Virginia Tech=28, Pitt=zip.

Virginia Tech football came to chew this kitties ass and nearly blew Pitt away on a soggy-bottom New River Valley day.

The Hokies played far better than Eye wrote. My sincere apologies for that total POS preview. My 3rd worst ever… it really did suck S. That’s on me and only on me and I’ve got to do something about that. And we’ve got to do something about you know hoo, next! Nevertheless, through the fugly nexus of my very own personal professional failure, you ask? Eye finally broke through. I now *know* what this team is. All you have to do to find out is to keep on keeping on with me… and we will keep on dukeing it out down below!

1Q 120:00 Coastal remaining:
This is HUGE people!

Hugh Green, Tony Dorsett, and old-school Pitt Isotoner gloves, huge.

As honestly? Eye really was wondering if we were already playing Pitt’s ‘Duzi of a game before the game itself had begun?

Because this is them… this shite ain’t us.
This ain’t #HardSmartTough or “expected outcomes.”

This is actually D. Or: ‘none of the above’ for the ΤΑΟ of Fu’.

And yet here is the kicker… and let me Applied Sports Psych assure you; this is extremely hard to do. I’ve (still) got the text(book) from Dr. Minnix at the University of Illinois— the inventors of Sports Psych’ itself.

Here we not only threw the proverbial switch, however, but our circuit breaker also took Pitt’s voltage like a champ. As preview recall, there are two ways to beat a bully; and we BEAT THIS BULLY to the PUNCH!

Think about that… how many times have we seen this team clinically fold from O.d.u. last season to Duke this season? Even folding on potential outside-straight hands when you can buy an extra card.

This time? We not only did play their game… we outplayed them at THEIR game and then we went back to playing an even more jacked-up version of our A-game for it! As these pussy-cats poked the ‘rong damn bear pre-game! As it is truly culturally amazing just how far our locker-room and S&C cultural installation unit have come in the last number of weeks. Nonpareil. As Eye’ve never seen anyone move this far t0 the come correct chemistry right; from being extremely nearly this far hygienically gone.

Staggering… and just what Award can we nominate Hilgirth for?

1Q 4:29 remaining:
Just what the at least thrice knee-injured and once knee-operated crash-Rambo did not need. As this is a never seen before… arm-whip!?! Right into the plant-leg of his already very tender left-knee while blocking his ass off downfield like a true mug. Dangnation… (may St.Nikhon 3’bless). See: above.

1Q 3:16 remaining:
Mmmmmmm, pancakes!

And please… by all means; do the needful… since half-past Jeff King has a Te lead us in knockdown, blocks?

As this kid is a keen all-Conference pick on his I.Hopping alone; geez!

1Q 2:29 remaining:
Talk about if not for bad luck he’d have no luck at all… as every time poor Garbutt begins to round back into Training Room shape, damn if something new does not jump up and bite his hindside again. (right-hand/thumb this time right here… may St.Julia bless!)

And yet the actually acute among you are already correcting me… right? “He’s grabbing his left-wrist, b.street! duh!?!”

2Q 15:00 remaining:
13 to 8.

What if that’s all I gave you at the end of the first inning in a sloppy -on its way to being a downright soggy- Worsham Field precipitous day?

As that was the rushing total at the end of the opening 15-minutes of punchy, pushy, shovey, scrappy nearly snarky scrumming. And yet it was mighty Vah.Tech tallying 14-zip edge up on the final arbitrator we deign to call the: ‘scoreboard’ itself.

A strange game this oblong-spheroid indeed.

2Q 12:14 remaining:
Look at his legs/feets!

As Eye do not recall seeing anyone stand on the double-break-pedals to let opposing defenders fly right on by, thereby creating an inside loop cutback seam for about +five in bonus yardage and Y.A.C. alike. i.e. you cannot coach/teach this folks. As only Coach God can call this type of, play.

2Q 1:16 remaining:
EPIC accountancy!

Hooker really sells the “HARD” count and audible bait-n-switches Pitt into jumping offsides for the freebie handout welfare type of 1st-down here. This being scripting: the verb. (as Corny musta saw (or ‘heard’) something on film to go to this one, here).

3Q 8:50 remaining:
Man-O! Did #37 get stolen here! Tho’ -and to his credit- Brion Murray bounces right back up and does live to jam (He’s the field side gunner Jammer for VeeTee) another day.

This, however, is also the regretfully got at least ‘dinged-up’ T.Rob’ play.

Follow T.Rob’ right-to-left after fielding the punt on the hop and you will see him come up right-leg lame along our sideline at the end of the return. My L.O.S. (line-of-sight) is dogpile obscured here… tune into Will’s pay-MB and see if I give this one away later this week… as I’ma allergic to bees as Sting’em just; found, out. (May St.Sebastian bless!)

3Q 8:14 remaining:
Do you see what Eye see (St.Nikhon bless)?

Maybe our Hazelnut ain’t so cracked-up after, all?

(likewise our #3 in his second full leg sleeve of the season if you are keeping score @home; (St.Servatius bless)

And hell-by-damn Haze’ sure instinctively gets how to use his back/backside to roundball ‘block-out’ thereby blanketing defenders on a catching shield of sorts when going for the so-called: ‘back-shoulder throw’. This purple Haze’ is simply O&M small-forward aces at this.

4Q seconds remaining:
Since Will’s pay-side MB has already told me I’ma ‘rong here, you go’on and be the judge…

Tho’ if you ask me -and you did via reading these very words- he (still) looks a little right-side gimpy. Like he’s moving rather gingerly and still ‘favoring’ that knee. ’cause he sure as hell ain’t runnin’ footloose and fancy-free.

Time To Throw (TTT)©:

Virginia Tech:
Qb pressured=6
Qb hurried=nil
Qb hits=22 (heavy contacting too!)
Sacked=3

Pittsburgh:
Qb pressured=11
Qb hurried=1
Qb hits=11
Sacked=2

Did Pitt’s Qb1 (Pickett) remind anybody of yesteryears grim, gutty and downright gamey Steve Casey? Who had the small-hands tag and therefore was not a good slick or wet-ball passer.

As foreshadowing goes… it was surveying our tackling metrics and (finally and mercifully) noticing the lack of (much) of a Δ (or change) in the Budweiser halt-stats in the last month or so of play that tipped my finally figuring things out hand… Accordingly, do recall that ~.222 missed tackles per play is about the O&M industry standard. Or in other words… although my tacking metrics only go back a handful of seasons… you gotta wonder where the most immediately previous 5-weeks of stopping ranks all Fighting Gobblers time? I mean only the late 4Q rain-soaked Pitt jerseys skewed our 3rd-string defenders stopping metrics and that’s a very forgivable weather.God kinda sin.

Because solo-stop-artistry had been (recently) elevated itself to a partial Jack Ham artform. With individual tackles on the rise at the expense of assisted tackles because the assist itself was no longer needed when the first contact hitter cowboyed up and bum-rushed the ball-carrier to the ground himself. Nonetheless, this past Saturday we saw the first (partial) gang-tackling looking afternoon in a while; and yet our pet tackles per play metric did not waver and it did not flinch.

Think these kids were willing to chew glass and spit nails for their favorite Budweiser of a kegger later on or not?

Did anyone else see the post-play on the Hooker sack early in the 2nd-Q? Been a minute or three since I’ve seen three Hokie oLinemen nearly competing for the honor of hoisting their fallen Qb1 back-up off the Worsham Field turf. And if you doubted just how much they truly, madly, deeply like him? Your doubts just went kaput. LOTTA affection/camaraderie balls here. Man’s game son!

I really like this 2019 horizontal version of T-n-T. Tré and T.Rob’ are really electrifying this formerly (somewhat) shorted-out 110v Fu’fense with the East-West eloquence of their 220v game. Currently, we are finally seeing things loosen up a bit sideline-to-sideline. This not only affords the Vice Squad better internal angling, it slowly yet surely helps stretch or elasticize an opposing D for more aggressive internal works per intrinsically laterally phobic or wider Gaps later on.

If we only had a “power” to the Peoples true G-c-G centrist meat grinding mauler.
The Fu’fense would be first-time VeeTee complete.
(as the 2020 Queue forms, here!)

Longfield Management (Lo.FM)©:

Virginia Tech:
positive: |||| | (2 Pitt penalties)*
Swiss (neutral): ||||
negative: |||| |||| ||| (1 bad snap, 1 VT flag)

Pittsburgh:
positive: ||| (1 VT flag)
Swiss (neutral): |||| |
negative: |||| |||| |||| |||| (3 Pitt penalties)*

*(see: the lack of yellow-laundry composure from Pitt)

Gotta give Hooker one thing, for his sailing America’s Cup overthrow or out in front penchants? (which finally has me wondering if it was diamond-tipped hard-rock drilled to: “throw it where only your guy can catch it” by some stickler preschool Fuente enemy of turnovers coach on the way up?) He sure is starting to show signs of throwing well under pressure and even more severely, throwing pretty and dang decently when being hit. This shows you a lotta heart/courage and some pretty keen downfield 20-20 eagle eye type field-vision to boot. Very Terry {sic: Bradshaw} of him to hang in a collapsing pocket and take one for the team. Further, we finally saw someone test that down-lineman type brace on his needs repairing left-shoulder. As one of the Pitt Safeties finally busted that bum-shoulder on an even-side A-Gap rumble good and hard. Although I cannot speak for you and your committee of one, Eye and mine were holding our collective 3Q breaths to see if he got up— or not.

Nonetheless, this kid is not only charismatic beyond his years, he not only plays hurt, (well); the HenBoss has some pretty stout whiskers. As his beard shakes off pretty close shaves like a champ’. Prolly could make for a fair to middling Lt.Heavyweight if he wanted to cut down and give the geometry of the squared-circle a go.

Additionally, who else is catching (pun intended) our penchant for crossbuck passing— in the Fu’fense henhouse? Yes, Eye know, this is a rushing term, tho’ if the football lexicon fits, wear it.

Correspondingly, notice the roll-right and then boot-play delay crossing patterning behind the play to the left-side itself that has subtlety and rather usefully crept into the Fu’fense with our new Qb1. As these backward, against the grain throws off the Hooker orthodox or Riddle (i.e. right) side rolls are basically glorified or deeper upfield screens. Notice as well that nearly extinct are the “go make a play” sideline jump balls, and anything downfield on any angular patterning. Coaching the verb can also be code for strictifying, or shortening or editing the given play-book via taking things that don’t fit (a given Qb1); out.

Finally, I’ma starting to take a liking to the HenBoss’ and his ability to hard-sell a play-fake. As he nearly looked Roger Staubach -esque on the 3Q short-side down screen play-fake that freed Rambo up for the in-line Te Fly route right down these Panthers middle-seam throat. (helluva a catch by Rambo as well, as this was the 1st overthrow that anybody O&M has gotten too from Hooker yet).

Lastly, not that we are want to give Pitt & Duz’ much of anything, much less any credit… their dLine was real. Or at least they were for real for just as long as they were really in the game mentally. As the early scrumming in this one was fitful and fistic alike. Although the mentally tougher team did finally nick then begin to ever so slightly edge the day. And if this had been a full old-school 15-round fight it was the typically punchy Pitt squad that woulda been punched out. Zac Morris football 1o1… or: Saved by the Bell.

“The Rest of the Story...“

So, do you recall the last fortnight or so over on Will’s Pay-message board whereby someone freely admitted they did not have the best feel for where this team was/is; (at least not), yet?

They said this team reminded them mutually of the 1995 and the 2011 squads. Two teams with double-digit wins alike; although two teams with very different slopes or trajectories if you will.

---

As 1995 was a team on the rise. A team truly just injecting the all-time O&M culture that came to be known as: “Beamerball”. A hard-fought, smart, tough, fiscally beat you up and take your lunch money kinda squad.

Whereas 2011 was a team on the run. The one that spawned the first (and likely the last) ‘tell-all’ eMail to F4EHokie and to Will— cataloged for posterity, documentation and possible O&M time-capsule reproduction… somewhere down the Beamer Way road.

As 2011 was an O&M golden-era twilight squad with a buncha ‘lucky-charms and four-leaf clovers’, with just enough Bud Böck hind-4 recovery or bail-out plays, and with just barely enough refugee senior class leadership and therefore hygienically ensconced seasoning to save the day.

Or in other words, these two highly esteemed teams were heterogeneously vectoring. Or as I am always want to put it… they were two ships passing in the night. As the 2011 club was just starting to list and take on Duck Pond water; whereas the 1995 squad had just got all boilers online, fired-up and was keeping the party lit.

Eye said that as both teams seemed like ‘fake news’ to most. Most did not believe that way back in 1995 V.Tech was a program on the come— every bit as much as nobody less one scribe saw 2011 V.Tech as a wobbly looking team with one foot firmly on an Owens Dining Hall banana peel.

Accordingly, I thought (mistakenly) that Eye saw some of each team in this current 2019 incarnation. (thereby totally scuttling my formerly heady analysis on the inherent contradiction between the 1995 and 2011 heading in oppositive direction type of tends)

Then I went back to the basics and basically reviewed my 2019 game notes. My proprietary or in situ house metrics and stats… and it finally dawned on me what this ’19 team truly is It’s flat. Or its Rise=its Run.

This is what threw my A+++ clinical game objectively off. I erroneously kept waiting for this team to ‘bounce’ or to move one way or the other. Was it due to ‘bounce’ and self-correct downwardly in horse-racing terms or was it actually yet to crest and showcase even greater upward mobility?

***

This team, however, has flattened out with (virtually) no headroom to spare. And that’s not code for coaching the verb that’s code for All Coaching Conference (the verb) coach of the year. And the exceptionally hard to do thing is… Fu’ and Co. have (somehow) maintained this breakneck or peaked pace for over a month running as I type.

This team is not at its ceiling... this team is standing tall on its...roof!

Do recall, up through the nothing short of fugly Duke game… every player was so top-down intent on making sure that his individual performance satisfied the adding machine’s Fu.P.U. (Fu’ Processing Unit) Playing-Time sanctioning chip… that there was little to no chance of the guys banding together to become more than the sum of their parts.

This overly micromanaged sideline in-game culture was, sterile. The productivity of our idiosyncratic womb, barren.

–oOo–

Then a funny thing happened along the way to the O&M candy-store…

Not only did the Kill(er) Qb1 swapmeet suddenly unleash the hustling can be fun hounds, not only did it restore the Fully functional horizontal and jumbo Te driven E-W stretch elements to our Read and our R.P.O. run-fits alike… it also got this lockeroom and even our defensive side of the ball back to dancing, singing, sexin’ and gettin’. As in getting into the other team’s ass and getting into the other team’s head-game alike. Just ask uppity ~3:20 PM Pitt pre-game.

As our final 2019 Qb1=our Qb(Fu’n)!

the takeaway...

If I only had more time and more Maui space… and unless Eye am imagineering things… I’d really like to elaborate on how Kill’s approach truly reminds me of Frank’s County Fair blinking-contest concept(s).

As in… once you get more than a 2-score led you make dang sure that above all else, you are NOT the one to blink first or the one misQ; next!

Finally, I REALLY liked Fu’s conciliatory words and tone of reconciling voice in the post-game interview when he told the members of his fanbase who wanted to OFF him and his offensive coordinator: “…there’s still room on the bandwagon.” Basically: ‘I get this, this is how it modern era works, I got this; no hard feelings.’

This was ENTIRELY Frank of him and his voice infection itself was all Franklin Mitchell Beamer his ownself.

+many many pious kind-Soul points @Fu’ here.

After all: “To err is human, to forgive divine.”
—Alexander Pope

And Fu’ did NOT have to say one single syllable of this on-air…
Not one consonant. Not one letter, not one vowel.
3-cheers for Fu’… he’s a good sport.
💪

#wimps!

Virginia Tech=28, Pittsburgh=o

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

bourbonstreet**