Reviewing the Film of the Hokies' 52-10 Blasting of the Cavaliers

Even as 19.5-point favorites, Saturday's edition of the Commonwealth Cup left Hokie Nation a bit nervous Virginia Tech would extend its streak over Virginia to thirteen. Already this season, the Hokies had disastrous performances as sizable favorites against Georgia Tech and Syracuse. Moreover, by virtue of N.C. State's win over North Carolina Friday, Tech already clinched the ACC Coastal. However, powered by dominating performances by seniors Sam Rogers, Jonathan McLaughlin, Nigel Williams, and Ken Ekanem, the Hokies ended any fears of an upset early on in a 52-10 rout of UVA.

Perhaps most satisfying was the Hokies asserted their physical will offensively in a way not seen even in blowout victories over Liberty, East Carolina, and Boston College. The Virginia Tech offensive line, with Peoples and Rogers plowing behind them, established dominance early and sucked any fight left in the Cavaliers right out of Lane Stadium. It was a masterful win that left Hoos embarrassed, Hokie Nation jubilant, and the Virginia Tech football team finding itself with momentum as it heads to Orlando for a championship showdown with Clemson.

Virginia Tech Asserts Physical Dominance

All season, I have waited for Brad Cornelsen to establish the interior running game and play to the strengths of Tech's offensive line. Finally, against a Virginia defensive front that has been pretty good this season, the Hokies showed up and delivered a smash mouth performance for the ages.

The Hokies' first drive ended with a punt, but the offensive line physically asserted themselves in a way that set the tone for the entire game. After a first down completion to Bucky Hodges on a quick slant, the Hokies aligned with Jerod Evans under center, Steven Peoples as the fullback, and Sam Rogers as the tailback. Colt Pettit (No. 90) and Bucky Hodges align as double tight ends to the boundary side. From this rarely seen (at least this season) formation, the Hokies run a simple power play. The play-side blockers block down. Hodges seals the edge outside. Peoples isolates into the hole. Wyatt Teller pulls around from his left guard spot to lead through the hole.

McLaughlin pancakes former five-star DL recruit Andrew Brown (No. 9). Peoples buckles the legs of all-ACC inside linebacker Micah Kiser (No. 53) and drives him almost 10 yards back. Pettit blocks down to seal LB Zach Bradshaw (No. 51) inside. The Hokies collapse the entire left flank of the Virginia front inside. Bucky Hodges should have to seal corner Juan Thornhill (No. 21) to the outside, but Thornhill shows zero interest in supporting the run. Hodges climbs to free safety Quin Blanding (No. 3), while Teller can't find anyone to block until strong safety Kelvin Rainey (No. 38) comes into range. Rogers plows ahead for nine yards on a play that was so well blocked it should have produced more yardage. However, the tone was set for the interlopers from Charlottesville to have a really bad day at the office.

Virginia Tech's power attack was successful time and again, in large part because the combination of McLaughlin and Pettit repeatedly caved in the left side of the Cavaliers' defense. Rogers rips off 12 yards on this power run in the third quarter.

Note how McLaughlin's contact point places his head between the line of scrimmage and DE Eli Hanback (No. 58). Once McLaughlin is assured Hanback cannot shoot the gap, he then pulls his head back and to the outside and punches Hanback's shoulder with his right arm. This prevents Hanback from rolling outside off McLaughlin's block and seals him inside.

Pettit follows the same gap-down-linebacker power blocking rule that McLaughlin has. Pettit steps with his left foot into the C-gap. He checks Hanback to make sure he can't cross McLaughlin's face, then he continues on his path to Bradshaw. Because Bradshaw isn't a penetration threat from the back-side, Pettit places his head outside of Bradshaw's left shoulder. Even if Pettit remains stationary, Bradshaw will have to give ground in order to get to the ball carrier. Pettit keeps his feet chopping and buries Bradshaw with a beautiful pancake block. Peoples seals OLB Jordan Mack (No. 37) to the outside, and Teller pulls around and drives Kiser out of the hole. This is beautiful power football.

In large part, the jet sweeps and outside zones, which had not been particularly successful as of late, were absent from Tech's offensive game plan. One adjustment that did seem to confuse the Cavaliers' defense was Evans opening up away from the zone blocks on a couple of inside zones. Virginia slanted their defensive line and scraped their linebackers to the zone step of the offensive line (much like the Hokies do), and Tech was able to cross up their keys.

On Rogers' 8-yard touchdown run, the offensive line zone blocks to the right, yet Evans opens up to his left. The Cavaliers all scrape hard to the top of the screen, leaving Blanding and Thornhill to account for any cutback, reverse, or bootleg.

Peoples levels OLB Matt Terrell (No. 54) with a spectacular downblock. To the boundary, Pettit and Yosh Nijman carry the slanting Virginia defenders inside. Teller reverses direction and finishes a blindside on Kiser with a pancake out of the hole. That leaves Blanding and Thornhill to account for Rogers and Evans. Blanding, for all his physical gifts, takes an awful angle. Thornhill squeezes down and seemingly quits on the play. Rogers drives Blanding and OLB Chris Peace (No. 13) — who scraped from an almost nickel alignment to the field — into the end zone. Thornhill seems content to sit and watch the play develop. The Hokies' offense showed a will and a drive the Cavaliers' defenders didn't seem to be willing to match, and Cornelsen's play calling drove home that point.

Jerod Evans Progression, No Pun Intended

Throughout the season, I have commented on the strengths and weaknesses of Evans' quarterback play. He excels on play-action and in the mechanics for the run game. He has struggled with dropback passing, especially when defenses take away his first read. I have also noted how the offensive passing structure often has multiple receivers running clear-out routes for one receiver. In short, open receivers who were not the primary target of the play design often were not looking for passes despite being wide open. Evans normally would make one read and then either check down or run with the football.

Against Virginia, Evans was given the opportunity to scan the field and climb the pocket on several pass attempts. He didn't always look particularly comfortable, however it gave receivers extra time to break open and Evans was able to find several for nice plays. This makes the offense significantly more dangerous, as third down efficiency has been a primary indicator of the quality of Virginia Tech's play all season.

To open this second quarter drive, Evans has a play-action look where his primary read is Isaiah Ford on a double move. The Virginia corner is playing soft coverage with outside leverage. Any deep ball will likely result in an interception.

In previous games, Evans would immediately pull the ball down and look for a running lane inside. This time, he climbs the pocket to avoid a pass rusher. Cam Phillips isn't open in the middle of the field on a slant, so Evans checks over to Hodges on the boundary who has worked his way back to the football. With the play designed for Ford, in past weeks Hodges may not even be looking for the football. Here, he has run a crisp route and Evans makes a beautiful throw under duress.

Virginia Tech QB Jerod Evans had a near-perfect passer rating (156.3) when pressured in the team's 52-10 win over Virginia. pic.twitter.com/8ZfuXZSE17— PFF College Football (@PFF_College) November 27, 2016

To open the second half, Evans again looked to Ford on a double move off play-action. This time Ford has soft coverage and the centerfield safety is coming over the top to help.

Evans scans back across the field to find Thornhill beaten on a double move by Hodges. After a couple of drops, Hodges makes the catch on a perfect throw from Evans.

Opponents limited Evans' effectiveness passing by taking away his primary routes and spying him on clear passing downs. If Evans can become more comfortable dropping back and working through his progressions, the Hokies' offensive efficiency will grow by leaps and bounds.

Hokies Run Blitz in Absence of a Quarterback Run Threat

Virginia utilized all three quarterbacks on its roster and none were able to establish themselves as a run threat. With the read option unlikely, Bud Foster started using a variety of run blitzes to jam up the box.

As I highlighted in the Duke and Notre Dame film reviews, the inside zone read usually takes defenses out of blitzing schemes because a stunt can open space for a big running play. Foster adjusted against Duke and Notre Dame by slanting his defensive line to the zone step of the offensive line. Then to account for a cutback or QB keeper, Foster would either: 1) Cross-key the linebackers (meaning the d-line slants the direction the o-line moves, but the linebackers key the back and quarterback), or 2) The linebackers would fit inside with the back-side defensive end keying the mesh point and the back-side safety coming down to take quarterback. Opposing offenses had success with quarterback keepers because the safeties (usually rover Terrell Edmunds) were not close to the line of scrimmage.

None of Virginia's quarterbacks showed any inclination to keep the football on inside zones. After some early Cavaliers' success between the tackles, Foster started to use some different schemes to account for all six gaps at the line of scrimmage.

Nigel Williams in particular benefitted from the change in approach. Williams started his first game since suffering an ankle injury and delivered a strong performance in his last game in Lane Stadium. On this play, Williams stunts against the blocking flow as part of a concept where all six defenders have responsibility for all six gaps, with no defender accounting for the quarterback on a keeper.

Instead of slanting to his right to match the path of RG R.J. Proctor (No. 78), Williams steps to his left to shoot through the B-gap. Right tackle Eric Smith (No. 72) expects to cut off Vinny Mihota crashing inside, and instead is seemingly surprised Williams shoots through his gap. Williams doesn't have to slant because Andrew Motuapuaka blitzes into the field-side A-gap. On the left side of the Virginia offensive line, Woody Baron jams a double team in the boundary-side A-gap. Tremaine Edmunds blitzes through the B-gap almost unblocked. Ken Ekanem fills the C-gap. There is nowhere for Smoke Mizzell to scamper away as Williams and Edmunds meet to crush him.

A second look reveals how little the Hokies considered Kurt Benkert a running threat. The front six each occupy the A, B, and C gaps on both sides of center. Mihota has zero contain responsibility besides finding Mizzell on a cutback. The Hokies have five defensive backs dropping into soft zone coverage. There is no one to account for Benkert if he keeps, yet besides the Connor Brewer fumble, the Cavaliers didn't call a designed quarterback run all day.

Clemson presents a much different challenge for the Hokies. Deshaun Watson has not been featured as much in the running game — only 444 rushing yards (3.96 YPC) in 2016 after racking up over 1,105 (5.34 YPC) in 2015. However, Watson presents a huge challenge to Foster's aforementioned recent wrinkle for defending the quarterback on read options given his history of running the football effectively in big games. Clemson's passing attack has been its most dangerous weapon, with big receivers like Mike Williams on the outside and quick Matt Renfro working from the slot. Adonis Alexander had an outstanding game against Virginia, as noted by Pro Football Focus.

Virginia's 9 passes into Virginia Tech CB Adonis Alexander's coverage resulted in just 2 catches, 12 yards, and a 0.0 passer rating. pic.twitter.com/xatc4ToZCY— PFF College Football (@PFF_College) November 27, 2016

Alexander, Brandon Facyson, and Mook Reynolds will need huge performances and Foster will have to find a way to stop Watson in the running game for the Hokies to win Justin Fuente an ACC Championship in his inaugural season at Virginia Tech.