Virginia Tech Defense Has Its Day Against Acclaimed North Carolina Offense

With Hurricane Matthew as the backdrop, Virginia Tech routed and upset No. 17 North Carolina 34-3 in front of a Hokie friendly crowd at Kenan Stadium to earn Justin Fuente his first signature ACC win. While the offense was efficient when given short fields, Bud Foster and the Hokies' defense delivered a dominant performance. Virginia Tech's coverage in the secondary gave UNC's receivers almost no space. The Hokies' outside linebackers and safeties put runners in the open field on the ground. The defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage, and Foster mixed in scheme wrinkles that had been absent during most of the program's recent down period to confound Larry Fedora's vaunted offense.

Hokies Bracket WR Ryan Switzer

Up until Saturday, Ryan Switzer had been the most effective offensive player for North Carolina. Bud Foster and his defensive staff certainly noticed the same thing.

"We did a couple of little things, to take Thirteen (Mack Hollins) and Three (Ryan Switzer) out of the game," Foster said after the game. "We bracketed those guys in some situations."

Foster wasn't kidding. Throughout the day, the combination of Mook Reynolds, Chuck Clark, and Terrell Edmunds aligned in a stack alignment over Switzer. One defensive back would play a shallow leverage coverage and look to stop quick screens. The deeper defender would turn and run with Switzer if he released to the second level.

The adjustment forced QB Mitch Trubisky to hold the football longer in terrible conditions. Trubisky and Switzer never seemed to find a comfort zone. By the time Greg Stroman knocked away a sure touchdown from Switzer in the fourth quarter, the All-American from West Virginia looked completely demoralized. Foster's bracket scheme took away the vertical routes, slants, and screens that North Carolina's offense thrives on.

The bracketed coverage had a hand in forcing Trubisky's first interception. Stroman is man-to-man against Mack Hollins (No. 13) on a deep out to the wide side of the field. Switzer (No. 3) is in the slot and runs a double-move, fake slant to a go route (sluggo). Reynolds plays press inside leverage at the snap and then hands him off to Clark deep. TE Carl Tucker (No. 86) releases into the left flat, and Motuapuaka has man responsibility on him.

Scheme and execution forced Trubisky to throw the most difficult pass available to him. Switzer is bracketed by Reynolds and Clark, and Terrell Edmunds is coming over the top as a third defender down the middle. Motuapuaka has perfect coverage in the flat. Trubisky is forced to throw a 15 yard out from the boundary side to the wide side of the field. This is a difficult timing throw even for NFL quarterbacks, and Trubisky is throwing it into a driving rain and wind. The throw slows up in the wind, and Stroman gets a great jump to pick off the pass.

LPD Won Without Numbers

Foster had the luxury of bracketing Switzer because his defensive front was winning one-on-one battles in the box without a numerical advantage. When the Hokies aligned two defenders on Switzer, there were often six defenders in the box against six or seven blockers and a runner. In order to contain North Carolina's running game, the Hokies defensive line and linebackers had to win battles and make plays.

This play was one of the few where Virginia Tech's d-line was blocked effectively. The Hokies have Switzer bracketed in the slot by Chuck Clark (playing with inside leverage in a shorter zone) and Mook Reynolds (playing outside leverage in a deeper zone). Inside the box, the Hokies have four down linemen and two linebackers against six blockers and two potential runners. North Carolina runs an inside zone read.

The Tar Heels get a nice bubble on the back-side when the left tackle drives Woody Baron inside. Ken Ekanem has contain and is sealed outside.

Despite being tasked with bracket coverage on Switzer, Clark also has alley responsibility on the field side. Clark reads Trubisky and when he keys run, he immediately breaks off his coverage to fill the alley.

With all that said, Andrew Motuapuaka pops off the film most. Left guard Nick Polino (No. 58) gets to the second level and seals him. Last season, Motuapuaka would have been driven down field. On this play, Motuapuaka gives a little bit of ground, sheds the block, and meets RB T.J. Logan in the hole before Clark gets there. This is excellent linebacker play. The stop prevents a first down and forces North Carolina into a third down situation after which the Heels would eventually turn the ball over on downs.

Throughout most of the game, the Hokies' d-line lived in North Carolina's backfield. The Tar Heels tried to zone the Hokies. They tried to run power. They tried both inside zone reads and midline options. Nothing worked. Even when the Tar Heels ran draws against a light box, the Tech's defensive line had an answer.

Check out this North Carolina draw on second-and-ten. Motuapuaka is flexed out across from Switzer. This leaves the four defensive linemen and Tremaine Edmunds in the box against five North Carolina offensive linemen and two potential runners. When Trubisky shows pass, Tremaine Edmunds drops back into an underneath zone. This essentially leaves four defenders to stop the run around the line of scrimmage.

Nigel Williams and Vinny Mihota run a twist stunt. Mihota drives the right tackle inside. This jams up Logan's run path. At the same time, Mihota's movement sets a pick for Nigel Williams. Williams curls around the pick to make the tackle. Ricky Walker also gets initial penetration. Instead of letting the left guard throw him up the field to the outside, Walker keeps his feet moving and fights across the guard's face to support the tackle. This is big time defensive line play from those three guys.

Virginia Tech Brings Back Run Blitzes

While Tech's defensive front was winning battles in the aforementioned outnumbered situations, Foster was able to confuse UNC's blocking scheme with some unique run blitzes and stunts that weren't often featured last season.

On this play, North Carolina has three receivers aligned to the field. Motuapuaka is flexed out almost to the hashmark. Clark, Reynolds, and Facyson are all aligned to the trips side to negate Switzer and the quick screen. In the box, the Hokies only have four down defensive linemen and Tremaine Edmunds. With the numbers advantage, North Carolina calls a run-pass option and ultimately commits to the same QB power play that tormented the Hokies' defense last season. The Tar Heels block down on the left side and pull the right guard around. Trubisky fakes the screen to the trips side and then follows tailback Khris Francis (No. 1) into the hole. The Tar Heels have six blockers and a runner against five defenders. It should be a good play for them.

Except Foster has a boundary corner blitz called. From the pre-snap defensive alignment it looks like Terrell Edmunds will be the defender who comes up in the alley. Instead, he drops deep into coverage and Adonis Alexander blitzes off the edge to force the play inside. Ekanem and Ricky Walker slant to the left, while Tremaine Edmunds fills the alley. Edmunds gets lost in the blocking scheme and makes the tackle.

Time and again, Foster's run blitzes produced multiple unblocked defenders in a position to make a play. Perhaps no single play best exemplifies how Foster was playing chess while Larry Fedora was eating his checkers than Woody Baron's fumble recovery in the third quarter.

On this play, the Hokies line up in an odd front that I saw against Tennessee's spread offense. Nigel Williams aligns as a true nose tackle over the center. Woody Baron is a four technique aligned on the inside eye of the left tackle. Mihota is aligned as a four-technique over the right tackle. Ken Ekanem is playing almost like an outside linebacker. He is in a seven-technique outside of the left tackle. Note, the left side is the running strength of the offensive formation.

This alignment puts more bodies to the running strength and I believe that Foster calls this front against formations where the offensive tendency is to run almost exclusively to the strength. Here, North Carolina runs an inverted veer from a diamond formation and they run right into the teeth of the Hokies shift.

The Virginia Tech front slants hard to the right and two unblocked defenders now occupy the space for where the running back can go. Mihota goes wide to contain on the back-side, essentially trading contain responsibility with Reynolds at the nickel spot.

Trubisky reads the overload and decides to keep on the inverted veer. He doesn't realize Foster is blitzing Reynolds from his nickel spot into the bubble in between Mihota and Williams. Even though North Carolina has numbers in the box, the Hokies have two unblocked defenders to account for the sweep, and an unblocked Mook Reynolds in perfect position to crunch Trubisky for a loss even if he holds onto the football. Trubisky loses the ball when he tries to pull it from the mesh point, and Baron recovers to spark the blowout.

From an outside perspective, Foster looks like he is having fun again. Much of that is probably due to confidence in his players to learn and execute. Players are interchangeable in coverage and blitzing. The offense has no idea where pressure could come from. On an early second-and-15, DE Vinny Mihota covered a tight end in the flat.

Later, Foster trusted Motuapuaka to cover North Carolina possession receiver Austin Proehl on a crucial 4th-and-11 in the red zone.

Adonis Alexander and Anthony Shegog blitz from the boundary. Motuapuaka trails Proehl on a long crossing route without help and manages to knock the ball away. Foster's trust in his players and their ability to execute makes the Hokies incredibly difficult to block effectively.

Foster's defense will have to adjust again when Virginia Tech heads up to the Empire State for a matchup with Syracuse. The Orange don't have an impressive record (2-4). However, head coach Dino Babers employees the same hurry up offense used by Tulsa. Quarterback Eric Dungey has put up big numbers except against Wake Forest. Wide receiver Amba Etta-Tawo, a transfer who played against the Hokies for Maryland, leads the country in receiving yards per game. He is a big bodied kid who can stretch the field and win 50/50 balls. The Hokies will be indoors on a fast track. Expect Tech's secondary to again be tested before Thursday night showdown games against Miami and Pitt.