We just don't look very good offensively. Can't seem to sustain drives. I think JJ will mature, but it kills me when he misses throws, like the pop pass, and I can't help but think Evans would have made that throw.
We are super young on offense, but I was hoping to see some growth this week. I am hoping we were working on the basics and playing possum a bit.
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JJ missed some for sure, but also there were some horrible drops. I was watching some clips of BAD Evans misses last year. The big difference so far (that is a positive) is the lack of turnovers and penalties. This team seems smarter. But yes, we have a lot of work to do. A guy who has made some big catches is CJ Carrol. Had a key first down vs. WVU and then again today.
To be fair to Josh Jackson, he doesn't have Isaiah Ford or Bucky Hodges to chuck the ball up to when he's struggling like Evans did. I thinks JJ is smarter than Evans, he just doesn't have the developed weapons. Savoy has been the only young receiver that's productive.
Farley injury is a killer. Totally different look if Savoy is the slot and Farley is outside.
Seems like I've read this statement before. Are you quoting someone?
Maybe Evans would make the pass, but he's gone. The looks are there, JJ will start connecting. It was his second game.
Holy shit, we went from JJ looked god tier last week and is going pro after his sophomore year to our offense being super worrying.
Let's relax. Big breath. Things are going to be fine.
To be FRANK, JJ is the least of issues. First is the receivers, then getting a RB to run like a mad dog, then getting more consistent push up front. That's the O. The D has issues - struggling with backups at tackle and defensive end.
All game long we ran short or thre Hail Marys. There wasn't too much in the intermediate game. It flattened out our offense and made it easier to defend. I can't tell if this was intentional to keep our offense under wraps or not.
Defensively, the QB was their savior. Made so many damn plays. Their play calls owned us. They took advantage of over pursuits. I really think we didn't take them seriously enough. I saw both games live and they were different teams. I wasn't thrilled with the performance, but I'll take 27-0 every damn game.
They possessed the ball 3 times on our side of the field, and one of those was a turnover. They scored zero points. Not sure what you expected beyond that from our defense.
To clarify, I think the D played very well. Delaware was bailed out by a highly mobile QB who was playing his nuts off. Without him, this game turns into a 45-0 blowout. I know ToP is a hotly debated topic here, but we only had the ball for 10 minutes in the first half. Not faulting anyone here, just saying our offense was quick strike or nothing in the first. We weren't trying to sustain drives by design.
I disagree about the Defense... outside of 3-4 drives and 4-5 trick plays/blown coverage. Our defense played very very well.
Considering how long the defense was on the field, I was happy with how they played.
Couple of other factors too:
1)Seemed like a "hangover" game after WVU with a quick turnaround. Coaches were quoted saying the team looked like zombies in practice Tuesday.
2) Delaware might have an above-average defense. They returned 10 starters and almost shut out Delaware State in game 1
Agree that we see what happens against ECU before we get too upset.
Honestly I haven't been as impressed as many of you have. I don't dislike him, as he is going to get better, but he is just leaving some throws out there that he should make. The young WRs did not help him today.
He is impressive. He's a smart, athletic, mechanically sound QB. He's still young and is learning to deal with having to lead a team. Looked run happy today and went to cam to get bailed out. Even the crowd was begging him to progress through his reads because our wideouts were getting separation. He just needs more reps. That's exactly why Fuente left him in so long. He didn't dominate that defense so he was going to stay in and learn.
He's not mechanically sound. Some of the throws he misses that he should complete, he is not setting his feet. We saw it last week with balls in the ground and we saw it again today.
Again he will get better, I am not worried about that. He's not turning the ball over, which is the best part of his game right now.
Agreed, saw a few too many back foot throws.
He looked like he was rushing many of his throws...especially the RPO's. Those were wide open the whole game and I don't think we completed any of them. He also looked like he was running away from the rush too soon on more than a few occasions...that ended up with him having to try and make good throws while on the move and it doesn't appear that he's comfortable doing that.
I didn't say it before because I didn't want to be that guy, but I seemed to be just about the only person who thought Jackson actually didn't play all that well against WVU. I mean, he played well "for a freshman" or "for a player making his first start." And he was gutsy and made some plays on the ground. But some of his throws were so bad I couldn't believe it.
I really like Jackson's demeanor, and I DO think he'll be a good QB eventually. But let's be candid, we're probably not going to the ACCCG this season if our quarterback play doesn't get a little better.
Agree with all you stated. Thought the same after week 1 and again today.
We have to be able to take the top off the defense and that means WRs getting open and JJ hitting them in stride. That will open up the run game and in turn create some open looks for the WRs.
Evans wasn't able to do this, 2 weeks into the season and he had a great deal more experience and more experience WR's to help him.
JJ's 1st game: Neutral Site vs ranked P5 15/26, 235 yd, 1 TD, 11 rush for 101, 1 rush TD, QBR 83.6
Evans' 1st game: Home vs FCS, 20/32, 221 yd, 4 TD, 5 rush for 46, 0 rush TD, QBR 90.7
Evans had better comp pct and more TD's, while JJ had better yd/att (9.0 vs 6.9). It's also worth noting that Evans had Isaiah, Bucky and Sam.
I'm not sure that I believe that Evans was better. Heck, look at 1st two games. So you have a comparable mix of games (while only 2). Evans still had a better supporting cast (esp far fewer dropped passes by WR's), but his numbers aren't appreciably better.
Was JJ great today? Nope, but it's his 2nd start on a short week. While Evans started 2 seasons at the JC level after a RS season at Air Force.
You're definitely right about the supporting cast, that's why VT fans were so frustrated about Evans and Hodges leaving (Ford made sense, IMO). I'm just saying that the average non-VT fan would not watch our first two games and think that our QB play right now is particularly awesome.
But FWIW, I remember that Bryan Randall was infuriatingly inconsistent until his senior year. Then he was my Favorite Hokie of All Time (myFHAT). Let's hope it happens a bit faster for JJ.
That's not fair. Your fat made you feel good. My fat just makes my underwear fit tight.
BR was inconsistent for 3.5 years. That GT 4th qtr was his turning point. Remember that pick 6 he threw against WVU early in the season? Brutal.
TT's 2nd game wasn't as good as JJ's 2nd.
vs Ohio: 18/31, 287 yd, 10 rush for 8 yds, QBR 61.6
That's not to say that JJ will be as good as TT.
As far as non-VT fans is concerned, I really don't care. I care about how my team looks. Any recruits who are taking a good look at us have to see real potential. Also the pundits speak highly of JJ, which should help our rankings. Those rankings will be important in terms of which bowl we go to (unlike the homers on this site, I don't think we'll start our run of Playoff appearances until next year /s).
What do you expect from a redshirt freshman making his second start? Of course Evans would have made some of those throws, he was a redshirt junior with much more experience. Let the kid learn. The offense will be slow for a bit but I bet, with how smart JJ is, it will really take off once he gets comfortable.
On the whole I agree that the offense didn't inspire (at least in person) but I am comforted by the lack turnovers and that he had two nice bomb throws that were dropped (that would have completely changed our first half stats).
It felt like we spent a good part of the first half experimenting with trying to get some deep balls that didn't pan out. Once the game was under control we just went super conservative.
I wouldn't worry that much, we weren't going to pull out all the stops to light it up against Delaware unless we had to.
We shouldn't have had to pull out all the stops to light it up against Delaware.
quite possibly the least controversial thing to ever be said on this site
Our O-line couldnt hold Delaware 3 man rush. Yes there were plays where JJ had all day to pass but our O-line looked really weak/inconsistent today vs an FCS team. Im worried about ACC play. Maybe the tape sessions will fire the O-line up to get better. Our WRs were dropping some balls in the 1st quarter as well. The Defense and ST were the bright spots of today.
Guys we have 2 more very winnable games for us to gain momentum and to get other WRs experience; it's not time to mash the panic button yet. JJ will be fine it's his SECOND start. Yes the run game needs to improve and the OL was less than impressive but this unit (offense as a whole) needs a couple more games to gel. JJs receivers outside of Cam really didn't do him any favors as well. We will be fine. Additionally it seemed evident that CornFu wanted to get some other receivers some burn to develop a bit of depth so JJ may not have been completely on the same page as them and vice versa. If our D and Bradburn continue to improve then we will be in a position to win every game. We're coming off a very physical and emotionally draining win against WVU so a win hangover and short week definitely could have been a big part of our sluggish performance, though not an excuse it still could be a contributing factor of the less than impressive win today
JJ is worse than Evans. Right now at least. I hope not too many of yall were expecting otherwise, it's easy to forget how good a player is when he disappoints you and leaves early. Evans has all those records for a reason. He was a baller.
BUT, JJ can get there. Look at all of Fuente's past star QBs. Started young and made marked improvements over the years. JJ will get there. This year? Maybe not. But the next few years with him will be fantastic.
I'd give more legs if I could.
JJ is worse than Evans right now. Perhaps. But the team is 2-0, and he has made ZERO turnovers - two facts that stand in contrast to our status last year with Evans at the helm. Your premise may be borne out as the year progresses, but to date, I'll call them neck and neck.
True, and at the end of the day the record is most important, but Evans is better. He just is. Today we would have really benefitted from his running ability. He was a work horse. I honestly don't see a work horse RB in out stable right now. Travon just doesn't seem to impresses the coaches and he didnt impress today. Evan adds that element to the offense that JJ doesnt. Honestly he is just too fragile now to run that much.
Meh. I think you can say Evans with Ford + Hodges was better, but I do not think Evans with this group would necessarily be better:
Ford, Hodges, and Cam made Evans look better than he really was. He was limited as a passer.
But JJ is not seeing the field that well right now and is not always stepping into his throws. Hopefully footwork, vision, and release improve week to week.
Maybe, but god is was frustrating to see people on this site say we might have a receiving corps as good or better now than last year. Ford and Bucky are obviously missed. With those two I'm sure JJ looks better, but in college ball running is king. That's why Evans would be more valuable right now.
I'm much more concerned with the WR corps than JJ.
Yeah, they are not good. Cam is good but I think he is being utilized incorrectly. And Savoy has shown some competence. Carroll makes the occasional 3rd down conversion. Other than those three...nothing.
Yeah Cam is being used incorrectly because we have no other outside threat. Thats one reason the Farley injury was such a bummer. Would have potientally allowed Cam to run the short to intermediate routes he dominates at. A shame that he graduates next year and we gain at least 3 outside threats in Farley, Hazelton, and Turner
Yeah, Cam to me is best utilized as a short/intermediate pass that allows him to make moves. Not jumpballs.
The offense was flat today. No big deal. Moving on.
I was glad to see Holston get some reps. All rbs earn time.
Our 3rd down conversion rate is terrible right now. We don't have the depth on defense to keep that up. If we can start converting some 3rd downs, I'll feel a little better.
Because we are so pass heavy. We're typically passing at least once prior to third. That means we are making first before we reach third down or we're in third and a mile. We're not a team that will see a lot of third and shorts.
I'm okay with it. I feel like we went deep too soon while the DBs were still fresh. Some things I'm thankful for:
- Coach Fuente isn't subjecting us to a multi-QB offense.
- Our Linemen didn't get 3 false starts in a row today.
- They didn't call a targeting foul.
- Slye hit a 50-yarder.
- CJ Carroll.
- ECU looked worse than LOLUVA today.
Hopefully we get a scoreboard result next week that's more palatable but I will never turn down a shutout.
-Greg Stroman
Welcome to Virginia Tech Football. Shit hasn't changed in 20 years.
Whew - really? Pre Fuente we get several delay of games, timeouts used to prevent delay of games, and several offsides. None of that today. Very different.
Your facts have no place in a hot take thread.
Two things that will keep us in every game:
1. We aren't committing penalties. That is a big deal.
2. We aren't turning the ball over. That is a bigger deal.
J.J. will mature, the WR's will get better. My biggest concerns are the DL depth and the continued struggle of the OL to generate anything that resembles a run game.
...and other than Joey in a slump (which will likely change), we outplayed them on special teams again. Give Oscar number 25!
Hate this fan base sometimes. This was a greater margin of victiory than LU last year and against W&M in 2014. We will be fine. Teams have stinkers every once in awhile, I'd rather have it today than any other week.
Bama beat their cupcake by 31 today. The Hokies took care of their cupcake by 27 and the D posted a donut... All on a short week, after a VERY dramatic first game.
What's the problem?
Just as no good deed goes unpunished, we can't let any win go unscrutinized.
Also
Well to be fair, im sure most p5 teams would expect their offense to score more than two TD'a against an fcs team.
Still, we were coming off an emotional game at an NFL stadium on national tv to play a less game exciting team at home, while Delaware was playing their super bowl today. It's not what we wanted but it's easy to see why it happened, but in the future I'd agree we want better offensive execution
I understand it, but the mental aspect of what you're describing is not the attitude of national championship teams.
I get it, but I hope the coaches don't use that excuse. Today's performance was somewhat of an execution mess, but I'm glad for the shutout win
To be fair, we are not a national championship team right now.
Since CornFu arrived in Blacksburg there have been times when the play design/play calls looked genius and times when they looked really gimmicky. Today the offense looked much too gimicky. Teams use gimmicks to make up for a deficit in talent, size, speed, etc. At times it felt like we were the FCS team relying on misdirection and gotcha plays to hang with a superior team. We averaged less than 3 yards per rush and had 10 offensive points through 3 quarters against an FCS team at home. Yes it is only the second game and yes we will improve. Still, I would like to see a little less slight of hand and a lot more big boy smash mouth football.
Also Keene had a rough game. He was very tentative blocking.
The days of VT smash mouth are over for the foreseeable future. We may have been able to line up and rammed the ball down Delaware's throat if we had tried to all game (then again, maybe not). But, one thing is clear, we are NOT going to be able to smash mouth ANY of the tough teams we play this year - Clemson, Miami, etc. We need repetition at the brilliant outmaneuvering plays that are in our arsenal. The lollipop over the top that was so successful with Sam Rogers was open today, and JJ whiffed the pass. Other wide-open plays were whiffed as well like some of the bombs that were dropped. We need these next couple games to iron that stuff out.
There were times last year when we did it. The end of the game against Duke and Pitt come to mind. We held the ball, got 4-5 yards a carry even though they were putting 8-9 guys in the box and physically dominated them. You're right though. That style of football isn't fundamental to our scheme.
Yes the pop pass was wide open but that play is harder to execute than it looks. Evans and Rogers made it look a lot easier than it actually is. Agree that there were a lot of open receivers over the middle. JJ will hit the film room and be more confident pulling the trigger on some of those throws.
On to ECU. Focused on going 1-0.
To expound on this a bit: based on French's reviews, I'd put quite a bit of money down that there were plays earlier in the game that set up those 4-5 yard/rush plays so that they would be successful in influencing the defensive reads late in the game.
Also, defenses were tired which allows for better running game
Screw that. I say we go like 60-0 on ECU. /s
My favorite Fuente quote from the postgame is that we went 2-0 this week.
Have a massive tendency to up vote your posts regardless of content because I feel like I'm getting one of those timeless Kenny Powers monologues.
I agree, ignoring everything else, we should be able to line up and run on Delaware.
(1) As I'm get used to this staff I think those "tricks" are shown in games like these to affect future games. That fake qb power to Mcmillian on the outside, the pop-pass that looked like an option, a couple others, we show those in a game that doesn't matter to make sure future opponents are defending that play at all times. Next time we run that qb power and the rb runs into the flat, we're going to draw a LB and have a numbers advantage. In games like this we don't run trickeration to win, we do it to set up future plays
(2) Have you watched Clemson's D-line play? We ain't lining up and beating that group. Gonna need some tricks.
Lined up with I think was a worse O-line last year and almost beat them.
I feel like every yard we gained last year up until the 4th quarter was due to trickeration and great coaching/play calling.
And guts - our boys played their tails off in that game. Not always great but they went 110%, and the play calling on both sides of the ball was phenomenal.
That's the playbook now so I'm not sure what your are looking for.
I'm not sure what you're arguing? We played well against Clemson but we were outclassed in talent and athleticism, I'm not totally convinced what we did on offense is repeatable. We'll have plenty of tricks and wrinkles this year, but it's hard to win like that consistently against top teams. We certainly can't just line up and beat 'em, which is what this chain was about.
That RPO's, play actions and options aren't trick plays. It is the playbook, I trust Fuente and Corn to do the same things to keep the good guys in the game, this OL is better than last years so I'm not sure why more concerned than last year?
I meant to edit my post but we are attempting to make the exact same point. Start of thread was about wanting to line up and physically dominate an opponent, my point was that that's not our identity anymore and besides, that would never work against teams like Clemson anyways.
And I am roughly just as worried about Clemson as I was last year. A tremendous challenge but we've got a chance.
My only qualm was that this was a rather unimpressive showing, ...am I worried moving forward? Against Miami and Clemson, maybe, but nobody else.
Defense inspired a lot of hope from me though. At least we've always got that, right? #bailusoutbud
First attempt embedding a tweet from my phone, but I'd listen to the head man himself before getting too down on things.
Fuente sounded pleased given the short week and had nothing but good things to say about JJ and his ability to run the offense. I'd wait for the ECU and ODU games before coming down harder on JJ and the offense.
The best part is we won the game and we didn't have any big injuries. On to the pirates.
How did you do that from twitter app on phone?
It is a little bit involved, but I think it is worth the effort.
I hope this helps and makes enough sense to help you out. It is definitely a game changer for posting here on my phone. I'd also like to thank Google for helping me figure out how to request the desktop site from Safari and other TKPers for mentioning that you could request the desktop sites from a mobile device.
Reminds me of this:
I mean it's Fuentes job to pump up his starting QB. It would be foolish not too. There are hell of a lot of good teaching points to come from this game though. Hopefully they'll be harder on him in the film room. I full expect that.
I right there with you and expect him to be harder in the film room. When I saw the tweet I was excited to hear the interview thinking Fuente would be a little upset, but instead he was happy to get the W on a short week and give his guys a chance to have a week of lighter practices to recover from the WVU game. I'm anxious to see how the offense looks at ECU.
I was pretty frustrated through out the game for obvious reasons but I had to keep reminding myself that this was JJ's 2nd game. Every team will have their stinkers but I will also say our D showed up today.
I do expect us to be 4-0 going into the Clemson game, whether they are blowout games our ugly games for the next 2 games. The Clemson game will be a good measuring stick to where we are as a team.
As picky as i was in game thread it was all about the execution to me, and i chalk most of that up to short week and lack of focus. I think its WAY too early to start having negativity towards JJ and the offense. He's a smart, fundamentally aound player that's in his 2nd college football game. He's coachable and we have great qg coaches in CornFu. Not worried. Plus he doesn't turn the ball over easily.
The rest of the offense needs experience but it was a missed opportunity that none of the 2nd and 3rd stringers took advantage of tbis opportunity to solidify their playing time going forward.
Defense was asleep most game but came on when needed and especially late.
Anyway, execution and focus were the enemies today. Short week. Big win. Good thing we weren't playing JMU again
If our defense can sleep through most of the game and shut anyone out then I'm scared for everyone left on our schedule.
Without giving my review away, they looked like a team that wasn't prepared for Delaware's scheme and physicality in their front 3. Jackson was very slow and tentative to fit the ball into windows in their zone (or run) and the route structure didn't have receivers sitting down in holes. Some verticals came open, but I didn't see any good zone busting routes where the zones got flooded. Jackson wasn't good. He badly underthrew McMillian on a wheel route and was late on several throws. Up front, the OL wasn't coming off their combo blocks and that left the LBs free.
Third down efficiency continues to be a huge worry.
That being said, this wasn't the Hokies real offense. It was incredibly vanilla with very little symbiotic play structure outside of the quarterback power-swing series which produced a touchdown, the near miss on the jump pass to McMillian, and two ugly losses.
To me it looked like the coaches were really holding Jackson back, much like the first few series last week. That can get in a kid's head. I think Coach Fuente really, really emphasizes game mgmt, and ball security. That's great and all, but every now and then, gotta let em sling it around and ball out.
To me it looked like CJ Carroll was finding some holes in the zone and camping there, but JJ missed him most of the time.
I fought tooth and nail to watch this game but only managed to get a few minutes here and there. Overall, I assume we're all disappointed. But I also assume offense was super vanilla.
I have a feeling like we were playing with our food a little today.
Luckily we got the donut- they missed a chip shot field goal. But we made their defense look good and it's a little hard to process. I'll wait for French to figure that out.
Did you catch much of the Clemson game?
Clemson had a rough time scoring, but they aren't easy to score on either. It's early on but it's looking like our game with them will be an ugly one
Clemson played AUBURN!
Not like Auburn has done a lot this year to prove they are a dominate team. The win against Ga Southern isn't looking so great today.
They also had 11 sacks
I think the game ball should go to Whit Babcock. If this was a Noon kick I feel our offense would have been even more lethargic lol. I would like to see McClease get the bulk of the carries. He seems to scrap out at least 4 yards where McMillian and Peoples get about 2. Would of liked to see some more intermediate routes instead of going for all the long balls in early downs to try and get the offense in more of a rhythm.
I completely agree on the McClease call. I think Peoples should be 3rd on depth chart behind McMillan and McClease. I'm really hoping we can take care of business against ECU and ODU and have a chance at College Gameday in Blacksburg for Clemson.
Anyone have any thoughts on Joey Sly? He's kicking at 50% making 3 of 6 this year, 2 of those misses were on kicks under 39 yards. I'm a little concerned as Kicking is more mental than anything. We all know he's strong and built like a LB,I just hope he can get through this rough patch. I would love for VT to have some healthy kicking competition and create more of a kicking battle between our kickers. Sly's been great in the past as he only missed 8 in 2014, 7 in 2015 and 7 in 2016 averaging around 75% for the year. One bright spot is Sly made his first 50 Yard FG today, he's 1-10 on 50+FGs in his career at Tech. Seriously not trying to sound like a Debby Downer, I just know this will bite us in the ass this year in ACC play if we can't improve.
Joey Slye has never been a good kicker but people don't like to admit that because it's cool to have a LB as a kicker.
^facts. Still love a LB as a kicker though!
I like the guy, but I get attacked whenever I mention that he's unreliable.
... at field goals!
I think he's still batting 1.000 for touch backs this season.
Yeah, that happens a lot on TKP. Same thing happens last year when people had concerns over Motu in coverage. People get so pissed but forget thats the whole reason for team depth. Always got another man waiting and working to get his shot.
But he's an improvement IMO. Who would you rather have, Slye or Journell?
Not factoring in Journell's idiocy, Journell was a better kicker and it's not even close.
Journell was a career 83.33% kicker for kicks shorter than 40 yards. For 40 and over he was 63.63% compared to Slye's 50.00% although Slye has attempted 10 kicks of 50+ to Journell's 2.
Except inside the 40 he is above 90 percent, so actual statistics say he is a good kicker.
Sorry, I only go off facts. He's 77.7 percent inside the 40, not 90%.
last year (2016) he was 1-6 on FG 40-49 yards but was 13-16 in 2015. He hasn't had any attempts this season in the 40-49 Yard range.
This year, overall he is per ESPN after WVU 92 percent. Now past 40 he is iffy and his first 50 yard make was yesterday so he isn't all world but to call him a bad kicker I mean come on, every coach wants a kicker who won't miss inside the 50.
He is 47 of 53 for his career on attempts under 40 yards. This gives him a FG% of 88.68% not 77.7%.
So that's updated after past Saturday thanks,
If you ignore all of Josh Jackson's incompletions actual statistics say he has the highest completion % ever
The vast majority of kicks are inside the 40. Do you blame a QB for a Hail Mary pass not connecting?
Is he not a good kicker? I admit i have never looked at the statistics but my memory has him as fairly good for us.
Fedex is terrible for kicking historically but that shouldn't be an excuse. Outside of that game though where is he underperforming?
During today's Redskins game, I swear most of the kicks for both teams looked like they had some sort of invisible string pulling at them. The kick would go up, and then it looked like it would turn for no reason, and then just barely go through the uprights. Except for the one missed XP.
Slye missed from 46 and 51, and then made one from 50. That's telling me that the offense isn't getting close enough to the goal posts for him.
The two he missed at FedEx were so close they almost touched the wrong side of the goal posts.
Slye is Slye. He's the best kicker we have, so no point in worrying about him.
I was thinking Slye is a slow starter, so to the data......
He's a 55% fg kicker over his career in Sept.
87% in Oct, 67% in Nov and 85% in Dec.
So, yeah, he's a slow starter. And consider he slid two right the first game with a new holder and missed two long ones in game 2 (one was blocked), he may be fine.
we'll be fine, they have to see how the team will do with Vanilla plays in case the situation arises. And well I guess we saw what they do. I wouldn't worry about how the coaches are bringing along Jackson. Its just how it is with these coaches, One game at a time. Josh will be fine the rest of the year, he's very mature and business like.
Watching live in the stadium was frustrating. It did not feel like a 27 point shutout victory. The offense had no rhythm. We just refused to run consistently until the end when Holston closed out the game. The pass routes were puzzling. We frequently ran 3 or 4 deep routes that took a long time to develop. They did not seem to give Jackson many dump off or intermediate routes. And then they left Jackson in til the end. All of it seemed like they were stubbornly working on certain aspects of the offense. They played a ton of WRs. I think everyone but Patterson got snaps. The o line looks lazy but adequate. It was nice to see Holston get reps
The d looked okay once they got dialed in. We still need d line depth badly. It is a big dropoff from starters to 2nd string. The safeties and whip we're very active. Reggie Floyd seemed like he was everywhere and aggressive.
I think the team was just flat after Sunday they have flaws to fix or cover up, but the potential is there The cap to a beautiful day in Blacksburg was Moto giving his game gloves to my kids. Really nice guy. All in all, a damn decent day in Blacksburg.
Sigh
The receivers and Jackson are really young so I would expect their game to be up and down this early in the season. However the O-line and running backs have enough experience that they should be running all over a FCS team. Its the same old crap from last year. Only now Tech doesn't have Evans running to bail them out.
Tech O-line was having all kinds of trouble with an FCS 3 man rush. I lost count on the number of 3 & outs. We couldn't get our running game going at all. Coach Fuente said after the game that they were expecting to be held on the running game as run defense is a strength of Delaware.
Only three. Well, four with the 3 & FG at the end of the game.
Delaware had eight 3 & Outs.
I was disappointed. Yes, we won and had a shutout, but i didn't feel good about it. Reason: progression.
Frank always said you make your most progress between game 1 and game 2. Today felt like regression for both the offense and defense.
We used to bemoan Frank for games like this (Furman, etc), then win a couple and lay a complete egg down the road. I fear that for this team.
Our offense is just too inexperienced and our OLine is pretty undersized. I saw a shocking stat on r/cfb that our OLine by size is the 3rd worst in the ACC.
Our DL is also pretty concerning at this point. We got almost no penetration against WVU and the trend continued (at least until the 4Q) this game.
Everyone on the two deep save one is over 300lbs. I'm shocked that's considered undersized now.
It isn't undersized.
Jackson's second game. We worked all offseason on the game plan to beat WVU, now it's time to experiment a little and develop capabilities to take on a team like Clemson. Delaware, ECU, and ODU provide a good opportunity to do that.
The good news is we still put up 27 all-purpose points, and the defense did what they should have. No major worries from me right now, but Clemson's defense looks really aggressive and really good.
I don't think the offense will look great against Clemson, but that's a pretty high bar.
In going to wait until we actually lose to really get upset about anything. Until then, we are making the playoffs!
I won't be getting worked up over things I saw happen in one game. I have, however, noticed things over the course of both games that are concerning.
DT depth: Hewitt spends more time on the ground than on his feet.
Jackson has under thrown several long balls. Two passes early in the game would have been homeruns with a better throw. Clark's pass, with a bit more lead, would have kept the defender out of the picture.
Still not impressed with what I have seen out of Gaines. Belmar had a few solid moments.
DEs lose contain more than I'd like to see.
McMillian is being tentative. Peoples doesn't always see holes. He just tends to run until he hits something.
I'm still waiting on the Swiss Army knife H back moment for Keene. Thus far, it has been a blocking position that runs a few routes.
If we see these same things next week, you might be justified in getting your panties in a bunch. Until then, ride it out. We are 2-0 and healthy.
I want to see McClease and Holston get more touches. I keep waiting for McMillian to get it going and he just doesn't do it.
Speaking of Jerod, whats the latest on dude? I know he didn't make it with the Eagles, but is he signed to a practice squad anywhere or anything?
EDIT: its so hard to type coherently on your 12th hour of the overnight shift.
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2017/may/16/2017-professional-football...
He is not.
Well that sucks
He was put on IR by the Eagles at one point, so I doubt he's going to play anywhere this season because of the injury anyway. Real shame.
Josh wasn't perfect and missed some throws, but he made a few that we haven't seen from a VT qb in some time. The 30 yard pass in the 3rd (?, i think) to an open receiver in bracketed coverage, drops right over the short db but enough velocity to beat the deep db to the spot, incredible throw. And then the Cam td, he gets creamed standing in the pocket but still hits an open man placing the ball in the back of the endzone where only his guy could possibly get it (but still right on his hands). I think we tend to forget that Jerod would go 3+ quarters unable to hit simple throws and we still broke records. Can't expect JJ to be perfect yet, but he's flashed some crazy upside.
The staff clearly wanted to work on the passing game in the first half. I think ConrFu had enough trust in Foster to keep them in the game that they were willing to experiment. The o-line though under performed and that is a big concern. We are 2 games in and are 2-0, stop freaking out. We are playing a lot of young guys who will get better as the season progresses. We get ECU who has looked horrible in their first 2 games. Will probably be another vanilla game.
I will never sleep on ECU. Ever!
happy with the win. My dad reminded me that VT typically plays down to their opponent. While it sounds like some expiramentation and sloppy play, at least we came away 27-0 and wasn't a heart attack game.
Question - how patient should we be with Kumah's development? He is not getting any separation. I'd kind of like to see Clark get the majority of the reps. I know his hands aren't great but at least he can stretch the D. Kumah isn't adding much to this Offense right now (although he is young and will get better).
TL;DR but I was concerned at first but after thinking it over I think CJF wanted JJ to stay in the pocket and work on timing and passing as much as he could.
There were many times when he had plenty of time and what looked liked miles of green in front of him only to see him throw it out of bounds. That frustrated me at first but now that I think about it I believe CJF didn't want him to run to put more needless wear and tear on his body and risk injury in running it. We saw from the WVU game that he can and will run when needed.
Good game to work things out. Obviously still getting little push from our OL for the RBs is concerning. I don't think we've had a decent running attack since David Wilson. And it was best when DE and RMFW were there. I blame Drew Harris.
Defense played lights out for the most part. Offense didn't give them much breaks as we saw from TOP but they still got the goose-egg. Yes depth on DL is probably the most concerning point. But we got the win. Need to work out kinks the next two games and come into the Clemson game as strong as we can.
Should I still be concerned?
This has the makings of a new TKP Valentine's Day card.
Oh my goodness you need to make a reasonably sized version of this and start a new thread for a caption battle on this image. Brilliant.
Feeling better about of the offense today even if we played the worst defense in the Country. And we beat them better than WVU did.
I may be experiencing new season bias, but it feels like JJ has more completed passes of 20+ yds, in 3 games, than Evans had all season. Yeah, last 2 games weren't the best competition, but Evans had similar competition through 3 games, with more experience WR's. He simply struggled with long passes. Evans had the bigger arm. JJ has better accuracy.
I think you mean there were drops.
JJ showed the touch on passes in game that put him legitimately in the running to start last year over Evans.
There is no question in my mind he is the more accurate passer.
Evans more passionate/angry/volatile
Jj very different - chill vibe, controlled, error-free to date, anti gunslinger.
Evans passion bailed us out many times last year. Will see how jj delivers vs Clemson.
It's kind of like Maverick vs. Ice Man. Both are great pilots and both can kill you; the methods are different. Though, Maverick became more like Ice Man in the end. I think JJ is more like Fuente personality wise. Fuente likes to lay in wait and strike. That takes cold calculation.
No, I mean Evans struggled throwing deeper passes. Very few of the 20+ yd passes that he threw were actually thrown 20+ yds in the air. JJ on the other hand has had a number of them (at least a half dozen, if not a full dozen).
So, your feeling is definitely not accurate, but JJ has had more 20+ yard completions over the first 3 games than Evans had over the first 3 games.
JJ has had 15
Evan had 9
Evans took major risks which caused us to hold a breaths waiting for disaster. With Ford, Hodges and Phillips more often than not those risks paid off. The drama made the big gains more noticeable because of the opposite than expected outcome. When JJ makes a huge pass play it's not as noticeable because it looks like it made sense and should have been a huge play. JJ = Predictable outcomes which is why he is the starter.
See I don't feel that at all. Evans was quite good throwing the ball. He didn't throw many picks at all. Now he certainly fumbled the ball, but he was also utilized in the run game heavily. I also think the OLine has been better with protection so far. JJ is getting loads of time in the pocket to make throws.
JJ is safer for sure, but Evans was unfortunately forced to be the work horse for a limp run game.
But he over threw a huge % of his deep balls (20+ yds). JJ's had a number of them dropped and has hit a large number of them.
I'm not saying JJ should have started last year. Evans was great for this team, it's just an area where JJ is better (just like Evans run game is better than JJ's).
What was the percentage?
This just shows that we're all irrational
Except, you know, all the people that weren't worried after the Delaware game.
Okay, we all have irrational *moments*
Try not to wrench your shoulder
I'm worried we scored too many points yesterday. /s
What if we don't have enough left over at the end of the season to properly break the Lane Stadium North scoreboard?
Regardless of whether we break the scoreboard or not, we'll still have more points on the board than they will have fans in the stadium.
Sooo, You are calling a 2-0 defensive masterpiece?
Wasn't able to watch the game yesterday, but two things to keep in mind:
JJ has some of the best poise for a freshman QB I have ever seen. He is always so cool and collected. Composure like that is rare for a young QB.
Also, I know it was well after the game was in hand, but was anyone else incredibly impressed with AJ Bush? I wish there was some way to get him on the field more. Really impressive running the ball with speed and size. I feel really good about our QB depth after yesterday.
I left the game before they put Bush in, anyone know where to find some highlights?