that he will get over throughout the course of the week.
This just popped into my head. ECU really wants to be a member of the ACC. Just look at their schedule they play. They will never make it in (too many Carolina schools), which is why the play so tough against ACC schools.