When I was six-years-old, my parents signed me up for my first race. My young brain determined my best chance to win was to simply run faster than everyone else. The gun went off and I sprinted out in front of the field. By the end of the first of four laps, I was comfortably ahead, but halfway through the second, the wheels started to come off.
A stitch in my lower abdomen slowed my sprint to a shuffle, and the other runners flew by me. Panicked, I chased after the other kids, and labored around the course. I eventually limped across the finish line far behind the winner with a sore ankle and a bruised ego.
Saturday's loss to Tennessee at the Battle at Bristol wasn't all that different. After an electric first quarter put the Hokies ahead 14-0, the momentum came to a screeching halt when the Hokies fumbled in the shadow of their own end zone on the first play of the second quarter. The Vols scored on their next snap and never let off the gas.
With each passing drive, you could sense the Hokies' frustration as they fought to re-discover the clinical efficiency of their first quarter offense. Ill-timed penalties and fumbles became commonplace as the Vols rattled off 31 consecutive points en route to a 45-24 victory. It was a frustrating evening for Hokies everywhere.
During the long walk back to our tailgate at The Landing, my friends and I tried to wrap our heads around what had just taken place. We attempted to put the performance in perspective, probably more as an emotional defense mechanism than an objective analysis. After riding so high for the first 15 minutes, the final 45 felt like an eternity; at times as humiliating and painful to watch as a Michael Scott motivational speech.
When Tennessee's run began, I sensed the Hokies began to press a little. It was as though they already felt the game slipping away. As the lead evaporated, the Hokies fought harder and harder to gain that extra yard or physical advantage. But in doing so, they made back-breaking, careless mistakes that caused them to sink deeper into the quicksand.
A few days removed from the loss, the final score hardly feels indicative of the on-field matchup. Despite burying my face in my hands on countless occasions Saturday night, I can't recall ever feeling like there was a talent gap between the two teams.
Travon McMillian raced past the much-hyped Tennessee secondary on his touchdown scamper. Ken Ekanem bullied the Vols offensive line all night. And when it was clicking, the Hokies' offense looked dangerously efficient.
Two games into the season and one thing is certain: The Hokies have a ton of potential, but it will never be fully realized if they can't stop getting in their own way.
It's tough to win football games when you turn the ball over five times and rack up 101 penalty yards. The margin for error decreases exponentially when your opponent is a Top 25 team and you continually gift them a short field to work with.
The silver lining is that all of these mistakes are correctable; the fear is that these issues are endemic. New faces, new coaches, new system — it has been discussed ad nauseam. Whereas the miscues against Liberty were chalked up to teaching moments in a season opener, Saturday's issues cut a little deeper because of how horrifically they snowballed. Yet against Tennessee, there were far too many well executed drives and gutsy third down conversions to cause panic.
The offense was creative and dynamic, highlighting a few of the ways they will look to exploit matchups. The secondary played a solid game in coverage and the defensive line created pressure from the outset.
If you were to only look at the final score, you would have little understanding of just how competitive the Battle at Bristol could have been. In front of a record crowd, the Hokies proved they have the ability to make some serious noise in the ACC. But at the very least, they will have to get out of their own way to do so.
Comments
I just realized that Tennessee scored 1 point/minute for the entire rest of the game following the first quarter.
I now haz a sadz
Well said:
Very well stated.
I'd also add that I think Evans was the best QB on the field. By no means is he Cam Newton, but he's tough and I'm excited to cheer for him this season.
I'm gonna have to dig a little deeper, but I think completing 66.7% of his passes for 5 TDs and 0 INTs is a better start to a career at VT than any QB had under Frank Beamer.
I thought he looked poised and calm as well. Even later in the game he seemed to rally like it was just something he did all the time. His play didn't seem to look panicky. I liked seeing that resilience. Makes me think that comebacks are possible should we go down a couple of scores in future games where as in the past going down by just 7 started to give me bad feelings.
Michael Brewer: 70%, 4 TDS, but 3 INTs -- of course, Evans had a few fumbles himself -- thus, completion, TD, and TO wise, pretty similar
Strictly as a passer, Evans has a QB rating of 155.07 vs Brewer's 137.88 through his first two games. Evans appears to be the better passer.
You bring up the interesting point of Evans's fumbles, which passer rating doesn't account for. Something like ESPN's QBR would, but they haven't released the formula.
I 100% agree that Evans will likely be reflected upon as a much better QB. The only reason I brought up Brewer is because of his amazing game against OSU, which was the 2nd game of his career. Brewer started hot, but had a much lower ceiling than Evans. Let's hope Evans continues to improve and take VT to the next level.
This was it, right here. Panic and doubt crept in. Coach Fuente said as much in the halftime interview on the way to the locker room. I don't remember the exact quote, but it was along the lines of, "They've already proven they can do it. Now they just need to settle down and believe it." And that quote is exactly where we are now.
We've suffered our share of blowouts over the last few years. This is the first one I can remember that doesn't leave me despondent that our woes are schematic.
I agree this seemed to happen but I thought Evans showed leadership by staying more calm than some of the other players.
You just said in a couple paragraphs what I tried to express in an entire post a few days ago. Nicely put. Leg 4 U
Yeah, this is an even brighter picture than the hope that Tyrod left us with after the LSU blowout in 2007. After that game, there was at least a muted "At least we have Tyrod" feeling, but it was rooted in the knowledge that you needed his mobility because the systemic failure of the OL and offensive scheme was a macro problem.
I left this game thinking we have a scheme that will put up points, we have a lot of weapons, we have smart offensive coaches and we are about 10 deep on the OL (if unsettled). And it sure as hell looks to me like the defense is considerably better than last years, even without Dadi/Maddy/Fuller.
BC scares me with their physicality and I dread the thought of Loeffler getting the better of us in some deep seeded self-doubt nightmare. And ECU, uggh. But if we get better, if we trust in the offense and let the defense do it's work, we'll win both games by 2 scores and get ready for UNC.
Insert stork or pelican or whatever I see what you did there meme "if unSETTLEd"
Well said, this will be the true test of the coaching staff to cut down on the miscues and penalties which have plague us for years...
You really echo my feelings with this article. They went toe to toe
and kind of served up the game to UT. Really liked the way Evans played
with his power running style and he seemed to execute well.
The one positive thing I took from the game is the team is better than I
thought they were. Hopefully the mistakes can get cleaned up.
I don't know about you guys, but I've spent the last couple days waiting for French& Co to put out their writeups and validate the little hope we took from that debacle. On to BC!!!!
I've never been more excited over what our potential is with this team. Excellent analogy at the beginning!
Frank's teams never fumbled this much ;)
Here we go
As I was walking back to my tailgate, I heard a VT fan say that if we had Frank we would have won, and everyone she was with nodded and moaned in agreement.
I have a feeling the result would have been similar. Defense would have been the same, the O wouldn't have put up as many points or as much production, wouldn't have turned the ball over. So the result may have been a closer game, but we'd be just as disappointed after losing by 10 or 13 pts instead of 21. But I can guarantee we wouldn't be as excited about the potential of our O.
I'm conflicted on that. We might have pulled it off with Beamer and Lefty. There probably wouldn't have been the panic from the offense when things started to sputter. Indeed, things might not have started to sputter at all, with everyone in year four of Lefty's offense. And Lefty certainly had the ability to gameplay to beat a highly ranked team.
However, I also don't know that either Brenden Motley or Josh Jackson would have had the ability to run a drop-back passing offense against Tennessee's defense. Remember, Evans is not here without Fuente.
And win or lose under Beamer, one thing I'm certain of is proceeding to go 7-5 again (at best) with Beamer.
If I were a BC player, I'd be terrified. I wouldn't want to face a Hokies team coming off an embarrassing loss where they know full well it came down to execution and toughness. I'm expecting the Hokies to come out with a TON of fire and passion, looking to hit BC right in the mouth. Oh, and did I mention this game is in the Terror Dome?
If it was the 90s, I would whole-heartedly agree. These next two games are extremely important to see how we respond and if we in fact have passionate tenacity to go beat another team into submission and play with that chip on our shoulder. I want to say we have it, still, but only by playing will we see if that heart is there and Fuente truly has instilled new fire into the football program.
It's strange to think that this is still a young team. Guys like Ford and Phillips have plenty of experience but are still relatively young as they just started their junior years. A young rb bunch and a new qb adds up to uneven play so far. Let's just hope it keeps improving as these guys become a closer team