Virginia Tech nearly opened up a can of vacuum packed whoop-ass on what was said to be a pretty smart enough (19th ranked) D-1aa William & Mary football team on Saturday afternoon down in a rather warm looking Blacksburg Va.
No (major) injuries.
Lottsa kids got their pants dirty (or played).
And Virginia Tech won by 25, and handily, and could have won by a whole lot more.
That’s no bad start folks; all the more so on a very ho-hum, barely workman like effort on film. As the Hokies showed precious little and yet manufactured some real live synchronicity to go with some outright performance; in what turned out to be not much more than a glorified scrimmage in game #1.
1st Q 14:58 remaining:
Nice wedge busting hit by the second guy top-down from the north of you TV screen on this Tech KO coverage team. Although, and I don’t know about you, though I’m not real sure I want last years leading rusher doing this coming off of a insalubrious snapped twig (leg)? Though Trey did seem to move fluidly enough on this one; you just never know on any given coverage team when a shattering blind-side lights out hit can occur. Do we really want that for a guy who is 80-something percent??? (note: Trey has some sorta right forearm injury as well)
1st Q opening W&M drive:
Observe what is almost a true 5-3 or very run heavy look from Bud Ultra (bantamweight nod here) to begin 2014 with Shell-1 (or a high Fs behind all of that with tight to no less than medium-man at best on the edges. This tells us two things, first up, Bud and Coach Gray must super trust this secondary as there’s very little help beyond that one high Fs in play here. And secondly, Bud and company must be a little bit gun-shy vs. the Run. As closed scrimmage #1 and #2 did in fact suggest.
1st Q 13:26 remaining:
Think our 2-man, yes, that’s a two man P&J punt return defensive front might have been a hint the Return was on? Never seen that one before——–>b.street
Although someone did see numerous return and punt-block newfangled wrinkles that were inserted this August and un-shown vs. the Tribe on Saturday. Wonder who (Stroman) we may have been saving all of that for?
J.c.c. remaining:
Couple of things in addition to the KeyPlay’s spot-on call of J.c.c. being an in-line rusher, only. J.c.c. is easy to tackle, primarily due to a fundamental lack of balance. He’s real easy to tip over, most of the time. And, he also has a little David Wilson myopia to his game, as he missed the ideal gap or hole at least a handful of times in this game, hitting such too shallow or too narrow repeatedly; almost playing in too much of a hurry if that makes any sense. (p.s. J.c.c. was our best blocking Tb on the day –this may have something to do with his starting game#1)
2nd Q game remaining:
Rare is the day I write about an opposing player; beyond misbehavior –seldom does that catch my Eye. Though Mike Reilly is simply rag-dolling our odd or left-side oLine throughout the first-half of play. In point of fact, Reilly was very possibly the best lineman in play on either side of the L.O.S. (line-of-scrimmage) all day long. Kinda reminds me of a more powerful version of Howie Long’s kid up at uva once upon a time. As Mike lead both teams in tackles at the intermission, making this kid an Apocalypse Now baller, as “…he can drink from my canteen any day.”
Further, notice that we picked up at least twice as much yardage running even or running to our right-side as Shai and Mars’ both did some rather pious work to McLaughlin and Conte’s side.
Even when naked (less an in-line Te), we did very well going even and boy did Conte take the next step or steps plural on the day. That kid may not win any sportsmanship awards any time soon, though you’d damn sure had better buckle up if #72 is in front of you. Conte has the mud, he’s got the rocks, aye, there be salt in this boy’s blood!
2nd Q remaining:
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2nd Q remaining:
Longfield Management: (Lo.FM)©:
(Tutorial: recall that the Longfield Management index charts how each team does when facing long distance down-n-distance situations. 1st and penalty, 2nd and 8 or more, 3rd and 6 and beyond and 4th and anything when you go for it and do not kick or punt. (or in other words when the probability of a Rushing Play is less than 50%)
Historically speaking we have learnt 3 things here in the 6 seasons – 2 overall record of the Lo.FM itself…
- the team whose offense faces MORE Lo.FM’s has been beaten every single time, less 2!
- each team has a much higher probability of wetting the bed and making a major misQ when pressing to make a play itself vs. Lo.FM situations –be this penalties, sacks, or outright Turnovers
- it very much tends to take at least an upperclassman, or even a full-fledged senior or r-senior level Qb to navigate the perpetually choppy Lo.FM waters …and it takes a pure bread (bleeping) stud Qb to score when chasing the sticks!
LoFM’s VT: (2o)
positive: |||| ||| (2 VT passing TD’s!)
Swiss (neutral): |||| |
negative: |||| | (2 VT penalties)
LoFM’s W&M: (23)
positive: |
Swiss (neutral): |||
negative: |||| |||| |||| |||| (2 Tribe fumbles, 1 Tribe penalty. 2 blown Timeouts, 2 VT penalties)
As you can see, as lopsided as this one was, it could have quickly and easily been even worse! As Virginia Tech kept two William and Mary drives alive on boneheaded Hokie defensive penalties on a downright sloppy looking 10 penalty day for right at 6 points (75 yards) in reverse. Or 108th worst in penalties on opening weekend. Ergo, the cleaned up score prolly should have read 40-3 favor of Vee.Tee as we basically went trail-of-tears on this politically incorrect Tribe to the tune of a virtual 300 yard advantage in total offense! Wow, I knew it was not gonna be a close game, although this one could have been a total woodshed John Smith my ass hatched job, if Frank was only a truly margin of victory cutthroat head coach.
Virginia Tech beat the breaks off of William & Mary on Saturday with a soft-touch that only Virginia Tech seems to deftly have. Though you want more, something deeper, something pensively edgier, read on…
Michael Brewer is a liar!
Or at least his first-half personal box score was! 14 of 19 at the intermission does not read too shabby, some might even say it read well enough for a debut Qb1 who is only a matter of weeks into his 24060 campus career. True enough, unless of course it ain’t.
As Michael Brewer had two perfectly thrown passes drop by no less than four full hands worth of Hokie pass-catcher’s gone Butterfiners, and he had three other passing attempts deflected at the L.O.S. (line-of-scrimmage) with totally wide, freakin’, open intended targets immediately behind all of that! Or in other words, Michael Brewer was this close -index mashed to thumb- from playing a bullet-proof perfect first half and rightfully finishing an all-world 19 for 19! In particular terms, examine the straight sick throw Brewer made to Te R.Mallack on the down-n-in or crossing route in the endzone. How that wounded duck of a throw got anywhere near there, I do not know? This one was somewhere in between a bad and an impossible angle on film. And yet Michael Brewer dropped it right into Mallack’s Euclidean hands (plural), right where no W&M defender could possibly touch it in geometric terms, with about 1” of playing field to spare along the west-side endzone sideline boundary. That was absurd. You could go out try that throw in your backyard and maybe hit 1 outta 50, or maybe 1 outta 25 if you have a little player in you. Brewer also made zero bad decisions, zero misreads and was as cool as the proverbial other side of the pillow all day long on an 88f afternoon down in a positively sweaty New River Valley. Best passing debut day I’ve seen from a Virginia Tech Qb since the occasionally dialed-in MV2 of 2005. (best salesmanship on play-fakes as well) You do the maths…command and control, 1o1.
***
I lied!
Gotta hold me feets to the O&M fire here a bit folks as the only place “improving” comes before “owning” is the dictionary and I need to own this one.
This is prolly more like a Top-25 ranked total defense by years end; as opposed to my half-full call of a Top-15 ranked unit. It’s an extremely good defense, which will flirt with and maybe even do some light petting with greatness from time-to-time. Albeit it’s a few bricks shy of an outright excellent load; at least for the moment.
In particular …our Mike Lb (Chase Williams) is Whip sized, at most and that’s less than best vs. the 250 lb. Pitt bulwark Tb, the Jurassic park sized Miami oLine and quite possibly next Saturday at “the” Oh.State.
Chase must to have had 4-5 proper enough first-contacts, where he simply got physically broken-down by a relatively mere 5’10” 211 lb. D-1aa Tb (Mikal Abdul-Saboor). Who very quietly averaged an poignant 8.5 per carry vs. big, bad, D-1, B.c.s. Virginia Tech. Ditto Corey Williams who I saw pushed backwards off the L.O.S. and at times was witnessed to be even on stakes way too often as the game wore on and fatigue set in. Now that being said, Clarke (at ‘backer) and DiNardo (at Whip) were more physical than I had expected; as Clarke surely plays bigger/stronger than his listed weight (of 213 lbs.) And yet, Ronny Vandyke (R.v.d.) can not get back soon enough for my liking. Because Ronny brings more than a couple impactful high voltage powerhouse game changing attributes as something of an overloaded and all amped up Whip Lb in his own right. Notice as well that Foster went so far as to toggle (or flip) the Mike and ‘backer traditional alignments to help mask or cloak Williams physical weaknesses at the point of attack via stationing him on the edge of the W&M defense with Clarke lined up head-up on the C or at least inside of the strong-side A-gap. That did help, some, although Chase has to cowboy-up and make the solo-stop when he does -to his credit- scrape properly enough with an altogether handsome run-fit right at the point of attack. If not, you have to wonder how much further Foster can stand to go until he (Bud) may be forced to deploy the physically larger/stronger Mike Lb or Mr. ‘tua (Andrew Motuapuaka) who is prolly a half to full season away.
Loading ...Finally notice as well, the presence of the absence of my pet Eye in the Sky word: “steal” up above in the play-by-play portion of today’s programming.
Why is that you ask? Because that was one of the softer hitting debut games I’ve seen outta Virginia Tech in a long long time. Farris came close to breaking the steal seal on an over the pile near late hit infraction in the second-quarter. And K.Jarrett did come up and put his shoulder into Mister Abdul-Saboor reasonably enough at one point. Though there really were no detonation type fast-forward high velocity SportsCenter hits to objectively report. Some of that is a function of Newton’s second Law of Motion, as this stop-unit is lacking the prerequisite Mass right in the seat of its 2014 pants. Nevertheless, do monitor this, as this is already something of an alarming trend, and although I will not do Bud Lyte the disservice of labeling this as a finesse defense, one does have to wonder just how much lumber is left in this O&M yard with an average starting defensive weight of ONLY 223 lbs. and change on Saturday afternoon! As this 2014 Bud Ultra is ultra fast, and damn near ultra small. Again, you do the maths…
p.s. A.J. Hughes has gotta stop tilting the football forward when holding on P.A.T.’s or FGA’s, or mark my words, we will get a few snuffed out
p.s.s. does Kyshoen Jarrett really play the game with that much bling in his ear(ring)??? V.Van Gogh and the Getty kid want some of dat!
Virginia Tech=17, William & Mary=6
“LETS GO!”
“Hokies!”
bourbonstreet**
I believe Shai MacKenzie did break the steal seal on the W&M LB.