It feels much better to watch film on a Sunday afternoon after a win against the hated Wahoos from Charlottesville. While this season has been a disappointment for most of Hokie Nation, the win over Virginia featured everything that Hokies hang their hats on in bragging rights discussions with alumni of the school up north: guts, determination, physicality and execution in the biggest spots. Any attempt to thoroughly analyze the Hokies 24-20 win with anything short of a novel wouldn't do it justice. Tech's defense played an outstanding football game led by a dominant performance by the defensive line (including a re-energized Nigel Williams and one huge goal line stop by Ricky Walker), and outstanding run support by seniors Chase Williams and Kyshoen Jarrett. Michael Brewer, J.C. Coleman and a battered Virginia Tech offense managed to generate big plays at clutch moments against a Virginia defense that may have as many as six future NFL players. BeamerBall finally made a return when C.J. Reavis blocked a punt right into the Bucky Hodges fantasy score column. Most significantly, when things were most dire, instead of tucking their tails and quitting, the entire Tech team responded each time they faced adversity to win a damn tough football game against a determined foe.
It's difficult after a game like this to write a detailed film review without it turning into a highlight real of great kids delivering gutsy efforts that have little to do with X's and O's. After facing two months of crushing criticism, embattled offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler found a way to attack Virginia's defense, and a lucky break gave him the opportunity to exploit that advantage for the plays that ultimately won the football game for the Hokies.
Attacking the Corners
Against Virginia, Loeffler again showed his creativity in developing a game plan designed to wrong foot a strong defensive unit. The Brenden Motley Wild Turkey package featured three different running backs aligned in multiple formations. Motley didn't just run quarterback powers and inverted veers. Loeffler used Motley on a variety of draws, leads, counters and even ran a speed option to J.C. Coleman to secure a critical first down.
However, as I noted in my preview, the key for Virginia Tech to move the football against UVa was to exploit the soft man coverage that UVa employs in order to allow their safeties to support the run at the line of scrimmage. Virginia Tech's receivers would have opportunities to break back underneath that deep soft coverage, but the offensive line had to give Michael Brewer time to get rid of the football. While there were some breakdowns (Brewer's fumble came on a play action pass where J.C. Coleman was left to block Max Valles one-on-one, and Valles forced the fumble) that left Brewer battered, when the Hokies needed big plays, the offensive line delivered enough protection so Brewer could deliver them.
The Hokies ability to run the ball with some success allowed Brewer some extra time via play-action on some of those longer-developing routes. Early in the game, Brewer hit Isaiah Ford on a deep out route after faking a zone lead to J.C. Coleman.
Isaiah Ford has time to plant to the inside, and then break to the outside against deep coverage. Brewer fakes the inside zone lead to Coleman. Sam Rogers does an excellent job of forcing blitzer Henry Coley to the outside to create a nice throwing lane for Brewer. Tim Harris can't get out of his back pedal quickly enough to contest the throw. This is a beautifully timed route, throw, catch and play call for the Hokies.
I also highlighted in my game preview how the Hokies could have success by running inside safety leverage off with Bucky Hodges, and then hitting slant and in routes by the outside receivers. On a critical third down on the Hokies second drive, Willie Byrn had a wonderful catch and run on a similar concept.
At the snap, Hodges runs straight at the Cavalier safety to prevent him from jumping any inside breaking route. Byrn first heads to the flat, then breaks back to the inside on a slant, leaving the UVa corner Maurice Canady looking for his jockstrap. Canady is so aggressive because he expects help to the inside, but Hodges has safety Anthony Harris all tied up on the go route. The only part of this play I don't like is Sam Rogers route. Rogers checks the blitz and then runs to the right flat. Both UVa linebackers go with him, and he runs them almost directly underneath Brewers throw to Byrn. This means that Rogers probably vacated the backfield a bit early. If Rogers stays for a second longer, Brewer has an easier throw to Byrn, or if Coley and Romero drop back under the slant route, Rogers will then be open as the safety valve in the right flat.
Despite some success moving the football, the Virginia Tech offense found themselves staring down a six quarter stretch of not reaching the end zone when a seemingly innocuous play at the end of the first half completely changed the complexion of the game. With Motley out, Brewer returned to the game with an injured shoulder in an effort to try to score points before the half closed out. On a designed roll out, he again found Ford on a deep comeback route.
The nice completion ended up leading to a missed Joey Slye field goal attempt, but UVa nickel corner Tim Harris was injured on the play. I noted in my preview that Demetrious Nicholson and Brandon Phelps were already out for the game for Virginia, leaving Jon Tenuta with only three healthy corners. Without Harris, Tenuta was forced into making some difficult choices with his coverage, and Loeffler found ways to exploit them.
In base looks, Tenuta resorted to shifting his best pass rusher, outside linebacker Max Valles, out to cover the Hokie slot receivers, most often Bucky Hodges. To protect Valles, Tenuta often slid strong safety Anthony Harris over the top to provide deep help for Valles.
With Valles out in the slot and Harris deep, two of Virginia's best run defenders were taken out of the box, which opened some things up in the running game.
Here, the Hokies align in twins to the right, with a tight end left. Notice that Valles is aligned over Cam Phillips in the right slot to the bottom of your screen. With Valles out of the box, Loeffler calls an inside zone to the boundary.
The Hokies have a numerical advantage play side. Laurence Gibson throws down Eli Harold like a stale french fry, and J.C. Coleman cuts outside of his block to follow Wyatt Teller and Rogers up the sideline for a nice gain.
Loeffler threw an additional wrench into Tenuta's defensive plan by aligning in base personnel, then flex his two tight ends out wide to force Virginia to move Harris and Valles out of the box. On this play, the Hokies aligned up in a two tight end formation. The pre-snap activity is critical, so watch closely.
Valles aligns himself on the outside shoulder of Malleck. After a hard count, Malleck and Hodges flex out to the sideline. That eventually draws Valles all the way out to the sideline with Malleck while Anthony Harris aligns on Hodges. Behind the motion, Loeffler calls a simple inside zone read play with a packaged screen to Hodges. With two of Virginia's best run supporting defenders flexed out, the Hokies have a numerical advantage (three blockers, the back, and the quarterback on a keeper) against three Virginia defenders to the play side. Brewer occupies Romero by riding the mesh point with Rogers and selling the fake. Gibson delivers a textbook scoop block with his head to the inside of Eli Harold, then turning Harold to the sideline. Wyatt Teller road grades Dontae Wilkins into the Lane Stadium turf. Harris is late angling in because of the Hodges screen threat, and Rogers makes the 2013 All-American hug air. This is a beautifully designed and executed big boy football play.
When Tenuta needed to move Valles to defensive end and play nickel, the Cavaliers brought reserve safety Wilfred Wahee (No. 28) as a third corner. Loeffler and Brewer correctly identified the match up advantage, and went after Wahee on the two biggest drive of the game.
The Hokies first offensive touchdown drive in two weeks started with a key third down conversion, and the conversion came by Brewer identifying the matchup of Cam Phillips against Wahee.
Phillips aligns in the right slot against Wahee in man coverage. Loeffler has Malleck dragging from the right side, and Phillips drags underneath from the left slot. Malleck's defender, Henry Coley, is in Wahee's path, causing Wahee to shallow out just enough to give Phillips a step. The offensive line keeps Brewer upright, and Brewer lays a pretty ball into a tight window that allows Phillips to run after the catch.
After several nice plays moved the Hokies into UVa territory, Brewer again found Wahee matched up without safety help against Phillips.
Phillips releases off Wahee's outside shoulder on a go route. Wahee reads the play as one of those comeback routes that the Hokies had success on the entire game. After getting numerous chunk plays on those deep curls, Wahee jumped a curl route that wasn't there. Phillips slips behind him and Brewer has just enough on the ball to get it to Phillips for the touchdown.
After UVa inexplicably scored on Bud Foster's defense to pull ahead late, Loeffler again found a way to get a match up against Wahee. This time, Wahee found himself on Bucky Hodges. Loeffler used a variation of the same smash route concept that Brewer threw crushing interceptions on against East Carolina and Georgia Tech, but this time, Brewer read the play correctly.
On the play, Isaiah Ford runs a curl route, causing the UVa corner to bite up. This leaves Wahee with no potential help to the outside. Hodges delivers a little stutter step that causes Wahee to slow his back pedal in case Hodges breaks to the post. On the replay, you can see Hodges freeze Wahee and then blow right past him. Beautiful.
What Does It All Mean?
After the game there was a great deal of discussion on TKP about whether or not it afforded Loeffler another year in Blacksburg. Given how good Virginia's defense was, and how banged up the offense was, Loeffler and his offense delivered an outstanding performance in the fourth quarter to pull out the win. Supporters will point to the victory over Ohio State when Loeffler had his full compliment of offensive weapons coupled with this victory to call for another year. Detractors will note Loeffler seemed disinterested in establishing a running game for most of the season and made plenty of head scratching decisions. The offense was at it's best when it was at it's most diverse and complex, as you saw in the second half against Virginia and against Ohio State. However, that same complexity, and the lack of a power running game seemed to bamboozle his own offense.
Despite all these pending questions and potential off season changes, for one night, for all those beleaguered players, coaches and fans who suffered through this roller coaster of a 2014 season, everything was alright with the world. The Hokies will go bowling and get the critical extra 15 practices needed to get their young playmakers ready for 2015. The Wahoos slinked back to Jefferson State College with their tails tucked between their legs; postseason aspirations evaporated. For one night in 2014 college football was fun. Here is to those players who put it on the line Friday night. Thank you for making Black Friday 2014 a day to be thankful.
Comments
French, do you think pulling Hansen for Conte also had a lot to do with the increased protection for Brewer in the second half.
For all the complaints about Brewers arm strength, he threw plenty of deep beautiful balls on Friday night. He had a couple of incompletions after great defensive play by 26.
Damn you beat me to it.
Brewer was able to connect on some deep balls Friday night, but his arm strength is still lacking. Look at the TD pass to Phillips, Cam had to sit and wait on it. If that had been Logan/Taylor/Vick (either one)/Randall/or even Glennon, Phillips catches that ball in stride while crossing the goal line.
That being said, Brewer may not be the best QB around, but damn he's tough. He's the kind of player/leader you want on your team. I watched the game on TV Saturday night (I was at the game on Friday) and they did not show how he was stumbling around tripping over the turf trying to shake out the cob-webs after some of those shots. Dude is Hokie Stone Tough. The debate will be on next year as to who will be the QB, and he may not have the physical advantages over Ford/Durkin/Motley, but he has the heart and regardless of if he is the starter or not, I want him on my team.
He also had his arm/shoulder rocked earlier in the game on the strip sack/INT return for a TD. I'm surprised the injury didn't affect him more, but I'm sure throwing a long ball like that wasn't painless.
I agree, but there are several other occasions during the year when he wasn't injured that he didn't the arm strength that we are used to as fans. His passes lack the zip and his deep balls don't have the reach of our past QB's. Do you think that Brewer would have been able to hit Danny Coale in stride against Nebraska? I don't. We have some fast, athletic young receivers yet our longest pass play has been 50 yards, with around 25 of that after the catch. Brewer doesn't seem capable of taking the top off of a defense.
But like I said in my earlier comment, I really like the guy and think that he's an excellent leader and tough as nails. He just doesn't have all of the physical tools.
He may never develop those physical tools, but something that everyone has to remember is that he was coming off a major injury, not having played a whole lot of ball for about 2 years, then didn't participate in practice with this team until the summer. An offseason of Gentrification and regular practice will probably help a lot. I also think that he's been playing hurt all year, at least since the OSU game. He was annihilated a few times in that game, and even made mention about the taunting from a few of the OSU players about how "he isn't getting up this time."
Absolutely agreed, the guy is stone hokie tough and a leader! The quarterback competition should be interesting next year, but Brewer is a keeper whether he starts or not.
I would have to walk closer. Valles being aligned wide (if I am UVA, I put in an extra linebacker and play Valles every snap at DE with the way the game was going) had a major impact. Loeffler also kept Malleck in a couple of times to chip the DE aligned over Conte and Hansen. But Conte did play well, which for anyone who watched Conte at tackle against James Gayle in the spring of 2013 was pretty shocking.
Wyatt Teller is going to be a super beast... That is all
French, I noticed the pass protection was much better in the 2nd half in general and that is when Conte was switched into RT. Was that line combination much better or did the injury to Tim Harris and UVA having to move folks around play into that more?
Also on the JC run highlighted above, looks like the refs missed a chop block by Conte and Farris.
I wondered about the chop block too. Was it not a chop b/c the guard didn't really intend on engaging the D tackle? Or was the call just missed?
Missed call. It was a poorly officiated game on both sides. Fuller got away with a brutal PI on the Jarrett INT. At the same time, UVA's DL got away with a handful of offsides penalties at critical moments.
I thought you would bring up the holding penalty on Teller. Which looked like a bad call, great pancake by WT.
From my vantage point, it looked like the refs decided in their pregame meeting that they were not going to call pass interference at all during the game just to make things interesting.
As far as offsides, I agree as well. I counted three obvious penalties, and I wasn't wearing my glasses, AND I had a sweet 3-scotch buzz going.
By this point, you guys all know that I'm usually hesitant to be overly critical of the officials. However, I completely agree that they let a whole lot go that definitely should have been called. The head linesman and line judge particularly did a bad job of calling offsides and a false start or two (see the Knowles motion that should have been flagged before Brewer's INT). My best guess is that they made the decision to let 'em play pregame, since it's a rivalry game and all. However, there has to be a limit, and the officials need to do a better job controlling the game and showing their stripes. I'm glad we didn't see a lot of unnecessary junk, but if the players forget the officials are there (cause they're not making the easy calls), you're gonna see a whole lot more chippy extracurriculars.
I think they got gunshy after calling the targeting on Newsome and it got weird after that.
Does anybody know if they showed the pre coin flip scuffle? I was wondering if we were going to have players ejected before the game even started.
From my sources at the game, it wasn't really as big as the announcers made it out to be on TV. Just a bunch of talking, maybe a shove or two. Both staffs did a good job in heading it off.
As far as the scuffle that was the actual game... Whoa mama, that was a snot knocker.
Well, from my seat at the game there were an awful lot of players shoving or getting in faces of each other in the middle of the field with every trainer from both teams trying to separate the players.
That's exactly what it looked like on TV. And yes, as usual, the commentators made it out to be more than it was. But it did have me on the edge of my seat watching for yellow laundry.
As it happened, our "kick coverage" unit gave them the ball at midfield to start the game anyway, so we would have been better off with a touchback and a personal foul.
There were a couple hits on brewer that could have drawn flags. Dean had a couple pile driver hits that drove Brewer into the turf. Those hits have been verboten for more than a decade.
I was at the game and there was very little actual physical contact in the pregame brew-ha-ha. uVA just came out to mid-field and started taunting our players who reacted as expected. Mostly all talk, but it did fire up the crowd and the team. uVA continued to taunt our players and fans throughout the game. Very disrespectful. Someone should have told them that they were only 5-6 and coming off of a 2 win year, playing in their rivals house, a team that was wounded and had everything to play for. You don't poke the bear.
But, they poked the bear. I think this shows very badly on the coaching staff at uVA. With everything they have going on right now off of the field, you would think that they would want to keep a low profile, not coming in jawing and acting like a wild bunch. I would think that the AD or someone up high at uVA would have a sit down meeting with Coach London about player behavior in big stage games this week.
I think that's what they expect, and I think that's what they want. It's the same mentality as recruiting guys who don't care if their team wins as long as they're on the fast-track to the NFL. They truly are the anti-Hokies, and London is their leader.
You're assuming Craig Littlepaige cares. He's been done with football for the season since he told the Head Ballcop that he could hang out for another year. He's all in on hoops. He has paid little attention to football his entire career.
Taking their cues from the UMD-PSU game?
This... They probably were trying to let the guys play a bit with what was at stake. I do think that some of the offsides & False start ( i remember thinking i saw a couple procedure penalties) should have been called. but I saw some PI and holding on both sides that told me they were gonna let them "fight" a bit without actually fighting.
Yeah, that's what I figured as well, but at a certain point, you've gotta step in and let 'em know they can't just get away with anything.
I thought one of our biggest loses this year was Chase Williams. Others were happy to see Motuapuaka get the start in his absence, but it is difficult to replace the productivity and vision of a 5th year senior with a true Freshman (No disrespect to Motuapuaka because he will be great in coming years). I think we are a much more disciplined defense with Chase Williams on the field, which is key with Bud's style of defense.
Agreed. I think Motuapuaka will have better physicality to make more tackles when he is in the right position than Williams, but Williams is always in the right position. Once AM gets the experience, he may be our best middle LB since Vince Hall.
Agreed. You don't notice Williams until the runner is on the ground. But he is in the right position, and he made one critical tackle late where the back (can't remember if it was Mizzell or Parks) is taking it to the house if Williams doesn't put him on the ground.
Motuapuaka as a ball pursuit-tackling linebacker has been outstanding. But part of the role of the mike is to gap fit, and he is still learning that role.
Maybe so but Motuapuaka was the teams leading tackler through the 3 games he played and he's also bigger, stronger, and faster than Chase. That being said I'm very happy that Chase got to play his last regular season game and be a significant part of this rivalry game. He's a great kid and deserved to play and he's extremely smart and does a good job getting the D where they're supposed to be. However our Samoan stud is going to be very good and has the potential to be an all ACC type linebacker.
With the talent in the UVa defense, I was not expecting Brewer to have the time to throw and let plays develop like he did most of the night.
You pointed out the coleman to big boy matchup that led to the fumble. I was glad to see that was not the case to the extent it was at Wake.
There were still issues up front, especially on stunts. A bad one came on a 3rd and short. Brewer had Phillips and Ford both open at the sticks, but Wang and Conte messed up a simple X stunt handoff and Brewer airmailed the ball with a DT in his face.
I don't consider this game a clincher that Brewer comes back as the guy next year. He left some serious yards out there (the no-throw to Hodges in the corner stands out, but there were other opportunities that he didn't read down field) and you have to worry about his durability with the inexperience at tackle next season. But, regardless of his future, that was one hell of an effort on his part after the beating he took, and he deserves credit for that, especially given that they didn't really have another option at QB.
They would have burned the redshirt on A. Ford if Brewer went out. I heard them saying that in the post-game.
I saw Ford warming up a couple times from the stands.
I heard Beamer and S.L. say they would have used Bucky as QB and run the 101 package before burning a shirt for 1 game
That's not what I heard them say. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. But if it were me it'd probably pull the red shirt. At least he's been in the QB meetings and had taken practice snaps. This game was that important. Win or stay home.
I would be pretty upset if we burned a redshirt for one game.
In steps Jerome Wright.. see Miami ...exists stage left.
Look at the current and future depth chart. Jerome Wright took his one and probably only chance over the next 3 years to see the field and prove what he can do. If he doesn't take the opportunity and redshirts, he's almost certainly buried on the depth chart the remainder of his career. I can see why both Wright and VT took the risk.
i get your logic.. next statement is not geared towards you but VT in general.. So Jerome gave us a better chance than Joel Caleb.. and if that's the case then its really telling that we can't find a spot for Caleb to fit in.
Wright left the depth due to injury too.
Did Caleb get any carries last week?
I don't think so.
Caleb is a bit of a sore subject for me. I swear that guy has elite talent and could do some serious damage with the rock. I feel like he mind held him up a bit, but the coaches could have done a better job getting him into one position early and making it stick. But he definitely has trouble with blitz pickup, which is limiting his field appearances.
I think he is a casualty of the recruiting misses we had the past few years, forcing our coaches to put him in positions that lacked depth. And our O-line troubles made his problems blocking too big a liability to get him more playing time in the backfield.
Can't help but think if the coaches had it all to do over again, they'd give him to Torian to groom.
Caleb was in on the Dean fumble. It seems like every time he gets a rep, it is in a pass pro situation and something bad happens (even though the Dean TD had nothing to do with Caleb.)
As a player, you have to make the staff play you. With as dire as things have been at RB, I suspect if he had done anything in practice/behind the scenes to get playing time, he would have received it. Nobody, especially the staff, benefit from keeping a productive player on the bench.
For the record, I said back when he committed that Caleb should have been a rover or a whip.
I agree. He could have been like a Senior-year tweedy as a whip.
To me it's probably a lot more telling that Caleb can't find a spot for Caleb.
Oh yes, I agree but there were still enough plays he had more than a second or so go actually pass the ball instead of just get rid of it.
French, you highlighted the offensive coaches failure to adjust to the same breakdowns in protection that Wake repeatedly took advantage of last week in your film review. This week, you showed it was Loeffler making adjustments to stay ahead of Tenuta. How do you reconcile these two performances in back to back weeks?
I too have difficulty reconciling the two games.
BTW: Duke scored 41 points in regulation against Wake this weekend. I don't have my calculator handy, but that seems like considerably more points than we scored against Wake in regulation time. :-( /s
It is hard to reconcile much of anything from this season. The offensive approach was so radically different versus Ohio State, Duke, and UVA versus Pitt and Miami that I have trouble with any kind of referendum on Loeffler, especially when we don't know the specific game day assignments of staff and responsibility for adjustments.
I almost had to stop at "Laurence Gibson threw down Eli Harold like a stale French fry" because I peed myself a little! Hilarious.
I think its interesting that many of our big critical offensive plays came at the expense of 2* Wilfred Wahee who was only offered by The Head Ball Cop to try and lure his 2 high school teammates. ( Kwontie Moore and CourtneWynn who are both non factors I beleive). Looks like that decision backfired just a bit.
I had the same thought. Wynn has been gone from UVA for some time but the other guys are still there.
And Gibson didn't stop there- he put their DT #93 on the ground afterwards. That has got to bring a big smile to Searles.
Sorry to hear about your incontinence problem try oops I just craped my pants, they are much more comfortable, absorb better and are less noticeable (or so I'm told).
Obviously, I'm missing something...
Where was Josh Stanford? Was he hurt?
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I hope it isn't more of the same.
If Stanford is still around, I was hoping Moorhead would announce that Spring Ball was to get Stanford back to where he was. If he can get back, we have three solid WR's for next year. If he's gone or isn't playing much, we have some depth issues at WR. Maybe Charley Meyer, the teams best cheerleader, can make an impact in the Willie Byrn role next year.
We have more WRs from last year's class that redshirted that I expect to see on the field next year. They don't have experience but I think they will see their fair share of time. Bradshaw, Holland, and more Newsome in the slot.
I saw him on the field during the pre-game "fracas" so he was in uniform
French, do you think VT would score a few more times had Motley not gotten hurt? Fortunately this "what if?" scenario didn't matter in the end.
I don't know. I do know that Motley gives them a unique weapon, but he has a history of not being able to stay healthy, and to play that single-wing tailback style, he has to be able to take a pounding.
I don't think that we would have scored more. The defense was going to force him to beat them in the air. They had no respect for his throwing and were stacking the box and keying on the run. They were going to stuff the run and force long 3rd down throwing situations, then blitz betting that he couldn't make the correct throw. And from the small sample set that we saw before he was injured, they were right.
Until Harris got hurt, you had Valles plus four down linemen on the line of scrimmage almost every snap that VT was in a "base" set. Plus Romero, Coley, and Harris up as linebackers.
I think this game showed just why Motley is only effective as an occasional QB. It was pretty clear that he couldn't handle any part of the passing game. All those who were so impatient for him to take over as the starter should re-watch the game. He's got a long way to go before he approaches being a complete QB.
Leoffler had said in the interview last week that he has not been practicing the full offense due to his class schedule and only being able to get so many reps. He said that Motley had certain packages they worked on for him that he would run.
Ya know, I've been trying to tell people this for a few weeks, but nooooooo, they all just knew Motley was better than Brewer.
Mostly kidding and it's highly irrelevant at this point anyways, but still. C'mon guys, the coaches know which kids can play and which kids can't at this point.
Yep, Motley reminded me of the Florida Gators QB. He can run, but he just can't pass with any level of accuracy for it to be a consideration.
Tebow or Driskel?
Harris? The guy who couldn't do anything for UF this weekend.
To be honest, I have watched 0 Florida games this year. I just pulled the leading UF passer off ESPN. Get your pesky facts away from my Tebow joke ;)
Somebody need to post the GIF of Mike London in the 4th qtr... shaking his head and smiling. Best ever.
It showed up a couple times in the "JC Coleman With the Commonwealth Cup" thread.
That quick fade smash from the slot by Bucky has been a charm for us pretty much all season. I'm surprised the Wahoos didn't gameplan for that.
#BALLSOFSTEEL
Thanks for all the information French! Now if only I could understand how we seemed so much more effective this week than against Wake Forest...
Well, high level- Wake's position of strength (corner/DB) neutralized VT's biggest strength (Hodges, Ford, Phillips.) UVA's biggest weakness was corner. VT could exploit UVA in a way they could not exploit Wake.
There is more to it than that, but at a very high level, that was the biggest difference in both performances.
Honestly, I didn't think Tenuta was nearly as creative in dictating where the ball was going with his blitz schemes than Elko was last week. And, I noticed that on film. Tenuta, for his reputation, seemed to be much more focused on rushing straight ahead with his front four and then bringing one guy from different areas than using deception to create alleys for his rushers. Even the stuff that worked was hardly creative.
I noticed this, too. Every snap on offense I was watching to see which stunt they would call, and which of our O-linemen would fail to pick it up. Almost all night long it was five guys rushing straight ahead, which is about the only thing our O-line is good at blocking.
It was Bizarro Tenuta. Like he developed a sudden aversion to blitzing when he has always made his bones doing just that.
Hey French! First time listener, long time caller.
Yeah, don't have a question, but I just wanted to say 11 straight feels great!
I'ma hang up and listen to ya. BYE!
These are much more fun to read after a W. I've noticed that as I've been reading more of these I re-watch all the clips to see what Teller did knowing that there will be pancake or 2. It also looked like Gibson came to play.
French,
Another long time reader, first time commenter. Love your film studies much more than the job I'm supposed to be doing. On the TD pass to Phillips, Willie Byrn was wide open deep as well but he and Cam were awfully close together. I was briefly worried Byrn's defender would be able to come off him and make the pick. Was that an incorrect pattern on Byrn's part?
1st up vote. Welcome
I think it was a four verticals concept that was designed in anticipation of a cover 2 (one short, one deep zone to that side). Instead, both corners chucked their receivers like they were playing the short zone. Byrn ended up so close to Phillips because the football was badly underthrown and because the slot corner did an excellent job of chucking Byrn to the outside.
If I had to guess, either Wahee was supposed to be in a deep zone and busted, or the free safety (I can't tell if it is Blanding that is gawking into the backfield from the hash) was supposed to come over the top and didn't do what he was supposed to do. But, based on the slot and the hash safety, I'd guess that Wahee should have been playing way off, similar to how the Hokies tried to cover Georgia Tech at the end of that debacle.
If we're talking about the same play, I believe we actually had Phillips streaking down the right sideline and Ford streaking down the left. The deep safety had to decide which one to leave uncovered. He shaded toward Ford and Brewer threw to Phillips.
Anytime I read French's stories I feel like I stayed at Holiday Inn Express.
I'm listening to the local "Hoos Talking" show right now, and these guys are a sorry bunch. But it's funny.
Aw man I hated those guys while I was still living in the Richmond area!
I gave you a turkey leg because you had to listen to that. I try to make it home before 6pm so I do not have to listen to them in the car. I did listen a little yesterday to see if the main guy (the one that sounds like a really nervous Hank Hill) would go off on a whiny, sore-loser rant like he did last year. This year they seem more resigned to their fate.