They simply outplayed us.
I have no idea if those words were uttered by Frank Beamer while addressing his team following Saturday's loss. It wouldn't surprise me if they were. Frankly (no pun intended), I hope that's exactly what he said. The truth hurts.
Being told by your coach you just got beat is a breath sucking punch to the gut. It's similar to your father punishing you with nothing more than a head shake and dead look in the eyes. Excuses and self pity are no longer coping mechanisms. The disappointment known then would be permanently burnt into your memory, serving as motivation to ensure that whatever it was never happened again.
This Virginia Tech team is young and inexperienced at many key positions. Our 21-year-old quarterback — fresh off a resounding victory in hostile territory — had only 2 career starts going into Saturday's game. Saturday's two leading running backs and receivers were taking their SAT's a year ago. And our all-world defensive backs, who gained national acclaim for their performance at the Horseshoe last weekend, are still true sophomores.
Much like the Ohio State victory would serve as a confidence builder for this young team, Saturday's home loss to the East Carolina Pirates will serve as an example for how quickly things can change.
ECU came out firing, playing directly into the hype surrounding our defensive backs by lobbing jump balls down the sideline play-after-play. ECU quarterback Shane Carden's throws aren't going to be shown in a George Whitfield instructional video anytime soon, but they were thrown in such a way that allowed his tall, physical receivers to go up and compete for the ball in one-on-one situations. Time after time the Hokie defensive front would get quick pressure on Carden, only to see him flick the ball down the sideline before they could hit him.
It was the perfect response to Bud Foster's aggressive defensive scheme. Against inexperienced dual-threat quarterback J.T. Barrett, the Hokie defense was able to apply relentless pressure. Barrett was forced into making immature decisions, reverting to his comfort zone of utilizing his athletic ability to try and escape the pocket. ECU Offensive Coordinator Lincoln Riley, an up-and-coming offensive mind from the Mike Leach coaching tree, learned from Barrett's mistakes and exploited the Hokie scheme by stretching the field against quick pressure. Veteran signal caller Carden continued to plant his back foot and put the ball where his receivers could compete for it.
With each deep reception, the pressure to engineer a sustained drive continued to mount on the Hokie offense. You could see the players press, trying to make something happen on every play. Brewer forced passes and receivers looked up-field before securing the catch. The poise that the offense exhibited a week ago was gone, replaced by bewilderment and imprudence.
After falling behind 21-0 in the first quarter, the team settled down and mounted a comeback over the next 43 minutes. But even while doing so, there was an uneasiness about every operation. Defensive stops felt like escapes; offensive scoring drives lacked assertion; and all the while fans were left wondering where that gutsy team from a week ago had disappeared to.
Some will chalk it up to a hangover, jaded by spending a week being told how great they were by both their peers and the national media. Others will say the Hokies fell victim to a "trap game," sandwiched between a marquee out-of-conference matchup and the always important Coastal Division battle with Georgia Tech. Calling Saturday's performance either is a cop-out and undermines both the focus of the coaching staff and the mental composition of the players. Anyone who thinks this team overlooked the Pirates spent more time basking in last week's victory and less time paying attention to the words coming out of practice. The Hokies were prepared going into Saturday's game, they simply got beat by a focused and determined East Carolina team.
As Hokie fans, we're all scarred. Promising seasons have been abruptly derailed by stunning performances at Lane Stadium. And while many of those teams were able to build off of those losses and ultimately win division and conference championships (e.g. Matt Ryan and the 2007 Boston College Eagles), many fans continue to reminisce with the all-too-common question of, "what if?"
We're all reminded of the empty trophy case that once stood in the Merryman Center, a specter emphasizing those near misses and tough breaks. The win over Ohio State buoyed the hopes of the fanbase, leading many to believe that this program had turned the corner. And as quickly as those hopes appeared, for some, they vanished following Saturday's loss.
As fans, it is important that we all maintain perspective. This young Hokie team has shown flashes of what is to come, but Saturday reinforced that there is a ways to go. The Ohio State victory will continue to be a landmark moment for this program, regardless of how the rest of the season plays out. Despite leaving the 'Shoe with a victory, it was by no means a perfect performance. Teaching moments exist in each and every play, regardless of their outcome. Success or failure. Win or lose.
The same can be said about Saturday's tilt with ECU. You can be sure that the coaching staff will take advantage of the game tape to continue improving the individual and collective performance of this team. Coach Beamer admitted as much after the game, saying, "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."
After playing a talented South Carolina team tough a week ago, ECU's victory proved that they're no slouch. Despite its youth, Tech showed amazing determination to climb back after a three touchdown deficit. Even when things weren't running smoothly, both sides of the ball gutted it out to create a realistic opportunity to leave with a victory. The freshmen had their ups and downs, but a lot can be said for Brewer's growing trust in young guys like Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips.
What is important is how this team learns from this loss and builds off of the experience. For many of the younger players, experiencing the highs and lows of college athletics in back-to-back weeks is a sobering affair. How they respond in less than a week's time against a challenging Georgia Tech squad will tell us a lot about this Hokies team.
Comments
Absolutely greatly written.
Great article Philly, this team can learn so much from the past 2 weeks and hopefully they respond accordingly this Saturday to begin ACC play on the right note.
For as much as this is a lose-lose game in terms of perspective, as with all OOC games, it won't sink the season. This team could still go undefeated in ACC play and play for the title. The Bowl games have shown to pick on projected attendance rather than season record, so its impossible to say how much this hurts our final destination.
And with this, I'm moving on to the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Go Hokies!
Imprudence, great word.
Looking back, I run into way more anOSU fans than ECU fans, so if I had an opportunity to reverse the results of the last two weekends, I would not. Looking ahead, I hope this galvanises the defense to focus on stopping the goddamned option and our offensive line to start breaking open some holes for Juice and Shai to hit like angry Mack trucks.
Lucky
I was one who thought this program might have just turned the corner and could shake this enigma of being mid-tier after beating OSU. Oh how was I proven so wrong.....
You were not wrong to think the program has a turned a corner. "Turned the corner" means you're heading in the right direction, not that you've reached your destination.
^THIS!
We went into Columbus last week unsure of how this team would perform. We came out with the knowledge that when they played at their best they can hang with and beat anybody. But there were still question marks. This week we learned that this season isn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows and victorious turkey legs every week. We learned that we are beatable. And ECU has a pretty dang good team over there, they'll get after ya.
Maybe he meant turn the corner as in maybe for once not under-performing when we really need it.
Let's give the Pirates credit! ECU's first quarter performance was one for the record books. Carden's passing stats for the game were other worldly. Wow! Everything worked for them. And their defensive performance was good too. They have a ton of talent. There was no breakdown or letdown by our coaches or players. We just got beat by a talented team on one of their best days. We became ECU's Ohio State. All hail college football. What a spectacle.
Carden was very good. He did throw for < 50% though...
Bravo. A damn near perfect summation.
We got outplayed by a team that's better than people think they are, and that had planned exactly how they were going to attack us. They found a weak link (Faycson's injury) and exploited it enough before Bud could adjust that we were buried out of the gate. It was a perfect storm.
The one thing I'm excited about is that we did claw our way back out of the hole over the course of three quarters on a day where it wasn't all clicking. We had fight, and fight goes a long way.
Study tape, practice better technique and move on.
Who else is also breathing a sigh of relief we won't have to play Carden ever again?
I felt that way after we played Rakeem Cato last year.
I'm switching my allegiance to North Dakota State University, they never lose. :-)
The tOSU antithetical parallels were amazing:
tOSU - VT up 21-7 @ the Half
ECU - VT down 21-7 @ the Half
tOSU misses 2 FGs in first half.
VT misses a FG.
tOSU comes back to tie the game at 21 (gaining the momentum)
VT comes back to tie the game at 21 (gaining the momentum)
VT, the underdog, responds with a go ahead TD
ECU, the underdog, responds with a go ahead TD
Voila! Vuja De, all over again!
So you are saying we just always need to be the underdog?
Noted this Saturday....live by the sword, die by the sword.
I believe Saban was hired in 2007 and it took him two years to win an NC. While i'm not suggesting we're Bama, my point is these type of turn-arounds take time. Anyone looking for a quick-fix doesn't realize the immense damage that was done and how long it takes to get it right. We're heading in the right direction, which is a lot more than what I can say we were doing before. Let's move on.
3 years i believe. I think in year 1, they went 7-6 including bowl, second year they were 12-2, losing SECCG and bowl, then third year they won it all
I'm sorry, I agree with everything you said about ECU, but my eyes tell me the Hokies came out flat.
What's worriesome to me is that we can only score one way - long sustained drives, converting 3rd and longs, etc. We can't move the ball quickly either by ground or air. Only methodically. Worked vs OSU but not vs ECU.
We can and will score quickly. This is week 3. Sam Rogers was a heel away from going house REAL quick. Four of our touchdown drives the last 2 weeks were under 3 minutes, including a 55 second drive Saturday. ECU didn't turn the ball over and had a very good punting game, that won them the field position battle and made us drive the length of the field more often than not. Hell, we got a kickoff with 16 seconds left and gave ourselves a chance to put it in the end zone. You can't speak in hyperbole and say we can't move the ball quickly.
I keep forgetting to mention that. ECU's punter looked terrific -- every ball had great hang time.
The first time we started a drive with decent field position was the middle of the third quarter. There were only two other times -- at the end of the game.
Our TD drives were 73 yards - 2:36, 80 yards - 4:10, 47 yards, 0:55.
Hughes does a fine job for us, but we've faced two punters this year that were very impressive.
I wish our second-to-final drive had taken about a minute longer actually.
That must have been some good sleep!
Seriously-great write up and synopsis.
I blame the helmets. Nothing against honoring our military but I am tired of the one-off uniforms.
Excellent write up! It is good to keep perspective - we aren't as good as I thought after Ohio State and not as bad as it might seem after this loss.
I do believe the team is headed in the right direction. They showed a lot of heart in that comeback, no quit at all. There are a lot of very good young players and I think this will be a very good football team by November if they can stay healthy. The trick will be to keep the ACCCG within reach while they are growing.
I still see this team at 9-3 or maybe even 10-2 regular season, but it won't be easy and the ACC is getting tougher all around. GO HOKIES!!!
Most of the people I watched the game with were doom and gloom, end of the world, fire Beamer on Saturday. I kept trying to tell them not to give up, this year is building blocks for next year, we're still very young, and this loss doesn't actually hurt our season that much. Believe it or not we're still in contention for the playoffs, I don't think we'll make it, but technically we are. More importantly we are still on track to accomplish all of what I consider the basic goals for every season: 10 wins, beat LOLUVA, win the Coastal aka play in the ACCCG, make a bowl game. This season is just starting, an early loss to a very good ECU team, a team I thought was going to beat S.CAR and be ranked when we played them, won't matter too much in two months if we take care of business.