Hokies' Offensive Line Struggles Run Blocking and Pass Protecting Against Pitt, Beaten Physically

Barroom screams along with comments on The Key Play echo the sentiment that Frank Beamer's tenure as Virginia Tech's head coach is all but over. I've never voiced those sentiments for several reasons. First, I believe that Whit Babcock is a competent professional administrator. He understands the machinations that have led to a 2-3 record far better than I, or any other Monday morning quarterback could. Second, I don't believe that replacing Beamer automatically means that the issues which have plagued the Hokies over the better part of three seasons will be corrected. Schools with more resources and tradition that hired hot coaches, like Texas and Tennessee, are floundering. If Babcock makes the decision to replace Beamer, his hire has to fit the culture of football in Blacksburg. It isn't a decision to be made lightly. At the same time, the tradition that made Virginia Tech a winner throughout the Beamer era seems to be rapidly fading.

I hit a low point as a fan on Saturday. I watched games where the pass protection was abysmal. I've been left only to scratch my head before. I have seen the defense gashed for big plays. None of that left me sick to my stomach like I am right now.

Beamer and Bud Foster built a specific identity at Virginia Tech that drove them to the top of college football despite a resource profile and recruiting locale that fits a school bound for mediocrity. The Hokies outworked everyone else in the strength and conditioning program. The Hokies' defense dominated with a unique scheme that put numbers in the box and played a physical brand of football that, win or lose, had opposing coaches talking about how Tech was the most physical team they played. On Saturday, the Pitt Panthers looked more like Virginia Tech than Virginia Tech did. The Panther's defense was big. They were physical. Their defensive tackles won battles at the point of attack. Their linebackers were aggressive and beat blockers to the spot. Their scheme caused all kinds of confusion with the Hokies' blocking schemes. The Pitt offense was physical. The Pitt offense found a matchup advantage and went back to it again and again. The Pitt offense didn't look pretty, yet they did just enough to win. If you were a fan of the Hokies from 1993 to 2009, you know that my summary of Pitt could have been used to describe a vast majority of the Hokies' wins in the Beamer era.

Tech's East-West Running Tour Sees No Success

What happened to the aggressive, physical, cohesive offensive line group I saw in the season opener against Ohio State Tech's offensive line turned in a performance riddled with execution errors, baffled by blitzes, and manhandled by Pitt's gigantic defensive tackle duo of Tyrique Jarrett and Khaynin Mosley-Smith. Scot Loeffler's play calling seemed to concede that he didn't think the Hokies could run in between the tackles. In the first half, almost every single run call was some variation of an outside zone with a pin and pull technique, or an inverted veer with jet sweep action. That hardly seemed to inspire confidence. The Hokies couldn't get movement on those two big defensive tackles, and Pitt's linebackers repeatedly beat Tech's pulling linemen and skill position players in space. It was challenging to find a single well blocked running play by the Hokies all day. Pitt's front whipped tail, and their linebackers and safeties read plays beautifully all day long.

Most fan vitriol was focused on repeated attempts to run Travon McMillian on variations of jet sweeps from the shotgun instead of interior downhill running plays. Pitt's scheme had a hand in making this strategy ineffective. Pitt's defensive ends crashed hard up field and widened out. Because the defensive end was an option man, the Hokies were not blocking him. Brenden Motley should have kept on almost every jet sweep read I saw. Except, some were sweeps all the way, and when it was a read, Pitt was so disruptive on the inside that the Hokies' blocking assignments were all messed up and Motley had little room. The edge blocking was poor. The interior blocking was poor, and the defensive end play by Pitt basically took the sweep and stretch plays out of the offense.

I could highlight multiple different outside zone plays, and all would have similar elements as the one below.

1. A failed block on the edge.
2. An interior lineman that can't get to the second level.
3. Running back play not good enough to overcome Nos. 1 and 2.

The Hokies run an outside zone with a pin and pull to the right side. Pitt uses many of the same elements that Bud Foster uses on the edge, and here the defensive end spills (crashes inside) and the outside linebacker comes up to the edge (simple scrape exchange).

Wade Hansen reaches Ejuan Price (No. 5), but Price gets just far enough up field to disrupt Eric Gallo (pulling from his center spot on the play) from getting out to Matt Galambos (No. 47). Sam Rogers completely whiffs blocking Nicholas Grigsby (No. 3). J.C. Coleman has no chance. Grigsby makes the play, with Galambos coming from the inside to clean up.

The inverted veer jet sweep combination produced more confusion.

Nomenclature aside, Ohio State's power read is another name for the same play; inverted veer. The H-Back veer releases outside of the edge defender. The offensive line blocks down. The back side guard pulls and leads up on the linebacker. This leaves the defensive end unblocked, and the quarterback has to read that defensive end. If the end crashes inside, the quarterback hands the ball off on the sweep. If the end stays wide, the quarterback keeps the football. At least three times the pulling guard went wide like he was looking to kick out the defensive end.

Conte pulls. The defensive end gets way up field to take away the sweep, and instead of turning up, Conte goes after him. If this is an adjustment to anticipate a scrape exchange, Conte and Motley read it incorrectly.The sweep motion should take the end out of the play. Motley makes the correct read and keeps. Galambos, the defender Conte should have blocked, steps into the hole and makes the play. This is poor execution. In the third quarter, Wyatt Teller made the same mistake, and Motley exacerbated the situation by giving the ball to Travon McMillian. McMillian was tackled for a big loss and almost fumbled on the play.

On top of execution errors, Pitt was physically dominant.

Price crashes inside, and Motley keeps the ball. It may be the correct read because the Nicholas Grigsby (No. 3) runs to the sweep and Motley may be optioning Grigsby, or it could have been a QB power all the way. Back to the inside, Malleck does a solid job of keeping the crashing defensive end to the outside. Teller pulls and, perhaps for the first time I can remember, gets neutralized in the hole by Galambos. That is big time linebacker play. To their credit, both Teller and Motley keep their feet going and manage to get the first down on third-and-short. However, the what could have been on this play outweighs the actual results. If was a true inverted veer, and Motley incorrectly read the end, McMillian wins the race to the outside. In a game where big plays on offense made the difference for Pitt, a big run by McMillian could have been a game changer.

I absolutely hated Loeffler essentially conceded the Hokies couldn't run on the interior. In Loeffler's defense, in the rare moment the Hokies did run inside, the offensive line didn't generate enough movement to justify many more attempts. Mosley-Smith and Jarrett were monsters on the inside. When the Hokies tried to combination block those two, they got zero movement and still struggled to get to the linebackers on the second level. Here is an example that highlights Pitt's physical dominance. The Hokies run an inside zone read to the left side.

Yosuah Nijman gets little horizontal movement to the sideline to create space. Teller and Gallo combination block one-technique DT Tyrique Jarrett (No. 54). Teller peels off and pancakes the linebacker, but that lack of initial push dooms the play. On the back side, Conte and Hansen are tasked to handle DT Khaynin Mosley-Smith (No. 95), also in a one-technique. This is a tough reach block for Hansen even with the double team. Conte can't slip off Mosley-Smith to get to Galambos on the second level. Galambos makes the tackle.

Scheme hurts a bit here as well. Versus double one-technique defensive tackles, a quick audible to a power where Gallo blocks back on the one-technique in front of Conte would be my preference. Teller and Nijman would block down, and Conte and Hansen pull to kick out the end and lead up on the linebacker. No matter what the play call, there was nothing on film to suggest that Pitt's scheme and physicality wasn't superior to the Hokies in the running game all day long.

Mass Hysteria in Pass Protection

As poor as the offensive line run blocked, pass protection against blitzes and stunts was even more of a trainwreck. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi used a blitzing scheme at Michigan State that produced four straight seasons of top ten defenses by yards allowed nationally. For the Hokies to look so woefully underprepared for those types of stunts was a real disappointment.

The blitz designs from Narduzzi and the timing demonstrated by Pitt's linebacker group caused chaos all day. Mosley-Smith and Jarrett's dominance on the inside gave Narduzzi the ability to bring pressure off the edge without worrying about Motley breaking out of the pocket up the middle. Most of the Pitt pressure came via Tech breakdowns on assignments against blitzes off the edge, or simply blockers getting lost on simple cross stunts.

Busted assignments lead to pain for Brenden Motley. Everyone was at fault in some way. Often, Tech's receivers didn't make sight adjustments against the blitz to give Motley someone to throw to on a fire route. Pitt's secondary did a tremendous job of knowing what Motley's first read was and taking it away. He rarely had time to make a second read. Even Sam Rogers struggled in pass protection.

The Hokies are in a cup protection (straight drop back), and the running back should block in the opposite direction of the center. Pitt shows blitz on the right side of the Hokies' offensive line, and both Rogers and Gallo go to the right. On the left side, Nijman picks up the nickel blitz, however Galambos (man, was he good all game long) delays and slips between Nijman and Teller as they are occupied with linemen. Rogers commits immediately to the strong side blitz instead of being patient on the play and finding Galambos.

The numbers don't do any favors for Motley either. Pitt brings six on the play, leaving five in coverage. Yet, the primary route on the play (Hodges on the back side crossing route) is double teamed with a linebacker and a safety. No other routes develop quickly against a blitz. Either Hodges is open, or Motley has nowhere to go with the football as the two outside receivers streak down field.

Veteran Jonathan McLaughlin had a particularly rough afternoon. On this play, the Hokies have the football with great field position thanks to a forced fumble by Andrew Motuapuaka. Loeffler calls a double move go route for Hodges in the right slot, with Ryan Malleck max protecting on the left side. McLaughlin gets beaten cleanly on the edge, and then looks at the sidelines in disgust. On second look, either McLaughlin did not get the protection call correct to slide left, or Malleck was supposed to protect McLaughlin's outside gap while McLaughlin took the inside.

Watching again, McLaughlin seems to underset intentionally. Malleck is aligned behind him, and the defensive end speed rushes on the outside. Instead of Malleck chipping him and releasing outside to the flat, Malleck slips into the space on McLaughlin's inside shoulder and almost picks off McLaughlin in the process. McLaughlin's first bucket set was so short that it sure looks like he expected Malleck to take the outside gap (which I saw happen several other times) and McLaughlin had inside gap responsibility. McLaughlin's exasperated body language at the end of the play seems to reinforce it. Regardless of whose fault it was, to have this kind of break down immediately after the defense forced a huge fumble was just devastating. The Hokies ended up settling for a field goal.

Pitt also understood how to stretch the rules to gain an advantage on the edge. On this play, Pitt sends an inside blitz off the boundary behind the Hokies' jet sweep motion. Linebacker Bam Bradley (No. 4) shifts out to almost a cornerback alignment. The Hokies actually have the correct slide protection called, as they slide left into the blitz.

Watch DE Rori Blair (No. 92) closely. As Nijman slides to the outside, Blair gets into his body and then slaps Nijman on the left side of his helmet. Nijman can't get to the outside, and Bradley chases Motley from the pocket before he can get through his first progression. A head slap is illegal and could have been called as an illegal hands to the face penalty. However, this subtle play rarely gets called away from the point of attack, especially when it doesn't directly produce an unimpeded rush to the quarterback.

The left side of the o-line struggled mightily against cross stunts (X-stunt). Pitt's defensive tackle would stunt to the outside, and the defensive end would push up field and then cross behind the defensive tackle to the inside. For reasons that defy any logic I can come up with, Wyatt Teller and Jonathan McLaughlin man blocked those plays, and picked each other off time and time again as the Hokies desperately tried to produce a game winning touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Here is the first example from a third-and-nine prior to the Hokies' disastrous final drive. Pitt goes to a 30 front. Galambos stunts through Teller's left shoulder. Defensive end Ejuan Price (No. 5) gets up field, delays, and then loops back to the inside of Galambos. If both Teller and McLaughlin stay put, Galambos will run right into McLaughlin and Price would run into Teller.

Instead, Teller chases Galambos to the outside, which in effect picks McLaughlin, who is trying to chase Price to the inside. Price loops around and crushes Motley. Pitt only brings four guys on the play, yet Motley doesn't even have time to find Malleck breaking open on a quick drag route. This is abysmal. After a big sack by Luther Maddy forced Pitt to punt, The lowest point came on the final drive when the offensive line didn't even go back to help a crumpled Motley off the ground.

It was a shameful performance, and after the game, Frank Beamer insisted the status quo would not remain.

"We're not going to stay where we are right now," Beamer said. "We're going to look closely at personnel and we're going to look carefully at how we do some coaching, this program's not going to stay the way it is right now."

Defensively, I saw flashes of a more physical Virginia Tech unit, although some personnel issues brought on by injury and inexperience resulted in the handful of big plays Pitt needed to win the football game. I will review the defense in my next column.

I don't know where Loeffler and the offensive staff go from here. The running back rotation worked against Purdue, but right now even when a play is blocked moderately well, none of the backs have a natural feel for reading the blocks. Travon McMillian seems to have enough physicality to go with the best vision of the backs that he should be the feature back. At the same time, I clamor for the Hokies to line up in the I and pound the football. Pitt tailback Qadree Ollison wasn't elusive. He didn't need to read and cut. Pitt lined up, blocked everyone down play side, pulled the back side guard and H-Back, and Ellison followed them through the hole. That used to be Virginia Tech. Without wide receiver depth, and without an offense that can beat a blitz with precise and efficient passing, teams are going to blitz the rest of the season and the receiving corps won't have the stamina to beat man coverage with tired legs. Loeffler, the running backs, and the o-line that had shown so much promise against Ohio State, must find a way to become the Virginia Tech of old and win battles up front. This isn't Hokies football under Frank Beamer. And if Tech doesn't find a way to recapture its identity, Hokies football under Frank Beamer may be at an end.