Virginia Tech=36 Old Dominion=17

Virginia Tech football… won. And this just in… rain is still rumored to be… wet.

The Hokies are now One-hyphen-zero on ’23. Which is one up on ’22. That and Purdue got spiked punch in its F.s.u.-West boilermaker. Rutgers went off and trumped c.Heston U; (even a bit sportingly shucked them). And Marshall nearly got punked by lowly AlbanyU. Yes, Albany. Who has won mo’ than three, that’s (3) games once in five, years. Nobody really got crippled or spatulated, scraped up and carried off. So, it coulda been Terminal Contact sport start to ’23, worse. Nonetheless, there Eye goes putting the cart out in front of the horse; again. As this is not a roofing team. It is prolly not a ceiling team. And frankly (pun intended) it may not be all that tall on-headroom team either. Or in other words— how close will this late November be to being our best game of ’23?

1Q 15:oo and ALL of ’23 remaining:
Not one, two, that’s (2) of our Top-2 rb1 and Rb1b deep to field the opening top of the 1st KO.

This tells you Pry-bar and company are leaving NOTHING in the bag— Driver only, as they chucked their 3-wood into the Duck Pond drink. President Garfield @Denny’s if you will.

1Q :22 remaining:
See: Te3, one #82 come up holding his right shoulder after this decent enuff o-hole or even-side A-gap pulling trap-block. St.Christopher and Holy Prophet Benjamin bless; as Te1 is thin enuff sans Gallo who some are ‘whispering’ has a very serious knee injury. (St.Nikon help!) This one has the look-n-feel of a ‘stinger’ more than a pure socket set or rip.

As he did return to back-flip out at the end of the contest; so, hopefully, this was not all that and a… “snap’. Doh!

2Q 14:41 remaining:
Beck’s Lyte putting his nose in the KO-coverage or suicide squad fan with a nifty open-field halt from a Rb8 playing Wr15. Don’t see that very often, do yah?

And somewhere hokiepro is a proud cyber-parent, smiling.

2Q 1:44 remaining:
See po’ Fuga ding his po’ right knee for the first time of at least two dings -possibly three- on a rather dingy nite.

St.Culbreth bless… as he got it yet again at the 3Q 14:11 remaining marker to boot.
Dang… as he gimped it on the dreaded no-contact mere ‘give’ walking back to the huddle.
Plus reports of hydration issues and cramping and catching and stretching and recatching the same.

This after po’ Delaney Mansoor was holding his facemask as if trying to limit cervical moment after a sideline stop entanglement with the screener Wr from O.d.u. at the top of the; well… screen. Two really strange-looking plays here folks and such is the nature of the unpredictable oblong spheroid itself.

As this was a fairly nifty/quicky run-fighting nite when Fuga petrol tank read: “F” stands fo’: full. As he sure seemed to have ‘got after the’ “conditioning part in S&C itself. As in… (nearly) the same dang thing happened on the second one, as Fugq leaps to try to deflect the down-n-in throw from O.d.u. and just plum comes down ‘rong on it with no contact; again. Harsh… truly… though at least he did not spaghetti his poor knee in its entirety.

3Q 11:33 remaining:
‘nother jus’ strange looking ding to ‘splain… as the not entirely work-willing-Wright makes a nifty grab and does head north well enuff along the VeeTee sideline on the Go look. Only to catch/glitch his left toe in the Worsham Field grass and come up stiff-legged and/or lame post-play. St.Sebastian help; as Tight-End is loosening up as Eye types…

3Q 9:28 remaining:
The bane of all red-blooded Y-chromosome injuries here… as turn your head and ‘cough’… as po’ #15, Jaylen Jones takes one right in the “grooooooan’, or groin from the scramble drill O.d.u. Qb downfield accidental karate kick and can be seen handling the same post-play. St. Artemius help.
Geez…

4Q 1:20 remaining:
1; block, away… that’s one, as in (1) block from a nearly double-perfect pick!

Manifest Destiny or Go West young-man gone full-monty Donner Party.

Or, 9.o9% to the ‘rong. (As: 1 outta 11 did not “pay the price”).

Damnation… a cruel mistress this predictive oblong spheroid.

Or, not a good nite for my ego; and yet another great nite for my… humility.

BONUS: Game Duration:
Did spy with my little eye two mini-me micro-fridge steals; none of which were that epic or hit-full-tilt if you will. Though I did see X (our blindside Ot1) mix it up right until the ‘echo’ of the whistle as well a few times and maybe that does demonstrate at least a mite more ‘competitive’ spirit than we have seen in handful of seasons of ‘ball?

Time To Throw (TTT)©:

Virginia Tech:
Qb pressured=4
Qb hurried=1
Qb hits=1o
Sacked=o!

Old Dominion:
Qb pressured=7
Qb hurried=1
Qb hits=2o! (with: 1 fumble!)
Sacked=5!

TTT Analysis:
That’s a pretty fair-to-middling TTT tilt in Tech’s favor gents.

As we dang sure pass-pro’ V-cup protected our Grant better than they pass-pro’ protected their Grant. As their pass-pro’ V-cup sprung leaks, plural. As per my mid-80’s 424 Shanks Hall O.G. clipboard? Crooky and Co. afforded Wells a clean passing cup a nearly unheard-of 9 in 10 times. That’s about as good as anyone at any level can hope for folks. 3-cheers here’s!

O&M De looks a good deal more vertically improved in pass-rush or up-field northerly attack itself.

Average Per Completion=14.4 ypc.
This woulda ranked Wells Fargo nearly Top-3o in ypc in ’22 terms!

Now imagine where he rates if/when he learns to swim and stops going Dennis Conner or America’s Cup passer extraordinaire and sailing so damn many throws?!? As he charted 4 misses high, 1 miss long and 1 miss too far out in front. (I.e., he overthrew all of them, 100%). (Which is better than a noodle arm to be sure). As in… nearly nobody can intercept any of these misses.

Rb’s >>> blocking >>> Wr’s and by faaaaaar!
They did their bid to keep the passing V-cup squeaky clean to be sure.

Therefore, even with the missings, we were a reasonable fiddy-fiddy or 5o% on 3rd-down makes.

(o) (o)
V

The little things (can) mean a… lot!

• 3 fumbles were created and 1 pass-pilfered is getting close(r) to plum gettin’ after ’em. That is what Pry was so “on” about pre-season. Forcing or inflicting mo’ Turnovers.
• Only 4 handkerchiefs good for only 39 in reverse equates to a betterment of: nearly ~11o spots or a Top-5 in the whole D-1 shebang nation— if you are keeping score at home. Mucho better discipline here.
• 6 for 6 on swings of the leg. Kan’t beat dat wif a stick.
• We won TOP (time of possession) by nearly +8 minutes. Or ½ a Q of ‘ball.

…that’s none too shabby for a team with nearly NO margin of error folks.

And this is how you just barely inch past those two ’22 1-point L’s in your, favor.

Tackling:
Did not grade bad in-and-of-itself. In fact, it graded pretty solidly as pure contacting itself went. Although it seemed outta place as assignments and Gap-integrity went… and they sure had trouble(s) dissolving O.d.u. blockers once they ‘put hands’ on us.

I repeat… tacking upon contacting/connecting was not that bad… it appears that assignment/fills were leaky and Duck Pond all duck-taped, up. There is a difference here. Real Estate: “Location. Location. Location.”. i.e., head-games gone fail with G.P.S. As this E-W stretch max’ O is a fun one and the Fl1 in me wants to play in this one. It is the ultimate horizontal rubber-band look.

De play was flashy though inconsistent vs. the run and now you know why Pry was none too V.M.I. transfer Mike1, shy. As in… he prolly cleans some of these misQs up.

N0te Will Johnson is baling with a bad right shoulder that is being brace-held-in-place too. Some newer ‘whispers’ say “twice” bad. (St.Christopher bless).

This is why we told you over and over and over… the 2nd-layers metrics are most impressive.
Although, are they pure football playars or merely, or merely pure specimens?

Longfield Management (Lo.FM)©:

Virginia Tech:
positive: |||| |||| || (1 O.d.u. Targeting, 1 VT 4th-D convert! 1 BIG passing TD! 1 O.d.u. P.I.)
Swiss (neutral): ||||
negative: |||| |||| ||| (1 VT 4th-D fail)

Old Dominion:
positive: |||| (2 VT Targeting’s)
Swiss (neutral): ||||
negative: |||| |||| (1 O.d.u. flag, 1 VT Safety)

Lo.FM Analysis:
Well, as you will read down below… things seemed pretty groovy Longfield Management wise right up until the 1st O.d.u. drive of the 2nd-Q of play. See: X’s & O’s down belows…

As you gotta give the O.d.u. O-Staff some love here. Whatever they saw or ‘feedback’ oLine heard along their bench in-game they industrialized and utilized to the undermaned max’.

That, and their Grant went mad-libs and just barely bought time here-n-there to keep things alive; or ran pretty dang good as a last-ditch relief valve effort when flushed upfield. I’ma not real sure they are that Monarching good. Or, if we were that misQ prone on locking defensive spills up and fills down? Though I would lean the ladder as onusi go.

Then O.d.u. basically fumbled the game away off a pretty sharp set of drives in the 3Q of play; and Ty-Bow’ & Co. went mo’ parts verticle and less prior to intermission, vanilla.

As we four thought the opening half of play to be pretty dang generic or cost-cutter blue-label indeed. Maybe we did not wanna show Purdue anything? Or, maybe we were crowned just enuff by these somewhat better than expected Monarchs and forced to stop turtling so much and come outta our offensive shell?

Or, to have to deficient chase the chain-gang after some rather inert-looking 1st-down efforts, (94th 1st-D best!)? The rest of what we did with what we had to work with was not really super shabby.

–oOo–

Which is all the mo’ intriguing or downright bizarre-o when you consider that we placed: 6th best in opposing Qbs sacked and 15th best in T.F.L. (tackles for a loss) inflicted. While going 1st-best with zero or (o) sacks allowed and a mere 15th-best nearly great for 15′ or a whopping fifteen feet on negative T.F.L. stops allowed.

As that sounds like you were puttin’ in blocking work(s)?
N’est-ce pas???

And either way; our Grant made several positive Lo.FM’s plays all by his ownself. Both threw
the Air and on the Ground. And that is a Coach Gandalf “…encouraging thought.“

After 1Q through 3Q that… both sides went into the deep freeze as they combined for a whopping lowly <45-yards rushing and ≤45-yards passing during the Championship Rounds.

That’s both teams who combined to truly stink the offensive joint up to close.

Now, some of that may be defending the verb; though you gotta wonder how much lumber these two had left in the Commonwealth yard to close? As this is something to watch going O&M forth…

i.e., How does dear ole V.P.I. go A.B.C. (always be closing) from here-on-out at the competition only begins to mount and our 1’s had to go nearly wire-to-wire for the duration in this one here.

So…

1. Qb: 167.2 RTG with a  7.7 QBR,
2. Qb: 102.o RTG with 39.5 QBR,
3. Qb: 165.5 RTG with a 88.o QBR.

Armchair Qb1’s… since you know oh so much… you tell me… which Qb is which Qb?

Recall… QBR is the stricter measurement as well. (Some say the mo’ professional one).

…SPOILERS…

Well… the first Qb was only 100% on the nite.
…the second Qb was only 52% on the nite.
And the third Qb was only 58.6% on the nite.

There is also a 2⁄3 shot that two of these three Qbs are named: “Grant”… though Eye tangent…

That… and the third Qb was only a 59% passer last year with a vastly lowercase 117.5 QBR!

Or, in other words; for having left/botched right at a nifty or bonus 74-odd-yards on nearly entirely overthrows or front-throws out there leading nearly everyone too far… our very own g.Wells improved.

Quite a bit, actually. At least as the 2nd-half went. Or, maybe he settled down a bit and settled in? As he sure comes out way way too juicy to start. And that is head-game management itself; and that is also NOT something you’d expect from a 4-year starter with over 8K Σ or Total career aerial yards chucking and nearly ~50 majors threw the airwaves!

(o) (o)
V

Or, is that all he now P5 is?
Was @Marshall and the (then) CUSA headroom nil’ his roofing max’?

We do not (officially) know that one yet; as Grant surely left a handful of throws and associated yardage out there on airmail after airmail or a crash course on going Pan-Am Clipper LOOOONG itself.

If/when he cleans that up he will amp the ’23 O up more than a little bit.

And yet as we all Coach d.Hopper Apocalypse Now know…

“Did you know that “IF” is the middle word in, life?”

Take a closer look at this one men…

…as in we just bulldozed the WORST dLine we will see all season long for a whopping 2.53 ypc or 17th from last-best! LOL… Eye say again… even with a now spritely 1-2 Rb1 punch; that was vs. the worst defensive line we will see in all of ’23.

You do the maths.
And since nobody likes maths and runs their moufs, not the maths— Eye bothered to run ’em for yah…

• That’s 2.53 ypc vs. the 129th Ranked defensive D-1 Team (outta: 131) coming in!
• That’s 2.53 ypc vs. the team that just departed its Top-2 dLinemen.
• That’s 2.53 ypc vs. the team that courted 2 rescue puppy Dt1’s… and 2 weak-sauce De’s.
• That 2.53 ypc vs. the team that had nobody ≥279 lbs. in the game there.
• And did Eye mention the fact that they were 117th best vs. the run coming into this one, yet?

i.e., this ’23 team may very well go just, only as far as Grant can Will’s them aerially down, the field.

Blocking:
Odd or left-side seemed the alpha or at least Beta+++ side to us. Which may be a relative term indeed. As the overall blocking pie-chart was nearly stale with negative or outta-shape run-shapes and yet pretty dang ship-shape as pass-pro’ went by-the-bye. As in… it nearly never splits a virtually perfect 33.3 per split. That’s not a good sign… as the O always knows the ‘snap’ count and where the play goes. So, there should always be no less than a slight advantage in situ or built-in there.

That and the differential was staggering… maybe we have to just wing it if that is all we can do to Pry things open for King-Tut’ and Thomas? Pass now to run, later?

(That… and Tuten was seen just a couple of days b4 O.d.u. in double ankle braces and his protective knee-sleeve to boot… as he did not look so explosive to us four for the nite).

LOL… what mo’ do you want(s)?

That’s all to say… Eye do know that Grant grants you the ONLY chance you have to balance out this ’23 offense out. And Eye am (already) serially wondering if we have to play pitch-n-catch to Pry our ’23 run-fits open?

“IF” that is the actual and factual case?

Eye further know that these are not the (passing) Drones you are looking for.

the takeaway…

…our scrubs did NOT get to play hardy at all.

Beyond well, some ST’s P.T. which can get you north of 64 Q’s of ‘ball and therefore ‘Lettermen’ qualify you, and some needle-n-thread just the same.

And frankly, that says it all here to us four here.
We did win. And there is NO such thang as a bad-win; to be sure. Granted.

Nevertheless, this win needed to be better as we “woulda,  coulda, shoulda” gotten this one over with earlier and slept these upset upstart Monarch for keeps by the 45 to 5o-minutes of play give/take.

***

🏈 👁️.Q. Award Winner:

Hmmmmmmmm… prolly g.Wilson.

He did all his metrics could do on keepers off of whichever Option read (Dt, De, or OLb) and got what his so-so wheels could again and again and (+81 total yards rushing), again.

That’s not half-bad for any Qb1 who is less than blazing vertically itself.

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xxx’s & ooo’s
Ricky made it 2nd-Q Rahne like a champ’.

As O.d.u. clearly out-adjusted Marve and Co. here once they determined to attack our middle-D and replacement parts Mike-Lb(s), and our right-side dLine with their at least slightly better odd or left-side oLine. This is a 10-8 round scored in their favor when you realize that ‘size matters’ and they had NO business hanging around with us down-low here.

Although we thought we did coach the verb a bit better after the intermission, to be halftime adjustments fair.

formulae football

• ➕174%,
• ➕231%,
• and ➕262!

The actual gridiron savvy among yah— take a guess what that sequence is code fo’ elevating percentage wise?

Chancellor Gorkon: "Well... I see we have a long way to go."