Hokies' Production on Offense Encouraging Even in 28-35 Loss at East Carolina

Frank Beamer is fond of the adage a team is never as good as they look when they win and is never as bad as they look when they lose. Despite Virginia Tech's brutally disappointing 28-35 loss to East Carolina on Saturday, after rewatching the game I actually wasn't as discouraged about the state of the program as I thought I might be. While the defensive performance was underwhelming (that's the kindest word I could think of), I can't help but continue to be encouraged by the offense's productivity. Frank Beamer has built his legacy on the strength of his defenses, but so far this season the offense has been wiping the floor with the defense.

If you had told me that Michael Brewer was going to break his collarbone a little more than two quarters into the season, I would have bet every penny I owned that Tech wouldn't break the top 100 offenses in the country... and I would have been dead wrong. Brenden Motley has far exceeded my expectations as a starter so far, and has lead Tech to a top 40 offense along the way. Scot Loeffler's group was far from perfect on Saturday, but the improvement over last year's offensive unit is now undeniable.

Motley Has Another Big Day

In just his third game as a starter, Brenden Motley looked like the most dangerous player on the field for Virginia Tech. I wrote before how Motley's strong arm allows him to fit the ball into tight windows and he once again found success throwing the ball down the field, averaging eight yards per pass attempt. Brenden's touchdown throw to Malleck in the first quarter shows that he is maturing into more than just a thrower, he is starting to understand the intricacies of Loeffler's system.

This is one of Loeffler's favorite passing plays in the red zone, a high/low read on the middle linebacker. The objective of this play is to place to receivers in the middle of the field (Malleck and Phillips) and throw to whichever one the middle linebacker doesn't cover. Motley correctly diagnoses the coverage when he recognizes the safety faking blitz back off into a deep zone rotating towards the three receiver side. With the boundary corner maintaining outside leverage to prevent Malleck and Rogers from running a smash concept, Malleck is free to run right up the seam. The middle linebacker doesn't get enough depth to prevent the throw and Motley rifles it past the backer for a touchdown. The throw, catch, and play design were all very nice here, but I am most impressed with the timing of the play. Motley hits the top of his drop exactly as Malleck is coming out of his break. This is the only thing which allows Motley to set his feet in time to make the throw into a tight window.

Brenden has a ways to go before he is as proficient as Brewer was at Loeffler's west coast pass game, but that lightbulb is starting to come on and seems to be getting brighter every game. If Brenden can start attacking the structure of defenses with the quick hitting routes Loeffler adores, his advantage down the field will become even more potent.

This is another example of Motley making a quick read to get the ball to the right teammate in a high pressure situation. Motley sees the two deep safeties before the snap and knows that he'll have some type of tight coverage underneath. When Malleck runs a slant and the linebacker starts to follow him, Brenden knows that Bucky Hodges is matched up one-on-one with a corner who has no inside support. Hodges has plenty of space to work with to the inside and runs a slant, putting his body in between the defender and the quarterback. On a fourth-and-two I'm pleased with how decisively Motley stood in the pocket and delivered that throw, even if it was slightly behind the target.

This play was really impressive for me because it showed both Motley's recognition of coverages as well as the chemistry he has with his wide receivers. ECU had a solid defensive game plan, and they called a really dangerous coverage here. They know that Loeffler likes to throw a deep in route on third-and-long and they want to try and trick Motley into throwing an interception. ECU drops a safety into a short zone over Cam, allowing the slot defender to drift backwards into the area that Ford will be making his In cut. If Motley doesn't see the slot defender drift, he risks getting picked off when he throws to Ford. If Motley does recognize and decides to throw to Cam on the slant, the safety is waiting to pounce in and pick that throw off. Brenden Motley doesn't do any of these. He instead buys time with his feet and makes eye contact with Phillips, who restarts his route and gets upfield for a big catch and run.

Motley Lifts Tech's Ground Game

Brenden Motley didn't limit himself to racking up yards from the pocket. Loeffler used him frequently on QB power plays and Motley finished Saturday as Tech's leading rusher. Virginia Tech used the inverted veer play often, often utilizing a wide receiver or Travon McMillian to threaten the perimeter of the defense with a sweep.

This is a really nice play design to punish defenses that rotate safeties to combat WR sweep action. As Ford comes across the formation, the boundary corner that was covering him passes that responsibility off to the slot defender aligned over Hodges. The boundary corner and boundary safety rotate over towards the sweep action and the field safety crashes to secure the edge. Loeffler runs a counter to take advantage of this complex defensive rotation. The linebackers get sucked to Motley's left by the fullback and pulling guard. When Motley pulls the ball and runs to his right, every defender has their momentum heading away from him. If Motley can squeeze through the line cleanly he is one on one with a cornerback who is ten yards away from the line of scrimmage, just one broken tackle away from a touchdown. A defensive lineman gets enough of Motley to slow him down but keep an eye out for this in the future. Don't be surprised if Motley gets a long run off a similar action somewhere down the road.

This is a similar play to the previous clip but this time Motley follows his lead blockers and walks into the end zone. With ECU not bringing the cornerback across the formation to follow McMillian's fake, Loeffler doesn't have to bother with blocking him on the back side and overwhelms ECU at the point of attack. Motley has a ton of physical ability and is a huge asset in the redzone. If he can continue to improve his decision making in the throw game, he'll make it almost impossible for opposing coordinators to choose between focusing on stopping the QB run or stopping the short pass in short yardage situations.

Growth Potential

As effective as Motley was, he still left a ton of yardage and points left on the field Saturday. ECU saw the same thing I did when they watched the Furman and Purdue game film, and they seemed convinced that stopping Tech's corner routes was key. ECU broke aggressively on any route which headed towards the sideline, and they frequently played far off of underneath routes by outside receivers in order to play underneath corner routes.

This is a play that an ACC contender has to make 10 times out of 10. The corner is giving a ton of space to Tech's best receiver, presumably because the corner is worried about either getting beat deep or the slot receiver running a corner route behind him. I like that Motley and Ford both read the coverage correctly, but Motley simply has to complete this throw. This is a perfect example of the short pass game benefitting the long. If Motley completes this throw a few times and gets into several second-and-shorts, the defense won't be so willing to play ten yards off the receiver on first down. That opens up the space down the sideline for Loeffler to run his favorite smash concept. Accuracy and consistency are the two biggest things holding Motley back right now. If Motley can find a way to make that long throw to the sideline every time, this greatly improved passing attack will reach new levels.

Passing Variety

Brenden Motley undoubtedly has a big arm which is capable of getting the ball into holes in the secondary, but it seemed like those throwing windows were a little bit smaller than they should have been against ECU. ECU really did a good job of preparing for Loeffler's route combinations and their secondary spent much of the afternoon running the receiver routes for them. After three starts, it might be time for Loeffler to help Motley out by opening up the passing playbook.

This is pretty compelling evidence that ECU knew that the smash concept was a route combination they were going to see a lot of. Tech has Ford and Hodges lined up to the right of the formation and Hodges is going to run a short hook route and Ford is going to run a corner. Motley is reading the flat defender. If he leaves Hodges open Motley will throw to Hodges and if he covers Hodges Motley will throw behind the flat defender toward the sideline to Ford on a corner route.

This is a perfect camera angle to see how the safety knows exactly what's coming. Before Motley even has his feet set the safety is breaking towards where the throw is going to be. Yes, the slot defender does grab a hold of Ford on his break and slows him down a little, but this was going to be a difficult completion anyways. In reality, it should have been an interception and might have been a pick six.

Scot Loeffler runs a ball control offense which utilizes a low risk passing offense. He relies on the timing and chemistry of his receivers and quarterback to complete high percentage throws against any kind of defense. There will come a time when defenses will start to sit on those high percentage routes and try to break on the ball before the receiver does. When that happens, the risk/reward ratio on the short passing game begins to change and it becomes more advantageous to throw more aggressive routes. Having more routes which utilize a double move would be an effective way to get a lot of yardage on one play against an aggressive defense and also force the defense to back off on future short yardage throws.

On ECU's pick, you can clearly see the safety aggressively drop into short robber zone to try and bait Motley into an interception. This is a route that Malleck runs often which allows him to post up against a less athletic defender underneath. The safety reads the route and makes a quick break on the ball, tipping it to a teammate who secures the pick. The interesting thing happens on the other side of the field though. In a post-game comment, Motley admitted, "It was a dumb ball by me," and said, "I actually came off my read". So if Malleck wasn't the intended target, who was his first read?

I believe it was Hodges at the bottom of the screen. I think this could be a modified route, exactly the type of play Loeffler should be calling to help Motley against aggressive defenses. We see Phillips and Hodges start at the bottom of the formation and Phillips runs a short hook route. Bucky Hodges run a vertical route and is isolated on a safety. Rather than run a smash concept and head towards the sideline on a corner route Hodges breaks towards the middle of the field, breaking tendency. If Motley, who appears to be looking towards Hodges before the pick, stays with his read he has Bucky on a skinny post with inside position on the safety. Not an easy throw, but one that Motley has proven he can make. That skinny post is dangerous enough that even if Motley were to throw it and miss it might make the defense think twice before dropping one of their safeties into a robber coverage again (opening things up for Malleck underneath).

The Running Back Debate

There are other things holding this offense back from being considered elite besides Motley's inaccuracies or predictability in the passing game. In my opinion, the biggest hindrance to increased offensive production is the lack of playmaking ability at the running back position. Until Virginia Tech finds someone who can make some plays even when there isn't perfect blocking up front, the offense won't ever get to the next level.

I am a huge fan of both J.C. Coleman and Trey Edmunds. They are both great ambassadors for Hokie football and represent everything a Virginia Tech athlete should be. However, it's time for an honest conversation. Through four games, these two haven't looked like starting running backs on an elite offense. Neither possess the top end speed to pull away from defenders and both have been underwhelming in short yardage situations. I can't recall either of them making someone miss in space. They are both veteran players with experience so they usually know where to find the holes according to the blocking scheme, but they sometimes struggle to do even that.

If Virginia Tech is going to field an offense good enough to win the ACC Shane Beamer is going to have to find some solutions at his position, although I'm not sure he recognizes a problem.

"We've got a highly competitive room," Beamer said two weeks ago. "We talk about our defensive line on this team and that's a good group, but I really like the group that we have in our room from a depth standpoint and the amount of talent that we have in that room. It's a really, really good group."

With all due respect to Shane Beamer, there is no comparison between the production Virginia Tech has gotten out of its defensive line versus its running backs. Shane Beamer has to get more out of his unit then he currently is. This offense is 39th nationally in total offense despite having running backs that aren't really doing much more than running through the massive holes the offensive line created. If the running backs started making free hitters miss and breaking arm tackles, if the running backs kept defensive coordinators awake at night scheming up ways to prevent them from getting the ball, who knows what this offense would be capable of. If we had a Ryan Williams, or a David Wilson, or a Darren Evans I truly believe this offense could be a top 20, even with first year starter Brenden Motley.

So what's the solution? How can we get more production out of the running back spot? In my opinion, Travon McMillian is clearly the most explosive back on the roster right now. He is the only one that looks capable of rushing straight up the middle for a 50-yard score. Good rushing attacks get first downs, great rushing attacks get touchdowns. Virginia Tech's backs are struggling to do either right now. If Shane is positive that Travon can't be successful in between the tackles, the next best thing would be to simplify his rotation and give either Trey or J.C. the mass majority of the snaps. Go back and look at how productive JC was when he was getting almost every carry at the end of last season. Throughout his entire career at Tech, J.C. has been pretty ineffective in a platoon role and he openly stated that his success in 2014 started when he was allowed to get into the groove of a game. Anything would be an improvement over the running back carousel that Shane and the offense has tried for the past three seasons.