We had 40 total yards in the second half. FORTY.
We took our foot off the gas pedal, and luckily we were playing an offensively inept team that couldn't put up points and take advantage of our passive second-half offense. This is a Loefler thing.
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VT ran on every first down in the 2nd half. W&M accomplished nothing on their first down plays. W&M couldn't pick up first downs in the 2nd half. I think those three sentences are connected to one another somehow.
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Hmm, I didn't see you here in Beamers defense when he was doing exactly that last week.... Everyone seems to flock in here to complain though, even in a 16 point win
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Against Duke? I don't remember being too aggressive against the half.
We let off the gas waaay to early. This is a Beamer issue and it won't fly against better opponents. Just because we could doesn't mean we should have, and it was unecissary to do.
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Probably talking about Miami, although I think there are differences. Namely Boston College doesn't have a first round NFL pick Quarterback or nfl caliber receivers
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Turned it on at the end of the 3rd. 23-3. What I saw was shitty line play, fumbles, Motley in for 1 play, that was a loss, shitty punting, d backfield lost. And that was only 10 minutes.
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Meta: can we make a vent/celebration post game thread every week? The game thread always gets bulky and it would be great to have a post game thread that is auto created that people can come to.
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Not sure why we need a vent thread this week. The Hokies had an explosive first half against the #1 defense in the country and went up big. Then based on the opponents offensive ineptitude and defenses reputation, Frank did was a Frank does he turtled the offense to play ball control and milk the clock. I think Brewer threw the ball maybe four times in the second half.
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Which is why we collectively lose lifespan due to games that should never be in question after getting up big that ultimately turn into nailbiters.
Beamer simply isn't going to change in this regard, and it's a big reason we've never gotten over the hump IMO. You need to be willing to play your entire offense through at least the 3rd quarter. Yes, even if you're up big, and even if you're playing your 3rd string. Especially with an undersized and, to date, struggling defense.
You know that part where coaches tell their team "Never take a play off... that's not how we taught you". I feel like it's that old drug commercial.
Coach: They learned it from watching you, alright?
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We have a depth problem and you guys want to play our best guys as hard as possible just to run up a score?
Did you forget playing our 6 th RB last year because even our guy from the practice squad got hurt?
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I was on a train between Amsterdam & London during the game, so I'm speaking more historically than about today's game.
VT under Beamer consistently takes the foot off the gas far earlier than is warranted. My problem is that he does it with the first string in. If you want to ease up on the competition, at least keep your offensive playbook open for your 2nd stringers so they can get some valuable reps.
But hamstringing your offense seems like a good way to create bad habits, and gives your backups no quality snaps to learn the offense. So you get a Leal coming into a bowl game completely unprepared. You get starting WRs & DE's playing damn near every snap.
You may think you are showing sportsmanship, but you are setting up the team for potential failure instead of ensuring victory and developing depth.
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I've never understood the whole "let's not score because we want to be good sports." It makes ZERO sense to me. You can keep on scoring/run up the score and still be gracious and respectful about it. This is big-boy football, if poor Johnny what's-his-face gets upset because he got his ass whooped and lost by 42 points, maybe that will be motivation for him and his team to play harder and work harder the next week. You can be sportsmanlike without being mamby-pamby.
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Then put your 2nd string in, don't keep your 1st stringers in and play the same running play again and again for 3 yds each play. That tires out the offense due to them being on the field for longer and marginally reduces the risk of injuries.
If they really cared about preservation give the backups some reps. If not, don't go conservative at 15:00 of the 3rd quarter. Try to keep some momentum going.
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This is a Fifth Fuller household tradition. Whenever my wife or I complain about something the other did/did not do that the complainer does on the reg (happens more often than I like to admit) the complainee gets to yell "I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU, OKAY?" Highlight of my day. Which is why you should never get old, because shit like that becomes the highlight of your day.
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Then based on the opponents offensive ineptitude and defenses reputation, Frank did was a Frank does he turtled the offense to play ball control and milk the clock.
That's why we need a vent thread. It's not 2000 anymore. That style of play does not work in this day and age. BC were a few unlucky breaks away from tying or getting ahead because of Beamer's mentality.
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Also, against a better team, that team will score against our "D". Then look at the mess were in, lost time and now we're behind trying to play catch-up.
Look, on offense, we kept complaining that McMillan wasn't getting enough touches at the start of the season. Right? Same goes with our offense. The more they play, maybe the better they get. Want to keep the hot player hot by getting him the ball; well, maybe we apply that logic to our offense and see what happens.
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The Motley plays are annoying. Put him in for a drive or don't play him. He's capable of running this offense, he can't just come in with everyone in the stadium knowing he will run the ball to the right.
Otherwise, the offense was just barely there. Need to turn those FGs into TDs.
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Vent- Why if we are so inept at Offense in the 2nd half, not get our next QB in the game for some Practice. Brewer isn't needing reps for Heisman considerations and if the lead is so large you want to play conservative, play conservative with the starter for next year
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I kept hoping to see Lawson. If we aren't going to run up the score (never been Franks thing) then at least give the other kids some real playing time on a few drives.
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Or, you know, when the opponent has a top run defense and a suspect at best passing defense and you light them the hell up through the air in the first half.... Don't
Sorry, if ever there was a game to at least use the run only to keep the defense honest, it should have been today. We ran too much today and allowed them to get back in it.
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The only way we lose that game is to drop back with a mediocre offensive line against their good front 7 and start throwing the ball around, stopping the clock and getting Brewer hurt.
Does a win by more than 16 count at 2 wins?
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Because it should have at least been 23-17 with that horrendous call on the Mcmillian fumble. Against a team with a real collegiate offense and not the high school offense of BC, they would only be down 6 and come back and beat VT in game they dominated. That's why you have to keep moving the ball on offense. If you don't the D will get tired. Once the opposing offense figures out how to attack the VT D they get chunks of yards and score.
VT won today because they did enough in the first half against a hapless BC team.
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We weren't playing a team with a real collegiate offense. We were playing BC.
VT won today b/c we did enough to win against a hapless BC team. Against a competent team then we would have had to do more. I can only imagine the criticism if Brewer were hurt throwing when we didn't need to. VT won the game it played today.
I was disappointed that we didn't step on ECU's throat when we had them down 14-0 and it cost us. Today not so much
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Welcome
Leg for the name Gramps
I used to have to smuggle Grandmas chips to Ga by the case whereupon my vegetarian coworker would devour them. Didn't have the heart to tell her what they were cooked in
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I think this just ignores the fact that if the refs hadn't blown a couple calls, this game may well have been lost.
A win or loss is simply not the only metric by which a team or a strategy can be evaluated.
I think that playing not to make a mistake often backfires, especially if it is a substantial deviation from the style of play that has gotten you the lead in the first place. It makes people play timid. It makes people think more instead of do more. Remember the famous coaching lament "head tying up his feet?". You tell kids to PROTECT THE BALL, and next thing you know, athletes are thinking how not to screw up instead of hitting holes or making blocks or running routes.
You go from long drives with unpredictable play calling that allows your entire offense to find a rhythm, and go to predictable play calling that result in short drives and a loss of rhythm. The truth of this is statistically evident, and stands whether the team wins or loses.
So yes, in yesterday's game, the strategy did unquestionably achieve a win.
The debate is whether an alternate strategy would have provided a more productive win, either in terms of offensive stats and less chance for BC to mount a comeback, or in terms of backup players getting game-speed snaps.
I couldn't watch the game. How many reps did our backup WR's get in the 2nd half? From the sound of the 2nd half game plan, it sounds like it should have been a bunch, as all they were there to do was block anyway.
I'm going to guess they barely found the field, but will be pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise.
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I'm past it. Their strategy won this game. I'm happy for that. Stopping at that. I just do not want to have to defend a win. I'm not sure you guys and your expectations for the remainder of the season.
Backgrounding.
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"The program next year will look entirely different". Hope so , 40 yds a half does not cut it , even when you are trying to run out clock with first team. Hate this turtle shell offense.
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You're creating a game that didn't exist. I wasn't a fan of the conservative play calling, but your logic makes no sense. They used a strategy for a specific situation, that's it. People don't even know what they're complaining about anymore, it's getting ridiculous.
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Stroman. For the love of God please find a new punt returner. Lost like ten on one. Got a penalty for a fake fair catch on another. Finally broke one for a good gain but the probability he has a good return is so low.
If Motley goes into the game, would it kill us to throw the ball as little? Even the announcers were like, "Oh yeah they're gonna run".
Dammit Bucky. I forget why.
I still dislike our play calling. Their run defense is very good. Their pass defense is not as good. So... run? Up the middle?
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Is that the vibe I am getting from the people at the top of this post? We played the worst offense we will see all year and looked competent on D finally. The offense playcalling was shut down in the 2nd half. However you slice it, that was a CFB call. That mentality has cost us games before. You can't play college football like that anymore and hope to ever have a chance at the playoff. And I don't mean to imply that we had a chance at that, simply that there is a reason the definition of conservative also includes some negatives.
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Got to see VT in person today and I have to say that it felt like there were more hokie fans in alumni stadium than BC, and we definitely made more noise. Great to see so many hokies in the northeast, and watch VT win!
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I'm very happy for the win, but it doesn't change my opinion on what needs to happen in the offseason. I'm grateful for as many wins as possible so that we can enjoy Frank's remaining games, should these be it.
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If you've watched how this team has struggled all season long and you are still complaining about the final score, I think you need to seriously reevaluate your expectations for this team.
I am freaking ecstatic that Beamer and the Boys won today. That is it. I'm just looking for W's at this point, and holding onto hope that Beamer keeps his bowl streak alive. Winning pretty in order to boost our rankings isn't a priority now. Keeping the bowl streak is. If that means running the ball over and over in the second half in order to avoid turnovers and keep the clock ticking away... well, that is what it takes. And I'm down. And I'm not going to get upset about classic Frank Beamer strategy.
Just three games left in this season, and potential just three games left in Beamer's career. I'm going to put aside everything else and just relish this victory and root for three more.
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This^^^^! I didn't expect a win today in sleepy Chestnut Hill. This team showed a bit of life and did so despite facing a great defense.
Let's celebrate each W as they may very well be the last couple with Frank at the helm. Let's beat UVa, get to a bowl and be reminded along the way what Frank Beamer has done for the program at VT. I know we are all pretty disappointed in the progression of things over the last couple of years, which makes us a bit more critical (not many more than myself) even in the W's. But it has been a pretty good ride! Only three more left...
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Late to the show on this...but this attitude is the exact reason why we are an irrelevant nothing football program right now.
If we are excited about getting maybe 6 or 7 wins, then it's time to start asking just wtf are we doing? I don't think anyone needs to reevaluate their thoughts on this team. This team is not good. They won today because the other team was way worse offensively
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this attitude is the exact reason why we are an irrelevant nothing football program right now.
No it absolutely is not. My comments are in regard to this current team, not the program.
This team is not good.
That's exactly the point of my post. Fans who are pissed off every game because we don't look like national title contenders need to grow up and realize that Tech isn't a national title contender. I'm not going to spend the next week pissed off because Tech didn't drop 50 on one of the best defenses in the country. It was never going to happen and I'm knowledgeable enough to know that heading into the game. What were you expecting?
I'm intelligent enough to know that the current athletes and the current coaches aren't capable of beating this BC team by 40+. Look, if you want to spend the rest of Frank Beamer's last year punching walls because Wade Hansen got beat in pass protection again or because some young corner got beat in single coverage, go right ahead. But don't expect me to do the same.
As a grown man, I have the mental ability to both want Babcock to do what is best for the program while simultaneously rooting for those student athletes who are doing their best to win football games. I'm not a bad fan because I'm happy that Tech won, and I'm not a bad fan for realizing that wasting time in the 2nd half while milking a 23 point lead against a terrible offense is probably the best strategy even if it allows BC to make the final score closer.
Yes, I want to see Beamer finish his career with his bowl streak alive... even if he has to crawl across the finish line to accomplish it. That doesn't make me a bad fan, and you aren't a more pure fan because you want a national championship so bad that it causes you to try and ruin other fan's fun. There hasn't been much worth rooting for around here lately, so I'm going to devote all my positive energy towards what is still within grasp. Getting to a bowl. When the offseason comes around, I'll be redirecting my energy towards improving the program. Until then, I'm going to spend my Saturday's rooting for the greatest football coach Blacksburg has ever seen.
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The time to complain about that was in the second half before we knew the successful result. Now we know it worked. They would not have been this conservative against a team that had a better offense or worse defense. So, complaining about it now really doesn't make much sense.
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The time to complain about that was in the second half
Wth are you talking about? People can comment and/or complain about it whenever they want AND as much as they want. There's no law in internetverse stating that "after a game all criticisms of Beamer's coaching strat must cease and desist."
So complaining about it now doesn't make much sense.
Sure that's one way of looking at it but it isn't the only and singular way. To quote IllinoisHokie in another thread, "bitterness still runs deep."
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You could say that being conservative might cost Beamer a win. I could say that going wide open could lead to mistakes that cost Beamer the win. Those are two differences in coaching philosophy that are debatable. What is not debatable is that the result of the BC game could not have ended with any better result than the W we got, regardless of the strategy. The strategy will be different against different teams, so what's the point in arguing about how yesterday was handled when it resulted in a win.
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You wasted way more time than you should have on that response for a bad football team
I'm didn't say anyone was a bad fan for wanting to see a win. But thinking this win means anything shows the general malaise that has brought the program down to irrelevant status because it's "good enough"
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You wasted way more time than you should have on that response for a bad football team
You're the one visiting a Tech website after a win telling people that they are ruining the program because they are happy with a win.
I think I've stated my case pretty clearly, but you keep saying I think this win is "good enough". Not sure how else to say that it's possible to be unhappy with the state of the program but still be happy for the current athletes winning today.
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Again, if putting words in my mouth makes you feel better have at it. i never used or even came close to using the word "ruin", however it appeared in your response.
We won. We still have a heck of a road to go to make a bowl. I sincerely hope we do. But let's not kid ourselves, a competent offense beats this VT team today. Which was my original point.
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But let's not kid ourselves, a competent offense beats this VT team today
No I hear you man, I really do. My question is, why bring that up? Of course a good offense would have beaten Tech today. It's not like I have illusions of grandeur and think Tech should be ranked all of a sudden. All I am saying is, it's not particularly fun to be a fan if after every minor victory people come along and say "well yeah, but this team could be better".
If we can enjoy ourselves at all as Tech fans, surely it's the day that we beat a team to keep our bowl streak alive. It's not necessary to come along and kick the stool out from people who are trying to root for Beamer during his last handful of games. Why do it?
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You seem pretty convinced that this is Beamer's last season. Do you know something we don't? I know rumors have been flying around and I'm guilty of getting caught up in the possibility that he'll be gone after this season but they're still just unsubstantiated rumors at this point. I'm going to treat these last 3 games (two of which I'll attend) as though they may be Frank's last, but I am personally not yet sold that they will in fact be his last 3. I suppose only time will tell.
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Yes.
I am amazed at the amount of negativity here after a not even close win.
We took apart an excellent defense to start the game.
The goal the second half was to not hand the game to them. That defense was competent enough to take advantage of errors.
Accomplished. Our. Goal.
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Agreed. Pushing it in the second half would have provided more momentum changing opportunities, like the (wrongfully) reversed fumble return td. I don't necessarily think that BC would have had multiple defensive TDs, but a big flip in field position or a big turnover could have given BC a leg to stand on.
As it was, BC did make some plays, but our conservative play ensured they neither had the time or possessions necessary to mount a comeback.
If we had a Baylor offense, sure play for points because the value to risk ratio makes sense, with our offense right now, play slow ball.
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I have to say there was some horrendous play calling for both sides, ACC officials definitely are the worst. An ugly win is still a win though, go Hokies
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I don't think there needed to be a vent thread. I liked the idea of a celebration thread after Ws. I'm thankful and ecstatic for the team's win, for McMillan's 100+ rush, for more outstanding play from Ford, for the D finding gumption and for Stroman's game closing INT. I love ALL of that.
But I agree and echo the sentiment of many posters on here that Beamer needs to STOP with the tortoise O in the 2nd half. YES it is one of the key reason's we've NEVER won a National Championship.
Since Beamer is ADAMANTLY being refusal to do so, I'll be happy to see him collect whatever items he has in his office, put them in a box and be escorted from the premises upon the conclusion of this season. I'm very disappointed that he won't crack the 300 Ws streak. Unfortunately, for him (and all of us), he did it to himself.
I don't mind a tortoise O but it should ONLY be executed halfway through the 4th when the team is over two scores up AT LEAST. That is all.
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BTW, great first half. Good to see both sides get off. Great play calling in first half against a D that reminded me a little of VT past Ds. I think two thing are apparent... SL has a large set of plays to stretch a defense, once he figures out how to exploit weaknesses a bit better I think he's going to be a sick playcaller... Brewer may not be perfect in terms of progressions and reads, but I really like what he brings to the QB position - i don't know if its due to Morris, TT, or SL or a combo of all of the above, but I think if we can bring the best aspects of Brewer's QB education to our VT program, we'll start to produce more "NFL ready" QBs. This first half made me think a Morris / Loeffler combo might actually be a great thing. I haven't tried to evaluate the other candidates, so I'm not saying he's the man or anything like that. Just that it might be a good option.
He should have won the game and gotten at least 1 more QB real playing time
so we don't have
1> LT to Leal transitions
2> Brewer to Motley transitions
3> etc.
If he was afraid of getting Brewer hurt more reason to get Motley in there... if not Motley then Mr.ShouldaBeenRedshirted
I don' t for the life of me understand how we don't get our #2s more PT especially as the season starts and we play cupcakes... but turtling up with your #1QB,WR,OL,TE just produces bad habits
these kids probably don't even put their cups on... most of them know even if we get 30 points up because an asteroid hits the stadium, they're not getting any PT... most 18-22 year olds with too much time on hands will try and pick up and get laid if they are not going to play
then when a new season comes upon us or we get a key injury we have backup QBs, backup MLBs, etc looking like they just fell off the turnip truck
did we even try to put in some heavy TE jumbo sets? anything to make a run only offense work against BC? I watched first half, but had kid stuff to do second. Laugh all you want, I really thought Loeffler and this OL were going to run on BC in the 4th quarter.
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Down the stretch in the fourth quarter I was screaming at my TV. And here's the reason:
It's like Frank missed the memo that ournD is down this year. We can't lean on them to secure the win.
I have no issue with the Frank Beamer school of football...when we have a traditional lunch pail defense. Today I was worried as hell that Frank was going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory because he was playing this one like it was 2006. It was made all the more frustrating by the fact that we had the offense going enogh today to just put these fuckers away.
But you know what? Frank was right. He knew what he had on defense. He knew Travon could churn out some tough first downs to keep the clock moving.
Would I have liked to see the offense just drop 40 on them and put the game away? Yeah. But if the announcement we've heard is rumored to be coming in the bye week actually comes, I'm gonna be glad as hell I got to see a signature Frank Beamer win this year.
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We are now 4-0 when I attend games at First Down. Next TKP fundraising mission should be for my First Down bar tabs for all of eternity to ensure undefeatedness (j/k, donate to get TKP our own beat writer, not for me to get dr. unk).
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My only vent is towards the very end, when the announcers were talking about Bud and Frank and brought up the stat about how Frank is like 99-1 when holding an opponent to 10 points or less. My first thought was "NINETY NINE TIMES?! That's amazing!" Then I thought "What was the one time we lo-UGH, FUCKING WAKE FOREST" and I got the sadz. So thanks, crappy ACC Network commentators for raining on my parade.
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Winning typically produces less vitriol both in quality and content. Honestly, I'd say the vitriol has lessened after this game as opposed to Duke and Miami.
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I see nothing wrong with people complaining about the play-calling in the second half. Mainly because it seemed to start way to early. It wasn't like there was 5 min in the fourth and we are up 20 points and start to run into the line up the middle. There was a ton of time. It didn't seem like we tried to continue to move the ball and we were very fortunate on the missed call by the refs. We litterally ran McMillian into the DL 3 straight times with the same result each time. Moving the chains eats up more clock than running for three downs and punting. A play action would have been nice and maybe even resulted in a score. You go into the 4th up 30-0 or 30-3 then I think it's pretty well in hand. Brewer hadn't thrown a poor ball all day so I don't think him throwing was risking an interception any more than any ball in the air is at risk. I guess people's frustration is in that we went up big in the first half and then did zero in the second half. If it was 7 or 10 to 0 at the half and we managed to end up with the same score I think there wouldn't be as much complaining.
I still think Beamer's time has come. I still hope we win out (I honestly don't understand those that talk about losing all the games to ensure a change). I still hope we get to a bowl game even the toilet bowl (still don't understand those who say they would rather not have a bowl game than a crappy bowl).
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I have to be honest in that I could only watch bits and pieces of the game and read about it. I am pleased we won. Thrilled - no - but as a Hokie it feels good after the loses we've had. I have said before and will repeat myself - if we are playing to "get into a bowl" then that is as good as we will ever get. I remember when the coaching staff and players (doesn't matter what the fans believe) were talking of conference/national championships. Let's face it, it does not take make much to get into a bowl any more and it might open some eyes to not go to a bowl. Not the end of the world and certainly the "bowl streak" is beginning to be a bit silly.
Finally, I am reading a lot of "IF this and IF that" relative to this game. My dad once told me "IF" is the biggest word in the dictionary. You can "if" something to death and it does not change a thing. Sure (from what i have read) the second half was a bit different offensively than the first. But, again it has been a long and frustrating season. After two consecutive losses against BC, its nice to get a win. We need to readjust our goal for the remainder of the season - don't worry about getting into a "good bowl" but concentrate on WINNING OUT and go into next year with a goal of winning the ACC.
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I'm happy that we win. The way in which we won didn't sway me from still thinking we need a coaching change.
I'm still confused at how that McMillian fumble was forward progress. That's one of the worst screwups we've seen this year and if we were on the other side of that call we'd be fuming about it well into the off season. It very likely cost them a shot at the game. I'll take it, but those refs need to be reprimanded for that.
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I'm still angry about that call, just because we all know what that feels like. BC was denied two chances to get back into this game. (Isaiah Ford fumbled that ball.) We all know what it's like to feel like we're playing against both our opponents and the refs. It doesn't make me feel better to have bad calls go our way for once, it makes me angry bad calls are still happening on week 9.
The issue I take isn't the philosophy. Leaning on the defense is a tradition of the Beamer era. And I'm actually glad that I was wrong in thinking the defense wasn't good enough this season to hold. But it seemed like Frank was willfully ignoring that the bad officiating played as much a role in our lead as the defense did. It would have been prudent to go up another 7-14 points before going ball control. And we certainly had the offense firing at a level where we could have.
I'm glad I got to see an old school Frank Beamer win this year. But I get the sense Frank doesn't realize he was flirting with disaster. This could have gone badly without us playing it any differently, had the refs made better calls.
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It would have been prudent to go up another 7-14 points before going ball control. And we certainly had the offense firing at a level where we could have.
This....so much this.
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I'm angry about it because karma is a vindictive bitch and I feel like there's going to be a call later in the year that we're going to get effed over by. Just hope it doesn't impact the outcome of a game.
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I didn't think the Ford play was a clear cut fumble at all. I saw his backside hit the ground, then the ball come out. I believe that was a proper non-call.
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Our defense clearly outmatched their offense... No suprises there. I was pleasantly surprised, though, by the offense, and how they were able to move the ball in the first half against a very good Eagles defense.
We were the beneficiaries of some lackluster decisions by the Eagles (muffed punt, which ended up meaning nothing in the grand scheme of things) and the obvious McMillan fumble that was called forward progress. I was also a little dumbfounded by some of Loeffler's play-calling: fullback sweep on 3rd and 11, fade on first and goal from the 5. If you're going to run the sweep, use Coleman or McMillan. If you're going to throw a fade, do it on third and use the power running game the first two downs.
It's pretty easy to tell how far-removed this program is from what it was, say, in 2009, when we dominated a better Eagles team than they are now and won 49-13, I believe it was. As always, though, I will take the win, and even though it was Miami who beat them, it was really nice watching Duke lose the way they did after beating us in quadruple OT.
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The fade wasn't a bad call there. The power running game was barely working all game, so what makes you think that it would work better on a compressed field? We couldn't just line up and mash. BC is way too good on D for that. The fade was poorly executed, but wasn't a bad play call.
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I suppose, but McMillan did finish the game averaging around 3 yards per carry. Two 3 yard runs from 5 yards out and you're in. If not, in an ideal situation, you are facing 3rd and goal from the 1 or 2 yard line.
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Really sad I stepped into this thread. People are seriously upset after win this season? Unbelievable.
BC is a top defense. Keeping on the gas runs the risk of giving them some easy points and extending the game. When the other team isn't threatening on offense it make sense to run the ball. And when we needed to kill 4 minutes at the end of the game, we did it. Guess what, the conservative approach worked, enjoy a damn win.
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As Bitter noted in his post game blog, Boston College hasn't scored more than 17 points all season. "Going defensive" while up 20 points seems the safer choice, especially considering the strength of their defense and possibility for turnover points
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I don't understand how anyone could think that even from the outside looking in. The man is a class act and has always handled himself professionally and humbly. People like Frank Beamer are a rare breed and I'm proud of everything he has done for Blacksburg and Virginia Tech.
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Some people are threatened by seeing respect paid to a great man. They respond with anger or misplaced contempt because of the mess they have made of their own lives and their own feelings of inadequacy.
Others are just a-holes.
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Yep, I'm letting it all out this week.
Here's my one vent:
We had 40 total yards in the second half. FORTY.
We took our foot off the gas pedal, and luckily we were playing an offensively inept team that couldn't put up points and take advantage of our passive second-half offense. This is a Loefler thing.
Seems normal,
Good argument against our success against OSU lacking Brewer
VT ran on every first down in the 2nd half. W&M accomplished nothing on their first down plays. W&M couldn't pick up first downs in the 2nd half. I think those three sentences are connected to one another somehow.
Taking our foot off the pedal to early is something that predates Loeffler.
Which continues to prove my theory that Beamer has an Offensive play calling Veto Button
This.
You make a good point
Having too many pedals is a Loeffler thing.
OC Loeffler or HC Beamer...?
Yeah, probably the same people complaining about being conservative that were complaining last week about being too aggressive at the end of the half.
There's nothing wrong with making the worst o we'll play all year score multiple times to beat you
Not really, as a Head Coach to have to understand your team and your team's Big M(omentum) and ALWAYS BE AGGRESSIVE.
Hmm, I didn't see you here in Beamers defense when he was doing exactly that last week.... Everyone seems to flock in here to complain though, even in a 16 point win
Against Duke? I don't remember being too aggressive against the half.
We let off the gas waaay to early. This is a Beamer issue and it won't fly against better opponents. Just because we could doesn't mean we should have, and it was unecissary to do.
Probably talking about Miami, although I think there are differences. Namely Boston College doesn't have a first round NFL pick Quarterback or nfl caliber receivers
Turned it on at the end of the 3rd. 23-3. What I saw was shitty line play, fumbles, Motley in for 1 play, that was a loss, shitty punting, d backfield lost. And that was only 10 minutes.
Meta: can we make a vent/celebration post game thread every week? The game thread always gets bulky and it would be great to have a post game thread that is auto created that people can come to.
That's why I asked for one this week.. seemed to be a new tradition. Even in a victory I'm sure I'll have something to bitch about
Not sure why we need a vent thread this week. The Hokies had an explosive first half against the #1 defense in the country and went up big. Then based on the opponents offensive ineptitude and defenses reputation, Frank did was a Frank does he turtled the offense to play ball control and milk the clock. I think Brewer threw the ball maybe four times in the second half.
It's just the bitch in us.
Which is why we collectively lose lifespan due to games that should never be in question after getting up big that ultimately turn into nailbiters.
Beamer simply isn't going to change in this regard, and it's a big reason we've never gotten over the hump IMO. You need to be willing to play your entire offense through at least the 3rd quarter. Yes, even if you're up big, and even if you're playing your 3rd string. Especially with an undersized and, to date, struggling defense.
You know that part where coaches tell their team "Never take a play off... that's not how we taught you". I feel like it's that old drug commercial.
Coach: They learned it from watching you, alright?
I learned it from watching you!
Well said. Summarized the issue perfectly. If your coaches don't try hard, how can you expect your players to try hard.
And who was it came off hurt?
We have a depth problem and you guys want to play our best guys as hard as possible just to run up a score?
Did you forget playing our 6 th RB last year because even our guy from the practice squad got hurt?
I was on a train between Amsterdam & London during the game, so I'm speaking more historically than about today's game.
VT under Beamer consistently takes the foot off the gas far earlier than is warranted. My problem is that he does it with the first string in. If you want to ease up on the competition, at least keep your offensive playbook open for your 2nd stringers so they can get some valuable reps.
But hamstringing your offense seems like a good way to create bad habits, and gives your backups no quality snaps to learn the offense. So you get a Leal coming into a bowl game completely unprepared. You get starting WRs & DE's playing damn near every snap.
You may think you are showing sportsmanship, but you are setting up the team for potential failure instead of ensuring victory and developing depth.
I've never understood the whole "let's not score because we want to be good sports." It makes ZERO sense to me. You can keep on scoring/run up the score and still be gracious and respectful about it. This is big-boy football, if poor Johnny what's-his-face gets upset because he got his ass whooped and lost by 42 points, maybe that will be motivation for him and his team to play harder and work harder the next week. You can be sportsmanlike without being mamby-pamby.
It was about preservation of personnel, not about not running up the score.
Then put your 2nd string in, don't keep your 1st stringers in and play the same running play again and again for 3 yds each play. That tires out the offense due to them being on the field for longer and marginally reduces the risk of injuries.
If they really cared about preservation give the backups some reps. If not, don't go conservative at 15:00 of the 3rd quarter. Try to keep some momentum going.
Last time I checked, we have players on Defense as well and we also have a depth issue on Defense.
This is a Fifth Fuller household tradition. Whenever my wife or I complain about something the other did/did not do that the complainer does on the reg (happens more often than I like to admit) the complainee gets to yell "I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU, OKAY?" Highlight of my day. Which is why you should never get old, because shit like that becomes the highlight of your day.
That's why we need a vent thread. It's not 2000 anymore. That style of play does not work in this day and age. BC were a few unlucky breaks away from tying or getting ahead because of Beamer's mentality.
Also, against a better team, that team will score against our "D". Then look at the mess were in, lost time and now we're behind trying to play catch-up.
Look, on offense, we kept complaining that McMillan wasn't getting enough touches at the start of the season. Right? Same goes with our offense. The more they play, maybe the better they get. Want to keep the hot player hot by getting him the ball; well, maybe we apply that logic to our offense and see what happens.
The Motley plays are annoying. Put him in for a drive or don't play him. He's capable of running this offense, he can't just come in with everyone in the stadium knowing he will run the ball to the right.
Otherwise, the offense was just barely there. Need to turn those FGs into TDs.
Exactly. Maybe we keep scoring and if we are up by two-three touch downs, we plug Motley into the game and rest Brewer in the fourth quarter.
Vent- Why if we are so inept at Offense in the 2nd half, not get our next QB in the game for some Practice. Brewer isn't needing reps for Heisman considerations and if the lead is so large you want to play conservative, play conservative with the starter for next year
I kept hoping to see Lawson. If we aren't going to run up the score (never been Franks thing) then at least give the other kids some real playing time on a few drives.
1. We won. Be happy. I think the program next year will look entirely different than it is now. I hope this team, and Frank, make a bowl.
2. RUN. THE. DAMN. BALL.
Or, you know, when the opponent has a top run defense and a suspect at best passing defense and you light them the hell up through the air in the first half.... Don't
Sorry, if ever there was a game to at least use the run only to keep the defense honest, it should have been today. We ran too much today and allowed them to get back in it.
I think it depends on your definition of 'back in it' .. It was the 4th quarter before their O outscored our D
At what point did "they get back in it"?
The only way we lose that game is to drop back with a mediocre offensive line against their good front 7 and start throwing the ball around, stopping the clock and getting Brewer hurt.
Does a win by more than 16 count at 2 wins?
Because it should have at least been 23-17 with that horrendous call on the Mcmillian fumble. Against a team with a real collegiate offense and not the high school offense of BC, they would only be down 6 and come back and beat VT in game they dominated. That's why you have to keep moving the ball on offense. If you don't the D will get tired. Once the opposing offense figures out how to attack the VT D they get chunks of yards and score.
VT won today because they did enough in the first half against a hapless BC team.
We weren't playing a team with a real collegiate offense. We were playing BC.
VT won today b/c we did enough to win against a hapless BC team. Against a competent team then we would have had to do more. I can only imagine the criticism if Brewer were hurt throwing when we didn't need to. VT won the game it played today.
I was disappointed that we didn't step on ECU's throat when we had them down 14-0 and it cost us. Today not so much
Welcome
Leg for the name Gramps
I used to have to smuggle Grandmas chips to Ga by the case whereupon my vegetarian coworker would devour them. Didn't have the heart to tell her what they were cooked in
Another good way to lose the game is to do nothing offensively in the 2nd half, which is about what VT did.
A lot of teams have not done much offensively against BC this year.
We did more than most IIRC.
Which do you guys think is more probable, a fumble from an RB or an Int or fumble on a pass play..
My money is on a fumble by an RB being the safest way to protect the football.
Especially since BCs defense was going for the turnover all the way.
Nope, keeping the ball safe the second half was the best way to go this game.
I think this just ignores the fact that if the refs hadn't blown a couple calls, this game may well have been lost.
A win or loss is simply not the only metric by which a team or a strategy can be evaluated.
I think that playing not to make a mistake often backfires, especially if it is a substantial deviation from the style of play that has gotten you the lead in the first place. It makes people play timid. It makes people think more instead of do more. Remember the famous coaching lament "head tying up his feet?". You tell kids to PROTECT THE BALL, and next thing you know, athletes are thinking how not to screw up instead of hitting holes or making blocks or running routes.
You go from long drives with unpredictable play calling that allows your entire offense to find a rhythm, and go to predictable play calling that result in short drives and a loss of rhythm. The truth of this is statistically evident, and stands whether the team wins or loses.
So yes, in yesterday's game, the strategy did unquestionably achieve a win.
The debate is whether an alternate strategy would have provided a more productive win, either in terms of offensive stats and less chance for BC to mount a comeback, or in terms of backup players getting game-speed snaps.
I couldn't watch the game. How many reps did our backup WR's get in the 2nd half? From the sound of the 2nd half game plan, it sounds like it should have been a bunch, as all they were there to do was block anyway.
I'm going to guess they barely found the field, but will be pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise.
Well, a RB did fumble. The refs blew the call. Thanks, ACC refs!
There's "playing it safe" and there's "not trying". VT didn't throw once on 1st down the 2nd half. They weren't trying.
Here's to winning by 16 while not trying.
Nevermind.
This can be an endless shoulda, coulda, woulda.
I'm past it. Their strategy won this game. I'm happy for that. Stopping at that. I just do not want to have to defend a win. I'm not sure you guys and your expectations for the remainder of the season.
Backgrounding.
They did that in the 2nd half. That's all they did in the 2nd half.
@JoeLanza
tshirt idea!
"The program next year will look entirely different". Hope so , 40 yds a half does not cut it , even when you are trying to run out clock with first team. Hate this turtle shell offense.
I beg to differ...it definitely did cut it.
Not with Pitt or any team that has a decent offense.
They weren't playing Pitt or a team with a decent offense today. The only way BC wins is if we gave them the game.
You're creating a game that didn't exist. I wasn't a fan of the conservative play calling, but your logic makes no sense. They used a strategy for a specific situation, that's it. People don't even know what they're complaining about anymore, it's getting ridiculous.
33 carries for McMillian and you want more?
Who are you, sir? Bud Kilmer?
Thanks for the thread, Ohio. Here are my vents:
Stroman. For the love of God please find a new punt returner. Lost like ten on one. Got a penalty for a fake fair catch on another. Finally broke one for a good gain but the probability he has a good return is so low.
If Motley goes into the game, would it kill us to throw the ball as little? Even the announcers were like, "Oh yeah they're gonna run".
Dammit Bucky. I forget why.
I still dislike our play calling. Their run defense is very good. Their pass defense is not as good. So... run? Up the middle?
Let's get Travon his 1000 yards!
Hooray we played 1 good half of football!!!
Is that the vibe I am getting from the people at the top of this post? We played the worst offense we will see all year and looked competent on D finally. The offense playcalling was shut down in the 2nd half. However you slice it, that was a CFB call. That mentality has cost us games before. You can't play college football like that anymore and hope to ever have a chance at the playoff. And I don't mean to imply that we had a chance at that, simply that there is a reason the definition of conservative also includes some negatives.
I'm gonna call this progress
Sadly we were only competent on D for one half. They had a good second half against our D.
Got to see VT in person today and I have to say that it felt like there were more hokie fans in alumni stadium than BC, and we definitely made more noise. Great to see so many hokies in the northeast, and watch VT win!
a cajun hokie in boston....jesus you're all over the place
I'm very happy for the win, but it doesn't change my opinion on what needs to happen in the offseason. I'm grateful for as many wins as possible so that we can enjoy Frank's remaining games, should these be it.
If you've watched how this team has struggled all season long and you are still complaining about the final score, I think you need to seriously reevaluate your expectations for this team.
I am freaking ecstatic that Beamer and the Boys won today. That is it. I'm just looking for W's at this point, and holding onto hope that Beamer keeps his bowl streak alive. Winning pretty in order to boost our rankings isn't a priority now. Keeping the bowl streak is. If that means running the ball over and over in the second half in order to avoid turnovers and keep the clock ticking away... well, that is what it takes. And I'm down. And I'm not going to get upset about classic Frank Beamer strategy.
Just three games left in this season, and potential just three games left in Beamer's career. I'm going to put aside everything else and just relish this victory and root for three more.
Bingo, win and keep people from getting hurt.
Anything else is BS.
This^^^^! I didn't expect a win today in sleepy Chestnut Hill. This team showed a bit of life and did so despite facing a great defense.
Let's celebrate each W as they may very well be the last couple with Frank at the helm. Let's beat UVa, get to a bowl and be reminded along the way what Frank Beamer has done for the program at VT. I know we are all pretty disappointed in the progression of things over the last couple of years, which makes us a bit more critical (not many more than myself) even in the W's. But it has been a pretty good ride! Only three more left...
Late to the show on this...but this attitude is the exact reason why we are an irrelevant nothing football program right now.
If we are excited about getting maybe 6 or 7 wins, then it's time to start asking just wtf are we doing? I don't think anyone needs to reevaluate their thoughts on this team. This team is not good. They won today because the other team was way worse offensively
No it absolutely is not. My comments are in regard to this current team, not the program.
That's exactly the point of my post. Fans who are pissed off every game because we don't look like national title contenders need to grow up and realize that Tech isn't a national title contender. I'm not going to spend the next week pissed off because Tech didn't drop 50 on one of the best defenses in the country. It was never going to happen and I'm knowledgeable enough to know that heading into the game. What were you expecting?
I'm intelligent enough to know that the current athletes and the current coaches aren't capable of beating this BC team by 40+. Look, if you want to spend the rest of Frank Beamer's last year punching walls because Wade Hansen got beat in pass protection again or because some young corner got beat in single coverage, go right ahead. But don't expect me to do the same.
As a grown man, I have the mental ability to both want Babcock to do what is best for the program while simultaneously rooting for those student athletes who are doing their best to win football games. I'm not a bad fan because I'm happy that Tech won, and I'm not a bad fan for realizing that wasting time in the 2nd half while milking a 23 point lead against a terrible offense is probably the best strategy even if it allows BC to make the final score closer.
Yes, I want to see Beamer finish his career with his bowl streak alive... even if he has to crawl across the finish line to accomplish it. That doesn't make me a bad fan, and you aren't a more pure fan because you want a national championship so bad that it causes you to try and ruin other fan's fun. There hasn't been much worth rooting for around here lately, so I'm going to devote all my positive energy towards what is still within grasp. Getting to a bowl. When the offseason comes around, I'll be redirecting my energy towards improving the program. Until then, I'm going to spend my Saturday's rooting for the greatest football coach Blacksburg has ever seen.
A win is a win and thus was against a great defense.
Buds D had to prepare for a QB they had never seen on film and BC has beaten VT in Boston since before techs slide.
This is a good win any way you slice it.
Complaining about a team win is just silly.
Do you think Miami's win was useless?
Let's Go!!!!
People aren't complaining about the team. They're raising concerns regarding Beamer's decision to go tortoise way too early in the 2nd half.
The time to complain about that was in the second half before we knew the successful result. Now we know it worked. They would not have been this conservative against a team that had a better offense or worse defense. So, complaining about it now really doesn't make much sense.
Wth are you talking about? People can comment and/or complain about it whenever they want AND as much as they want. There's no law in internetverse stating that "after a game all criticisms of Beamer's coaching strat must cease and desist."
Sure that's one way of looking at it but it isn't the only and singular way. To quote IllinoisHokie in another thread, "bitterness still runs deep."
You could say that being conservative might cost Beamer a win. I could say that going wide open could lead to mistakes that cost Beamer the win. Those are two differences in coaching philosophy that are debatable. What is not debatable is that the result of the BC game could not have ended with any better result than the W we got, regardless of the strategy. The strategy will be different against different teams, so what's the point in arguing about how yesterday was handled when it resulted in a win.
You wasted way more time than you should have on that response for a bad football team
I'm didn't say anyone was a bad fan for wanting to see a win. But thinking this win means anything shows the general malaise that has brought the program down to irrelevant status because it's "good enough"
You're the one visiting a Tech website after a win telling people that they are ruining the program because they are happy with a win.
I think I've stated my case pretty clearly, but you keep saying I think this win is "good enough". Not sure how else to say that it's possible to be unhappy with the state of the program but still be happy for the current athletes winning today.
Again, if putting words in my mouth makes you feel better have at it. i never used or even came close to using the word "ruin", however it appeared in your response.
We won. We still have a heck of a road to go to make a bowl. I sincerely hope we do. But let's not kid ourselves, a competent offense beats this VT team today. Which was my original point.
No I hear you man, I really do. My question is, why bring that up? Of course a good offense would have beaten Tech today. It's not like I have illusions of grandeur and think Tech should be ranked all of a sudden. All I am saying is, it's not particularly fun to be a fan if after every minor victory people come along and say "well yeah, but this team could be better".
If we can enjoy ourselves at all as Tech fans, surely it's the day that we beat a team to keep our bowl streak alive. It's not necessary to come along and kick the stool out from people who are trying to root for Beamer during his last handful of games. Why do it?
You seem pretty convinced that this is Beamer's last season. Do you know something we don't? I know rumors have been flying around and I'm guilty of getting caught up in the possibility that he'll be gone after this season but they're still just unsubstantiated rumors at this point. I'm going to treat these last 3 games (two of which I'll attend) as though they may be Frank's last, but I am personally not yet sold that they will in fact be his last 3. I suppose only time will tell.
You posted this just about an hour too soon.
To be fair, an hour is a unit of time.
welp. there it is. He'll be missed. I love Frank
I'M A MAN!
I'M 40 YRS OLD! YOU COME TO ME!!! ROFLMAO! Never gets old.
Gotta admire the logic of his point, and extra points for a crazed delivery.
Yes.
I am amazed at the amount of negativity here after a not even close win.
We took apart an excellent defense to start the game.
The goal the second half was to not hand the game to them. That defense was competent enough to take advantage of errors.
Accomplished. Our. Goal.
Agreed. Pushing it in the second half would have provided more momentum changing opportunities, like the (wrongfully) reversed fumble return td. I don't necessarily think that BC would have had multiple defensive TDs, but a big flip in field position or a big turnover could have given BC a leg to stand on.
As it was, BC did make some plays, but our conservative play ensured they neither had the time or possessions necessary to mount a comeback.
If we had a Baylor offense, sure play for points because the value to risk ratio makes sense, with our offense right now, play slow ball.
Haha look I'm not saying that I want to see this every game, but this game, at this point of the season, we need the win, and we got the win.
The BC offense was not going to win the game. If they were going to win it was going to be defensive scoring.
Don't give their defense the opportunity to score. That's it.
No extra style points for winning by 40 over winning by 3 scores.
dude, this is so perfect.
I think Mark Leal would have been a better option at QB.
Finally a kindred spirit...
Better than Matt Ryan, you think?
I have to say there was some horrendous play calling for both sides, ACC officials definitely are the worst. An ugly win is still a win though, go Hokies
ACC officials at times might as well be blind
I don't think there needed to be a vent thread. I liked the idea of a celebration thread after Ws. I'm thankful and ecstatic for the team's win, for McMillan's 100+ rush, for more outstanding play from Ford, for the D finding gumption and for Stroman's game closing INT. I love ALL of that.
But I agree and echo the sentiment of many posters on here that Beamer needs to STOP with the tortoise O in the 2nd half. YES it is one of the key reason's we've NEVER won a National Championship.
Since Beamer is ADAMANTLY being refusal to do so, I'll be happy to see him collect whatever items he has in his office, put them in a box and be escorted from the premises upon the conclusion of this season. I'm very disappointed that he won't crack the 300 Ws streak. Unfortunately, for him (and all of us), he did it to himself.
I don't mind a tortoise O but it should ONLY be executed halfway through the 4th when the team is over two scores up AT LEAST. That is all.
He won the game.
It was objectively successful.
BTW, great first half. Good to see both sides get off. Great play calling in first half against a D that reminded me a little of VT past Ds. I think two thing are apparent... SL has a large set of plays to stretch a defense, once he figures out how to exploit weaknesses a bit better I think he's going to be a sick playcaller... Brewer may not be perfect in terms of progressions and reads, but I really like what he brings to the QB position - i don't know if its due to Morris, TT, or SL or a combo of all of the above, but I think if we can bring the best aspects of Brewer's QB education to our VT program, we'll start to produce more "NFL ready" QBs. This first half made me think a Morris / Loeffler combo might actually be a great thing. I haven't tried to evaluate the other candidates, so I'm not saying he's the man or anything like that. Just that it might be a good option.
He should have won the game and gotten at least 1 more QB real playing time
so we don't have
1> LT to Leal transitions
2> Brewer to Motley transitions
3> etc.
If he was afraid of getting Brewer hurt more reason to get Motley in there... if not Motley then Mr.ShouldaBeenRedshirted
I don' t for the life of me understand how we don't get our #2s more PT especially as the season starts and we play cupcakes... but turtling up with your #1QB,WR,OL,TE just produces bad habits
these kids probably don't even put their cups on... most of them know even if we get 30 points up because an asteroid hits the stadium, they're not getting any PT... most 18-22 year olds with too much time on hands will try and pick up and get laid if they are not going to play
then when a new season comes upon us or we get a key injury we have backup QBs, backup MLBs, etc looking like they just fell off the turnip truck
did we even try to put in some heavy TE jumbo sets? anything to make a run only offense work against BC? I watched first half, but had kid stuff to do second. Laugh all you want, I really thought Loeffler and this OL were going to run on BC in the 4th quarter.
It's not a coincidence that this team has no depth
I'm hoping he isn't escorted out. I'd like to move on, but escorting him out would be unnecessary hopefully
Down the stretch in the fourth quarter I was screaming at my TV. And here's the reason:
I have no issue with the Frank Beamer school of football...when we have a traditional lunch pail defense. Today I was worried as hell that Frank was going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory because he was playing this one like it was 2006. It was made all the more frustrating by the fact that we had the offense going enogh today to just put these fuckers away.
But you know what? Frank was right. He knew what he had on defense. He knew Travon could churn out some tough first downs to keep the clock moving.
Would I have liked to see the offense just drop 40 on them and put the game away? Yeah. But if the announcement we've heard is rumored to be coming in the bye week actually comes, I'm gonna be glad as hell I got to see a signature Frank Beamer win this year.
We are now 4-0 when I attend games at First Down. Next TKP fundraising mission should be for my First Down bar tabs for all of eternity to ensure undefeatedness (j/k, donate to get TKP our own beat writer, not for me to get dr. unk).
We're 4-0 when YOU'RE paying.
So maybe we shouldn't mess with it...
So when is the announcement now #sauces?
How has no one posted a Gif of Herm Edwards saying "you play to win the game!"?
They won. Enjoy it
My only vent is towards the very end, when the announcers were talking about Bud and Frank and brought up the stat about how Frank is like 99-1 when holding an opponent to 10 points or less. My first thought was "NINETY NINE TIMES?! That's amazing!" Then I thought "What was the one time we lo-UGH, FUCKING WAKE FOREST" and I got the sadz. So thanks, crappy ACC Network commentators for raining on my parade.
I think it's not a good idea to have even a sarcastically named vent thread after wins.
It seems to create problems where none should exist.
Let's just stick to threads not asking for vitriol. Maybe we won't get as much of t.
Sorry, I asked for it on the game thread because it was too large to keep visiting. OhioHokie responded. I'll take the heat for this one.
But I did have a few vents though.
No need I am a big boy...I have the turkey legs to take the heat...I think some people missed the rather large image in my post along with the qoute
Winning typically produces less vitriol both in quality and content. Honestly, I'd say the vitriol has lessened after this game as opposed to Duke and Miami.
I'm treating this as a discussion thread more than anything considering there's no real discussion happening in the main one.
Also there's not much vitriol, most people are happy with the win, but that doesn't mean that we won't highlight areas of improvement.
I see nothing wrong with people complaining about the play-calling in the second half. Mainly because it seemed to start way to early. It wasn't like there was 5 min in the fourth and we are up 20 points and start to run into the line up the middle. There was a ton of time. It didn't seem like we tried to continue to move the ball and we were very fortunate on the missed call by the refs. We litterally ran McMillian into the DL 3 straight times with the same result each time. Moving the chains eats up more clock than running for three downs and punting. A play action would have been nice and maybe even resulted in a score. You go into the 4th up 30-0 or 30-3 then I think it's pretty well in hand. Brewer hadn't thrown a poor ball all day so I don't think him throwing was risking an interception any more than any ball in the air is at risk. I guess people's frustration is in that we went up big in the first half and then did zero in the second half. If it was 7 or 10 to 0 at the half and we managed to end up with the same score I think there wouldn't be as much complaining.
I still think Beamer's time has come. I still hope we win out (I honestly don't understand those that talk about losing all the games to ensure a change). I still hope we get to a bowl game even the toilet bowl (still don't understand those who say they would rather not have a bowl game than a crappy bowl).
I have to be honest in that I could only watch bits and pieces of the game and read about it. I am pleased we won. Thrilled - no - but as a Hokie it feels good after the loses we've had. I have said before and will repeat myself - if we are playing to "get into a bowl" then that is as good as we will ever get. I remember when the coaching staff and players (doesn't matter what the fans believe) were talking of conference/national championships. Let's face it, it does not take make much to get into a bowl any more and it might open some eyes to not go to a bowl. Not the end of the world and certainly the "bowl streak" is beginning to be a bit silly.
Finally, I am reading a lot of "IF this and IF that" relative to this game. My dad once told me "IF" is the biggest word in the dictionary. You can "if" something to death and it does not change a thing. Sure (from what i have read) the second half was a bit different offensively than the first. But, again it has been a long and frustrating season. After two consecutive losses against BC, its nice to get a win. We need to readjust our goal for the remainder of the season - don't worry about getting into a "good bowl" but concentrate on WINNING OUT and go into next year with a goal of winning the ACC.
I'm happy that we win. The way in which we won didn't sway me from still thinking we need a coaching change.
I'm still confused at how that McMillian fumble was forward progress. That's one of the worst screwups we've seen this year and if we were on the other side of that call we'd be fuming about it well into the off season. It very likely cost them a shot at the game. I'll take it, but those refs need to be reprimanded for that.
I'm still angry about that call, just because we all know what that feels like. BC was denied two chances to get back into this game. (Isaiah Ford fumbled that ball.) We all know what it's like to feel like we're playing against both our opponents and the refs. It doesn't make me feel better to have bad calls go our way for once, it makes me angry bad calls are still happening on week 9.
The issue I take isn't the philosophy. Leaning on the defense is a tradition of the Beamer era. And I'm actually glad that I was wrong in thinking the defense wasn't good enough this season to hold. But it seemed like Frank was willfully ignoring that the bad officiating played as much a role in our lead as the defense did. It would have been prudent to go up another 7-14 points before going ball control. And we certainly had the offense firing at a level where we could have.
I'm glad I got to see an old school Frank Beamer win this year. But I get the sense Frank doesn't realize he was flirting with disaster. This could have gone badly without us playing it any differently, had the refs made better calls.
This....so much this.
I'm angry about it because karma is a vindictive bitch and I feel like there's going to be a call later in the year that we're going to get effed over by. Just hope it doesn't impact the outcome of a game.
Oh don't get me wrong. I think this was the karmic balancing of that bullshit PI call against Clark ilvs ECU.
I didn't think the Ford play was a clear cut fumble at all. I saw his backside hit the ground, then the ball come out. I believe that was a proper non-call.
That call will probably be overshadowed by the foolery that went on during the Mjami-Duke game.
Wait we got a W!? Extend all the coaching contracts for 5 extra years!! Now!!!
RE-BOARD THE HYPE TRAIN!
Great photo. Welcome aboard!
Our defense clearly outmatched their offense... No suprises there. I was pleasantly surprised, though, by the offense, and how they were able to move the ball in the first half against a very good Eagles defense.
We were the beneficiaries of some lackluster decisions by the Eagles (muffed punt, which ended up meaning nothing in the grand scheme of things) and the obvious McMillan fumble that was called forward progress. I was also a little dumbfounded by some of Loeffler's play-calling: fullback sweep on 3rd and 11, fade on first and goal from the 5. If you're going to run the sweep, use Coleman or McMillan. If you're going to throw a fade, do it on third and use the power running game the first two downs.
It's pretty easy to tell how far-removed this program is from what it was, say, in 2009, when we dominated a better Eagles team than they are now and won 49-13, I believe it was. As always, though, I will take the win, and even though it was Miami who beat them, it was really nice watching Duke lose the way they did after beating us in quadruple OT.
I'm certainly no expert football strategist but both the plays you called out made me furious.
The fade wasn't a bad call there. The power running game was barely working all game, so what makes you think that it would work better on a compressed field? We couldn't just line up and mash. BC is way too good on D for that. The fade was poorly executed, but wasn't a bad play call.
I suppose, but McMillan did finish the game averaging around 3 yards per carry. Two 3 yard runs from 5 yards out and you're in. If not, in an ideal situation, you are facing 3rd and goal from the 1 or 2 yard line.
Really sad I stepped into this thread. People are seriously upset after win this season? Unbelievable.
BC is a top defense. Keeping on the gas runs the risk of giving them some easy points and extending the game. When the other team isn't threatening on offense it make sense to run the ball. And when we needed to kill 4 minutes at the end of the game, we did it. Guess what, the conservative approach worked, enjoy a damn win.
My vent is the damn band for BC.
I have never in my life heard of a band playing Jeopardy while a play was being reviewed.
As Bitter noted in his post game blog, Boston College hasn't scored more than 17 points all season. "Going defensive" while up 20 points seems the safer choice, especially considering the strength of their defense and possibility for turnover points
People act like BC didn't have a vote in this maybe they got better and made some plays they didn't in the 1st half.
I think the critics on this thread would say we'll never know, because we stopped playing our full offense in the second half.
Hard to substantiate that BC just got better when you voluntarily give up on making them defend substantial portions of the field.
This. Well said.
damn Motu...oh wait, he scored us a touchdown! never mind...
I'm posting this here because I refuse to post it in the retiring threads as it is an outrage to read.
Are there people out there so bitter that this is honestly how they see things?
That is posted under the SI.com article btw.
You could start a new topic if you cared to. It'd get some quality responses I imagine.
I would, I just don't want to sully the mood of the site with a post about the ignorance of such a small sample of fans.
This was earlier this year.
https://twitter.com/ff_hokie/status/633065315451162624
I don't understand how anyone could think that even from the outside looking in. The man is a class act and has always handled himself professionally and humbly. People like Frank Beamer are a rare breed and I'm proud of everything he has done for Blacksburg and Virginia Tech.
Some people are threatened by seeing respect paid to a great man. They respond with anger or misplaced contempt because of the mess they have made of their own lives and their own feelings of inadequacy.
Others are just a-holes.