Virginia Tech's Offense Misfires on all Cylinders in Winston-Salem

Well, another loss and another Sunday spent clearing my head outdoors before settling down to watch film. This week, I tried cross country skiing for the first time; it was actually quite a lot of fun, but I digress. When I sat down and tried to figure out what happened versus Wake Forest, I didn't even bother watching Foster's defense. The clear culprit was the Hokies' offense, and it was an all encompassing failure. I think Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler got it right when he said, "You name it, we didn't do it," To be fair, J.C. Coleman had a very good game, and I liked what I saw from Brenden Motley running the Wild Turkey. Outside of those individual performances, and a few other highlights, we had a very lackluster performance across the board.

I'm going to start off with what I think was the most disappointing play of the game, a third-and-five from the first overtime.

Any idea what I think is the most displeasing aspect of this play? If you said Michael Brewer (VT - No. 12) not throwing it to Bucky Hodges (VT - No. 7) right away, then you get a point for trying, but that's not the most correct answer. While Brewer may have been able to fit a pass in there, the defender had Hodges pretty well covered, so I don't mind Brewer not forcing it and looking for a better option. What troubles me the most is how we were unable to execute a simple WR pick. Executing this pick correctly could have won the game for us. Keeping in mind everything else that had occurred leading up to this point, we were still in a great position to win it in OT. A hefty dose of Coleman picked up a first down, then two more J.C. runs netted 5 yards which set up the third-and-five. Loeffler called a nice rollout for Brewer to his throwing (right) side. The plan here was to hit Hodges in the flat and have him stroll on in to the end zone. That absolutely should have happened. Isaiah Ford (VT - No. 1, top of the screen) was in a great position to set a legal pick on Hodges' defender and whiffed. He did nothing to alter the path of Ryan Janvion (WF - No. 22).

At the very least, Ford could've run his sit route to force Janvion more downfield in coverage. That way, we would have at least got the first down and maybe still scored. Maybe Ford hesitated thinking he would be called for offensive pass interference? I don't know, but receivers practice this all the time, the coaches teach it, and it's not illegal if you do it correctly. This is a huge miss for our offense here, because we could have ended the game on this play. I think I watched this play 20 times thinking what might have been.

Nevertheless, let's get to the rest of the film. I first want to highlight two bad balls by Brewer. Look, I understand that poor throws happen. Hell, my only pass in anything resembling a game situation (2009 spring game) needed one hop to make it to the receiver on a 5-yard out. Sometimes the ball doesn't release well. Unfortunately, Brewer had his fair share of those this game. With these two throws though, what I really want to point out is why they are bad throws, outside of just not being completions.

During our first drive of the game, we had moved the ball nicely to Wake's 36-yard-line. On first down, we had a WR screen with a missed block for no-gain and followed it up with an incomplete pass underneath on second down. On third-and-10 from a twin receiver set to the top and bottom of the screen we ran a switch route for Hodges.

Brewer tries to look off the safety with limited success, but Hodges gets a good jump off the ball and appears to gain a step on his man. I think Hodges ran a good enough route to where, if Brewer drops this pass between Hodges and the sideline, neither defender could affect the play. However, the pass is underthrown and more importantly, thrown to the inside of the field where the defense is better positioned. Hodges is forced to slow down to try and make a play on the ball. Simply put, this ball has to go between Hodges and the sideline, so that only Hodges can catch it. As a side note, when you see that second/third view it almost appears as if Hodges is more worried about the pick than making the catch, so he tries to bat the ball downward? If so, that is certainly a clear indication that the ball is not thrown in a great place.

The second throw happened in the second half, in which Brewer did not have a good start. Our first drive had 3 really poorly thrown balls, two were short passes over the heads of the receivers, and one was an underthrown comeback route. In this clip, we see another poorly thrown ball by Brewer to Carlis Parker (VT - No. 16).

If this ball is thrown more to the outside, and higher up on Parker's frame, the corner has no opportunity to make a play. However, the ball is slightly behind, giving room for the CB to defend the pass. Small misses like this really haunted Brewer throughout this game. Parker may have been able to help Brewer out by coming back to the ball, but it appears his route is more of a speed out to the sideline instead of working back to the quarterback.

Much of what determines where Brewer might throw the ball is based on his pre-snap read. By reading the defense before he snaps the ball, Brewer already has an idea in his head of what routes should be open / which side of the field to work. On this play, I'd like to see a better pre-snap read from Brewer.

Wake is in cover 6, meaning they have cover 4 to the field (each covering one quarter of the bottom half of the screen), and a cover 2 safety on the backside (covering the back side half of the field). Our receivers on the bottom of the screen run a deep switch route into the soft quarters coverage (tough to find an opening there). The third receiver from the bottom, Ryan Malleck (VT - No. 88) clears out over the middle of the field. Ford drags across from the top of the screen and is wide open almost immediately for the underneath completion. It appears Brewer tries to work the deep routes first. I think Brewer, pre-snap, should recognize that the switch routes into deep quarter coverage will probably not be open, because they have two deep defenders and a linebacker to cover underneath. Therefore, when the ball is snapped his eyes should go directly to the inside linebacker on the wide side of the field. If he runs with Malleck, Brewer has the underneath completion to Ford. If the linebacker jumps Ford's route, Malleck should be open for the quick hitter over the middle. Especially on a first down play, I think the first read should be the TE/drag combo not the home run. Plus, getting rid of this ball quickly probably means the holding call never occurs.

Outside of a sub-par day throwing the ball, I think there were a couple of occasions where Brewer and his receivers were not quite on the same page, or some mistakes happened between them that you shouldn't see this late in the season.

Something is off between what Brewer is thinking and what Byrn (VT - No. 82) runs. Brewer throws this ball early (not because of pressure, it seems more due to timing), but Byrn is not in position to catch the ball. Byrn appears to get out of his break cleanly enough, so maybe Brewer is expecting more of a speed cut (similar to what Malleck runs from the slot at the top of the screen) rather than a sharp cut? Either way, the timing is off, the throw is off target, and we are forced to punt. When Brewer got to the sideline after that play, it appeared he spoke with wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead, further convincing me something went awry between QB and WR.

The next clip is the swing-pass-lateral-turnover in the middle of the 4th quarter.

First, Cam Phillips (VT - No. 18) whiffs on his block. Second, both Brewer and Hodges need to do their part to make sure this ball is a forward throw. The spatial relationship between QB and WR here has to enable a forward pass. I bet the pressing defender caught Brewer's eye, if only slightly, factoring in to where Brewer placed the ball. Even so, you cannot afford to have this be a backwards lateral.

Wake's secondary defenders were very quick to break on the ball throughout the game, making it tough for our WRs to get to their blocks. On this next play, the announcers give praise to the Wake d-line for disrupting the blocking scheme, but really the play is made by Kevin Johnson (WF - No. 9).

Phillips is lined up to the top of the screen and is responsible for blocking Johnson on this counter run. Johnson charges as soon as he reads the handoff, Phillips takes a bad angle and doesn't make the block. Phillips does get credit for at least moving on to the next guy after his miss, but his miss leads to Malleck having to choose who to block between Brandon Chubb (WF - No. 48) and Johnson. Malleck engages Johnson well, but Chubb is free to make the tackle. It's a good play by Wake's defense, coupled with poor blocking by VT.

The reason I gave Phillips props for moving on from his missed block earlier is because you see the opposite here.

On this inside zone read to Sam Rogers (VT - No 45), David Wang (VT - No, 76) turns to chase after defender that passes by him. I'm very surprised to see this from our redshirt senior leader. Wang is a smart kid and has been around this team for a while. He should know that it's never going to help to chase after someone that's already by you. Coaches will always prefer you move on find someone else to go block. I'm not even convinced it's really a bad miss, and it does not affect the play in the backfield. What does affect the play though, is Wang standing in the hole with no one to block. If he keeps moving forward, and picks up the next defender to show, Rogers easily gains the first down. Missed blocks certainly hurt, but hesitation and indecision is much more frustrating.

Later in the game, more indecision by Wang really hurt us. To start off the 4th quarter (including the last play of the 3rd quarter) we looked like we going to put something together. Coleman had a nice scramble down the sideline, and Brewer had some good completions on a dig route to Hodges and a swing pass to Malleck. Once we crossed midfield, we found ourselves in 3rd-and-a-manageable-5. Out of a tight formation, Wake was in man coverage against our crossing routes underneath, which very well could have resulted in a completion and third down conversion. However, our protection was unable to keep Wake's rush from getting to Brewer.

Wake rushes 6, and we have 6 in protection. The blitzer times it well, putting Wang in a bind. I think instead of picking a guy and blocking him, Wang tries to stiff arm and slow both defenders. This doesn't work, both get through and Rogers is left with two men to block. We could argue that Rogers should have picked up the blitzer with more momentum, but I think Rogers was fine here. I'd like to see Wang commit to one defender instead, knowing he has Rogers behind him. This was a critical third down that we needed to convert to keep the drive alive.

Before I finish this review on a positive note, I want to briefly touch on the play calling. One thing I noticed during the game is that we had a lot of plays where we'd have jet motion across the formation right as we snapped the ball. I think we've gotten too focused on making every play look like every other play, with similar fakes/action across the board. Meaning, we have jet sweeps on a lot of our plays, with the idea that we could be running/passing on every play. Sure play fakes are good, but like a lot of people have pointed out, this cutesy type of play calling can get complex and ends up taking players away from moving downfield. If we're going to include that jet sweep action, why not do it more with the Wild Turkey and Motley? At least the threat of Motley running will force defenses to defend it differently than if Brewer runs it.

Anyway, when I first saw this next play on film, I was quite baffled. Our first down play got blown up in the backfield, so we were sitting at second-and-16. Brewer gets sacked, but I'm going to chalk it up as a coverage sack, even though its more of a "this play had no chance" sack.

Let's look at the options Brewer had to throw to. Option 1: WR split to the bottom of the screen (I can't tell the number, maybe it's Ford). He runs either a go route into a soft zone coverage, or maybe breaks it off into a comeback/out. Either way it's a long / tough throw for Brewer. Option 2: Phillips in the slot running the dig route to the opposite side of the formation into a web of 5 Wake Forest defenders. Option 3: The swing route off the jet sweep action 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage covered by the linebacker. Nothing here is a good option; I just don't understand this play design. The jet sweep is designed to pull a defender, so that can't be expected to be a open throw, and the two other receivers aren't even running routes that compliment each other. My hope was that Phillips just ran the wrong route. Brewer wasn't given anything to work with here, all he really could have done different was to sail the ball over the head of his swing route for an incomplete pass rather than a sack.

However, later on in the game, we see the exact same play again. This time though, Wake is in man coverage, so instead of the dig route (this time run by Parker) running into coverage, he's actually somewhat open. Brewer opts for the 1-on-1 ball to Phillips instead. Not a terrible decision, but it's also not something that has proven itself very effective for us over the year.

Seeing this play again tells me that when Loeffler called it before, it was executed as designed, but he was expecting man coverage. This also tells me that either he or Brewer should recognize this and call a timeout to change the play rather than find ourselves in third and, as Jesse Palmer says, California.

The next play is a good example of what I am talking about when I say complementary routes. We have a somewhat similar setup as before. Malleck and Rogers staying in to block, a jet sweep swing route by Ford, and 2 WRs running routes downfield (Hodges and Phillips). This time, you'll see the routes by Ford, Hodges and Phillips all act to help each other out.

First, Phillips clears out down the field, giving space for Hodges to drag across to the sideline. The jet sweep swing by Ford pulls Wake Forest corner (No. 11?) upfield enough to give Brewer room to drop a nice ball in behind him to Hodges. The end zone view gives you an idea of how small that window is, and how much having the swing route there to occupy the CB is what allows that pass to be completed.

This was a heavily negative review, so let's end with something more positive. I'd like to commend Willie Byrn on the great route he runs in this play. Coming out of the slot to the top of the screen, he runs a very nice shake route, meaning he sets up in one spot in front of the defender, gives a quick shake and moves across the field. Matching up Byrn with a LB underneath works well in our favor. Actually I really like how this play set up for us, with twins to either side, and Wake setting up in Cover 4 (4 high safeties, each responsible for a deep quarter of the field). This coverage allows for more opening underneath, and for a great run after the catch by Byrn.

This game was truly a total offensive collapse. I don't expect everything to be corrected in the short week versus Virginia, I just hope enough is fixed to help us keep the streak alive. Have a great Thanksgiving everybody!