Virginia Tech=38, Wake Forest=17
Happy 65th birthday Coach Frank Beamer!
God Bless you and all that you have done for Virginia Tech and the entire New River Valley.
Now, returning to our regularly scheduled TSL programing … the second-half looked better on film. I suppose that’s non-plus after seeing Virginia Tech spot Wake Forest a o-10 lead. After that, VT out-scored Wake 28-zip and more and less salted this one away.
Logan Thomas executed several stud throws in the final two quarters of scrumming. In fact, one or two of ’em were so studly that only a handful of N.F.L. Qb’s could get away with the same. Then he had three passes that hit VT Wideouts between the numbers in right in the hands dropped and suddenly what was a “good enough” game could have been a very good game at the least.
(EDITORS note: Time To Throw analysis and actual editing to follow once I make it home, as this weeks Eye is stuck in traveling incognito)
Wake hung in there, to be as over-matched in raw manpower, athleticism and purified talent terms as best the could. Yet, I could not help feel a bit underwhelmed by 4-1 Wake Forest; all the more so coming off of their rather upsetting win vs. Florida State two weeks ago. Wake is about a 7 win team to me with a shot at 8 up or 6 down depending upon Deacon health, intangibles , luck or lack there of.
Ergo, in breaking this tape, it became rather obvious that VT could and possibly should have won by 30-odd points in this one. VT was and still is the higher caliber football team when it comes to top-44 talent (starters+back-ups) and when it came to coaching. Coaching in particular really showcased itself in those very same closing 40 miutes of business. As VT won the battle of X’s and O’s which finally put VT in a schematic position to simply out-talent a game if not undermanned Wake Forest football team down in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The only caveat being … I did see Virginia Tech (read: Bud Lite) begin to wear down a bit to close what should be been a Tony Award winning show.
3rd quarter, 12:39 remaining:
HEISMAN 2012!!! I’m on the bandwagon already, hell, I’m going Armor-All on the wagon-wheels. Everyone trips on my home-boy’s top-end
speed; and it is trippy enough to be sure. Just watch however as Wilson busts-ass on this attempted Wake Forest Hi-Lo by #7 and by #5 who got more than their feelings hurt on this one.
Now, my Q&A submission for the year to Chris Coleman: where is our downfield blocking? Why do we always leave 1-3 defenders uncovered in the second and or third layers of opposition?
Off the top of my head; I’d estimate that “four” has gotten 60-70% of his yardage on his own by taking on and beating contact(s) downfield all by his ownself.
3rd quarter, 12:36 remaining:
Think we saw something in film study of Wake Forest folks? Yup, me too; notice all four of our defensive linemen slanting correctly left-to-right and right into the teeth of this Wake Forest off-left-Ot zone-stretch rushing play. That’s coaching folks; A+ coaching at that. Epic individual read and associated individual stop by Tweedy who is easily athletic enough and fast enough alike to make penetration based plays such as this. (big PIC link)
BTW: watch the very next play to see the chop-blocking bugbear jump up and bite poor #98 D.Hop right in the ankles! The A.c.c. really must clean this S up. This has no place in any sport that values sportsmanship itself; much less safety.
3rd quarter, 8:35 remaining:
Note the uncalled False-Start by DeChris over on the right-hand side. As we say in the 3o4: “…sometimes the blind hog finds an acorn” indeed.
3rd quarter, 7:45 remaining:
Note the right ankle injury to one #18, D.J. Coles –God Bless on that. It appears to me as though #17 of Wake inadvertently gave D.J. a grade school flat tire (stepping on the back of someone’s shoe) on this one, and thereby D.J.’s lost his balance and twisted his ankle to the outside. Thankfully, D.J. did return. (big PIC link)
3rd quarter, 7:23 remaining:
Don’t like this one! No sire, not one damn bit. As #22 Mr. Brandon Pendergrass just made no less than 7, that are s, e, v, e, and n Hokies ride bitch on this one. Yah; I’m better the over on Bud exploding in film-study for allowing a sissified 12 full yards after contact on this play.
3rd quarter, 5:32 remaining:
Yah; I saw the missed backfield tackle on the Hb screen to the right as Marshall played the ball and went for the deflection or INT attempt on this one. I also saw #42 Collins hustle his ass off and really lower the boom with his heavy shoulder legally right into the left side of Pendergrass along the Wake sideline at the end of the play. Collins puts some mojo on you when he hits you and Pendergrass can drink from my canteen any day. That’s an impoverished mans version of Shyrone Stith right there folks.
3rd quarter, 4:11 remaining:
Somewhere Mel Blount himself is smiling after this EPIC strip job by D.Bonner on #2 of Wake along the VT sideline on the Go route. Even girls with stage-names like: Candy, Amber, Fire and River can not strip any better than this. (big PIC link)
3rd quarter, 2:15 remaining:
11+1 may indeed add up to 12; and yet that is one too many in football participation terms and that is enough to give Wake the auto first down and the subsequent freebie TD throw. 7-3=4 and this 12th man just cost VT four points. (big PIC link)
4th quarter, 13:10 remaining:
See that little white thing dangling from Josh’s helmet? That’s called one-half of his chin-strap that was unbuckled and that’s called taking a major risk in my book. Josh gets cracked upstairs and he would have been singing chin-music indeed. Josh himself should have signaled for a safety-first TO (timeout) with his squad up 11 points at this point in the contest.
4th quarter, 10:11 remaining:
It’s off screen as Exum is lined-up back at Fs on this Price roll-out left-side play. However, everything about Exum post-play looks like he got proverbially “shaken up” on this one. Any of you see what happened here? One quality source says that the Wake Te yanked Exum down by his face-make in what can only be described as a deliberate move. I did see Exum and #83 Cam’ Ford exchanging several fourth quarter pleasantries in this one; so if the shoe fits…
4th quarter duration:
Kinda a strange quarter from Bud Lite; as I sure am seeing a blizzard of variations from a defense that is up more than two scores or up by more than 200%. Nickel, 30-set (hint: watch the sideline signal for this on the very next play) Exum at Whip, Shell-1, zone-blitz, Mike, Whip, Cb and Fs blitzing … or in other words we saw all kinda exotics for this late in a football game that was seemingly in hand; if not well-in-hand at that. Either or. Either Bud wanted to work on a few things; or Bud wanted to show a few things (nod-nod, wink-wink) to future opponents. Either way, that’s coaching folks, Bud never stops coaching; and I have seen this outta Bud for years (plural) at Virginia Tech. Just like his ballers, he literally coaches until the echo of the whistle.
4th quarter duration:
Note as well that Bud Lite was showing some fatigue if not outright wear-n-tear for being so critically banged up in the front-4 as this final stanza rolled along.
Game Duration (post Hosely injury):
Wanna give a shout-out to the human-torpedo, one #8, 5`12“ 189 lb. r-freshman Detrick Bonner. If Bonner ever gets tired of football the Navy could sure use him, as he repeatedly launched himself at would be Wake ball carries in the open-field and sunk many a Deacon battleship on ankle-level tackling. Best I’ve seen at tackling this low since Pernell “sweat-pea” Whitaker’s nephew (Ronyell) in fact.
4th quarter, 7:09 remaining:
Somewhere Earl “the pearl” Monroe and my boy Magic Johnson are smiling. Maybe even Chuck Foreman in 1970’s Viking football terms –as this is one sick looking sideline spin-move that “four” pulls from outta nowhere as he goes whirling dervish and leaves 3 different Wake defenders eating his dust. Now for the killer, part, my VT home-boy David Wilson is not 100% healthy, and he is several notches below his ceiling as reading blocks or utilizing zone based patience goes. To take that a step further, where is the HR hitting 2010 passing game deep threat otherwise known as David Wilson? If the game ever slows down for this kid, he has a very live medium-shot at the Heisman Trophy in 2012. (BONUS: watch the 5:23 play to see “shoeless” Joe Johnson smiling)
4th quarter, final VT possession:
Things got a little testy in the final few sequences of the fourth quarter of play; then they got downright testy. Note that Brooks is stolen on the play prior to this, and that seldom seen reserve Te Ryan Malleck gets stolen at the end of this Wilson carry at the 3:58 remaining mark. Then things boiled over and totally blew up as Frank detonated and went nuclear two plays later.
4th quarter, remaining:
This is the maddest I’ve seen Frank Beamer on-film in several seasons quite plural. In fact, I am told that Frank himself apologized for this hell raising response on the Tech Talk Live radio show on Monday night. Watch as Frank melts totally down on the Head Linesman. Why? I’m just not 100% sure (yet)? Though I can tell you from exhaustive film-study what this was not about. It was not about, 12 men on the field for VT, it was not about 12 men on the field for Wake Forest. It was not about the spot of the ball as the play-by-play talking head bogusly suggested; as Josh Oglesby carried the football to the left of the left-hash(mark) on third down which mandated the spotting of the football for the Journell FGA on the left-hashmark itself. Only thing I can come up with is that Frank requested (and was denied –for whatever reason(s)) a timeout with one second remaining.
Note as well that the Side Judge actually bumps Frank and physically makes contact with the Hall of Famer in waiting. (that’s a no-no folks)
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Time To Throw (T3):©
Virginia Tech:
sacked= |
Qb hits= |||| ||| (L.T. had 10 carries plus one sack)
pressures= ||||
hurries= zero
drops= |||
Wake Forest:
sacked= ||||
Qb’s hit= |||| |||| |||| | (1 INT)
pressures= |||| |||| ||
hurries= |
^That’s^ about as good as it gets when it comes to creating a proverbial cup for one #3 Logan Thomas to pass from in VT pocket terms folks. Just how often can you recall ^that^ few scratch marks against the VT Time To Throw metric men? oLine Coach Curt Newsome’s boys just averaged out to a stellar 87.4%, if you need ‘em. In particular, rookie starting Center ‘drew Miller just played the best game of his life and fourth year starting right-Ot Blake -grizzly Adams- DeChristopher is easily enjoying the season of his career; hands down at that. Both guys have the look and feel of next level (professional) football players.
That’s 28 total knock-down blocks vs. Wake Forest alone people! In boxing that is what we call: “…imposing your will” on your opponent, i.e. making them fight your fight and not the other way around. As the Wake Forest defense offered precious little opposition once the Virginia Tech offense suddenly clicked and threw the proverbial switch with about 10 minutes of play remaining in the second quarter of play.
Now here’s the kicker … on the one hand, Virginia Tech pass blocking won’t be getting much better as 25th best with a pocket Qb who is not contact shy at all won’t be improving a whole lot from here on out. Check it out…
- 2007=115th in sacks allowed
- 2008=111th in sacks allowed
- 2009=87th in sacks allowed
- 2010=86th in sacks allowed
- 2011=25th in sacks allowed!
Think that’s an improvement? Think again; that that is one helluva a one year improvement and than some folks! Point in case, that’s a stunning 344% improvement over last year and a 460% improvement over four seasons ago. This senior heavy VT oLine is pass blocking like mothers and C.News must be one proud sporting father to have sired this much pocket integrity over the course of the last handful of years.
On another hand … my boy David Wilson has broken a backbreaking 68 tackles at the midway point of the campaign and in easily on pace to shatter the single season broken tackle mark at Virginia Tech not named Cyrus Lawrence. Note as well that his broken tackle mark increased by 212% from last week vs. Miami which hints at the fact that “four” is finally feeling a little better physically speaking and it shows downfield. Virginia Tech does not keep stats on Y.A.C. (or yards after contact) –although out of #4’s current rushing tally of 9o3 total rushing yards thus far on 2011, that 417 of them have come more and more thanks to his ownself. As there are ~ 5-8 carries on film per game where the next downfield block that David Wilson catches will be his first. Nevermind all the nonpareil freaking triple-jump savy core-strength, balance, power or electric red-line top-speed; get this man some help downfield and watch him average much closer to a bicentennial 200 yards per game as only one team has held David Wilson to south of 123 yards on the ground in a game thus far this season.
As for Bud Lite, Bud Lite surely does one thing early, often and sans any and all remorse. If you are the momma of an opposing Quarterback, and you wanna watch your son scrimmage vs. mightily Virginia Tech –don‘t. As you are very likely to see your son get more than just his feelings hurt and you will quite possibly see your son get beat all to hell. The Godfather of jumpsuits and the now late (God Bless) Al Davis once said: “The other team’s Quarterback must go down and he must do down hard.” This right after his Oakland Raiders famously speared K.C. Chief hall of fame Qb Len Dawson in 1970. That may be a little over the top; though the lesson is well learnt. If you deliver a sporting version of pigskin corporal punishment, within the letter of the law, on the opposing Qb for the duration of the contest the odds are 100% (so far) that your team will win in the end. VT sacked the Wake Forest Qb’s 4 times on the night and just missed beyond the line-of-scrimmage on 4 other sacks which compelled the Deacons to spit the bit as Wake only scored once in the final 42 odd minutes of play. That’s the good news, and the even better news is that VT does not face a bona-fide passing threat at Qb this side of the A.c.c. championship game less Bryn Renner of U.N.C. and the Heels are only ranked 80th in sacks allowed.
Only caveat I can proffer in this defensive section is that Bud Lite did wear down a bit during the final two Wake Forest offensive possessions upfront or in front-7 or front-8 run fighting terms late in the Winston-Salem evening. That is indeed a concern when visiting Georgia Tech and when fielding the battering-ram Tb’s from U.N.C. at home. I for one would generously encourage Coach Foster and Coach Wiles to substitute as early and as often as possible vs. 94th rushing Boston College and the even more pitiful ground-troops (110th) down at Duke.
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street