Virginia Tech football Georgia Tech Eye in the Sky

Virginia Tech football and the Hokie Bird pretty much just laid an O&M stinker of an egg last Saturday afternoon down in the New River Valley.

Per chance as oblong spheroids go, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets came into Blacksburg Va. and wrecked our afternoon of predicted fun.

I for one was way way off in this one; and nobody in the media -to my best knowledge- called this one correctly last week. Paul Johnson and Georgia Tech beat beloved Virginia Tech worse than the score showed in proverbial terms. So what really happened, what went ‘rong and what’s that I see up ahead around a certain (South) Bend?

1Q o:18 remaining:

Okay, so nobody on Earth loves a crackback hit more than me; as this is just mad mad fun to get to blindside steal someone like this; trust me; I’ve done it. However, why are we asking the smallest Wr in the A.c.c. to crackback on anyone this side of maybe the smallest K or P? 6’7” Bucky on the crackback? Yes please and Amen! Maybe even Phillips as he is not a soft touch. Though poor C.J. Carroll at 5’nothing” and 165 lbs. cracking a De who virtually outweighs him by a full centennial 1oo lbs. makes what sense here?!?

2Q 10:44 remaining:
Gotta say, M.Jordan the G.Tech Qb2, is one tough cookie. As the leaner ~345 lb. meaner Tim Settle sheds a double-team pea-hole block, hustles his ass off left-to-right and simply buries Jordan on the odd or left-side Qb keeper here. And I do mean he buried M.Jordan; as the Undertaker of w.W.e. fame has nothing on this.

2Q 8:o4 remaining:
Let’s see, Tim Settle vs. the back-up Fs wedge-buster on the G.Tech KO … who do you think, won? I’ll give you a hint, it was not #37 of the other Tech; as big Tim knocked him about five yards for a loop.; wow! And seriously, this is almost, unfair; well, almost.

3Q 10:27 remaining:
My almost (local) boy Johnathan Galante is a dawgg on special teams men. Watch as #37 scores the sneakiest steal of the year with a mere elbow shiver on unsuspecting #6 of Georgia Tech on The C.J. punt return. I’m telling you what, you’ve got to be super strong as shoulder violence to take someone off their feets with a glancing blow such as this. dang! And this is a real fine redemption after last week Jon’, proud of you son!

4Q season remaining:
To paraphrase the great William Wallace, circa September 1297, the Battle of Stirling…

Time To Throw (TTT)©:

Virginia Tech:
Qb pressured=3
Qb hurried=3 (1 picked)
Qb hits=18
Sacked=5!

Georgia Tech:
Qb pressured=4
Qb hurried=nil
Qb hits=3o!
Sacked=1

(READERS note: I’m combining the TTT and LO.FM sections this week, as you can see in the Qb hit counter above, both pet metrics are rendered null and void vs. any Option based attack)

Longfield Management (Lo.FM)©:

Virginia Tech:
positive: |||| |||
negative: |||| |||| (1 muffed FGA hold, 1 VT penalty)
Swiss (neutral): ||

Georgia Tech:
positive: |||| ||| (2 VT flag’s)
negative: |||| |||| |||| (2 GT whistle’s, 1 GT fumble)
Swiss (neutral): |||| |

Paul Johnson is a TTT and Lo.FM skewing machine; with so many runs and extra chances at TFL, so many Qb keeper hits; and so many 4th-down conversion attempts. Right? ‘rong! As not so much this time the best professor you ever had at VT.edu name insert here_________, would assert. As coach P.J. is just an absolute deuce of a coach; ain’t he? And, as great as Bud Foster is, Bud sees the Flexbone once, per year; whereas coach P.J. has been seeing anything -and quite literally- everything, thrown at his clunky Edsel Offense or at his flex bone fr three decades. Notice I separated them this time, as there was very little flexing -the passing element- to be found here upon breaking tape.

Nevertheless, some ratios might make this a little, clearer, for all of you…

• coming into this one, the run heavy FlexBone went for… a 78% run:pass 22% mix.
• in this one however, the run heavy FlexBone went to a… 91% run:pass 9% mix.
• coming into this one, the run heavy Flexbone had authored 5.3 Fb carries on average per game and 6.4 Qb keepers per game.
• in this one however, the run heavy FlexBone went to 19 Fb carries and 31 Qb2 carries (less the one sack); in this one.
• or a 359% increase in Fb utility and a 483% increase in Qb utility on Saturday.
• do, you, see, a … trend?!?

Further, accordingly to my 36 hrs. of calc’ and stats, less one second-option keeper outside the Ot-box early on, and one again in the 4Q, 86% of the Georgia Tech O went between the Jacket B-gaps; and virtually all of that less two carries could be considered to be 11-keeper, 10-keeper, or 21-Fb-dive or 20-Fb-dive in the A-gap as P.J. did not have to move his first option mesh-point much of anywhere to get the job done in this one. Further some more, people are forgetting the best G.Tech Hb was and is still suspended, and the second best Hb was dinged up. Ditto the fact that Georgia Tech’s pretty slick Qb1 did not even play. Nor did one of the best C’s in the A.c.c. So what would you key or at least try to take away from coach P.J. like that; maybe the one, singular, solo healthy or initial starting guy (the Fb) in the entire triple-option battery; right? Well, how does your Mike-Lb defense that while ceding a good 12′ or 4 yards per play before he can even arrive at the contact point on the first-option in the first place? And why go to the 2015 well -where Tua was lined up last year 7-8 off the line-of-scrimmage- a second consecutive time in the second place? Don’t you think P.J. studied that and tried to figure ways to combat that from last time out?

As coach P.J. is the Kevin McHale of the low-post as the Flexbone goes, he has moves, counter-moves, and counters to his counter-moves …and so forth… and yet as any d-Coordinator worth his NaCl (i.e. salt), will tell you; the first rule of Fight Club is … you MUST stop the Fb-Belly-play first. The second rule of Fight club is … see: rule no.1. In extreme particular when the Fb is the only starter left in the Alpha pre-season starting Triple Option line-up and to top all of that off, when you quickly realize in-game that this 28% passing Qb basically can not, throw. I don’t know about your MLb, though my Mike? My MLb is lining up in the A-gap if that is what it takes to snuff the Belly-play out; or maybe our 30-set, or double-eagle or even with Settle as a 0-techinuqe de facto Ng. I’m stopping that Fb if I have to risk being flagged for 12 men on the field; I’m making that rookie Qb pitch -and if possible, throw- and I’ma gonna force someone not named that remaining -and pretty studly- Fb to beat me. Or did that just make too much, sense?

And yet we out-gained Gah.Tech by >100 yards. Forced the Jackets to punt six times or turned them over nearly 55% of the time; we had our best tackling day and (second) half of football of the year by far. We also went +15 on the play counter and if I were a betting man -and I am- I’d wager coach-Fu and coach Corny feel pretty Frank about their chances to win like that pre-game.

Did that immediate paragraph feel like it to you reading at home?
Me neither.

And yet we got Central Park at 3am in fishnet hose and leather mini {sic: skirt} mugged in TOP (Time of Possession) by +12 and change, or a bonus 20% of the game was in P.J.’s hip pocket or close to one full Q of play.

the takeaway…

…the takeaway is… Georgia Tech is a temporally stressful team to play from behind; when you are the one chasing on the scoreboard I mean; as the Flexbone offense is to football what shrinky-dinks were to the Holiday(s) in the 1970’s. As any game that coach P.J. stakes himself to an early lead in, that very early lead makes the actual game goes by so quick that every mistake gets over emphasized and we wet the Shanks Hall four turnover bed -quite literally- from the word “go”. Then to inflict a compound fracture of the mind on all of that, least we forget, this was coach-Fu’s wedding night vs. P.J.’s Flexbone; as there is a first time for everything; and contrary to Lifetime Network and Harlequin romance novels, his fist time was a mess. And I can prove the stressing here… Total elapsed game play time (less intermission) was: 3:14 as this one ended (officially, I mean) at 6:46pm when most 3:30 post-meridian kicks crack the 7pm telecast boundary on a programming touch-back with plenty of leg to spare.

***

Yes, the good Tech’s bodies may be S&C leaner/fitter/stronger. Nonetheless, @Bristol, @Syracuse, and this one, now at home… are showing me, that even though the Hokie bodies may have tightened up a bit; our head-game is still, soft. This means we are still NOT very good much less very able at handling adversity; at least not yet.

The key thing is… how much of this is the inherited or refugee accepting of .5oo residue? As that clearly could still be infecting our outcome hygiene. Nevertheless, what if it is deeper than that? As this an extremely front-running chalky looking football program at the moment.

Playing on the lead, or maybe just off it if and they are right as rain. However, that amounts to about a one punch chin and it takes more beard than that to whisker the championship rounds.

As for our Pivot (C.F.L. for “Qb), methinks the accrued film footage is out there showing everyone how to defend him. He’s a single -occasionally a double- play side read and “go” Qb. Then you, overplay him. Deep and wide (out in front) of the intended medium to deep target in off man-to-man with at least one, or possibly two Centerfielders behind all of that in Tampa-2.

Who lines up that way; heuristically or organically enough you ask?
The base 4-2-5’s of both Syracuse, Duke, and Gah.Tech.

---

And why we put a team that was showing more than a few shear stress signs as mettle fatigue went through such a rough week of practice prior to what is well known to be physical meat-grinder of a football game just makes sense, not.

I do not get our prep’ plan here? Not at all.

Although I do get that the fatigue and accumulating physical wear-n-tear on a mentally worn-down to the point of becoming clinical fragile football team… well that did not heal up even one iota in this one. Won’t heal up until after the A.c.c. title tilt; either. As I expect a much fresher Virginia Tech football team come December/January –every bit as much as I expect some pokey looking Hokies until then. As this is a VERY mentally fragile team on film folks. Not soft per se, fragile. Something breaks and it is: “all the King’s horses and all the King’s men” time all over again.

There is an adage in Russian Olympic boxing that translates to go something like… “Pain, is the ultimate serum of… truth.” Next Saturday we get to play one final volley of power rushing truth prior to a sneaky passing in-state dare.

Virginia Tech=2o , Georgia Tech=30

“LETS GO!”

“HOKIES!”

bourbonstreet**

V.A.D.A. approved