Riding Out the Storm: Analyzing Virginia Tech's Win Over N.C. State

Lightning draped with ominous storm clouds affected the start of the Hokies' nationally televised Friday night game against North Carolina State. A lightning strike caused Virginia Tech to keep gates closed until shortly before kickoff, and the game started with in front of a surreal, desolate Lane Stadium. The Wolfpack jumped out to 10-0 lead early in the second quarter. The Pack had Bud Foster's defense off balance with a mix of short passes, end-around sweeps, and speed option. Scot Loeffler's offense could not generate any push against an average N.C. State defensive front. Things looked bleak for Virginia Tech and the Frank Beamer era.

And then, from seemingly nowhere, the offense found a spark. Brenden Motley faked an inside handoff to Travon McMillian and then found McMillian in the left flat for an 19-yard gain. The energy in Lane Stadium awoke. The Wolfpack slumped. Not even 15 minutes of football later, the Hokies found themselves with a 21-10 lead and a gorilla off their shoulders.

The formula was simple. The Hokies offensive line protected Motley. Tech's talented wide receivers found space. The running game was able to get just enough between the tackles to keep N.C. State honest. The defensive line started to play a more physical, north-south brand of football. The young secondary and linebackers made the tackles that they missed time and time again in losses to East Carolina and Pitt. Loeffler and Foster both made some adjustments that helped both units gain confidence and take away plays N.C. State had success with early.

Physicality Up Front and Overplaying the Speed Option

Like the Panthers did last week, N.C. State's interior ground ground focused on attacking DT Woody Baron and DE Ken Ekanem. Unlike Pitt, N.C. State mostly used zone blocking. Running back Matt Dayes (T-5th nationally with 10 TDs) found few seams inside. Ekanem and Baron fought through double teams and stood tall. Luther Maddy and Dadi Nicolas were unblockable back on the left side. Adonis Alexander had his most physical performance in run support as he, Terrell Edmunds, Chuck Clark, and Mook Reynolds all were solid supporting the run.

This play was emblematic all the good things I saw from the Hokies' defense after the first quarter. N.C. State ran an inside zone wham on 2nd-and-5 after a long drive into Virginia Tech territory. The Wolfpack doubles Baron and then pulls an H-back to kick out Ekanem to create a seam for Dayes.

Baron fits into his gap. Look at him chopping his feet violently trying to keep the offensive tackle from driving him inside. Ekanem squeezes the wham block and then works back to the outside with the running back. Baron limits Dayes' space. Ekanem makes a play. While it looks simple, to date I have not seen enough of the defensive ends getting off blocks and finding the football. Ekanem has played 5 really good quarters in a row. Clark forces on the edge, and Edmunds supports the tackle on the inside. Alexander is coming up in support as well.

I don't think it is a coincidence that Ekanem made this strong play immediately after getting a three play rest. Foster gave the second team defensive line of Steve Sobczak, Nigel Williams, Vinny Mihota, and Seth Dooley a couple of series. Those reps helped keep the starting defensive line group fresh. At the end of the game, Foster had the second defensive line group on the field as N.C. State made their last gasp attempt to get back into the game.

The Hokies slanted hard to the right and Deon Clarke blitzed from the left. The lightly recruited Sobczak (who has the build and technique to be a prototypical Bud Foster defensive tackle) delivers a beautiful swim move through the center and lays a lick on Brissett. Brissett still delivers a great pass. Brandon Facyson (who was spectacular in both inside and outside leverage all night) knocked the ball away to seal the game for the Hokies. There is still a significant drop off in play between the first and second d-line groups. However, in order to keep the energy level of the starters high, Foster will need to continue to give the second group work as the season grinds forward.

One play that N.C. State had a ton of success with was the speed option away from receiver motion when the Hokies deployed their Bear front. A quick look at the film showed why the play was so open for the Wolfpack. Pre-snap, Motuapuaka, Clarke, Reynolds, and Alexander are all on the boundary side of the center. Chuck Clark is in man coverage on the slot receiver. The slot receiver motions across the formation and Clark moves with him.

N.C. State uses the wide receiver to the top of the screen to crack back on Alexander. Donovan Riley is in man coverage and chases the receiver to the inside. Play side, the right tackle ignores Dadi Nicolas and blocks down to seal Motuapuaka inside. Nicolas takes the pitch. Alexander should have the pitch, yet he is blocked by the crack, and Riley is trapped inside. Nicolas has no help. N.C. State wins with numbers and motion.

Foster and the Hokies adjusted to the speed option look by keying on the pre-snap motion and shifting bodies away from the motion to take away that numbers advantage. There was risk. By defending the threat of the receiver sweep and overplaying the speed option, the Hokies basically gave N.C. State a quick inside zone to the left side. The Wolfpack didn't take advantage.

When you freeze the play at the snap and look to the top of the screen, the Hokies have Ronny Vandyke, Clark, and Ekanem all out wide to take away the receiver sweep. The Bear front is shifted heavily away from the motion. Baron is a one-technique over left guard. Maddy is a one-technique over the right guard. Nicolas is playing a five-technique over right tackle, and Clarke is aligned as an edge player. Nicolas and Clarke are now wide, giving the Hokies two unblocked defenders against the quarterback and the pitch man.

Another adjustment is at mike linebacker; Motuapuaka is much deeper. Instead of reading the play and biting to the motion, Motuapuaka is running to the bottom of the screen almost immediately at the snap. Motuapuaka is outside before the tight end who veer releases can even get close to him. Dadi takes quarterback. Clarke takes pitch until Brissett commits to keep the football. Maddy beats a double team and a hold to scrape across and help Nicolas. Alexander is up to support, and Motuapuaka is there to take the pitch man if Brissett attempts a miracle pitch. This is beautiful pursuit and assignment football. That being said, you can bet that future opponents will attempt to show a similar look as N.C. State, and then run an inside zone behind a kick out block from that receiver motion.

Protect and Set the Edge

After such promising efforts early in the season, Virginia Tech's offensive line took two big steps backward over the last two weeks. While the offensive line group didn't dominate the Wolfpack in between the tackles, they were much more sound picking up blitzes and did an excellent job of getting Travon McMillian into open space in his first start for the Hokies.

For me, the story of the game was the Hokies' improvement in pass protection. N.C. State sent a variety of blitzes, and Brenden Motley had time to find receivers down field. Accuracy continues to be a concern as Motley missed several deep throws to Bucky Hodges when he was wide open. That said, you could see Motley getting comfortable and working through his progressions as he trusted his offensive line to keep him upright.

The Wolfpack clearly exhibited some tendencies which the Hokies were well prepared for. On the Hokies' first touchdown, Motley checked to a sluggo route ( slant and go) to Isaiah Ford after reading a corner blitz pre-snap. The Hokies slide the protection away from the blitz, leaving freshman Yosh Nijman one-on-one.

Nijman tracks the defensive end crashing inside. Instead of chasing him inside like McLaughlin did last week, Nijman makes sure Teller has secured the end, and then slides back outside to get a piece of the corner. Again, this looks simple, however it requires trust in your teammate to pick up the defensive end and the athleticism to recover back outside. Nijman gets just enough of the corner to give Motley time to sell the slant and then loft a beautiful ball to Ford. For those of you who didn't get to watch the Hokies in the spring, Ford was absolutely destroying the Hokies' secondary on this kind of route concept. He is a special wide receiver.

When blitzes off the edge didn't work, N.C. State stole a page from Bud Foster. Here, the Wolfpack slides into a Bear front with man coverage outside and two deep safeties. N.C. State blitzes the mike linebacker and drops the two edge defenders into short zones.

The Hokies slide their protection to the left. Malleck and Rogers fill on the right side of the pocket, creating a six man cup for Motley. Eric Gallo does an outstanding job of picking up the mike backer and driving him to the outside. Motley has time to break contain, check down, and then roll right to find Cam Phillips for a key first down.

The Hokies running game wasn't dominant in between the tackles. Although, Loeffler's offense was able to get just enough yardage on the inside to get the N.C. State defensive ends to crash. There's plenty of room for improvement in the downhill running game. Early attempts didn't look promising. The Hokies tried to get McMillian going off tackle from a pistol formation.

Everything goes wrong. Gallo gets pushed deep into the backfield. Augie Conte watches the linebacker run right past him on the play side. Jonathan McLaughlin completely whiffs on the back side defensive tackle. The Hokies can't win football games with this kind of sloppy execution.

The offensive line started to get a little push later in the first quarter. On this play, the Hokies run an inside zone read packaged with a screen. Hansen and Conte push the boundary defensive tackle right into the lap of the linebacker.

Motley reads the defensive end coming up field and feeds Sam Rogers. Rogers cuts back off Hansen's butt. The N.C. State linebacker gets tripped with the defensive tackle in his lap, and Phillips delivers a nice block on the safety. Rogers runs for a solid gain.

N.C. State used some similar schemes as Bud Foster against the run, especially slanting their defensive line based on the first step of the offensive line. Much like the Hokies' opponents in the past two weeks, Loeffler used some down blocking plays to get McMillian and Rogers some running room. First, the Hokies used a play that has been a staple of pre-Loeffler offenses; the counter pitch.

The play looks almost like an option pitch. The Hokies offensive line all zone steps to their right. Rogers leads through like an inside zone lead to the right side. Motley reverses out while McMillian takes a counter step. Motley pitches the ball to McMillian who rips up the field on the left side. The back side defensive end crashes inside and is taken out of the play without being blocked. Hodges cracks on the outside linebacker. Cam Phillips turns out the corner. McMillian is one-on-one with the safety, and McMillian runs through his arm tackle for extra yardage. That is why McMillian is starting. The Hokies' tailbacks have to win one-on-one battles to break some big plays. Trey Edmunds has not shown the burst since Purdue. J.C. Coleman hasn't been able to make defenders miss. McMillian will get his opportunity because he has shown the most ability to take a 5-yard play and turn it into a touchdown.

While most of Hokie Nation (including myself) have wailed about the prevalence of the jet sweep in the offense this season, it paid dividends against N.C. State. The Wolfpack often had three defenders jumping all over Greg Stroman every time he motioned. Loeffler used the overplay by the Wolfpack to bring a Wing-T staple into the Hokies' offense: the buck sweep.

The buck sweep uses motion to the field to get the defense to slant away from where the ball is going to go. Malleck aligns as a tight end and Hodges as a wing back. Both block down to seal the outside linebacker and defensive end inside. Teller and Gallo pull and lead for Rogers.

If you freeze the clip just after the hand off, you will notice three unblocked N.C. State defenders all focused on Stroman. This allows the Hokies to get numbers play side. Malleck and Hodges do an outstanding job of sealing the edge without letting the edge players get into the path of Teller and Gallo. Teller doesn't have anyone to kick out, so he turns up and cuts down the middle linebacker. Gallo gets on his horse and finds the safety. This gives Rogers a cutback lane, and Rogers adds another ten yards to the run to put the Hokies back into field goal range. As a former Wing-T offensive lineman, this is beautiful work by Hodges, Malleck, Teller, and Gallo.

The Hokies steadied the ship against N.C. State, but a hurricane looms on the horizon.