Pirates Pillage the Hokies' Defense in Greeneville

Analyzing Virginia Tech's 28-35 loss at East Carolina proved to be one of the most frustrating Sunday afternoons I spent watching tape since I started writing for The Key Play in 2011. Many things that concerned me before the game came to fruition: the rainy weather proving advantageous for the Pirates; offensive efficiency with Motley at quarterback lacking in critical moments; the movement of ECU's defense causing the Hokies' offensive line to run block hesitantly; and Tech's defensive ends getting sucked inside on inside zone leaving the edge open. Even with all that factored, I still expected Virginia Tech to win the game primarily because I felt that quarterback Blake Kemp and the East Carolina offense could not be as efficient as they were in last year's victory in Blacksburg. Little did I know that Kendall Fuller would miss the game after the athletics department came clean that he has been hampered by a knee sprain since camp. After the Hokies jumped out to a 14-0 lead, Fuller's absence was the first domino in a chain of events that produced a 28-35 loss that left all of Hokie Nation, including myself, searching for answers.

The film provided some insights and little consolation. The Hokies deployment of personnel and scheme provided East Carolina with several distinct advantages, and the Pirates' coaching staff attacked Tech's weak points again and again. I cannot recall a game where the Hokies' defense put their opponent in more third-and-long situations only to see the offense convert time and time again. Every one of the five ECU touchdown drives featured a conversion where the offense faced a 3rd-and-7 or worse:

• First TD drive: 14-yard completion to Bryce Williams on 3rd-and-7;
• Second TD drive: 19-yard completion to Trevon Brown on 2nd-and-26 followed by a 15-yard completion to Davon Grayson;
• Third TD drive: a 30-yard completion to Quay Johnson on 3rd-and-13;
• Fourth TD drive: a 26-yard TD completion to Isaiah Jones on 4th-and-12;
• Fifth TD drive: a rush for 12 yards by James Summers on 3rd-and-8;

Tech's defense had five opportunities to get off the field and failed all five times. This kind of conversion rate on third-down-and-long defies logic, and is more vexing when you watch how easily (often without looking to a second progression) that ECU's quarterbacks were able to convert. Missed opportunities for the defense to get off the field (coupled with Stroman's dropped interception, Alexander's fumble recovery that was overturned, and the dropped punt that got knocked through the end zone) are the type of errors that inevitably come back to bite a football team right in the derriere. Bud Foster and the defense left Greenville with teeth marks right in their behinds.

Perhaps more discouraging for me wasn't the X's and O's. Often, the scheme was executed correctly, the correct players were in position to make plays, and those players didn't put the runner on the ground or make a play on the football. Far too often, I saw the best players not pursuing the football with the vigor that I am accustomed to seeing from Virginia Tech defenses. Injuries at key positions and a lack of depth may be contributing factors; yet the best players have to dominate. With the exception of Luther Maddy and Corey Marshall completely taking away the interior for running back Chris Hairston, the Hokies' defense looked outclassed by the Pirates' offense on Saturday.

The Isolation of Greg Stroman

Before the weather turned sour, ECU clearly identified attacking sophomore corner Greg Stroman as a critical component to digging themselves out of a 0-14 hole. Terrell Edmunds had worked in place of Fuller through the practice week while Stroman worked at nickel. According to Mike Barber of the Richmond Times, even Bud Foster was surprised when Stroman was sent out at boundary corner.

"I didn't know until the beginning of the game. We were planning on playing him," Foster said. "They injected him this week. He was feeling pretty good in the morning but when we went out on the field, it just didn't feel very good."

Foster said the team had worked freshman Terrell Edmunds at Fuller's corner spot during the week and said it was defensive backs coach Torrian Gray's decision to use sophomore Greg Stroman there in the game.

"We'd had Terrell Edmunds who had been practicing all week and Torrian came up to me right there before the game and said we're going to go with Stroman," Foster said. "On his behalf, he hadn't practiced corner all week. We've been playing him at nickel all week. Hindsight being 20-20, we probably would have been better off either playing Terrell or we ended up going with (Donovan) Riley there more in the second half."

East Carolina used trips receivers to the field side, and the Hokies responded by playing both free safety Chuck Clark and rover Adonis Alexander to the field. Kendall Fuller is a proven talent playing on an island, but Stroman struggled in the spring and against Ohio State in man coverage. Alexander's inexperience perhaps dictated the staff wanted to stick with the original game plan rather than risk confusing the true freshman with adjustments on the fly; however it put Stroman at a huge disadvantage against ECU's big, physical, and experienced outside receivers. The Pirates started off isolating 6-6, 258 pound tight end Bryce Williams one-on-one against the lithe Stroman. If you look to the field side, you find five coverage players (Huelskamp, Alexander, Clark, Reynolds, and Facyson) to account for three receivers. Back to the boundary you have Stroman and Deon Clarke man-to-man against Williams and Hairston.

Stroman has no safety help, so he has to play outside leverage and give Williams the easy turn in route. Alexander reads the quarterback and gets over quickly to help minimize the damage. If you watch closely, Kemp may have turned this into a great play by being patient. Clarke, despite man coverage responsibility, and no indication of a run by the back, gets sucked inside. Clarke is dead to rights if Kemp is patient and Hairston wheels up field.

Once the ECU coaches saw how the Hokies' defense adjusted to trips, the Pirates isolated their most physically gifted receiver, 6-2, 195 pound Davon Grayson, against Stroman. Again, Alexander is aligned to the field side of the center. Grayson turned Stroman inside out on a slant route and Alexander couldn't get there in time to take away the throw.

I'm almost flabbergasted to say this, but there were only a handful of targets that didn't attack Stroman on the boundary. Foster attempted to adjust. He used Alexander in an underneath zone with Stroman deep, and Stroman gave too much cushion.

Foster tried to use a dime look, using Frye deep and Stroman short.

Again, there is way too much space between Frye and Stroman. Stroman doesn't have responsibility for the short flat (Clarke runs to the flat with the running back) yet he doesn't run closely to the receiver. If Stroman is tighter underneath the receiver, there is no way a quarterback will throw into that window.

None of the adjustments that Foster tried after ECU started to pick on Stroman seemed to work until ECU abandoned the passing game in the 4th quarter. Interestingly, one adjustment I didn't see after East Carolina turned the momentum worked perfectly on the very first play of the game. Stroman showed outside leverage; however he aggressively overplayed the quick slant as soon as the ECU receiver turned to the inside. He could afford to do so because Alexander was playing over the top and gave him help against a slant-and-go (sluggo).

I thought this alignment could have been used when Stroman was isolated later in the game. Stroman looks very comfortable jumping the route and there is little threat from a double move because of Alexander's presence. I kept waiting for the Hokies to turn back to this alignment when the Pirates started targeting Stroman. I am still waiting.

When Stroman was able to deliver tight coverage, ECU's experienced and physical receivers won a simple battle of physics against the undersized young corner. In man coverage, a receiver has the distinct advantage of knowing where the football is, and on an accurate throw there is little that the defender can do if they can't punch the football away before the receiver gets a hand on the ball. On the second ECU touchdown, Stroman made a great effort to get back to the football after a communication error gave Grayson a free release on a fade route. Grayson went up and outmuscled the ball away from Stroman. In the second half, Isaiah Jones overpowered Stroman on two fade routes.

On the backbreaking 4th-and-12 conversion in the 3rd quarter, Foster moved Stroman to the slot and brought six pass rushers to contain Summers' running ability.

Summers never even looked at anyone else. He immediately fired the same fade pass that eviscerated the Hokies' secondary last season; this time targeting Jones in the slot against Stroman. Jones pushed Stroman off balance and made a spectacular catch. Meanwhile, because the Hokies rushed six players, Alexander wasn't in position to help Stroman. He had man coverage responsibility on another receiver. That's a win for the ECU staff. They called a money play at the right time, and lucked out Stroman was shoved down without an offensive pass interference call.

There are too many opportunities to second guess here. Foster could have made the choice to play Alexander deep to help Stroman against trips. Gray could have played Terrell Edmunds, who has looked comfortable when called upon to replace Fuller so far this season. Edmunds also has a bit more stout frame than Stroman. Perhaps Donovan Riley, who had a terrific fall camp, yet seems to be frozen out of the corner rotation, could have provided a calming veteran physical presence when momentum started to swing. Hindsight is 20/20. I do think Stroman will be a good corner at Virginia Tech. He didn't have the experience or the size to hold up against really good receivers isolated like that play after play. Kendall Fuller is "very doubtful" against Pittsburgh. If he is out for any substantial length of time, teams like UNC and Duke that run spread systems are going to copy ECU's model and attack the boundary corner until Stroman or someone else shows the ability to shut it down.

The Secret is Out: Quarterback Counter versus the Hokies' Bear

After East Carolina scored two consecutive touchdowns with Blake Kemp, the rain and wind picked up at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Head coach Ruffin McNeill made a quarterback switch and put the more mobile James Summers in the game. Summers stayed in for the rest of the game and only completed 5 passes, but he rumbled for 169 yards on the ground.

I think opposing offensive coaches have figured out how to use the Hokies' keys in the Bear front against them. A vast majority of Summers' rushing yards came on a quarterback counter lead that worked well for Duke and Boston College against the Bear last season. In 2015, both Ohio State and East Carolina have used the quarterback counter lead to decimate the Hokies. The strength of the counter lead is that, by design, it completely eliminates the Hokies' strength (their defensive line) from the play, and then isolates the backer, the mike, and the safety and forces them to make plays. Those guys are not making those plays.

In the Bear front, down linemen key the offensive linemen. It works well against inside zone plays. The offensive linemen step to their left, and the down linemen try to beat them to the spot. On this particular play, the down linemen see the offensive line step to their right, so the defensive line slants hard to their left to beat them to the spot (especially Ken Ekanem). Against a counter, the step to the right is an influence block. Now Ekanem, Baron, and Maddy are all going to their left, and the ball is going to their right. Dadi Nicolas has edge responsibility to the boundary at the top of the screen and has to confirm that there is no threat of a screen, throwback, or reverse before he can exit that space.

ECU has effectively taken the four best players on the Hokies' defense out of the play. They pull the right guard across to kick out Deon Clarke. The running back takes a counter step and then traps Sean Huelskamp. Finally, Summers takes a counter step and follows his blockers.

While it isn't ideal from a match up perspective, on a chalkboard, the defensive alignment has worked. Foster has three defenders against two blockers and a runner. He counts on the free hitter to make the play. On this particular play, they execute. Clarke squeezes the pulling guard. Huelskamp fills the hole and sticks the running back, and Alexander tackles Summers for a minimal gain. That said, this particular play is a harbinger of what happens if the free hitter doesn't make the tackle. Even doing everything right, Summers slips off of Clarke and almost breaks into the clear. If Clarke doesn't trip him up, Summers has a ton of room.

Now, let's see what happens when everything isn't perfect. ECU runs the exact same play on first down. They target Clarke and the three-technique defensive end (Nicolas) as the weak area. Dadi shoots through the inside gap, however he puts up very little resistance as the right tackle rides him down to the inside.

Clarke does a pretty good job of squeezing the pulling left guard, but he's not the aggressor. Huelskamp fills his gap, yet the running back has just enough momentum to drive Huelskamp a step backwards. Chuck Clark finds himself as the free hitter one-on-one with Summers. Summers has a little more room and leaves Clark grabbing air with a beautiful spin move. Ekanem does a great job of getting back into the play. However, he loses his feet, and his weight isn't enough to drag Summers down. From Pop Warner football on up, kids are taught to keep their feet and drive when tackling. A fundamental lapse by Ekanem and Summers is off to the races.

There's an emerging theme that goes beyond the narrative of "the Hokies can't stop mobile quarterbacks". When the Hokies give up a big run play, it usually means the gap fit responsibility broke down, and the free hitter's best isn't more than the ball carrier's. In the rain, James Summers was better than Chuck Clark on this play. That is a tough pill to swallow, especially given how good Chuck Clark has been over a stretch of the last seven games or so.

Later, ECU runs the same play. This time, Clarke squeezes the play, and Woody Baron slips through on the inside enough to get a hand on Summers.

Clark has an easy tackle on an off balance Summers, yet inexplicably, Clark almost completely misses him. Summers recovers and he is off to the races. Scheme doesn't matter a lick if your players can't put the ball carrier on the ground when they have the opportunity.

If you watch the first of these two big runs closely, Maddy (who was dominant at the point of attack) and Nicolas essentially stop once the play moves away from them. Pursuit has always been a hallmark of Virginia Tech's defense. It is overly simplistic to say that Maddy and Nicolas are not giving maximum effort. I think we finally started to see a defensive front wearing down after playing way more than an ideal amount of snaps against the Furmans and Purdues of the world. Outside of Woody Baron (who didn't have his best game on Saturday), the backup defensive linemen have not been able to give Foster and Charley Wiles quality reps in order to keep their starting group fresh. On Summers' first drive of the game, Wiles substituted in Baron, Nigel Williams and Seth Dooley. Dooley looked slow and robotic in allowing Summers to slip outside on an inside zone read. A few plays later, Baron and Williams both got turned to the sidelines as Summers scampered up the middle on an easy quarterback draw for a touchdown. If Vinny Mihota played, I don't remember seeing him. Those backup defensive linemen have to be more productive or the front-four is going to wear down repeatedly in the fourth quarter this season.

If this loss wasn't painful enough, the Hokies have to regroup and take on a wounded Pitt team in front of a pessimistic crowd at Lane Stadium. Offensively, Pitt is a polar opposite of East Carolina. The Panthers have endured a short-lived quarterback controversy (Nate Peterman is now starter over Chad Voytik), and lurched out of the gate with a 2-1 record against so-so competition. All-world running back James Conner is out for the season with an MCL injury. The Panthers have replaced Conner another bruiser; 6-2, 230 pound redshirt freshman Qadree Ollison. Ollison is averaging over a 100 yards rushing a game via the same off-tackle and power runs that Conner perfected last season. After breaking 100 yards rushing last season against the Hokies, Voytik could come in and give the Panthers a change-up element much like Summers did for East Carolina. Tyler Boyd, one of the best receivers in college football, is likely licking his lips in anticipation of feasting on the Hokies' young corners if Kendall Fuller cannot return to action. Foster, Gray, and the Hokies defensive players must correct the execution errors in their system or find ways to adjust. Otherwise, Pitt could rudely welcome the Hokies to "the regular season".