Clemson=23, Virginia Tech=3
♫“Oh what a night.”♫
-Frankie Vallie-
Oh what a painful, horrific and extremely unanticipated evening this one was folks. More like a burn the film, put this one behind us A.S.A.P. and dive right on into to good, clean, hard week of Miami work.
It used to be that VT was the one that took the other side out behind the O&M woodshed and drilled them good and hard. This time it was VT who got reamed and royally at home, at night, on national TV, in weather that in no way shape or form appeared to favor a Clemson victory. Much less a truly upsetting 20 point beat down on very own homesteading Worsham Field turf.
Raise your hand if you called that one? The Official Prediction Thread (OPT) should be a breeze to grade this week men; as nobody I know of outside of South Carolina tabbed the Tigers to tame Tech by 20 on an unseasonable soggy and at times downright chilly New River Valley on Saturday night down in Blacksburg Virginia.
Yah; this one don’t taste too good, so I’ma gonna give you confirmed P.A.T.T.’s a P.S.A., I ain’t Mary Poppins and I don’t eat sweets. As there is not enough sugar in the world to sweeten an otherwise categorically acerbic looking second-half of play.
3rd quarter 13:42 remaining:
Saw this play 2-3 times on Saturday night and I just can not let this one go. Watch Drager pull left-to-right on your TV screen and then try to seal the Clemson left-hand De. That makes sense, Drager is our best fold-blocking Te (our only fold-blocking Te mind you). Still that’s not an easy block to execute in space vs. an athletic and uncooperative De; and it damn sure is not an easy block when you simply let the left-De go and release him to head downfield to pick nobody up as nobody is precisely who Drager blocked after he released the left-side De to DeChris. Really? I mean r-e-a-l-l-y? Then we See Miller of all people; who is trailing by a good full Gap and a half; try to get to the wideside OLb for Clemson. Mike Webster might not have been able to get to this guy from that kinda oblique angle. Then Brooks is on skates and driven backwards into our backfield by 2-3 yards by the Clemson Dt. Who draws a play up like this? I just do not get some of what we are attempting to accomplish this season. (more: in TTT below)
3rd quarter, ~11:00 remaining:
Note the difference in play calling temperament folks; second-n-short and Clemson throws to the endzone; whereas on the very last second-n-short VT ran L.T. on a Qb-sneak. Jus’ sayin’. Further, note that this TD throw to Allen of Clemson was the third version of the very first play Clemson ran from scrimmage on their very first play of the game. That’s what I call scripting to set ‘em up and then to knock them down later on men.
2nd-half duration:
I’ll tell you what, my boy David Wilson sure got a whole lotta bonus yards and sometimes even bonus feet and inches on his own in the final 30 minutes of scrimmaging; as the Tigers began to routinely play in our backfield upfront as run-fighting goes. Just watch “four” at the 8:11 3rd Q mark bounce this one to the outside and beat no less than 3 Clemson defenders on an amazing Cirque du Soleil high-wire balance act run down along the Tiger sideline on this one. This is what you call making something outta nothing and this takes some kinda washboard core-strength to do what Wilson did on this one.
3rd quarter, 3:50 remaining:
Note the new heavy-set left-shoulder brace on DeChris’ left-shoulder that is new to this game. (big PIC link)
“Virginia Tech needs to get a little more dynamic on their (passing) route structure.”
ESPN2 Play-by-Play commentator –Ed Cunningham-
3rd quarter, 1:22 remaining:
You just knew this Wilson run would make the Eye in the Sky. The long and the short of it is that Wilson ran between 85 and 90 yards left then right, then left and right again, then backwards again and finally downfield for a net gain of 19 yards as the official scorekeepers log reads for the game. What a mad-hatter looking Alice in Wonderland kinda this jaunt this helter-skelter looking carry by #4 is; and it took a true shoestring stop after a fair enough open-field block by D.Coale -who never quit on the play- downfield to fell my boy or he’d still be running with this one.
That said; Clemson made 4-5 of these game changing plays and VT made 1; ball-game right there folks.
4th quarter, 14:56 remaining:
Note the use of the 2-point (see: above pic) or upright stance by Andre Branch the right-side Clemson De. I saw this one a couple of times in the third stanza of play; and subsequently frequently for the duration of the game whenever VT was in an obvious passing down-n-distance situation. At first this had the look and feel of a Zone Blitz or drop into pass coverage in an attempt to confuse L.T.. However, this was nothing more that a prelude to a Usain Bolt speed rush as Branch singlehandedly took a tree-trunk sized stick upside the head of the O’Cain offense all by his ownself. Thee Sacks and another six TFL besides that with only one single stop downfield is a season of a game for Mr. Branch.
4th quarter, 12:49 remaining:
Total bull-true call men. And a total bonehead play by Jarrett on top of that. Note that the helmet of Scales is not only legally out in front; it is in fact inside the left shoulder of #42 making this a obviously perfectly clean hit. However, a tenth of a second or so later; Jarrett simply wipes #30 of Clemson out; right in the middle of the back. Damn. Note as well that Frank himself (accidentally) contacts the VT sideline Field-Judge. In the strictest interpretation of the rulebook itself, this very well could, and possibly should have been an auto-ejection according to the letter of the law; as you simply NEVER touch an official. Not accidentally, not intentionally, never ever never. (no CLIP link) (yes CLIP link)
4th quarter, 11:11 remaining:
The white circle is the 4-yard completion to D.Coale. The maroon circle is C.Drager wide-open for 6 on the skinny flag pattern in the endzone. You do the maths. (33 for 6 link)
4th quarter, 1:30 remaining:
Why is Dabbo dabbling in kissing his assistant coach? I mean I do get that dood is happy to have saved his own coaching hide and all; though do you really have to go Isaiah and Magic to close the show in this one? That said, credit where credit is due, as Clemson won and won going away; proppers to the Tigers indeed!
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Time To Throw:©
Virginia Tech:
sacked=||||
hit=|||| |||| ||||
hurried= |
pressured= |||| |||| |
drops= | (Hosely INT)
deflections: | (Boykin INT to Clemson)
Clemson:
sacked=|
hit= ||||
hurried= || (1 Boyd INT)
pressured=|||| ||
drops= |||| (1 L.T. INT)
Interesting week for the Lo.FM (Longfield Management) and for the T3 (Time To Throw) metrics alike. The Lo.FM was pushed to the brink of a draw; and now only fairly reads all-time hyphen one hyphen one after three years of service checking in at 44-1-1 at this stage of the game. The younger of these two in-game predictive siblings however remains intact upon its maiden as the T3 has never been beaten. 30-zip if you are keeping score at home and therefore still entirely chaste to taking any scratch marks in the L column.
In this particular game the Lo.FM predicted an even contest whereas the TTT predicted that Clemson would more than double VT up on the scoreboard; basically suggesting Clemson would win by a factor of four.
So, on the one hand we witness the testimony of the Lo.FM itself; as Virginia Tech managed to nail a few soild ground gaining or good looking plays between the 30 yardlines plural. However, VT could not nail the money shot or the necessary or drive sustaining play; nor could the Hokies manufacture any points when they got inside Meyer’s long-range F.G.A. distance other than one simple 3 from Cody that felt more like a -4 in the end.
“I fight on and the world darkens around me, among new men, strange faces and other minds.” –Lord Alfred Tennyson-
Let’s examine that epic Tennyson blast in the context of last Saturday night piecemeal.
“I fight on and the world darkens around me”, aye, pretty much. As this nubile VT football team fought on until a very bitter end and never let go the rope when their hands had to be burning and on fire indeed. “Among new men, strange faces”, bingo that! As I saw a whole lotta Chicago-Maroon clad sophomores and freshmen out there in this one folks. I even saw some of said second and first year ballers playing pretty much like such and making youngling or juvenile knuckleheaded mistakes. No real surprise or scoop there; as it takes some measure of fire to temper even the strongest steel. “Strange faces and other minds”, did you see any play calling differences in the clutch or when the going got tough? I sure did. First up, I saw a penchant for simply getting the next first down. Something of a turtle mentality outta O’Cain on two second down and short Qb sneaks. Yes, L.T. has the metrics to (easily) subsidize such a call as Clemson was in their base 4-3 set -not a short yardage variety- both times. However, why not take a stab downfield? You still have L.T. and his awesome metrics on third down and short if the long throw is not there. How about some trickeration? Have you noticed that about O’Cain? Do we even have a simple reverse left in the playbook? Think about it men, as G.O.P. or right of right as we were for seasons plural, subsequent to this season the the post Orange Bowl reshuffling of the VT offensive play-calling deck under the Frank-n-Stiney offensive regime … are we any less conservative now? Or are we actually even further right of right?
Secondly, “among new men, strange faces and other minds”, so who exactly do you nominate that will step up and seize the always nebulous Leadership reins in practice this week? Tyrod and John Graves? I’d been hearing some kick about the lack of emerging leader(s) on this team pre-game; and yet such matters naught in the big picture when you are 11th ranked and riding high at 4-zip overall. You don’t need a whole lotta leadership to open up the year with a 129-40 aggregate beat-down of a combined scoring margin vs. four highly over-matched football squads. To me this Clemson football game is dangerously close to leaving a mark; as we could very well open the first quarter of play vs. Miami with a fifth quarter of a Tiger hangover in full effect. Everyone I know thought VT was gonna win, and not just win, win comfortably or possibly even going away. Instead we are all left pondering how a 20 point home rout tastes. While I can say that someone called the Clemson=23, part spot on, can’t say that same someone hand any idea in the world what VT would do on last Saturday night. Marking last Saturday night as officially their second worst VT football prediction of all-time and therefore placing an official apology firmly and contritely in hand. My bad on that.
The tide turns…or was it more like VT began to be washed out to sea in a Clemson flavored rip-tide? Such was the case right at or just beyond the initial 20 minutes of scrimmaging. Up until that point the abovementioned TTT metric had nary a O&M scratch mark on it. Wilson was rushing well enough, VT was moving the football, and VT was indeed protecting “three” fairly well. Then something strange happened up close and personal as Clemson suddenly got right up and all in L.T.’s grill (or face). I’ve mentioned before how I’ve seen L.T. contract or shorten a bit as a passer goes when there is pocket pressure coming straight at him right up the gut. I saw it again near the 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter of play mark and the game itself was never the same from that point on. I’m not yet sure why edge pressure does not bother L.T. quite so much? Could be he is indeed a r-sophomore and that he has not yet developed the hidden sixth sense or eyes in the back of his head as backside pressure goes, or maybe his pocket vision is just not all that in the first place. However, for the third time in four weeks, I’ve witnessed #3 abbreviate or even flat out diminish after he gets his first full measure of a full frontal assault. We now have enough chapters firmly in place to augur an attempt a how the 2011 book on L.T. will be written. You open up by run-blitzing Wilson early and often in an attempt to force the chain-gang into obvious passing situations and therefore force the game into L.T. sizable, albeit still by and large highly sophomoric hands. Then you pass blitz VT inside out. Why?
- Because nearly all L.T. scrambles are straight ahead.
- L.T. does not move laterally all that well nor does he move laterally all that often in the first place.
- I’ve already said he does not respond well to someone getting up close and personal and playing in his shirt.
- And primarily because L.T. is a pocket Qb by trade, his domicile is the proverbial pass-protection Cup and because he fundamentally lacks what was put to me as: “the Bryan Randall minimum level of quickness required to play Qb at Virginia Tech.” Tru dat, as there is something very starchy or outright stiff about L.T.’s specimen sized game.
And yet I am left wondering yet again; did this 2011 VT football team peak vs. Appalachian State? Leadership (or lack there of) and L.T. himself will tell us next Saturday vs. a ‘Cane football team slated to recover several stud starters just in time for playing Virginia Tech. Imagine that.
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street