Boston College at Virginia Tech football preview (FREE)!

#46 R.P.I.  Boston College @  #44 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:

Today’s word of the day is…fork.

Boston College Defense: (starters back=3)

• Forty-three or 4-3 base look.
• Has held 3 opponents, through 12 quarters of football to a combined 55 rushing yards! That’s thirteen feet allowed per quarter of rushing, in Bee.Cee’s top-3 defensive efforts this year!
• Bee.Cee has 220% more sacks than their opponents do.
• dLine will over shift or overplay the short-side at times, with each Dt inside the wide-side G. (i.e. must trust this Mike and Will Lb quite a bit to expose them to this much lateral run coverage) Will will cheat forward into an almost odd or 5-man front look.
• Mike Lb is 5’12” and 262 lbs! (or an undersized offensive G)! A bankrupt man’s beefy looking Ray-Ray (Lewis). Kinda the E.c.u. Ng one layer further removed. Will run blitz him a lot, which keeps his bulk outta any potential coverage(s).
• Hard-ass, bustin’-ass, hard-charging workaholic defense. Bet the over on calories this stop-unit will burn.
• Lottsa everything upfront. Stemming, stunting, twisting, zone-blitzing, X’s, loops, slants. Whatever.
• Lb: big, physical, ran just a smidgen better than I anticipated.
• Secondary does not strike me overtly talented; though they do not make mistakes, never outta position, and they sure do mix coverage’s and bait-n-switch you. Very heady hind-4 with a high football I.Q. Hook Zones underneath, with variable and very well disguised Safety zone drops from what appeared to be man sets on tape. Deep drops when they do drop as well. NOT the best secondary recovery-speed I’ve ever seen however.
• Medium-man short side, to off-man Wide, with a very very wide Ss/Fs east-west split. Seems to invite something like a Fb fly pattern right down the middle. Will cheat the Fs forward for a 4-4 or even look in heavy run support with Cover-1 behind that.
• Surefire tacklers, although not a super set of pure athletes, a dead solid defense, more so than an raw explosion or violence based one.
• Well coached, heady, savvy, smart looking defense. Does not make many misQ’s, will force you into slow methodical drives of 50-80 yards in order to beat it.

Bee.Cee Offense: (returning starters=7)

• Quasi Pistol-I-Ace hybrid Option based attack. Very interesting on film, like someone put GT, ‘Vada out west, and old-school Barry Switzer in a blender and out came B.C. Lottsa read-option here, more Tb talent than I expected, and the rookie Tb (#32 Jon Hilliman) is very very very good. Remember that name before he turns Pro, be that on-time or early-out.
• Saw some original-school Boxman (Fb or Te lined-up directly behind the wide-side G) looks that I super love. Great use of the Wedge play here, leverage galore. Also gives B.C. a third or triple-option look off of lottsa crossbuck or old-school Scissors Play action. ‘tua has better mind the mental I.D. store!
• 25 years worth of experience upfront! WOW! 38 years in summation when you count all major blockers from the Balanced or Jumbo Sets.
• Very technically savvy oLine. like having 5 D.Wang’s with great reach via really long-arms almost to a man left-to-right.
• The short-side A-Gap has a expanded split. Don’t know why? Though this would be the place to give Chase (pun intended); if we only could. The other slits however tend to be narrow. For a depleted and possibly flat Bud Ultra? That’s not good.
• Read Option has both front-side looks, and countering back-side almost naked bootleg looks. Then there is a wannabe End-around play that kinda reminds you of P.J.’s use of a Wingback down at Gah.Tech. Bee.Cee ain’t shy to run short-side, either. Will run with the pulling G, or will run in behind the pulling G, A.K.A. a tough O to key.
• Will go Empty Set 3 or 4-wide when passing. Or simply roll-out. Murphy is a nimble and athletic run/pass option Qb with PLENTY of quicks and acceleration to burn. Although the passing is much rawer than the running.
• Will pass outta the Box-set as well. Rolls, 1/2, full, or reverse.  Off of tons of play-action.
• Wr’s were adequate in passing, not bad, nothing awesome, either.
• Lotta Ineligible Receiver Down-field calls inherit in this system.
• T.O.P.=11th best. Just what a thin, lame, and young VT stop-unit does NOT need.
• O is NOT a vertical stretch nor an pure explosion based one. With only 1 single solitary play on the year in excess of 54 yards. Grinding, patient, persistent offense.
• Best and largest edge blocking unit (Wr’s) outside the hashmarks I’ve seen on film in years. A.Moorehead+ if you will. Not very experienced group however, top-5 from ’13 are all gone; or hurt.

Eagles Special Teams: (none return)
Boston College has gone through 3 FGK’s this season and that’s never a good sign. One of whom -all men shudder with me- has a severe “groin” injury. And the other two are 7 for 13 combined with a long of 42. Combined, they go a smart enough looking 5×5 out to 39 yards; and a then a rather vague looking 33% beyond that. Clearly FG-kicking is not an Eagle strong suit at this moment; and neither is range. Punter Alex Howell (who will double-dip and K) has a nifty looking 43.6 yards per punt average. B.C. is an accompanying 31st best in punt-coverage and an even thriftier 26th best on the suicide-squad coverage. These Eagles peg as 29th best in net-punting, 63rd in punt-returns and 24th in KO returns. Bee.Cee has 2 blocked kicks allowed and zero block kicks committed.

Special Teams letter-grade: (B+++, less FG-kicking, this is a dead solid special teams cadre up on Chestnutt Hill, that although not exactly thrilling, this ST’s unit does manage to at least flirt with being great)

X–factor(s):

• Mental health: major Bee.Cee advantage
• Physical health: Bee.Cee large edge
• Weather: could be cold/windy, low 30’s with a rain/snow precip’ mix; such favors the power running-game (or Bee.Cee) advantage
• Flags: Bee.Cee is 11th best, VT is 114th best, you do the maths!
• WAR B.C. no-name Jersey’s!!!
• 1-D (running) Qb: Bud Ultra advantage
• Rest: VT is +3 in R&R, edge Vah.Tech
• homecourt: surface (grass vs. fake) VT advantage

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:
Q. what should I dress up for as Halloween?

Team B is only allowing 58 rushing in their last three games, and team V is only averaging 105 rushing in their most recent three contests. In the rain, in the freezing-rain, and maybe in the blustery snow, who would you say that one hints at or outright favors, and strongly? Team V is down 77 yards of total O in their last three games and the plot thickens, or becomes more macabre. This vs. an O averaging 277 on the ground per game for the season and suddenly the plot is downright viscous indeed. See what I mean?

***

Or rather …what do I need to see?

“Acta Non Verba.”
-Latin proverb-

More action, less words please. As I really don’t need to hear how trifecta proud we are of just getting pumped, I doubt this pretty fair to middling Florida transfer Qb is the “best ever”. And quite frankly, I wanna win right now -exceptionally vs. uva- and I really don’t wanna wait until next year when we host Furman to win; again.  Nevertheless, with one false move vs. Bee.Cee, that is precisely where we could be; as even our visit to Wake Forest could then find itself in doubt.

Otherwise? Those orange & maroon circular things you see rolling down the Spring Road? My source’s say that those are called wheels as one false step emotionally and/or mentally and the four ’14 wheels on Frank’s little red wagon will officially dismount go rolling right on bye.

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Although officially recalcitrant to officially drop or publish the Q-word -one of two words I never allow myself to say (as my keys may be misplaced, although they are never ever L); to borrow on Teddy Atlas of ESPN2 Boxing? This team has the look and feel of a fighter who is trying to find a way out. A nick becomes a cut, a cut becomes a gash and a gash suddenly becomes a stoppage; when a stronger more willful fight may have soldiered on.

And that is precisely what we need even want for here in this one men. Who is our General Patton? Who is our General Zkuhov or our Alexander the Great? As we need a leader like a dead-man needs a coffin. Though who will that leader be –be that Staffer or Player alike???

Now come reports of Staffer’s updating resumes, player votes being overruled, and a generalized fragmentation grenade than has gone off inside in the lockeroom, along the sidelines, an inside the boardroom of Jamerson alike.

So I’ll just repeat myself from above…

“Those orange & maroon circular things you see rolling down the Spring Road? My source’s say that those are called wheels as one false step emotionally and/or mentally and the four ’14 wheels on Frank’s little red wagon will officially dismount go rolling right on bye.“

As the conviviality has plum gone out of Blacksburg, Va. and it may have taken most any and all synergy with it. So what am I dressing up as for Halloween?

A. a drum. Because that is what we are gonna get beat like; unless we bring an entirely different attitude into this one men.

If it were not such a profanation, I’d go ahead and pick Boston College “…to punk us”, same as I once did @wvu in 2003.

However, the weather disagrees and so does an industrious albeit it inert Bee.Cee offense that is only averaging 18 per game in the last three weeks, whereas our very own O&M offense is merely averaging 11 ppg over the same. Through no credit of our own, this one will be close gents, mainly thanks to old-man-Winter who is showing -or should I say: snowing- up nice and early this season, and thanks to a game clock that will roll roll roll all day long and mercifully shorten this one down to size. Even if these Eagles do soar for 275+ on the ground.

 

Virginia Tech=11, Boston College=18

“LETS GO!“

“HOKIES!“

bourbonstreet**