Virginia Tech's Offensive Line Must Continue to Improve at Pass Blocking

It is easy to forget that the Hokies ran the football very effectively over the course of the last four games of the 2014 season. Tech notched 145, 111, 198 and 210 yards against Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia and Cincinnati, respectively. In each of the final four games, the returning members of the starting offensive line group dominated solid defensive fronts, so their excellent performance in the spring game wasn't all that surprising.

Unfortunately, the left ankle injury to Jonathan McLaughlin against Boston College last fall forced offensive line coach Stacy Searels to insert a raw Wade Hansen in at right tackle down the stretch, and while the running game was proficient, quarterback Michael Brewer took a frightful beating. Hansen's raw technique and lack of speed forced the Hokies offense to roll pass protections and use max protect schemes (often keeping dangerous receiver Ryan Malleck in to block) to compensate. Too often, even those measures didn't work. Wake Forest manipulated the Hokies into rolling slide protection blocking away from blitzes while UVA's Max Valles simply overwhelmed Hansen until Augie Conte was moved outside and Scot Loeffler started to use alignment to force Valles out into coverage. McLaughlin sometimes struggled with speed rushers and blitzes as a left tackle as a freshman, so the prospect of having two starting tackles that don't have great track records in pass protection was a frightening proposition going into spring practice.

The story of spring football practice was the Tech offense's unprecedented success against Bud Foster's defense. It is logical to expect that the number of deep touchdown passes delivered by Michael Brewer during the spring were facilitated by excellent pass protection. The film doesn't quite support that conclusion.

Many of the deep touchdown passes featured superior double moves against young, inexperienced defensive backs, and Michael Brewer often did a masterful job of stepping up into the pocket against edge pressure. That edge pressure was there because McLaughlin and Hansen were still at a disadvantage in pass protection situations against starter-caliber defensive ends. I struggled writing this column because I did not want to be overly critical. Watching drills thanks to Snapchat and the spring footage, I marveled at the compete level demonstrated by both McLaughlin and Hansen. They didn't give up on plays, and by maintaining contact after being beaten they often gave Brewer and Brenden Motley extra moments to get a ball down field. Similar plays at the end of last season would often have resulted in a Hokie quarterback prone on the turf. The attitude and compete level was off the charts for both players; yet despite those factors, the lack foot speed and the resulting impact on technique from both tackles ultimately will be worrisome when the Hokies face top notch defensive ends.

First, let's look at a relatively benign play where the edge rush isn't a factor. Brenden Motley throws a quick curl route to Cam Phillips. Let's focus closely on Hansen's technique here. On a quick throw, he wants to take away any inside rush and get the defender's hands down. After initial contact, his goal is to drive the defender up field. How does he do?

At first glance, it appears that Hansen does a good job. Dadi Nicolas is forced outside and has no impact on Motley's throw. Closer inspection of the tape sees some technique flaws that hurt Hansen later in the scrimmage. Nicolas has a huge speed advantage on Hansen, and Hansen compensates for the speed difference by pumping his arms to help get him into an intercept point between Dadi and the quarterback. In doing so, he makes a cardinal error. By dropping his arms to help his movement, he allows Dadi to initiate contact. In my experience, as a pass blocker you want to make contact with the defender before they contact you. This allows you to dictate their first move and take away some of the defender's momentum that comes with firing out of a sprinter's stance. When the defender makes contact first, he retains all his momentum for a bull rush. It also allows him to set up leverage. When you freeze the film after the first stride, Hansen's hands are down by his side. On the flip side, McLaughlin's hands pop Vinny Mihota as he strides backwards. As result, McLaughlin retains a good angle, while Hansen's right shoulder is facing his own goal post by the time he makes contact.

This technique flaw makes Hansen very susceptible to an outside rush when the quarterback has to execute a slower developing play or a deep pass. Here, Hansen again drops almost perpendicular to the line of scrimmage and doesn't throw his hands to contact Dadi on his first or second stride.

This allows Dadi to dictate the play. Dadi delivers an outside slap and rip move and is only denied a sack because Motley avoids contact. Even when Hansen was able to slide hard to the outside and take away the edge, his labored movement prevented him from early contact. The lack of contact allowed Dadi to use his speed to fake outside and then cut back underneath Hansen on the inside. Early contact is risky. Any miss means the defensive end has an unabated path to the quarterback. However, it is critically important that Hansen improve on dictating the play by engaging the pass rusher early. Hansen did a heck of a job on many plays by staying engaged even when he was beaten to allow the quarterback time to scramble. Engaging early and then sticking with the block gives the quarterbacks time to make an initial read and then step up in the pocket for secondary reads rather than taking their eyes off the receivers to avoid the initial rush.

As a freshman, Jonathan McLaughlin often was protected by Scot Loeffler with tight ends and backs using chip blocks. In space, he also struggled with speedy defensive ends. Here, Foster shows a blitz look from a 30 front, yet only sends his three down linemen. Vinny Mihota beats McLaughlin cleanly with rip move, while Dadi beats Hansen with a fake bull rush and a push-pull. The two intersect at Brenden Motley. This, more than anything else, was my most worrisome moment of the scrimmage.

With a second look, the blitz look could have caused both McLaughlin and Hansen to be nervous about their inside gap. Teams like Boston College and Wake Forest have feasted on the Hokies by causing confusion with blitz looks, and seeing McLaughlin and Hansen not trusting their interior linemen and backs with inside gap control when executing a true "cup protection" (straight drop back with the offensive line forming a cup rather than sliding the protection to one side or another) is troubling. Protecting against a blitz is a team effort. Each blocker must execute their assignment AND trust their teammates to take care of their own assignments. If you start leaning to protect other gaps, you will get beaten.

In the last two seasons, Loeffler protected his young tackles by often sliding his protection. Here is a great example. The Hokies slide their protection to their right. Hansen is allowed to overset to the outside because he knows Augie Conte is there to help him on any inside move by Dadi Nicolas. The entire Hokie offensive line protects the gap to their right, and J.C. Coleman fakes a dive and then slides out to the left edge.

The Hokie front occupies each of the gaps to their right, and Coleman slides outside to pick up the delayed blitz by C.J. Reavis. Coleman does an excellent job putting Reavis on the ground and Motley has a beautiful pocket to throw from. Motley misses a must throw, fortunately Michael Brewer completed a similar route later in the scrimmage.

Virginia Tech quarterbacks were sacked 34.0 times, third-worst in the ACC last season (ahead of Louisville [40.0] and Wake Forest [48.0]) . The Virginia Tech offensive line must protect Michael Brewer better to ensure that he can get through the season healthy. Improving the running game enables play-action and keeps the Hokies in more manageable third-down situations, but (as we saw against Wake Forest) ultimately Virginia Tech must make plays in the drop back passing game in order to sustain drives. The Hokie offensive tackles must improve their technique and blitz recognition in order to facilitate the desired offensive improvement, and they will be tested right off the bat by perhaps the best defensive lineman in college football in Joey Bosa.