1) Offensive line played well tonight. They got push all game long. You didn't see DL running free all game long like last season. Good in pass protection. One breakdown (looked like a communication error where Gallo stepped right, saw the blitz left and went to help Coleman when he had to take Washington) cost them Brewer. You hate that for a kid in Gallo, making his first start, who played pretty well.
2) I loved the 2nd quarter response. On defense, Chuck Clark had an amazing game. He made every tackle inside.
3) I didn't like the personnel in Coach Foster's Bear front. Last season, the DE was standing up on the Boundary. This year, either a DT or DE stayed out and RVD played the edge on the boundary. It hurt the pass rush and the base run defense (QB Counter Trey). Slow playing the option was effective.
4) Michael Thomas is a terrific player, and Braxton Miller showed why the QB Counter Trey was so dangerous.
5) The health of Kendall Fuller and Brandon Facyson, who I can't remember seeing in the 4th quarter is worrisome.
6) Mike linebacker and rover are major worries, and Donovan Riley getting so little playing time after playing well in camp was really confusing. We saw Kendall Fuller ghost Miller some, but Miller made plays when he had the right match up.
7) I don't know what to make of the quarterback situation. The TV angle didn't show receivers down field, but it looked like Motley was indecisive. I do know that those intermediate routes to the tight end that were open all night didn't seem to be getting even looked at once Motley was in the game.
Comments
"One breakdown"?
I would say that might have been the play where the Hokies lost any chance to win the game.
I don't disagree. Awful tough though that last year they were a sieve and this year they are much better and one bad play costs them the QB. Game of inches isn't just a cliche.
amen - lots of folks bitching about the oline, who played solid.
Its a game of momentum and emotion - and ours was swept away with Brewer - you could feel it.
Didn't expect to have a QB controversy this year. Hope Brewers surgery goes well, we're praying for you buddy. Time to get our next QB ready for Furman. Go Hokies!
Tough kid. He struggled a bit with timing early tonight, but the offense with a good run/pass mix was rolling right up to the injury.
He did struggle with timing a bit, but the ball that Hodges dropped was better thrown than the ball Malleck caught later on. And even the ball to Ford on the 1st possession was still really close to reception.
That's the worst. The feeling when you see a starting qb go down. It's sick, that feeling. Prayers to the kid and his speedy recovery and hope to the Hokies. You may find a diamond in the rough through all of this.
Well starting tomorrow, it is.....
Appreciate you guys having us obnoxious Buckeyes around here. I really think this is a great blog and I really appreciate your guys' insight, you're a great bunch. I plan on sticking around and following VT's season. A program I have a lot of appreciation for. We're merely 1-1 now.
Thank you guys for the respectful way you have conducted yourself here. That is a great win tonight for your team. While I hate the outcome, I was glad to see a good kid like Miller have some great moments after not getting to finish up the way he wanted at QB last year. I am feeling pretty ill right now, but beside my dislike for Meyer, I have nothing bad to say about tOSU and their fan base.
I hear ya. The feeling I felt last year after the loss in Cbus was crushing. But you guys were always respectful and I appreciated that.
Beamer is one of the people I respect the most in college sports and I appreciate a great and knowledgeable fanbase...I consider myself a secondary fan...even though that loss last year still stings, ha ha. Again! We're merely 1-1...wish we could keep going head to head cause it's been fun. Instead we have to keep playing Penn State every year. Wish I could do a vomit emoji.
And we have to keep playing ECU, trust me we know the feeling!
We'll trade you ECU for PSU any day
Trust me, you don't want that albatross. Their fans are the absolute worst I've come across. It's a good, big and intense fanbase...But they have this insecurity complex and they're always trying to prove to you that they're the best program and best fans in the history of the world.
Been to Happy Valley twice. They will just walk up to you and dump a beer on your head, gang up on you and try to steal things from you, rip your apparel off of you, throw bags of piss at your band, etc. It's ridiculous...especially because they're not even sustainably good. The first time I went there I was involved in literally 7 different physical alterations with their fans (a couple of which stalked me throughout the day in the tailgate area. it was a night game with Gameday there in the morning, so festivities we're going throughout the day). Got back to our car after we lost to see it'd been egged and people tried to remove our license plates. What's crazy is those animals were even more tolerable than the non aggressive fans who (completely unsolicited) come seek out Ohio State fans to tell us all about why Joe Paterno is God and that they're the greatest program of all time. I learned the term "mythical national championship" that day because like 12 different people listed them off for me. The WORST.
When I moved up to State College in '06 I had the same impression. Never had any physical altercations with anyone, but the phrase 'holier than thou' passed through my head on many, many occasions. It seems like the older the PSU fan, the more insufferable they are. A piece of me thought it apropos that the fans who unabashedly think their program does it the one 'right way' had their program nearly taken down in a very, very wrong way.
They're by far the most delusional fanbase I've ever come across. They made me want to be the kind of fan that is warm and welcoming when visiting fans come to Columbus. Because I always leave Happy Valley saying "F that place!" Meanwhile, I went down to Austin for the UT vs OSU game and their fans were awesome and I left Austin saying, wow...great place, great people, great city. I can't wait to come back sometime! That's the impression I'd rather people have when they visit Cbus, but we have our share of a-holes that try and ruin it for everyone just to prove how intense of a fan they are...or something, I dunno.
Wow. Sounds like WVU.
Although Meyer did give praise to Beamer and what he has built at vt in his post game interview on the field.
I had already tried to drink myself to death by then. Link?
I think it was when they were interviewing him on the field right after the game but I'm not sure. Didn't see any of the press conferences afterward. I can tell you that on local radio when Meyer has been on he's always seemed to indicate sincere respect for Beamer and the VT program.
Urban has never exhibited anything short of complete respect for Beamer. Back when we were going against OSU for Joel Caleb, the story goes that when Caleb called Urban to tell him he was coming to VT, Urban's reaction was only to say, "You're going to play for a great man in Frank Beamer." In this era of cutthroat recruiting, it doesn't get much more on the level than that.
Who's this Caleb you speak of? /s
Wait, just got back from the game. What is up with Brewer?
Broken collarbone non-throwing shoulder, out 4-6 weeks
At least it was the non-throwing shoulder. Less chance of screwing up his throwing mechanics (I know, I know.....small blessings).
Broken collarbone, likely out 4-5 weeks.
Hate to see that for the kid but he was asking for it in the locker room at half....well he got it. Go Bucks. I hope you can take that medicine. I was pissed in vegas last year after we lost to your sorry asses. Well RIP you sumbitch. Hope we never play again
With all due respect
Go fuck yourself
That IS all due respect.
Seriously? What an asshole. Fuck you, and the horse you rode in on.
Also the one he's going to ride off on.
You can take that attitude right back to Columbus!
Really?
Yes he deserved getting injured because he is one of the toughest players in the country.
Between this post, and vine posted on Twitter tonight of an OSU fan mocking Brewer for the exact same thing you are (the post has gotten over 1,000 retweets and favorites, which is downright disgusting) I am just hope that poor Michael doesn't check Twitter or any message boards because the amount of grief he is getting for what he said at halftime and then getting injured is seriously pissing me off.
What is this BS about Brewer anyway? It's all over my Facebook feed that "he deserved it" I was at the game and didn't catch any social media during the game.
Check @raysfangio on Twitter. Looks like that vt maroon Uni Twitter account said something so it should be fresh on the OSU's dude tweets.
That piece of sh*t is continusly posting it like every 20 minutes because it went viral. It's okay though I doubt Brewer cares because he probably realizes that he is just more successful at life then the losers who laughed at him for getting injured.
ESPN showed Brewer on camera in the locker room at halftime, referring to the sandwich hit he took in the first half, saying STTEO, "Well, they're gonna have to hit me a lot harder than that to knock me out."
Some OSU trash fan recorded a Vine of him saying that, then cutting to the hit by Washington that took him out, with mocking laughter over the top.
People. *sigh*
AnOSU has a lot of them, as one of the 11W guys at the tailgate said, "even yourbad fans are better than some of anOSU's good ones"
We've got so many idiots. Most of which have never had any actual affiliation with the school. We're one of the largest alumni populations and fanbases in the country because the school is so big. Plus there's no power 5 teams to compete with for fans in Ohio (no one outside of Cincy cares about the Bearcats...and the city of Cincy is barely a part of Ohio, just as much belongs to Kentucky, honestly). Every school has it's 10% of assholes that exist on the lunatic fringe...unfortunately that's a larger population than most for Ohio State.
My bad on this comment. Let my emotions get the best of me after getting so many similar texts from anOSU fans and my experience up in Columbus last year
Because they have asshole troll fans? Look how many Buckeyes have hung out here all offseason and been the straight up tits. All programs have assclowns.
the Ohio State fans that have been here participating have been just fine. Folks coming here to troll- that sucks but it comes with losing a game. If any of us ever went on Sabre and the like to taunt after a win, then this is karma biting us in the tookus.
I'm cringing to think about the amount of idiot derka-derrs that might show up just because Ohio State won. Just know that 99% of them never attended a single class at the school. They're just a bunch of embarrassing invalids from all corners of the state. Just like ttun wants to proclaim themselves the most prestigious school in the country, but most of their fans are what are called wal-mart wolverines (their term, not ours) who are stupid, disrespectful dicks.
Leg for derka-derrs
Speaking of Buckeye fans being the tits, Mrs. APFOW and I went to Joe's for breakfast and sat beside some Buckeye fans. After some pleasant breakfast convos and some good-natured ribbing the two bought our breakfast after much protesting. We invited them back to our tailgate, but unfortunately they didn't make it. We did share some friendly texts throughout the game though.
they bought your breakfast!? talk about rubbing it in. assholes /s
sounds like some great fans. though you're whole paragraph up to:
reads like the start of a penthouse letter
Damn. I'm not too vain to laugh at myself. It totally does.
Ha ha, that's great
Hate for this to be your impression of Ohio State fans. This was so dumb and misguided. And did I mention dumb? We've got an unfortunate amount of unfortunate people in our fan base. Hope the kid has a speedy recovery.
The difference between the good and bad is readily apparent.
Well, now that we know you are a fucktard will that be all? The venom you are spitting out will come back to ya' a thousand fold.... "thinner" said the old gypsy man.....
easy to pop off after a win. Didn't hear anything last year
It's fucking embarrassing. One thing to be a shithead and gloat after a win. Another to talk about a kid deserving to get hurt.
You...I like you. You are welcome here all season.
Douchebags...What can you do with them?
That's one for the folks at Massengill, I believe.
I'm not touching that one. Literally, or metaphorically.
I really hope you and some of the other OSU fans will hang around this season. Hated losig like this when the first half showed what a great game it could have been.
Lots of respect to OSU and most of their fans. Have a great season.
I plan to cause it's a quality site. Also, I'm a little bit of a closet VT fan from afar...a little bit.
Is it possible for stupid people to drown in stupidity? If so you have a good chance socalbuck2014. I guess they have ignorant rednecks in "Southern Cal", too.
I downvoted this. You are giving him exactly what he wants. Ignore it, and lets just talk about football.
Yes, please. Don't feed the trolls.
They're like geese. If you feed themx they'll never leave.
I gave him/her an upvote to counter...I agree with you, just don't think he/she deserved a dv. Shit, I'm not helping, am I? I'm going silent as I probably should.
Please don't encourage the "stooping to their level" response.
The rule is, "Never feed the trolls", and they love for people to sink into the mire with them.
Fair enough, like I said, I'm not helping am I? Lol. I'm a guest here, do I have no problem adhering.
Your football team won tonight, but you lost at humaning.
What a dickhead comment to make.
Sorry, Hokies, but unfortunately our fanbase has it's share of jerks.
They all do (including ours unfortunately). It's nothing you and the rest of the great OSU fans need to apologize about.
@ socalbuck2014 - It's "fans" like you that give a fanbase a bad name. Asking for it? Socal - assume Southern Cal? Well take your fucking mouth back to Socal and keep it out of Ohio. We don't act that way here.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new winner for
And I didn't even hit this clown with a -10. Job was already done. And done and done and done...
That comment was so stupid & spiteful that he's getting down votes from Buckeyes on here.
-141 on ONE comment. Community-moderating at its finest.
11warrior took him to task for the most part, even some talk about suspending him over there also.
He's suspended at the least. I'm betting on him getting the permanent ban-hammer.
"6) Mike linebacker and rover are major worries, and Donovan Riley getting so little playing time after playing well in camp was really confusing."
I'm glad to hear that my observations were not unfounded, as AM looked to me the same as spring game - quick enough, but never near the ball carrier - instinct thing or something like that - Lydon, to me looked good in spring game - but we will see. Also RVD did not impress either.
AM looked like he was hesitant and took the wrong gap on several plays. I'm glad French pointed this out too. I felt like there were several times where AM had a chance to make a play and just whiffed.
Watching the replay of Elliot's 80 yard TD run, it looked to me like AM completely missed his gap assignment. But as has been pointed out many times on here, if you're going to crowd the box and have no safety, if they break through the line it's likely going to be a big play. Live by the sword, die by the sword...
yea, he did that alot. I am starting to wonder if he is crosseyed. I kid I kid! but he does have to do better
Yeah I noticed that the moment they showed the replay last night. Ezekiel Elliot is a heck of a tailback and probably will be a first round pick, but anybody with some straight line speed would have scored after Moto's mistake.
I haven't seen a replay of it yet, but I said immediately to those around me at the game that AM completely blew that. My memory of the play in real time is that he followed the blocking and didn't fill the gap allowing Elliott to cut back....a la Duke Johnson last year.
Second look- if Maddy stays square in the hole, it is probably a short run. Big Lu can't let a center block him one on one and turn him out when Marshall is being doubled. Motu then went into the wrong hole (had Frye coming outside-in for that gap) and #65 was holding Dadi 20 yards down the field. Perfect storm of disaster.
From your perspective what was the improvement when nijman came in?
Pass protection was much better. Nijman was good assignment-wise in the run game. Hansen wasn't terrible run blocking but struggled against Hubbard.
I think, barring injury, Nijman-Teller-Gallo-Conte-McLaughlin is the OL for at least the foreseeable future.
I am thrilled for Nijman. I really tried to underscore my worry about him in the spring. Frankly, he was awful in every way you could be awful in game action. For the kid to come in there in that kind of a situation and be solid is a huge achievement. I love to be wrong when a kid steps up like that. Huge kudos to him.
I agree, Nijman should definitely be our LT going forward.
I am proud of this Hokies team. They stood up and put up a good fight even when the captain of the ship went down. It was a dogfight most of the game. Defense was ugly; but to contain this loaded Ohio State team was no small feat either. Hope Brewer gets well soon. Let's go Hokies!!!
Keep telling people this is going to be the best and ballsiest defense we play all year long. Glad it's over. Kind of makes an "anything can happen" situation all too real. Again.
Gutted for Brewer. We had a fighting chance with him leading the charge. Won me over against UVa last season. Not saying we'd have held on, but I was confident that we'd have a chance to take a 4th quarter lead. Really not fair to judge Motley, but I think it's a three horse (on a treadmill) race.
Think Motley gets the start, but if he can't move the chains against Furman, I think he'll be on a very short leash.
Motley was very indecisive. But dammit, he probably hasn't had meaningful practice reps in a month, and had to go in cold against fucking OSU. Let 's be patience. I believe in the kid. He can scoot, and I've seen him throw a prettier downfield ball than Brewer.
I can't wait to see the "suck it haters" meme back up and running with Motley's face instead of LT's.
But how can coaches not have seen this coming at some point in time? Brewer is mentally tough, but he's still small in stature. He doesn't have a Tyrod or Russell Wilson built body. Something better could have been done for Motely. Solely "believing" that Brewer would stay healthy with an unproven O-line (until we saw tonight) is asking for trouble.
What are the odds we burn Lawson redshirt now?
Honestly, I don't know. There is the Tyrod precedent, and there is the Michael Vick precedent, where when Al Clark Coach Beamer used Nick Sorenson instead of burning Vick's redshirt. With Lawson being older, IF he is ready to play, they may burn it. But, all three potential QBs are athletic guys who can run but have struggled with the passing game. The guy who makes reads and gets the ball where it needs to go first should play.
I couldn't see down field to see what receivers were doing and the route structure. If Motley was running a wildly different game plan than Brewer, that is an issue. If Motley was receiving the same structure in the passing game and the WR's were not getting open, that is a much bigger problem.
And what if they were running the exact same game plan and Motley was just too nervous to make his reads?
Then major uh-oh.
Yeah, I agree. I gotta rewatch it (woof) but it didn't seem to me we were suddenly in an uncharted territory of the playbook after Motley came in. Obviously some higher-percentage passes to start off, but it seemed like by the second or third drive, we were running our base offense.
Granted, I don't have your eye.
I think the major issue is that Motley wasn't going through progressions and then got really jumpy in the pocket. There was still solid protection in many cases, he wasn't comfortable in the pocket at all. He also missed a few throws that didn't help his confidence any.
That's what I saw. He was just a hot mess. I think the moment was too large for him, and it took him 4 possessions before he started playing his game.
Yep- it isn't like he was being pressured more than Brewer was.
It was weird to see him go through his progressions, drop back and then just stall.
He looked like Jacory Harris against a Bud Foster defense "pissing down his leg"
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit when you said Jacory Harris.
French, help me out here. I think I saw two back-to-back zone read offensive plays when Motley was in, just before the pick (which was a back foot throw into double coverage to Ford on a play with - I think - only one receiver - ugh). One both hand-offs to JCC to the right there are HUGE holes to the left that Motley could have kept the ball and ran through for decent and maybe big yards. JCC ran into the entire Buckeye defense both plays. Those 2 decisions trouble me. I guess it only makes sense to give him some space to grow - the opportunity is now.
Motley has to LEAD. He has 2 games coming up that he must lead and help the team win. If he can't do that, next man up. Brewer is a leader with guts. (I am saying is to be positive about the rest of his college career.) If our QB can't lead and demonstrate that to the team, we must move on. I think Lefty will see if this trait exists in Motley easily now that he will get nearly all the reps in practice. Lefty gets tested now also.
I like that Lefty was emotional about Brewer, those two had a connection and Lefty knows that kid is a winner.
French may be able to confirm this, but it seems that the vast majority of Loeffler's zone-read is really a predetermined play. I don't see a lot of reading going on, just the fake of the possibility of the QB running.
That makes sense with Brewer, you don't need him taking hits on zone reads. Maybe with Motley, they told him to hand it off to maintain his health. But it seems for Motley could be effective if he actually runs the true zone-read.
I agree with you. To me, it didn't seem like he was reading anyone. Just a called hand-off.
I think Loeffler's postgame comments confirm this. Whoever the QB is going forward, we can't handcuff him for fear of another injury.
Yep, sitting in the stands he looked incredibly indecisive. He certainly didn't look capable of anticipating the route and "throwing the receiver open". And that interception was forced badly. Even if the route called was a deep post, Motley should have seen the deep safety and not thrown it. The only chance that had would have been to throw a deep fade. As soon as the ball left his hand I knew it was in trouble. Certainly was a tough situation for him coming in against a damn good team, but it was easy to see why Brewer won the job...
I was having terrible flashbacks of the worst throws by Logan a few years back. If we stick with Motley, I hope we can someday remember his as fondly for his successes.
If you are going to throw the ball long, aim towards sideline, not the middle of the field please. Also Ford had to slow down for the ball. Motley didn't have enough arm.
Exactly.
My take on Lawson is this:
If he is everything he's been hyped up to be....get him in there.
-If he's good enough and leaves after three years, we probly did pretty well
-if he's still here for 4, then either a) he didn't live up to expectations and his successor has likely passed him (doubt it because he's the real deal), or b) it worked out fine and he developed nicely and played out his eligibility
1) They're almost never as good as they're hyped up to be...not right away at least.
2) If Lawson (or Durkin, for that matter) was even remotely ready, the playbook wouldn't have been so narrow for Motley last night. IMO, once Brewer went down, their mission was to keep Motley healthy as much as or more than to win the game at that point.
There are still games to be played -- against opponents not even remotely as talented as OSU -- and only Motley gives them a decent chance of winning them if and until Brewer can return.
3) So a key to getting the most out of Motley over the next month or two is get Durkin and/or Lawson ready to at least be competitive so they can take the kid gloves off of Motley.
Motley has been in Loeffler's system for 3 years. He may not get many reps but at some point it is on the player to be ready. He should know every line in the playbook, the reads against various defenses, and studied the game film against the opponent inside and out.
My perception he is currently a one-read-and-run guy, and if that isn't true, I apologize. I can see being rusty or even less talented in execution, but he should know WHAT to do when he gets in the game.
See what I wrote above. While I agree that Motley definitely has some limitations, they clearly narrowed the playbook for Motley last night to minimize injury exposure. There's still plenty of football to be played. It's bad enough to go 0-1 to OSU, but don't go 1-4 to them.
I think if they can get Durkin and/or Lawson more practice reps and get them moderately ready, we''ll see a somewhat broader package of plays and a slightly different Motley.
Brewer was 11 for 15 with 2 TDs.
I do not understand how VT can enter a season with such a weak backup QB.
I think it has more to do on their "guy" barley knows the halls on campus. You don't burn the shirt if you think Brewer will be back in five weeks. You trust your backup to get you there, and if he can't, then you burn it. Would have been irrational to burn it tonight, especially if the coaches didn't think he'd was ready.
With 2 major drops (Hodges and Ford)
hodges should have caught the ball, but it was a crap pass on an easy route that any D1 qb should be able to make.
It wasn't a great throw. To be honest, the Hokies should have had more points in the first half. I thought Brewer was shaky the first couple of drives when there were some opportunities down field.
Yepp. A couple times in the first half, Ford had the defense beat and on all of them Brewer underthrew the pass allowing the defenders to catch up and either break the pass up or tackle Ford shortly after the reception.
You are always such a joy.
Sorry I don't consider it a major drop because bucky didn't come up with a catch against all his momentum that was completely behind him. Still think he has to help out his qb there especially if he's the NFL pick we think he is, but it wasn't an easy catch.
All correct.
But it was an easier catch than the one Malleck made later on...
Yup. Malleck, Rogers and Nijman were the standouts on offense. Nijman because I completely am eating crow for thinking he wouldn't be ready this year.
Depth always seems to be an issue when we take on elite programs. We did win a half, but the ones get tired going up against a stable of 4 star athletes. On another note that gold watch thing was a bad look. Surprised the coaches allowed JC to where that. Fuller did not look good tonight either, but I guess everyone can have a bad game.
I've been pondering that all night. Being mentally tough and actually being able to take punishment are two different things.
Glad to hear french is excited about Nijman. Disappointed in the result, naturally. Get Lawson ready to go. Furman and Purdue might be the time to get him prepped, followed by ECU and a Connor-less Pitt
Brewer being out for 4-6 weeks is a huge blow to the Hokies. With him (from the way he played tonight) and our schedule, I was very confident that this could be one hell of a season (10 wins) regardless of the OSU game result. I'm really worried about this. I just dont think Motley is the answer. I have no idea about Durkin, and my best guess is that he's no better than Motley since they didnt even give him a chance tonight. Dwayne Lawson?
Ughhhhh this sucks.
Shit, where's Andrew Ford when you need him....
If Ford was still here, he wouldn't be getting 2nd team reps this week. That ship sailed for a reason.
You think Ford was a better passer than Motley? Maybe...maybe not.
I don't think you need to worry too much. Furman and Purdue are good opportunities to figure some things out. Pitt struggled with YSU and doesn't have Conner now, ECU doesn't have Hardy. You aren't playing Ohio State or anyone remotely close in your next 4 games. I think your defense and your running game can get you to the NC State game at 4-1.
You're too modest. We're not playing anyone remotely close to you guys in our next thirteen games.
We may not play another team like that for a good 13 years.
Agree with this. Not to mention that ecundoesnt have their old QB either.
ECU doesn't have their new QB either. The guy that was supposed to take over this year for Carden went down over the summer.
Conner only played a little over a quarter had 2td and 80 yds backup rushed for over 200 and Their bet player Boyd was suspended for the game.
Lots of reasons to be optimistic about this season. OL looks worlds better. But we have to have a QB. I have to wonder about the temptation for Lefty to play one of his guys instead of a player he inherited.
This is my thinking too. We had a plan to throw a lot with Lefty as OC but now the QB needs to develop. Good OL + Good TE(s) + Depth at running back = ground pound game with some play action to go deep. Throw some wild turkey in there and maybe some option running plays and there can be some high hopes for this team. The defense needs to shake off this loss they still have tons of potential!
Who had a better game at nickel: Greg Stroman this year or Chuck Clark last year?
Clark
Clark was awesome tonight... I would have preferred to see Kendall in the nickel and Riley outside, but we saw how good Michael Thomas is. Pick your poison.
I am worried about Facyson. I completely lost site of him around the 21-17 mark.
did we? Or did we see that kendall isn't healthy? Thomas was absolutely quiet outside of the slant on their first drive and that last TD.
During the broadcast they said both Kendall and Facyson had cramps.
Kendall got beat on double moves at least three times that I saw, including the PI play and the last TD. But if you're not getting any pressure on the QB, it's tough to defense good double moves. That stop-and-go on the last TD was pretty devastating.
Stroman? he was lost a lot tonight. Not saying he's a bad player but he needs more reps against worse teams to get things to slow down for him. Not even close to Clark's performance last year
I'd put them at pretty close to even if we are just comparing performance in the OSU game. Clark got better as the season went on, but he was repeatedly burned badly vs OSU.
I thought stroman was awful earlier and got better as the game went on. Not like he was playing a scrub though Braxton is one of the most dynamic athletes in CFB even though he's playing a new position. Still don't think stroman should be playing as much as he is, but it is what it is.
Stroman is going to be fine. As you said, he got much better as the game went on.
So, my perceiving Bud running a 3-3-5 out there wasn't totally due to my astigmatism? It really happened?
Nope- it was the same alignment (although Clark was playing inside the tackle box like Jarrett) but RVD was the edge guy on the boundary instead of a DE. They were using three true DL, not four.
RVD-Dadi-Maddy/Marshall-Ekanem/Marshall-Clarke. Marshall and Ekanem, then Marshall and Maddy were rotating in and out. Marshall got doubled as a nose on the long Elliott TD run.
Would love to hear Bud's rationale for that. With all due respect to him, of course.
It's like... our DL is easily our strongest unit. Why tinker with that, of all things?
I think they worried about seeing more speed option and tried to slow play it, using the quicker edge guys to take away the pitch man. And it worked a bunch, except when the mike (a common theme) or free hitter wasn't there to take QB.
It hurt them badly on the QB Counter Trey. They stopped Barrett last season by arriving before the blocking developed. Those edge guys were sitting back reading this time.
All in all, I thought the Hokies were much less aggressive up front than last season. Part of that could have just been the Ohio State playing much better and limiting penetration. But, Dadi being out wide on the edge I think would have been far more dynamic than RVD sitting back and slow playing read options. Hindsight is 20/20, and I need to see the film, but I would have preferred to either see a 4-4 or see the Bear with the original personnel grouping.
They definitely used tighter splits this year and that helped limit the penetration up front. It seemed like our guys were getting to Jones early in the game and coming in out of control and missing, giving up contain, etc. I'm sure the coaches told them to come more under control but it got to the point where we were just hand fighting up front and not getting off the ball at all. Tough situation to have 225 and 245 pound DEs playing in a 3-technique and hand fighting at the LOS.
I actually thought the RVD played a better game than Clarke did off the edge and I definitely agree with seeing Nicholas lined up out wide.
It really hurt that the strongest position we have (DT) was so limited by the personnel grouping. We started using Marshall more in the second half and he was more effective than Ekanem in the 3 tech but overall those guys didn't get to see the field much.
We had some matchup issues but the MLB play was just too glaring and it was impossible to overcome.
Great effort by the Hokies.. some really tough hard-nosed passionate players on your team. Sorry to see Brewer go down like that especially after all the injuries you had last year. Great crowd as well.
I thought your O-Line did look improved and I thought J.C. Coleman looked quick and very strong.
I was surprised at the lack of involvement of Bucky Hodges.. I'd have to go back and watch analytically rather than emotionally to see why.
Neither team generated quite the pass rush that I expected to see.
Good luck the rest of the way.. hope you can figure out a way to win without Brewer who was playing a solid game.
Very classy sir. Thank you. Congrats on the first of many wins this season.
I'm happy someone else noticed this. Looking for a knowledgeable opinion - Did OSU shut him down, or were plays not designed for him, or what?
They went to him early and he dropped the ball, but I don't remember that many additional passes his way.
I seem to recall Fowler commenting towards the end of the game that the defense had him "bottled up" or something similar. I'm guessing they game-planned to make him a non-factor, and actually had the athletes on defense to do so. Opened up Malleck quite a bit, which was nice, but not enough.
they blanketed him with a LB underneath and a safety over the top.... which is exactly why Malleck had great success running the in between routes for 8-10 yards..
Was Mike Shanahan the only person to believe in an "insurance policy." Sometimes people learn the hard way that they need a SOLID plan B.
We're not gonna start looking to the Redskins for inspiration, are we? Has it come to that?
Take my comments lightly.
Lol, of course not. Being a Skins fan has been super frustrating the past.....20 some years?
We have taken a qb every year. There just isn't enough time to get two guys starter reps in college.
True..
Can't embed tweets on my phone but...
https://mobile.twitter.com/CJ12_/status/641096429851803648
God gave him a lot of talent. Shame he skimped so badly on the brains
He just torched your defense for over 10 yards per play. You don't need to start with the sour grapes.
I would avoid the one on ones and let people be sour. You're a guest here and we need a place to vent after a loss. I didn't down vote you btw
He's still an immature little boy. One day it'll catch up to him and he'll get put in his place. Maybe not this year but Karmas a bitch.
Ah, just let it go. Not gonna turn out well. We know and love Cardale as a fun loving kid who's active in the community (and obviously social media) and an honor roll student.
He could be a great student and a community person but his social media skills/social smarts are that of a 16 year old.
Win with Humility especially when you're supposed to win and by 50+
I expect troll comments from fans not players. That's not their job win or lose STFU and move on.
PS Cardale wasn't even that good 8-19 for 186 2tds and 1 pick. He was 1 VT TD away from being pulled for JT.
He made some big throws. That's what he did to win us a few games at the end of last season. He's still a pretty raw QB talent/prospect and he was playing against a high pressure defense, one that's possibly the best he'll see all year.
I think he did alright, personally...but I really think Meyer and Warriner did him a disservice by the way they used him. He's just not an option QB. JT is an option QB. They kept trying to shoehorn Cardale into a JT gameplan. He's a hang in the pocket, deep passing attack QB who feeds off of a power run game (which in turn feeds off of his deep passing attack), which they didn't bother to even try to use. What'd Zeke have? 10 carries? The Cardale gameplan that was used vs. Wisky, Bama and Oregon was a much simpler blunt force style that works for him. I've yet to really see OSU have any success running option with him, it's always really clunky....but for some reason they keep trying.
Zeke's carries, as pointed out by the announcers, were a function of our defensive scheme. We took Zeke on all the options forcing Jones to carry it. We aligned in the bear to remove the dive and pulling guard plays that are the power-Zeke game. You could have just had him stand back there and throw it, but the true weakness of the bear is the edge...which is why we expected to see Barrett...
That's what was frustrating though...what made Cardale successful last season was a power running attack going right at the nose of the defense, not the edge and certainly not the option. There's no question VT was taking Zeke away in the option...But they shouldn't even be running the option with Cardale because he's just not an option QB. He can break tackles and scramble and run or run a draw...But he's got to have a path and the ability to get a head of steam to be an effective runner. Option doesn't allow him that. They should've been running the ball straight at VT. When they did they had success. He breaks one tackle and he's gone against the zero coverage. Averaged 11+ yards per carry. Keep giving it to him! I said it on a pregame thread on here before...JT and Cardale offer you two pretty different styles...and it's like they ran the JT offense with Cardale in.
I feel like that's a great gameplan coming into a matchup like this for the first game of the season. VT probably prepared for stopping JT in the option offense, and stopping Cardale in the power run. Throw in Cardale to get VT into one defensive stance, and then run the one they're no longer looking for. Advantage OSU.
I would have liked to see him not tweet that stuff, but at the end of the day I think we need to step back, congratulate them on the win and move on. Others have been quick to point out our love for the James Gayle UVA trolling. I for one, thoroughly enjoyed it. Certainly sucks when it's the other way around but just read it and move on.
The reason why I have no problem with trolling LOLUVA is their holier than thou stuckupidness.
They truly think VT is. Bunch of hicks from the sticks.
We don't have that with the Bucks and about the biggest thing there is our anOSU jibe. Which is really mild.
That's why the tweet was completely unnecessary and rings close to being a sore winner.
I'll take 200 (almost) passing yards 100 rushing yards and 3 td with a pick. Cardale can make thow's that nobody else can
You seem like a reasonable fan so I have to ask, as someone who doesn't follow OSU, what pieces of the Cardale puzzle I'm seemingly missing. The only parts I know is the infamous tweet, him running up the score in Madden on the kid at the hospital, and now this tweet. Personally, none of those instances strike me as down to earth or demonstrating good character/judgment. So from an outside perspective, it's not hard to see him more as a QB who won a national title and can do no wrong in the eyes of a fan base.
you might have missed it:
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/september/4/ot-cardale-jones-you-...
come on Hokies. Jones lit us up. Him doing a little social media trash talk isn't anything to get upset about. Chill and let's regroup for the season.
The pieces that are missing are that he's been defined by that tweet. It was dumb, he's acknowledged as much...but the story goes that he was a 20 year old who was mad after getting a B on an exam he studied extremely hard for. He was named a Scholar Athlete weeks after that tweet. He's been an honor roll student at OSU and skipped out on being a 1-3 round pick and immediate NFL riches...because he says he wants to be the first in his family to get his degree and for the sake of his daughter considers a degree more important than playing in the NFL.
The OSU fanbase loves him because of the wins last season, but a lot of people pull for him for the starting job because he's always known as a fun loving guy and is widely reguarded as a fun twitter follow. Aside from that, people got to get a glimpse into what he's like and where he came from as a result of his success. He's your classic rags to riches success story. I don't think the Bleacher Report article really goes into his youth that deep, but he came from a very rough situation in Cleveland. But even beyond that...he's had to keep his cool and take one for the team until his number was called. It's just an uncommon and happy story.
The beating the kid in Madden was all in joking and good fun. He's friends with the kid and visits him regularly. What the Bleacher Report article also doesn't take into account is how active he is in the community. Pretty soon after OSU won the title last season it wasn't uncommon to hear people report Cardale showing up to help out with some sort of charitable effort. One of the ones I recall specifically...
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/2015/02/50523/cardale-...
I am curious based on the BTN show how he is already in the "riches" category. Very nice apartment, nice car and jewelry.
I'll humor it with a response, though I know it's probably frivolous to do so. These are just possible explanations...or maybe it's like you choose to believe not matter what, which best I can tell, is that Urban Meyer is personally taking his QBs to the diamond store, the dealership, etc and telling them to have their pick. Keep in mind that players that do come from rough circumstances are able to afford certain things based on Pell Grants, student aid, loans and living stipends, those of which could result in players from certain backgrounds having more money than, say...someone like myself when I was in college.
What was so nice about his apartment anyway? I feel like I've seen you bring this up around here a couple times. It looks like one of the small off-campus living community, cookie cutter apartment blocks where hundreds and hundreds of upperclassman reside. These places are usually shoddily mass-built and run by some really sketchy management companies that will own all of the community properties and take advantage of college kids by essentially giving them facades to live in and being total cheapskates. I lived in one of these my junior year. It wasn't as high quality as it appeared, it was small, my management sucked, it was north of campus in the 'burbs...it was the least expensive place I lived while in college and I didn't have two nickels to rub together. Or, as I figure you'd find a more reasonable explanation, maybe he's holding people up at gunpoint and stealing all of their money and/or moonlighting as a con-artist to pay for his million dollar apartment! Could be!
As far as the car...I mean, I may have missed it (certainly possible) but I don't really recall seeing his car. Care to fill me in on what kind of car you know that he owns? As for jewelry...I'm sorry but again I can't really say definitively. There's one picture I've seen on TMZ of a couple watches, some shades, a pair of earrings. That was for his ESPYs appearance and it's been hinted that he, like other college athletes (and other non-millionaires who go to award shows) do/have done, rented the bling for the night. Never really seen him decked out in jewels otherwise. Outside of that, a lot college aged kids have knock-off stuff, and college football players get some incredible gifts (a lot of times male jewelry and electronics) as bowl gifts each year. Or maybe it was all given to him by a booster...there's certainly a whole massive range of possibilities but I can tell where you're automatically going to fall no matter what.
I'm searching the internet still to this minute trying to find pictures of him wearing all kinds of nice jewelry and have really found maybe 2 or 3 pictures of him wearing the same small stud earrings, the same sunglasses and a "12" pendant at the end of a chain...unless of course you're talking about these...
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTWQ1XLpCGaS-CYhIQ_nj-tzKwiNYLG...
How about instead we all just stop this line of debate here and congratulate the team that beat us and move on?
Jones having jewelry means as much as Coleman wearing a watch on the sideline, which is to say it means exactly NOTHING. So why care.
Yeah, I'm with ya. I need to tell myself to shut up sometimes, but it doesn't hurt when someone else reasonably tells me to as well. I'm done with it...talking football is more fun anyway!
you're a class act Bolt. glad to have you around
Happy to be here. Really like the people here and was turned on initially by the great analysis pre and post game last year. Nothing comes before Ohio State for me, but VT is a program I respect. Got into watching the team in the Mike Vick days, loved the way they play super aggressive defense and have a lot of respect for Beamer and the way he has built and run the program and the way he handles himself.
A few years ago I moved abroad for a year and met a guy that became one of my best friends. One of the things we bonded over was college football and every weekend finding a TV somewhere in the city that'd have college football on. He is a Hokie. He still considers himself a bit of a Buckeye fan and I still consider myself a bit of a Hokie fan as a result.
College athletes with obvious expensive items is not limited to OSU. It's an issue I have watching pretty much any post game conference or video of players arriving to practice etc. living in Ohio the media covered anOSU in depth somI saw a lot of the the Pryor and Co. Years with some really nice items, but it's not exclusive to them or that school. I also,don't blame the players for buying/getting those items. I blame the people giving them the money or items instead. There is a reason so few NFL players do well after they leave the NFL, because they don't understand the money and how not to spend it.
He won't be so fun-loving after the Buckeyes are sitting at 5-6 and have to beat their arch rival just to get to a bowl game.
We all know what happens to the winner of this game.
#hokiesgonnarunthetablenowsuckasdealwiththat
You'll get a leg from me if you edit out the last line.
I kinda agree with Kramer here. The comment about Cardel not having a brain was uncalled for. I happen to be a fan of his. Seems like a fun guy who enjoys life and doesn't take himself too seriously.
For the Hokies who have a problem with trash talk, let's not forget some of James Gayles (fucking awesome) tweets about UVA football. We weren't calling him immature or saying he didn't have a brain.
Lol, Brewer was totally better than C.J. in just one half of football. Someone compared C.J. to Ben Rothlisberger. I'd say more like Jamarcus Russell. We all see where thats going...
Hate to use this excuse but we weren't even ranked. Thought this kid was supposed to be smart...
Oh please, y'all were saying before the game you have a top 5 defense and the best defensive backfield in the game.
Explain the rationality in coming here puffy chested looking to talk down to us
I'm not talking down to anyone. The guy above me basically called Cardale an idiot because he was damn proud of his WRs performance. How was I talking down to anyone?
Sir, I do believe the door is that way...
I'm sticking up for Kramer here. I will admit that Cardale's tweet (while I personally didn't mind it) may not have been the classiest thing ever said on social media. That being said, some the above posts by Hokies weren't too classy either.
Dude beat us bad. Our defense did not put up the performance we were expecting. Let's not be sore losers.
I agree.
We're all just a bit miffed because we lost our quarterback, AND the defense was on the whole not impressive.
Yeah, I'll jump on the Kramer wagon. They played well and they beat us. I don't like it but overall the OSU guests here have not been rubbing our faces into it.
Come on now folks- chill. The kid had a good game. I don't like the chirping but they won and Jones had a good game. Victor, meet spoils.
Agreed. Jones is really good. I just hope sitting in Meyer's system doesn't spoil his NFL opportunity. He's got a heavy skill set.
Fair comment, irregardless of humility. Our DBs didn't have their best game tonight.
Were our DBs out there the whole game?
I didn't as see much of them as I'd have liked.
That was not their proudest moment, and it's not all because of Brewer.
For how supposedly stand-up OSU fans claim Cardale to be, his actions and words don't demonstrate that at all. If you ask me this kind of comment proves that the infamous school tweet wasn't a one time deal. An NFL prospect surely should be able to complete some passes against a Cover 0, but you won't EVER see that in the league anyway.
Cardale
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/humility?s=t
I'm honestly confused. Are you proving my point? Because that's Cover 0 and exactly the type of throw that would be an INT with a safety in coverage.
I mean, I don't want to be inflammatory...But I've seen nothing but people diminishing the intelligence of an honor roll student (and social media savvy kid) on all corners of the internet and even via hanging bedsheets out a window on campus....You think he doesn't see any of that and feel it? I saw on a few various OSU blogs about his extra motivation.
Totally agree. None of the OSU fans here, except the obvious troll, have said anything wrong. Sure they are on a VT blog but community rules state we downvote for offensive comments. Jones did torch us all night. Fact. Fuller got beat. Fact. Braxton Miller turnt that shit up. Fact. Of course their gonna do a little trash talking. Does anyone remember Bucky doing a little dance in the OSU endzone? come on people.
the OSU fan that created the vine about Brewer can burn in hell though
Shit. I haven't seen that (I'm kind of assuming it's regarding his injury) and really don't even want to seek it out. You're right, that's bullshit.
Nothing worse than a fan that celebrates an injury. That guy deserves a little something special in afterlife
Pretty sure his vine/twitter handle is a Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan, not Ohio State for what it's worth
unfortunately for you guys, he says right on his bio he is OSU faithful. not one of your better ambassadors. Oh and all the people commenting on it with glee are mostly OSU fans as well. pure class
https://twitter.com/RaysFanGio
He's a dope. But Meyer likes the brainless.
Again, it's easy to pop off when you win. Didn't hear anything after last year's game.
No offense, but I didn't even know this site existed before/after last years game.
sounds like a personal problem
Edit: Not necessarily directed at you personally and your interactions on this site. Just OSU in general showing out after the win. We did it last year, ya'll didn't. It's easy to act like you're the sh** afterwards.
Not sure what that has to do with anything, considering I'm sure a lot of TKP members had never heard of a quality site like 11W before we were playing VT either....But TKP has been a quality site from all of my interactions with it.
To be fair, Cardale didn't play last year... so... hearing from him then would've been quite surprising.
Cardale probably shouldn't be allowed to use social media ever. As smart as the kid might be (OSU fans would give him the Nobel prize for making honor roll. Seriously, every fan mentions that he makes honor roll. We get it.), your online presence is a digital representation of yourself. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to grasp the permanence of it.
Anyways he makes himself easy to hate. I wish him the lengthiest of careers in Washington.
I may be a homer Buckeye, but that tweet by Cardale is disrespectful of your opponent. And stupid.
I was optimistic through the first half, and it had nothing to do with the score.
I felt like we finally had an offense.
...and then brewer went down
Still sucks to think about. In the first game of the season, even. Maybe someone can fill me in, what's the backup situation like behind Brewer? I don't know much beyond him...we've tended to just focus on him since he burned us so many times last year.
Well, #2 is Motley, you saw him last night. Was the last recruit prior to getting our new OC.
Option Qb.
#3 is a guy built like our fullback. He's rFr and hasn't gotten many snaps.
#4 is trF on redshirt. 4* recruit, we're looking forward to him for next season.
The part that we feel bad about is that this was going to be our OCs first season with a QB for 2 consecutive years, after watching the first half, we thought we were finally getting a good offense.
VT with a standard vgood defense and a decent to good offense is a sight to behold.
We almost had it and it seems it may have slipped from our grasp with a broken collarbone.
VT played a gutty game. If not for an obvious hold, Ohio State was up 21-0. It took a lot of moxie to strap it up tighter and make it a game for 2.5 quarters. Obviously it sucks to see Brewer go down like that and then to have some seriously pedestrian QB play hurts when you were still right there.
Either way, Ohio State showed why their offense is as highly regarded as it is. Braxton Miller showed everyone that he is still the same athlete he was, and then some. He made two difficult catches and obviously what may be the run of the year. Gaining 572 yards vs Bud Foster is pretty incredible. I couldn't believe that Cardale started and I still don't even think he's the best option against most teams. He was just able to shake off fast charging, smaller DEs. JT runs the speed option and read options 1000x better than Cardale, and he obviously has the arm to beat CBs like Fuller on a baby double move.
All around, great atmosphere. It would have been fun to see if VT could hold on with Brewer, but it wasn't meant to be. I hope y'all can put someone in there to take up his role a bit better because I think you have a very sold OL and DL that will be able to carry you all year.
Eating my words on Miller. Really didn't think he'd look as good/acclimate to the new position as he did that quickly. Total X-factor today.
I agee, I didn't think he would make the two catches that he did, but most Ohio State fans knew he was capable of making moves like that spin at will. He is special.
No kidding....kept trying to remind other OSU fans how electric he is with the ball in his hands cause even they seemed to forget. I'd honestly put that juke in his top ten, but he's made me spit my beer and pick my jaw up off the floor so many times that that just brought back fond memories.
Same boat - this one shocked me. Position changes aren't easy, I cannot think of any player who switched from QB to WR/RB/HB and picked it up so quickly. Him and Urban must have worked very hard this off season.
The only thing I was really surprised about was showing he can make tough catches downfield. I didn't think they'd really even send him out on any routes and all of his night would be spent in the backfield, flats and short underneath crossings. Had to assume they'd give him direct snaps and have him run counter treys and sweeps...it's basically how they used him for long stretches in games at QB for a couple years when he was B1G player of the year. Other team knew exactly what was coming on 3rd and 5...but good luck stopping that dude running the football.
First, wee played tough until Brewer went down, period.
Second, that team would beat the '99 FSU team I saw us lose to with one of the best QB's ever in college football. OSU is VERY VERY good.
So everyone relax re: the game.
There are some things I really liked. Offensive line played tough. Their linebackers played on another level but against lesser opponents some of those runs go for more.
Ford looks to a big time player after watching him in this game. Bucky? Should be a good wake up call for him. Let's see how he responds. Sam Rodgers is going to have a good year, again.
Let's hope our tightends have someone to throw to them, because Malleck looked good, expecting Bucky to step up too.
Running backs looked good as well. I think Edmunds is still my primary but JC had some nice runs. Felt like OSU over pursued all night and would have loved to see more is direction. I thought Mcmillian would have had a few breakout runs. They tried him side to side, i actually think he's better down hill. We'll see.
The d-line looked solide agaisnt an amazing o-line.
Now the bads.
Middle linebacker. At this point I'd be happy if they move Trey back to linebacker. Almost every big run was preceeded by the Mike shooting the wrong gap after the dline shot the gap. He looked lost on the field, nuff said. That play wouldn't hold against any D1 team.
For the record, Stroman got beat but he was playing against superior talent. He'll be alright this year. Not a star but good enough.
Let's hope the injury bug didn't hit Fayscon and Fuller. Would be really tough. That said I still think we'd be serviceable secondary.
Brewer getting hurt. Man. Terrible. Turrible. I've always felt a little off towards Motley. Not sure what that says about Durkin or Lawson. You would think they would have been next in line if they were that good because Motley is just not that good. Maybe it was an off night amd big game jitters, but everything stopped once he entered the game.
Dream scenario: the blessing in disguise is that we get to put a young blue chip Lawson and develop him into a star over the season. VT's blueprint of success is solid defense, coached up 3 star players with 1-2 offensive gamechangers, preferably a Qb. Maybe I'm
Dreaming but I think Lawson could be that guy.
I really respect the coaches not putting Lawson in. I think they knew when Brewer went down that the game was over (you could feel the energy in the stadium drop immediately) and had to make a tough decision to take the week to think about how to move forward, instead of giving in to emotions and putting in Lawson to try and win it.
If Lawson was ready, he should've been put in. The fact that he's still got a redshirt tells me that the coaches trust Motley more than him. I know he's a highly touted recruit, but I just don't think he's ready yet.
you don't burn a redshirt on a kid when the game clearly was starting to get out of hand.. if anything that's the quickest way to ruin a kids freshmen year. Yeah he might have done better/ doubt it but then our hands are tied and he has to play every game from here on out. Now we have the chance to actually see what he can do in practice and then make a coaching decision based on all the fact/coaches input.
Weren't we up 17-14? Game was hardly out of hand. If the coaches think Lawson is the difference between a win and a loss, then you play him. It's pretty straight forward IMO (obviously, if he's not ready, you don't play him).
I don't think Lawson was remotely ready to play last night. They didn't get him ready to play, probably barely got Durkin ready to play.
But for this week, they could get Lawson ready enough to play. It would be a limited package, but Motley is going to have a limited package as well.
I/m more talking about the people that were clamoring for Lawson to get a series or two in after Motley & offense went 3-out 3 times in a row..
Motley was #2 for a reason.. we don't know who was 3 or was there a 2b?
Now we get 3 days for a quick QB competition and you play the QB that has the best week of practice and take ti 1 week at a time IMO.. If that's Lawson so be it.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it was 17-21 when Brewer went down - OSU scored on their opening drive of the half to retake the lead. But still, your point was that the game wasn't out of hand at all at that point, and that's true. I think the opposite was what the coaches had in mind. The game was still close, and you have your declared backup QB healthy and available. That coupled with the fact that Lawson is clearly not ready yet, and there was no way they were going to put him in in that situation.
Agreed. With Brewer we might have contended fir ACC. Not sure with Motley we're able to do same. That said its def premature to make rash statements. (Jt barret last year) think not putting lawson in was the right call, just hope he's the guy because his ceiling is a lot higher. This is also a relatively young offense still and would make the inestment if he's able.
Also, forgot to mention lefty called a pretty good game.
Ford to me didn't do anything special minus a late mop up TD. He also dropped an easy pass on 3rd down earlier in the game.
The DL did not look solid and did not get much pressure on the QB outside a handful of plays despite bringing extra defenders on practically every play.
Agree on stroman. Very shaky to start, but settled in and wasn't playing a scrub.
Deon and Motu played terrible games.
Take the DL performance with a grain of salt. Their OL greatly improved last year and it showed. Cardale was rolling quickly and did make a lot of jukes in the backfield. We did bring him down for a loss at least three times last night, normally sacks but he was running it.
Our DL second string was not as good as I thought it would be in the 4th. But so many things were going wrong then.
Both Ford and Hodges both had the dropsies. Hodges needs to fix that in a hurry or he is going to drop to third string TE behind Malleck and Cline.
Last night showed why Malleck is TE1.
That one catch over the middle was stupid impressive
agreed the block he made on I believe it was TM's run was also a thing of beauty. Guy is a stud and has a chance to get drafted with a strong year.
The one player I always name when asked who Cardale reminds me of in the pros...Ben Roethlisberger. He's elusive in the pocket and so big he's able to step up and shake off tacklers to extend plays and can step up and run physically if needed. VT got to him plenty and honestly, if Barrett were in there they probably would've had 3 or 4 more sacks in that game. D-line's going to be damn good for you guys this year.
I'm just going to go ahead and call Shenanigans that you didn't play JT against us. What's a rematch if you aren't using the same QB when you actually can?! Kidding of course. Cardale played extremely well. I'd love to see that game again if we had Brewer all game and you played JT, but that's just how it goes.
Would've been cool to see. I was getting pretty frustrated that OSU continued to run an offense more suited to JT with Cardale in the game. He's just not an option QB, he has other things that he brings to the table. Either run something to Cardale's strengths or put JT in if you want to run that offensive gameplan.
Took a personal day today to recuperate from last night. Re-watching the game. Dang, Dadi Nicolas is a good pass rusher. Seen a couple times where he TORCHED RG Pat Elflein who is one of the best guards in the country. Elflein had some nice plays but Dadi just blew up some plays. He's really undersized so he didn't bring big Cardale down...But you're not going to see a QB that big that often. Think Dadi's gonna have a big season.
Deon and the DL were schemed intoplaying a less aggressive option-stopping like style...Bud has done this in the past against GT...only 3DL on the field, just not enough explosive beef to punch through that much-improved front....Motu...I don't know if he read his keys correctly or not, but it sure didn't look it. Ford and phillips were well-covered the whole game, which is why, with the nickel covering Hodges, Malleck and Rodgers were able to get open so much..
Malleck and Rodgers got open, but not so much Hodges...
EDIT: I just re-read your comment and realized that I misinterpreted. Clearly what you said was that Hodges was being covered and not getting open. My bad.
Thanks for the write up french...I look forward to your film review.
I also thought the OL was a bright spot but that was definitely Conte that made the mistake and got Brewer hurt.
I am about 99% sure it was Gallo. Gallo stepped right, meaning the protection was slide right. Washington came through the center-guard gap, meaning Gallo, stepping right should have gotten Washington. Gallo changed direction when the mike came and Conte was looking outside at the guard-tackle gap.
Again, one mistake (which was worlds better than last year) but it was so costly.
They definitely shifted the protection right but Conte would have been responsible for posting a hand (Which he did) and then taking over if something came inside. Washington basically ran into Conte's chest and Conte continued to look outside for a blitz that didn't come. You can't leave a guy that is already into your body, even with the slide on. If they didn't blitz at all and the defender attacked Conte's body, he would take over responsibility.
Either way, it does stink because Conte, besides a series of plays on the drive where Brewer got hurt, played pretty well and Gallo, despite issues snapping the ball was fantastic. It is great to see us have a viable center after the last several years of very poor talent.
I'm so empty inside.
A loss I can take.. But an injury is ongoing. I hate it. I hate it so much.
It really is awful. Brewer was gutting it out and hanging in there again. He was making solid throws, and basically keeping VT in the game. Unfortunately, it seemed like there was a huge let down both from the O and D when he went down, and rightly so.
I say this not to slight anyone in maroon and orange, but I think a team's confidence goes way down when the backup to their leader is a significant downgrade (for whatever reason that may be).
This times 1000. I think the defense even stopped believing when brewer got carted off. The confidence just vanished.
Yep, I really liked this season's chances with Brewer.
5) The health of Kendall Fuller and Brandon Facyson, who I can't remember seeing in the 4th quarter is worrisome.
How much playing time did these two get? I really didn't see them on the field too much (or maybe it was the camera angles).
I don't know- but I didn't see any status update on either one from the post game media access.
While Fuller at least played enough to get beat on a double move in the fourth, I too am concerned about his health. Just watching him run on field, he just didn't look quite right, and I thought this in the 2nd quarter. Fingers crossed.
He was kind of grabbing the back of his left leg on that TD when he got burned. I think he might have pulled a muscle. pure speculation
Yeah I think something is wrong with him. I've never seen him get beat like that before.
Fuller got torched on a double move midway through the 4th. Not sure if he was just tired from playing man-press the entire damn game, or if he was injured.
I think both.
We all know that man. I think you've reminded us of that enough. Every great DB gets burned. He held Michael Thomas to two catches for 46 yards, including the TD pass off a great route by Thomas. Good win, and good luck on the rest of yall's season.
From the stands, it looked like Bud subbed in a lot of the second string in the fourth.
I have seen Motley play live 4 times. He can not run this offense. His zone read option plays are not sharp. Can get the reads quick enough. Gonna be a long season.
I think one thing that also gets overlooked in reference to the backup QB is knowing the playbook and being confident enough to check out of a certain play and set protections. Motley was baptized by fire tonight for sure. Not saying he will be the answer going forward but those are things that improve with more experience in the system. Tough loss tonight on more than one front. Hang in there Hokies!
My quick thoughts.
1. Brewer going out hurt us badly.
2. The phantom PI call gave aOSU a free set of downs at the 10 was pretty much the straw that broke the defenses back. They would have gotten three from the FG, but instead got a TD gift wrapped from the Ref's.
3. The big ten officials did us no favors, from the stands it looked like there were a lot of questionable calls for aOSU and a lot of missed holds by their OL.
4. Kendall got burned a couple of times.
5. Bucky was a complete non-factor with at least one big drop.
6. Malleck is going to have a special senior year.
7. Motley and Durkin are both going to get a lot of play time against Furman. Motley didn't look comfortable running the offense for most of the third quarter.
Sadly it was the crappy ACC officials we're use to dealing with.
I thought it was crappy ACC last year, and crappy big 10 this year? Oh well, either way the crew needs glasses. They had to overturn the non-called fumble, because the fans might have lynched them by storming the field otherwise.
Forgot #8. We threw the ball far more to the Fullback, Running backs, and TE's than the WR's in that game, but by purpose or by chance I don't know.
anOSU defense was better this year and we "took what they gave us" or the space we could create maybe~ I was surprised they could cover our receivers as well as they did. They may have been disrupting our timing alot, I'm sure French or Mason will review the film to find the real answer
It seemed to me that Ohio State was pretty much daring Brewer to beat them down the field, hoping that the pressure would get there and flowing hard downhill against the run.
The best way to beat that style is with plays that go against the flow, which clearly worked with the two clear outs. Y'all tried to set up a few screens but couldn't make the connection. Those were open as well. If we would have been forced to drop our LBs into a deeper coverage, I think you would have popped off even more chunks on the ground than you already were. Our DBs were among our leading tacklers. That usually isn't the best sign.
Your defense will still be fine this year. Personnel wise, the only weakness I see is your 1-technique, Schutt. We were getting pretty good movement on him and that is the biggest reason we were able to run the ball. The LBs left some holes in the middle of the zone but I think most of that was due to the attention you were giving Hodges. The secondary is very good and the LBs are great against the run.
We haven't had a good 1 tech in years. It's a shame and it's a pretty glaring hole. Schutt was a 5-star guy that has been a total let-down to say the least. It's now just a 1-tech by committee. We might even have to end up moving Adolphus back there (he switched there for the Wisconsin game, and freed up Michael Bennett to tear it up).
Your interior line got major push most of the night.
Good comment.
In all fairness though, our left guard is definitely one of the best run blockers in the country.
VT hasn't run a well executed screen pass in as long as I can remember. And when I say well executed, I mean it didn't look like a total dumpster fire that was more likely to result in a turnover than a significant gain.
1. Yep, that is where good QB depth comes in. Part of the game. Helps when you have an NFL talent as your backup. I realize motley may/may not be at that level. However, after we had to go to our #3 QB last year it is interesting our first opponent is in a similar situation (for 4 weeks anyway).
2. Really? Going with the refs screwed us excuse? How about the we gave up 360 yards rushing excuse? Not being rude, just saying there are a lot of reasons why you lost and the interference call really isn't one of them. Bad calls go both ways.
Regarding QB depth, yeah, welcome to Virginia Tech, where three years ago when we brought in our new OC the cupboards were BARE. It's kind of amazing that we're in this position three years later to at least say, well, do we stick with the senior Motley, or do we go to r-FR Durkin or pull the redshirt from the true frosh 4-star Lawson? Three years ago, losing our starting QB would mean we probably start pulling from row A.
Regarding the PI call, that's weaksauce argument right there. Here's how I see it. The game completely changed when Brewer went down. Motley wasn't ready, and our D simply could not hold when our O was having repeated 3-and-outs. The dam burst. For all ESPN's talk about us capitalizing on opportunities, you guys capitalized on the biggest one. We had nothing going with Motley, momentum shifted, and you ran away with it. Up until that point, Brewer was doing what he basically did to you guys all last year, except he was doing it without the turnovers. He stays healthy, that game stays way closer, because drives get sustained. No way we lose by 28 with Brewer finishing the game, just my opinion.
If Brew stays in, at worst you lose by 11 IMO. Best case you win by 3.
This is also my take. Either a back and forth to the last possession, or a late 4th quarter fade because of your superior depth. We just couldn't do diddly-shit against you with Motley. But through 2.5 quarters, it looked like a pretty even matchup.
Giving OSU so many chances to break big plays, eventually it's gonna happen. With Brewer on the field potentially converting 3rd downs, and a running game gaining ground, it would have been VT just grinding it out, giving the D a rest and hopefully getting a TD after a sustained drive. Then give the rested D a chance to make another stop. That was the recipe to win.
The big plays were the killer. I believe I heard a stat on the post-game radio show that there were 10 plays of 20 yards or more that accounted for somewhere near 300 yards of offense. That's incredible. Too many horses for us to contain. And then throw in the fatigue factor when we couldn't mount, yet alone sustain any drives after Brewer went down, and it was lights out.
I agree 100 percent it is closer if brewer stays in. He wasn't playing lights out but he was playing well enough and just managing the game. 0 turnovers is big. Props to him for sure. I'm just saying, I despise the fans who will use brewer as an excuse. As if depth isn't a huge part of football. It's also insulting considering what Ohio state had to deal with last year With Qb injuries. That being said, I'm sure some on our side would have said "we only lost because we had bosa and 3 receivers suspended." Also a sad excuse. Again, depth is everything. Men go down. I'm sure motly and your other guys will do fine and I hope they do. If they hold down the fort we may see yall in the playoff. Wouldn't surprise me.
Seriously, dude, our QB situation is sketchy. We had to talk LT into switching back to QB from TE before Loeffler got here. Scot has recruited like mad at QB, but one of his guys transferred, one's a r-Fr wildcat threat, and one's a raw as hell 4-star. Motley is his one inherited QB and ran the option at a high school about twenty minutes from VT's campus. That's how bad it got, we were filling out the roster with option QBs from our backyard.
If Brewer is out for more than the 4-6, I'm not sure what we do at QB. This could be a long year. I hope you realize how insanely good you have it with your QB situation. That's not sour grapes, that's reality. What UM has done with your 3-deep at QB is something you have to wait at the crossroads at midnight to accomplish.
VT had to talk a future NFL QB into switching back to his HS position from a position he never once played...do you know how many programs would kill to have that option?
"NFL QB"
@ Illinois Hokie -
We're actually like 6 or 7 deep with 4 & 5* at QB. Seriously. An embarrassment of riches.
Note that was 1 of eight reasons, and the straw that broke the back.
"EXCUSE" is a sore subject around here. As in we've had to listen to a years worth regarding how 35-21 managed to happen.
Well, I'm sorry yall did. After all, you guys were more prepared last year and beat us fair and square. I know a lot of people used the "our o line was inrxoerienced" excuse. Which is beyond stupid. Our guys were expected to step up and didn't answer the call and we lost. You just have to find a way to win with what you have. Same with VT tonight. Inexperience, injury, or suspension is not an excuse. Never should be since its a team game
That call really cemented ya'll momentum, but I agree with you. Of all my takeaways from this game, officiating was not one of them.
FWIW I had Buckeye fans that confirmed we were getting hosed on calls.
The refs were asleep on holding calls in the first half, until they recalled the OSU touchdown, which was multiple holding calls.
How was it in the stands? Even with the loss I'm jealous I couldn't be there. Seemed electric.
It was a blast. I want to put this out there, though: I know for a fact that 3 benches (and possibly a 4th) collapsed in NEZ tonight. No one got hurt but I actually have serious doubts about those seats after looking at them when the stands emptied out.
Yep, I saw three. Two of them were directly behind me and some of the students standing there fell down on top of us. NEZ definitely doesn't feel safe to sit in, but damn if it wasn't rocking last night. I'm just a little too hung over to be sitting in class right now.
The bench I was standing on in NEZ was more like a trampoline. Surprised it held out for the game.
Was hoping for an atmosphere that rivaled the BCA GT game in 2000 when I felt entire East side shaking under our feet to the long lost kick-off drum cadence before the heavens unleashed.... While this was a great atmosphere, the GT '00 atmosphere is still #1 in my book.
We need to throw whatever our offensive game plan was out the window. We won't have a consistent passer with Brewer out. From here on out, if we can't run the ball very effectively, we are in for a long season. I'm saying we need to go 3-TE sets power running football, or an option spread attack with Durkin, Motley, or Lawson as a running threat. I'd prefer to redshirt Lawson though, as burning his redshirt now will probably backfire.
As somebody else pointed out we have a decent shot at winning the next 4-5 games with Brewer out if Motley and Durkin are just okay. Then Brewer will be back.
Yeah, I guess we just need to hope we don't drop any of the next 4-5 games then. In the meantime, I wonder if we'll see any major changes in the offense with Motley or Durkin in.
Sorry to say I don't feel great about our chances to get Brewer back in 4-5 games. Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone in week 9 of 2013 and was out until week 17. Nick Foles broke his collarbone in week 9 last season and didn't play again.
I am a glass half full kind of guy.
Great, now I'm going to bed with Scott Tolzien on my mind..........
Were those throwing arms or off-arms?
I was going to ask that question, but then I figured it probably doesn't matter. The throwing motion carries across the entire chest during the follow through. Not like a non-throwing arm injury.
delete
That was fun up until it wasn't fun any longer.
In the span of about 20 minutes I went from "Lawson should redshirt this year" to "Free Dwayne Lawson".
I hear ya... damn I really think this team could be special with some decent QB play. Maybe Lawson/Motley/Durkin/Rogers can gut it out for a few weeks and brewer can return on the 4 week side of the injury rather than the 6-8 week. I mean its not all to unreasonable, ECU has looked vulnerable, and weve got furman and purdue who arent exactly OSU. then theres a james connerless Pitt....so if brewer comes back after that maybe 10 wins?
Goforth has already started talking like 8-weeks plus is more likely. I don't think we are looking for a stop gap as someone else said. We are moving on the QB of future and even if he isn't "ready" yet, he isn't worse than Motley.
If we aren't going to burn Lawson's shirt, then I see no need of playing anyone that has a redshirt year left. If we are playing for the future, we might as well go at it 100%.
I think at this stage of Beamer's career, he is going to play Lawson. You can't let Hodges/Ford/Phillips/Malleck/Cline squander an entire year of eligibility on the fringes. That would be sickening.
I was amazed how well Nijman played.
Future is BRIGHT at left tackle. We have this kid for at least three years.
Welp... We'll always have the 'shoe.
Good luck the rest of the way, you get a lot of fire power back, while we try to find some fire power with brewer going down.
Great game yall. Sorry about brewer. Tough loss but with that great D maybe y'all's backup can hold down the fort. And thanks for not using the "if brewer was healthy we would have won" excuse. Shows how classy yall are even in defeat. And I apologize for the Ohio state fan above who was so rude. Just a jerk and doesn't represent how 99% of buckeyes I know feel about VT.
I'm not gonna lie, this game surprised me regarding the Ohio state offense. I really thought miller was just going to be a decoy. Dead wrong. Also thought JT would start. Dead wrong. The only thing I was right about was assuming foster would stick to his Bear D. And for the most part I think it worked. We pulled away late in 3rd but up until that it was big play or bust for Ohio state. And cardale really didn't have a good game at all. Anyways, I hope we never have to play yall again. You guys are as tough as nails and very physical. I would much rather play Oklahoma (next year) or just about anybody else. Hell, I would rather play Oregon again. Mad respect to yall. Hope you guys win out and beat FSU.
yeah I think it wouldve been closer with Brewer in, and it would have at least been more fun to watch but I cant take anything away from you guys. Great game, excellent execution. there were a few plays where I just looked at my friends and said DAMN that was nice. Regardless, good luck to yall and I'm glad you're speaking better than ESPN right now
Thanks. Classy post.
No brewer excuse here, but it was fun until that injury.
The chess match between Foster and Meyer ended with that brewer injury. 3 and outs that just keep putting a defense back on the field in a track meet with Miller really tipped the scales.
That chess match was fun to watch and I was really hoping this game wouldn't come down to injuries or bad penalties.
Fuck man
I gotta regroup. I'm bitter. I'm bitter as fuck.
My outlook has changed.
I'll be back Saturday...
Edit: my outlook in regards to the season. I think this team made strides. Offensively we were leaps and bounds ahead of where we were last year. Brewer being hurt just really hurt.
Here's hoping Shai adds another strong runner to our offense, when he's allowed to play against Furman. Many would say I cheered way too loudly everytime we got a positive gain on a run tonight, but I make no apologies.
HOKIE UNTIL THE DAY I DIE! TECH, TECH, V-P-I!
I went down a waterslide at Massanutten on Saturday. On the steep drop, I was too fast and got turned upside down and landed right on my head. It hasn't been a good weekend.
seriously? a waterslide before the game?! everyone knows that's bad mojo... ok everybody, it's officially French's fault. /s
I am shocked I didn't get worse. I have a nasty lump and bruise, but I am thankful that it wasn't worse. 350 pounds with the fall broken by your forehead isn't a good formula for long healthy living.
found video of it
looks brutal
apparently in this case, the camera takes away 150lbs instead of adding 10.
I took the dog for a walk at halftime and heard some glass break then looked up to see two guys running from a car with a backpack. I called the cops and then told some people who were standing outside down the block- turned out it was one of their cars. As disappointing as the second half way, it could definitely be worse.
Have I mentioned that I really hate living in DC yet?
The jury is still out on Motley.
I wish he'd done better, but this wasn't a fair test of his skills.
We'll go as far as the QB takes us this year. I think it was very telling that we went overly run heavy when Brewer went out. Almost seemed like the coaches didn't trust Motley to drop back and pass.
For all the hype he got for being neck and neck with Brewer this spring going into fall practices, I just didn't see it tonight. He had a very Sun Bowl Mark Leal kind of game... which doesn't exactly instill confidence in the rest of the year.
He won't be the starter for long if tonight's performance is repeated. But tonight's performance was against Ohio State.
QB tryouts begin tomorrow...
Sadly that was my thoughts as well on the play selection.
I actually didn't see any difference in play selection with Motley in, after the spoonfed high completion passes to get his legs under him phase. What I saw was a QB who was incapable of executing the offense at the level Brewer had been executing it all night.
The coaches clearly compressed the play book to keep an injury prone Motley as much out of harm's way as possible and still have him actually playing QB. The likelihood of beating OSU was slim to none once Brewer went down and VT failed to convert in OSU territory, so IMO Loeffler basically chose to live to fight another day.
To me this was a sign that as big as the gap was between Brewer and Motley, the gap is perhaps even bigger right now between Motley and Durkin/Lawson. Now the job is to get a new #2 prepared to possibly compete against competition far less capable than OSU, so they can do more with an injury-prone Motley (against competition far less capable than OSU).
Ok folks, gotta shut it down for me tonight. The kiddo's first day of the school year is tomorrow. I have to be a dad before I start on the film review.
Just saying my fairly wells..just wanted to say that that's a hell of a full back you've got. The kid is a beast. Sucks seeing injuries, good luck moving forward. You'll do fine. So long Hokies!!
Back atcha, Buckeye. Enjoy your many, many, many wins this season.
Yeah, too bad he's not a quarterback...oh wait...hmm...
Man, Kendall is getting destroyed on Twitter. Mike Thomas and Cardale Williams heading it up. Herbstreit even joining in on it.
Smh
where is he getting destroyed? Mike Thomas is just trash talking. Saying he was owning Kendall all night. Broke his ankles. Big deal. We did worse trash talk in little league baseball than this.
I hate that we lost, but we have got to have thicker skin than this. We lost to the defending champions and #1 team in the nation. And we pulled ahead and were neck and neck at the half. that is DAMN impressive for an unranked team, let alone ANY team this year.
Thomas had 2 catches. If he's on a different team without as many weapons in the backfield, he might have zero.
I was going to reply to a couple threads in here but lost them when I refreshed the page. Couple of thoughts, and French, I would love to hear your take:
1. I am really looking forward to getting Shai back. JC ran great, very decisive and hit the hole hard. He still seems to stop his feet once he makes contact though, and that doesn't help the fact that he has physical limitations as far as running through guys. Love the toughness, but he is not a playmaker, more of a take what is given him running back. I thought Trey had a number of plays were a bubble formed and he wasn't seeing it well. I would root for Shai-JC getting the majority or reps right now and bringing McMillan in as a slot or second TB.
2. This game seemed almost like a what not to do film to go with French's inside leverage article for Brandon and Kendall. They didn't attack the outside much, but I remember a couple times where Buckeyes were able to break to the inside cleanly. And the Kendall PI, he engaged with the WR before his hands went up for the ball. Seemed like poor technique to me. I wonder about the injury thing, esp when Samuel dropped the post in front of Facsyon, he (Facsyon) didn't look like he was running very well to me. After the reports coming out of camp I was worried about the nickel but expected our two starters to look more like 2 years ago.
I think everyone is forgetting about McMillian's game. He was one juke away from breaking a kickoff for 6. Also looked good running the ball in my opinion for a r-fr
Trayvon showed me something, but Trey's game was very disappointing. I thought he had poor vision all game. I think Shai supplants Trey quickly, and McMillian might do the same.
Trey was still running upright. On that goal line series, after his first two downs where he didn't follow Sam, we wanted the ball handed to Sam on third down.
I know its easy for me to say from watching on tv, but had Trey followed Sam on second down he walks in for 6.
McMillian was also a shoe string away from a huge run to the left side.
It was obvious from across the field in Section 18 that if Trey had followed Sam he would have been in the end zone.
True. But Sam picks up the block and Trey, I believe, thought Sam would push the Defenseman back into the Endzone and he could just follow. The problem was that Sam was engaged by 2 d-men and got Stonewalled ( because you need at least 2 of anything to stonewall Sam) at the goalline. The Hole opened to Sam's left, and if Trey had seen it, a simple jump cut (Shai's favorite move) or a simple sidestep to bounce off of Sam into the endzone.
Instead, Trey tried to ride the backside of a stonewalled blocker, and also got stonewalled.
French, I know you might still be processing the game, but do you think you could give out a grade for each player? Seems like there is improvement to be had all over the field. Thanks and as always, Go Hokies!
Did anyone else at the game or on TV notice the million dollar video board was pretty crappy last night? Middle section just kept crapping out.
Yeah, but it seemed to be better in the second half. That dang thing has had issues since it was turned on.
I hope it came with a warranty.
One thing was certain last night: Sam Rogers is still Sam Rogers and that's a huge boost to the team.
Sam looked great blocking, running, and catching the ball. I loved when they lined him as a WR one play.
One other thing... can we burn the maroon pants? Just seems like as far back as I can recall, when we wear them more times than not something bad happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNnOrUPf5Fg
Maroon pants will always be welcome
VT has a winning record in all maroon. And those are usually worn in big games against tough opponents.
I'm just sayin'...
I think the issue is clearly those damn shoulder stripes. Seems like ever since we added those we've had issues. 2011? I think it was 2011 we added those...regardless, the LT3 era had stripes, and we had issues...we made the stripes longer at some point (2013?) and it seems like we sucked even harder...and they've talked about making them longer...for the love of god...what was wrong with the legit maroon top with orange numbers or orange borders around white numbers? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING STRIPES!!!!
The stripes are fine.
The deficiencies I saw last night were a lot bigger than uniforms.
After a good night sleep and a chance to calm down I awoke slightly impressed after playing the most talented team we will see this year by a large margin. All year we talked about seeing growth from our team and seeing our coaches make good decisions. Other than the deflation after Brewer's injury and the freakish talent of the other side of the ball. This team showed something we haven't seen in a while and it is encouraging for the future.
1) Damn if the OL didnt play their asses off. Picking up blitzes, opening holes, giving plenty of time for QB time. It has been a while since I have seen our line control the line of scrimmage.
2) Stupid penalties seems less obvious on offense (false starts, too many men on the field, holding, botched snaps, screwed up handoffs) we looked crisp on the offensive side of the ball.
3) Adjustments: We actually made adjustments on offense after the 14 point ambush and props to our offensive coaching staff.
4) Fight and Heart: How many teams are going to be able to come back from 14 down in the first quarter on OSU and actually take the lead? This team could have folded in the first quarter but they didn't and fought back.
I know I am ignoring the second half but Brewer was hurt and after Motley took a knee for a sack, the place lost its fight. There is a lot to worry about with the QB and our DB's but I was impressed and happy for the remainder of the season. I will be positive till the end.
One thing that does need help: God please give us a MLB that can actually read a play and make instinctive in the moment decisions.
I wouldn't worry about our db's. Most of their successful plays were because Cardale had too much time, which was a result of a much less aggressive pass rush this year. Some of that lack of pass rush success was a much improved OL, but some of that was on us. There were many plays where our end players looked to be playing contain instead of pinning their ears back. If you are worried about the db's the only thing I would be worried about is Fuller/Facyson maybe not being 100% as French said.
exactly and that was my impression as well just didn't verbalize it as well. Kind of hard to bring down a car. Cardale isn't going to be brought down many times this year, which means alot of more open opportunities
You're right on
Spot on!
The radio broadcasters were saying it was just cramps, not a major health concern. I did notice that Fuller was back on the field for their next possession after they scored the TD that got them to 42.
In the fog of sulky morning afters, I have failed to notice any mention of Sam Rogers. I was very impressed with how ready he was to play this game.
Sam Rogers doesn't get ready for games, games get ready for Sam Rogers.
If all else fails, I've always had a feeling he could be our stop-gap QB, too.
Could you just imagine the possibilty of Sam Rogers (QB) Steven Peoples (FB) and our Running back Corp. PUSSY TOUCHDOWNS EVERYWHERE, Bodies thrown to the side.
A couple overlooked stats that get undermined by the loss:
- We converted all of our possessions inside the redzone. All 2 of them, but we still got TDs out of them, not FGs.
- Even with the struggling offense in the second half, we still averaged over 4.6 yards per play. Without doing the math, I've got to believe our O was numerically doing well in the first half with Brewer.
- AJ averaged 43 yards per punt after averaging 39 last year. That includes some of the short field, "pin them deep" punts.
- When we were able to get OSU to 3rd downs, they only converted 33.33% of them. We finished with ~47% conversion rate.
True. I loved Malleck's TD.
These are good nuggets, dude.
I for one do not get some of the post game reaction on here, which ranges from hand wringing, to wrist slitting.
Calm down. The pt spread on this game was 14 pts. Hokies lost by 18.
I really don't get the logic of "Put Lawson in or we're going to lose every game." Unless you have a key to Merryman, the most you've seen of the kid in a D1 setting are a few moments in a pretend game. And, while he flashed some athleticism, he didn't look that great.
Everybody wanted Logan gone in 2011 after the Clemson game. Then the Miami game happened. Let's trust the coaches to do everything they can to get Motley ready to be the guy. There's a HUGE difference between being the guy, and "maybe being the guy if the guy get's hurt". I'm going to trust the mental progress that Motley will make this week. I believe the light bulb will come on, and he's going to go OFF on Furman, Purdue, and ECU. With that confidence, he will lead the team competitively in conference play.
Agreed. We lost by 4 pts more than the spread and we lost our QB. Overall, that's not bad. And a lot of good things happened as well. Here is what I'm looking for the rest of the year:
1. Run the ball for nearly 200 yards per game.
2. Motley > 60 yards per game rushing.
3. Top 4 of ACC in redzone efficiency.
4. Identification of a primary RB
5. TE's involvement in passing game (this was Brewer's strength).
6. Defense -- 3 to 4 sacks per game.
7. Trying other options at MLB.
8. Top 4 in ACC in penalty yards
9. Missed FG's should be a rarity, not one per game.
10. Top 6 in ACC in T/O margin
11. One 20+ yard turn of field position per game (punt returns, KO returns, TO returns)
12. Three 20+yard offensive plays per game
We need to get better game by game. Get us to November with a shot at winning the division and getting Brewer back.
Mostly I agree with your list, minus #2.
If you want to run the ball, then let a running back do the work, that's what they're for. I don't think Motley has the skills to be an effective QB throwing the ball, and this basically takes our best players on offense out of the equation. I know his skill-set is running, but do we really want our only QB option taking multiple hits per game? That seems like a good way to get our third and fourth QB options on the field in a hurry. It sounds like Loeffler even made note of not putting Motley in situations where he would get hit a lot last night. We can't really throw effectively with Brewer out, so we're one-dimensional until Motley can improve his reads and progressions. Will he improve? I hope so, but at this point in his career he hasn't. Teams saw that last night, and I imagine they made note of OSU committing to stop the run with a total disregard for our passing game.
The only way out of this hole is to continue to pound the rock for those ugly yards, sprinkle in some play-action shots, and win with a stifling defense. We'll have to slug it out with some low-scoring games, so let our stable of backs take the pounding. I imagine the playbook gets even more bland and predictable with less experienced QBs at the helm. My two cents...
With that being said, the coaches will have to adjust, so I see Motley getting a larger number of carries/scrambles per game. It's inevitable, they want to win. Hopefully the coaches find/develop a passing game that Motley can execute.
Good points here.
I would also like to add that there were no special teams gaffes (see Alabama & Boise).
I also feel good about our O-Line this year. We may be able to rely on the run like the old days if Shai is back to his normal self.
I feel optimistic about the season - even though I think every game will be a struggle, including Furman.
re: "- AJ averaged 43 yards per punt after averaging 39 last year. That includes some of the short field, "pin them deep" punts."
Across the board. I think our Special Teams play was very good last night. There were not any of the big flashy blocked-punt-type of plays, but
1.) I believe, everyone of the kickoffs were out of the back of the end zone or not returnable.
2.) AJ's punting was very good. The improved distance average, mentioned above (including one of over 50 yards) and planting three inside the 20 yard line
3.) It was a special team play that recovered Elliot's fumble which led to the go-ahead score, just before the half.
I feel like our special teams players went above and beyond in this game. Even on the fair catch calls, our guys were right there trying to psych out the return man.
I have to say that for now, I trust Scot Loeffler's choice of quarterback.
He's seen more of the VT quarterbacks, and it is his job on the line.
Yeah, I'm supportive of "rallying around Motley" for now, but if Motley isn't taking the position by the horns in practice and he feels he needs to pull the 'shirt on Lawson, I'm not complaining. I would even support playing Lawson as Motley's backup for the next two months, get his feet wet with an opportunity to beat Motley out (or play extensively if Motley gets hurt).
Lawson's redshirt doesn't mean a thing to me. Play the best guy or guys. Win games.
I really don't see his job on the line yet. We are just now seeing what he can do with his type of recruits. Just in one game we have seen major improvement from the OL, WR's, and QB (play until Brewer went down) compared to teams of the past. I will give him this year and next with all these young weapons, then make a judgement but right now I am happy with the progress.
we saw major improvement from the WRs? Missed that. We only had 2 WRs even play and one of them had 2 catches for 5 yards. Ford ended up with a decent stat line from the last TD.
Blocking, did we forget the inept ability to block even the wind. That was where I was going with there. Yes as for catching the ball, it was a bit underwhelming but they did block well.
My quick takeaway is that it's great to be discussing actual current games instead of what happened nine-to-twelve months ago. Football's back, and I'll take it.
SL said in the post game interview that they limited Motley's plays because if he did what he does best, there was a fair chance that he would have gotten hurt and they did not seem comfortable putting Durkin or Lawson in that game. So they chose a limited Motley over risking him getting hurt last night.
Quick takeaway: Travon McMillian is tight.
One quick observation: most of the defensive starters were taken out by early 4th Q, didn't notice whether that was the case on offense. Think we were just trying to get out alive after OSU caught momentum
Hokie fans - I created an account here so I could drop you all a line to say thanks. My wife and a couple friends - all of us Buckeyes - traveled to Blacksburg from NYC and DC. We knew you had a reputation for a great stadium environment and passionate, football-intelligent fans. We didn't know how well we would be received as visiting fans. We had a great time, arriving Sunday afternoon at an AirBnB. Our hosts were Hokie fans of course and were very hospitable. Everywhere we went Hokies were welcoming and very friendly, inviting us to their tailgates, providing us with adult beverages, etc.. We're all VA Tech fans now. Thanks for the great experience.
Glad to hear you had a good experience. Feel free to drop in and talk football any time!
This is great to hear. I went to Columbus last year with my Fiance, best friend, and his wife and we were treated very well by OSU fans the entire weekend, before and after the game. I was really hoping we would return the favor. I know every fanbase has it's bad apples and I'm glad that you didn't encounter any of ours.