Michigan=23, Virginia Tech=20 (OT)
“Some days you get the bull, and some days you get the horns.”
-Mexican proverb-
I’d say that the VT football staff and players alike were feeling horny indeed after letting this one slip right through their fingers down in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago.
VT Surgeon General’s Warning: if you are a P.A.T.T., or if you think you may be preggers with a P.A.T.T., reading this Eye in the Sky may be hazardous to your health…
1st quarter, 15:00 remaining:
All-world David Molk was well enough to call the coin-flip and yet he did not start the game for Michigan. What happened regarding #50 –-and his phantom foot injury? This scoop never caught up to me. Did Molk actually get hurt during the coin-toss or warming-up pre-game? Any of you know?
1st quarter, 14:56 remaining:
Chase Williams is nothing if not rough-n-tumble. Don’t believe me? Just ask #58 of UM-aa who Chase basically tacked at the end of the Wolverine opening kick-off return right in front of the Wolverine bench.
Game Duration:
Damn this Tech defense played hard! Watch whenever D.Rob tucks it and heads up-field vs. Bud Stout. VT is putting some helmets into D.Rob and therefore some hurt upside D.Rob’s head whenever he heads downfield on this night. There is no doubt about it, Bud Stout came to play in this one folks as all 11 men rallied to the ball as best they could and arrived in a bad mood when they got there on virtually each and every single play.
2nd quarter, 9:06 remaining:
In my considered judgment this is the play of the game folks. Note that the VT Tb beating the rock-solid, yet east-west plodding at best UM-aa defense to the corner is none other than #2. Josh Oglesby is a lotta things; one of ‘em however is not a scat-back or a flat out burner. Josh enjoyed adequate Tb speed at best at Virginia Tech. And yet “two” blew the doors off the entire Wolverine defense to the edge on the read-option pitch-out on this play for a first-down on an 11 yard again. Football … no matter how many times you try to reinvent the wheel … no matter how much we live and apparently die by our inside-zone, inside-zone, Qb A-gap keeper wanna be power oriented football mantra, “…a rolling stone gaterhs no moss.” -Publius Syrus-
And there was no reason in the world why VT should not have rolled downhill, or down the mid-field crown and to the outside vs. an obviously less athletic UM-aa stop-unit in this one. None.
2nd quarter, 4:27 remaining:
If the last play was the play of the game than surely this is the picture of the game as this was one S’y looking night for VT.
1st–half duration:
Note the paucity of the actually plays I transcribed into the Eye in the Sky part I. Why is that you ask? It is because the first-half was one fast half of play. Note that the 2012 Sugar Bowl opened with a unheard of 19 consecutive plays without an Official clock-stoppage. Then 13 more plays just like that after the first incomplete pass of the game, then 2 incomplete in a row, then 13 more consecutive plays that likewise did not stop the clock. Go fig’ on that one folks? To further quantify all of that, there were only 5 plays from scrimmage to begin the game that officially stopped the clock beyond a penalty as neither football team burned a single timeout in the opening 30 minutes of play. I know –I’ve never seen that one either.
2nd quarter, 2:11 remaining:
Finally my kinda play to write about, something outside the hexagon, something funny, something you may have missed. Watch Luther Maddy who plays with a little mean in him as he intentionally and perfectly legally lowers his right-shoulder right into the bridge of the helmet of D.Rob’ on this sack in the Michigan backfield. I like anybody on defense who is intent on bringing the pain. And Luther has some company in playing the pain-game over on defense as J.R. Collins, B.Taylor, T.Edwards, Exum all bring the pain, Tweedy is tough as nails vs. the run and Mr. Cyrus flat out plays like the kinda kid who’d take a stick to a hornets nest. MEMO to future VT opponents: you muck around with this crew for the next two years at your own risk.
2nd quarter. 0:53 remaining:
Football is indeed a game of inches–‘nuff said.
That said, with all the whining about this play it sure looks to me like #9 (white blocking symbol) is perfectly positioned to pick Exum or any other pursuing Hokie off in the absence of the Whitely INT.
2nd quarter, 0:38 remaining:
Yah; I’d say that getting your toes caught in the a.turf of the Super Dome is a pretty fair alibi for fumbling when your toes are connect to your already blown out A.C.L. that you have been dragging up and down the field as best you can for going on 2 months coming into this one. Dangnation; and Godspeed to “two-two” (Tony Gregory) and his off-season recovery from reconstructive knee surgery yet again.
2nd quarter, 0:08 remaining:
#54 of Michigan could not have been any happier had he found an extra tator-tot under the Ann Arbor athetic dining hall feed table as he gobbled up this deflected fake-FGA throw and rumbled forward for almost a 32.89 inch gain. UNREAL! I mean un-freakin-believable folks, and here I thought this was football not Ping-Pong.
first-half Missed VT opportunities:
- 2 bad Michigan snaps
- TD overthrow to Coale
- TD out-of-bounds throw to Davis
- INT and a subsequent accidentally roadblock by Whitely on Exum
- a 2nd break on the ball missed INT by the aggressive Whitley
first-half Inside Zones (or Read Options up the gut keepers or Qb-Sneaks or Qb-Draws):
|||| |||| |
More on this section in part II, however a published reminder of “…15 or more inside-zones or read-option A-gap keepers will get VT beat down in New Orleans …” is in order.
Longfield Management (Lo.FM):©
Virginia Tech:
positive= |||| |||| (1 UM-aa penalty)
negative= |||| |||| |||| | ( 2 VT penalties, 1 VT fumble)
neutral= ||||
Michigan:
positive= |||| ||| (2 UM-aa TD’s, 2 VT penalties)
negative= |||| |||| ||||
neutral= |||
I was wondering how the Lo.FM of one L historic fame -and the even more accurate TTT metrics would hold up when I put their feet to the screwball Sugar Bowl scoreboard fire. Now I know. The Lo.FM held up rather well at that as the Lo.FM adroitly and shrewdly painted a far more accurate picture of how this one went than the how scoreboard read at the end of the game or than the game-film or than the box-score alike could have ever dreamed of. The Lo.FM forecast a very close game with a likewise minor nod to UM-aa and that is percisely what we got. The only difference being found in which team made more plays. More on that below…
42 rushing yards in reverse and 68 yards worth of backing up thanks to 7 O&M penalties against amounts to more than 10 points worth of self-inflicted damage as forfeiture of the hidden Beamerball tenant of field-position goes. Recall that every 100 yards worth of backwards yardage breaks down to one relatively easy 30 yard field-goal and one 70 yard offensive drive for a major or 7 points on a touchdown and subsequent P.A.T. Note as well that 4 of the 7 VT penalties occurred under Lo.FM conditions whereby VT went from bad to worse or even more strikingly when VT simply let UM-aa off the O&M hook. In case you are wondering, the Wolverines had 48 yards in reverse or 229% less self-targeting trouble than VT did. Such makes for a sloppy looking, game, such makes for a long O&M nite, and all inside-zone and internal read0ption keepers such makes Frank a dull boy.
Note as well the absence of really BIG-plays to the good by VT outta the 10 positive Lo.FM attempts by the VT offense (one of which was a gift from UM-aa). Some of this was the VT staff going right back into their comfort-zone otherwise known as turtteling offensively in the men’s room at the urinal where O&M stage-fright reins supreme.
Think about it men, when was the last time VT aggressively attacked on offense in a big-game? I nominate: G.Noel vs. F.S.U. in the Gator Bowl when our seldom seen crossing patterns really crossed ole Bobby.Bo right on up. Now, while you are at it, when was the last time VT did not turtle and call something of a normalized by O&M game-plan even by typically somewhat G.O.P. or conservative Hokie play-calling standards. Since when do we not go into our shell offensively and mindlessly revert to power-based football in the big game? We did such on the Super Dome vs. a defense that is explicitly designed to combat internal rushing and likewise plodded a bit sideline-to-sideline in terms of lateral pursuit. Guess where my now departed boy David Wilson was at his best? To the edge or up the gut –see what I mean? Why must we pound the round-peg into the square-hole on the biggest stage and wonder why it just don’t fit?
Additionally, if we trusted a rookie or debut year r-sophomore Qb to throw the ball a stunning 363 times coming into this one, with no less than a downright heady or upperclassman looking 2.4% INT percentage in tow coming into this one –why did we suddenly take the ball outta his hands and away from his N.F.L. early-entry quality bionic arm and lay it at the feet of a blizzard of inside-zone calls including when we were in the UM-aa red-zone where the field naturally compresses vertically? Why did we not hammer the tallest nail otherwise known as the very middleocore Michigan secondary with our 2 all-time leading Wr’s in the 120 year history of Virginia Tech football? What the hell are we waiting for?
I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again folks … try as we might to dress football up with metropolitan nomenclature, football still ain’t rocket surgery men. It is a fundamental game that is best played in fundamental terms.
Loading ...In the final analysis the difference in this game is not that mighty Virginia Tech out-gained UM-aa by a staggering near 200 yards (193 actually) worth of total offense and could have won by 10-20 points. The difference is not that VT manhandled the Wolverines on the ground and out-gained UM-aa by 291% or a 163-56 advantage in rushing yards that should have won the night by at least 7-10 points. No sports fans, to put this one on its lowest ground … the difference in this one is that UM-aa somehow managed to manufacture play(s) or even a couple of outright miraculous plays when they had too whereas the Hokiebird was too busy laying a self-inflicted egg. I suppose our mascot is androgynous after all and all fingers point to that.
Yes, VT let one get away sports-fans, and VT let a big one get away at that. Yah VT should have won this one … and this just in: rain is rumored to be wet. Though let’s close the Eye part I by classing things up and saying congratulation for the 4 amazing catches UM-aa made happen one way or another. Call it luck, call it a fluke, call it the blind hog finding an acorn. That proverbial blind-hog just sent me an eMail all the way from an Ann Arbor trophy case, and it only reads one word: “burp”.
“LETS GO!”
“HOKIES!”
bourbonstreet**
p.s. one final thing regarding VT play-calling in this one … did this game remind any of you of another game this season? How ’bout our visit @ E.C.U. where we took the game outta L.T.’s hands in the second-half and bricked our way to a single play (or 7-pont) win.
Bst… as usual, while your EITS’s are incredibly difficult to read and I only comprehend about 1/2 of what you’re writing, I thoroughly enjoy them nonetheless… cheers!!!
Sweet!
: )
Verbal Sudoku.
That’s me.
b’street
I think of it as Cirque du Soliel.
‘Street must be rubbing off on you. It’s Soleil! lol ;-0
I take that as a great compliment.
Wish I had their talent/ability.
That is one truly amazing show.
b’street
How much did we actually go into power football mode? Wilson rarely runs inside…
And as for the read-option, my opinion is that LT kept the ball entirely too much this year. I would be on true read-option plays, he kept the ball 80% of the time? How many times did i see Wilson not get the ball on what could have been a nice game. Note that I am not complaining about some TD runs or nice runs by LT but if I am Wilson, I note the lack of TDs and carries I could have had in an offense run by LT….
We ran Wilson (all year) -at least to me- a surprising amount on the inside. Dood is strong. They all told me, with D.Evans and R.Will on the team mind you –that #4 was the strongest Rb we hand period. Including the Fb’s.
That said, where is he strongest?
In or Out?
I’m saying to the edge.
————————————-
I do agry on the pitch-out or lack thereof.
As a student of the game, I’d just ignore the pitch and key L.T. every single time. He truly nearly never pitched all year long. So why not swarm to him?
b’street
Great analysis of this “heart burn”. We have not performed on the big stage during Beamer’s career at Tech. He is a good coach and has brought this program a long way but its time to “turn up the wick” as he puts it. I have written to Dr. Steger, Jim Weaver and Frank Beamer after waiting a week after the game to mail the letter. I have not heard from any of them. They enjoy the success according to their standards but do not want to hear any negatives from the fans or Hokie Club giving them an ear full. Well, I am a Golden Hokie and have been in the Hokie Club for 31 years. I have paid my dues and they make enough to take the good and the bad and in this game the ugly. Loyalty to assistant coaches has been Beamer’s major weakness. Accountability has to be taken into consideration. Our players and fans deserve better. Poor play calling cost us this game.
The freeze-up on the big stage does deserve the third degree.
However, some of that bristling is the (un-adamited) fact that they know they have 2-4 guys per side in most years that are just not all that. They can not come right out and say that. However, deep down in their heart of hearts they know that they are coaching several of ’em up. Way way up at that.
out-
b-st.
Do you think you could say a bit more about that?
Oh I could prolly say a whole entire article about this.
However, in the interest of brevity, I will recite the ‘Bama take on Cody Grimm. They kinda begrudgingly recognized that Cody was a good ball player. Instinctive, heady, did not make any real mistakes, etc…
Then they went on to proudly tell me that he (Cody) would never see the field at ‘Bama. They’ve got a Cody who’s got an extra 15-25 lbs. of right mass hung on him, taller, at least as fast and instinctive.
Yes, it may indeed have been to ‘Bama’s determent.
Though they were indeed telling the truth when they haughty pronounced to me that Cody would never see the light of day for ‘Bama out on the field.
b’street
Can we address the 3-4per side that are not up to par with current recruiting or does something need to change?
Sorta. Kinda. Yes and No.
It sorta kinda is changing to the good. The VT recruiting classes (less two) have mostly been ever so slowly trending upwards since MV1. Not a major leap year-by-year mind you. More like a slow, steady, gain. In a state (the Commonwealth) that has about enough blue-chip talent to fully dress out one tip-top D-1 kick ass school. Not two, and surely not enough to let boarder schools form Commonwealth raiding parties and make off with some in-state ill-gotten-booty.
To quantify it a bit more, if we sign the Big-3 (Caleb, Ekanem and Kirven) on Wednesday, and then if we do that for 3-4 straight years -again and again and again- we will be pretty close to purging our 3-4 non-S.E.C. quality parts.
So yes it is moving in the right direction post the other Coach Beamer and C.Brown joining the Staff.
And no, we still do not enjoy that great of a margin of error vis-a-vis the top-3 to top-5 teams in D-1 football year in and year out.
Think about it………………since MV1 we prolly could have beaten T.Martin and UT and maybe we could have beaten the weakest OH.State team as well. That’s about 2 outta 12 since we last made the MNC game. That’s ~16% chance as an O&M margin of error goes. Unless we uncover more talent(s).
This is (partially) why joining the S.E.C. would be a major mistake for VT as VT football currently stands right now.
We need to find the next MV1, and C.Moore and keep the next P.Harvin instate before we go So.East. Then we will enjoy a fair to middling chance to deal with the big-boys without the big-boys dealing on us.
b’street
AMEN.
FWIW: I am curious to see how we use L.T. next year (2012)?
Does he run more to compensate for the departure of my boy (Wilson) and Josh?
Do we open it up and trust him while we got him?
Do we hand it off to a plethora of rookies who have never toted the rock?
out-
b-st.
Open it up-everybody is already reading our play cards. Let the freshmen get involved- Look at Sammy Watkins. ps would you please provide a acronym ( B’street dictionary) card for your great renditions of Hokie dp with a gw slide in the ez to complete an RZ eff to gain confi. Just kidding you, Great story and good judgement. Really need a card!!! John Draper
ZING!
b’street
Gets back to we are who we are, trying to play turnover free on offense, win the field position game and make the other team go the length of the field against our defense. That’s Jerry Claiborne football, and like it or not, Frank Beamer learned those lessons at a young age. I don’t see him changing at this late stage of his career.
Yup. Jerry Claiborne may be gone … though he’s still here.
Fully agry.
Just need the bushwhackers up-front to play that version of power football. Plus say a healthy C.Humes or even better a healthy G.Bell as a battering-ram of a Tb. I’m all for that as I actually prefer the Power-I of yesteryear as my pet offense. If I have the parts.
b’street
If we’re going to play Jerry Claiborne football & make the other team go the length of the field against our defense, why the h3ll does Frank call that fake punt late in the 4th? In my opinion, that was the worst call of the night. Even worse than continuing to run the ball up the middle. Punt in that situation and we’re talking about how UM managed to keep it close, but in the end, the better team won.
Trouble is- you need an excellent offensive line to cram the ball down the throat of good teams. VT does not have that, so there is frustration in the Red Zone. Jerry Claiborne is not a good model for offense football- not now, and probably not ever.
Good writeup. I think you meant G. Noel in the (2001) Gator Bowl, not the ACCC title tilt.
Ah yes. The crossing route day that really did confuse Bowden and company as he had not seen that on film. Correction on it’s way.
Thank you Will.
b’street
I think I enjoyed some of that….at least the parts that were not in code. Wish I could understand half of it!!
I agree.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to read and comprehend “bourbonstreet” articles.
Is it possible to reduce the amount of acronyms and slang in future articles?
I’ll try to spell a few of ’em out.
That always seems to help.
b’street
I had been waiting to see your write up. Love getting your take on the games. If this keeps up, and hard to see it changing at this point, the fans are going to revolt and I think it is starting.
It is just NUTZ to think that we did not win this football game.
Even if we have a bad nite; we still win by 3-10.
Ultimate expression of Murphy’s Law on the big-stage that I can recall.
b’street
Hey BStreet, when you go over the 4th quarter can you look to see who Blake Dechris was supposed to block on that play where DW had his helmet knocked off…i don’t remember what down or the time but it’s in the 4th quarter…blake pulls out and blocks no one and like 10 Wolverines gang tackle David and his helmet comes off.
Yah sure.
I take all requests.
And that sounds easy enough to find (or recognize) on film.
Gonna start the second-half tape-break at about 2pm today in fact.
b’street
Enjoy your posts and good read!
Thank you Sir.
I do appreciate it.
b’street
Do you think we’ll ever hear an explination as to why in the world we didn’t let LT throw the ball when our recievers were running all over them downfield all night. Everyone watching the game could see it….even the commentators. LT was a little off on 2-3 of his deep balls but if he was on, all of them would have gone for 6. I don’t know why we didn’t throw at their weak secondary more? Again, as you said…pounding the square peg into the round hole….otherwise known as forcing DW the ball because he’s a playmaker. If the defense is giving you the passing game….especially the deep passing game….take it!!
good article though…enjoyed it.
Bet the under on that happening Sir.
Too much of an admission for anyone to stand to make.
b’street
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Good stuff B-street. Took me till today to feel like reading it. That was just a tough loss to take.