Hey everyone. I apologize, however due to some unplanned family concerns, I was not able to write a film review of VT's excellent defensive performance against UNC. I have had the opportunity to watch the tape briefly, and because sometimes the kids take so much criticism of their performance when things are going badly, I thought it would be incredibly unfair to not give them credit when they play well. Without the benefit of doing a detailed X's and O's, here are some brief thoughts:
1) Ken Ekanem has been named a captain this week for a reason. Ever since Pitt chose to test Ekanem repeatedly, his game has improved significantly. He was strong at the point of attack and wasn't moved past his gap fit against UNC, an issue that plagued both Ekanem and Dadi Nicolas earlier in the year. Ekanem was going head to head against an outstanding young left tackle in Bentley Spain. Ekanem used tremendous speed while still having the strength to turn the corner and get back to the QB. He also should have drawn close to a half dozen holding calls, many of which (looking at the Williams incomplete that was close to being a fumble) were about as obvious as you can get. Ekanem is going to be the leader of the defense next season if he chooses to return... and should be primed for a big year.
2) A healthy Corey Marshall made a huge difference on the inside. Marshall played with great leverage to prevent being blocked down and was able to cross the face of those downblocks to make some huge plays. Both he and Luther Maddy were so sound shutting down the inside gaps that it kept blockers away from Motuapuaka all day.
3) Andrew Motuapuaka had his best game of the season. He was aggressive and played with a heavy shoulder on the inside. He made two tremendous plays on the goalline stand after the blocked punt. He will be tested against UVA because they love to throw the football to their running backs. He has a great game to build off of. Deon Clarke and Anthony Shegog were also excellent, and before he was hurt Facyson made some tremendous plays coming up to support the run.
Again, thanks to Mason for reviewing this week's film. If you guys are students, and you run into players, pat them on the shoulder and give them some encouragement. They played a real gutsy football game on Saturday. It wasn't UNC imploding out there. VT, especially those defensive kids, really got after them. The offensive execution failures early were just too much to overcome against such an explosive offense.
Comments
Hope all is well with you French. Take care and try to enjoy the holiday.
Thanks for doing all that you do.
Indicative of the way my weekend went, I completely forgot that students are on break this week. Still, if you see the kids around town if you are staying in Blacksburg, give them a pat on the back.
First and foremost, I hope everything is well with your family.
Secondly, I agree with all of this. I'm legitimately curious as to what was going on with the consistent, unobstructed view, no calls on holding on Ekanem. It was as you said around a half a dozen times he beat the LT to the outside and when he attempted to come back to the QB from behind he was blatantly held in place, often time RIGHT BESIDE a ref. Very, very confusing that it would happen so many times, so obviously without a call.
Thank you. I don't know what to make of it. I prefer to try and focus on the fact that the kids played a really tough football game. They deserved a better fate on Saturday. That is the most proud I have been of these kids after a loss in some time. I guarantee you, if the D had played like that vs Ohio State, VT would have won the game even with the eventual injury to Brewer.
Reminded me a lot of the 2001 Miami game. We lost, but as Bud would say, played our nutz off. At least there was no single scape-goat like Noel was that day.
I agree about Ohio State. And I wasn't too hung up on the no calls, or the final play review. No use focusing on it too much, can't retroactively change anything. It was just interesting to me because of how obvious it was. I was disappointed that we couldn't win this one in particular, the team played so hard, particularly the defense, so close to the storybook ending for Beamer in Lane. Still proud of how it was handled after. So many people staying to hear Beamer address the crowd and the team carrying him off the field, it was incredible.
On the TD that made it 17-10 after the Rogers fumble, VT wasn't set. There was confusion on the dive/keep assignments between Dadi and Clarke. Both stayed outside on QB and nobody was there to crash inside on Hood.
This is not how Bud drew it up.
With this alignment, if correct, Dadi has to crash and take away the dive. He plays contain, staying angled outside shoulder of the tackle. Dadi should be crashing with Clarke coming in behind him to take dive.
However before the snap, VT's guys were still standing and moving around. Clarke could have been aligned wrong or confused on his assignment. In that case, Clarke would be responsible for the gap that appears in front of the official. Dadi would have dive support and inside QB dive. Chuck Clark is there to take anything wide. Without being in the huddle, it is impossible to know which was the real bust. However, it was clearly a bust and not an example of UNC suddenly becoming overpowering.
Thoughts to you and your Family, French. Appreciate all your work.
Thank you. Big ups to MsSusieCue, who had a really rough couple of days, yet has stood by me and supported the work I have done here for a long time, even to the detriment of our time together.
Bless her. Hope brighter days are ahead for both of you.
My thoughts go out to your and your family French.
Thank you for once again being the voice of reason when it comes to our favorite team. A few TKPers are of the mentality that our D played poorly on Saturday. I think this is mainly due to these folks wanting to burn the whole program down and start from scratch (i.e. getting rid of Bud). While a complete personnel overhaul may or may not be the right thing to do, I think it is unfair for these people to criticize our defense when they had one of their best outings of the season. So again, thanks for telling us how it really is.
Defense had a handful of mistakes, yet UNC has another 2/3 TDs without spectacular efforts from a bunch of kids. Football is a cruel game. Williams made some mistakes, but he made 3 or 4 unbelievable plays on possession downs, every one of them on UNC scoring drives in regulation. The option pitch on 4th down was a spectacular play.
Some folks will never be happy unless you are 12-0 and every game is a 40-10 type of score. I am sick about the loss. However, to say that the kids played poorly, especially compared to the ECU film? That is LAUGHABLE.
And Ford caught the game tying TD TWICE. That sure looked like a catch on 3rd and 2.
I was surprised that wasn't reviewed either. It looked pretty clear and clean that it was a TD and not really sure how it wasn't called that. Must've been the same ref that wasn't watching Ekanem getting mugged :)
I hope you and your family are doing alright, my thoughts go out to all of you.
And thank you for all of the awesome analysis you do on here! A lot of the points you made in this post I noticed because of what you have taught us on TKP. I even explained what the pin-and-pull technique was to my father because of your film reviews.
I absolutely understand if you can't answer French, but how in the world did UNC get wide open every time they had three receivers to the boundary (usually a tight end was in the slot)?
Pre-snap we showed the boundary corner like ten yards off the ball, Motuapuaka would be shading towards coverage and I can't remember but I think Stroman would be close to the line. It appeared we had two guys covering their three, but Motuapuaka would cheat toward that side.
At the snap all three defenders would go towards the line and by the time Motuapuaka would get their the tight end would be running past without any issue.
I'm sure that was an awful explanation, it's all off of memory, but three or four times UNC ran it and we got lucky with overthrows. A couple connected before a safety made a tackle 20 yards or so down field.
This is a nice review, fills in nicely for a film version. Hope all goes well your way.
Hope all goes well with your family. That's the most important thing.
Appreciate the commentary on the defense. Hard to see these types of things from where I was in the stands, and I haven't had a chance to watch the replay on my DVR yet.
I just want to say that from my seat in the stands it appeared that Edmunds 22 had a monster game. He made several huge pass break ups. I was very impressed with his play. Also, what has happened to Alexander? He was playing great, but I haven't heard much about him lately and only noticed him in the field a handful of times on Saturday, is he hurt?
He played corner in place of fascyon (sp?) Saturday.
Alexander lined up on the wrong side of the formation, allowing a big play vs Duke
Full story here
Hope all is well French but no need to apologize to us. You give us paid quality content for free. We should be apologizing to you!