#12 Virginia Tech=14, Duke=10
“Every week’s not going to be just magnificent, and this week certainly wasn’t magnificent for us, but sometimes when you can get through a game when it wasn’t so good and get a win, that’s big in the big picture.” -Frank Beamer-
When the (game) clock struck zero:zerozero down in Durham North Carolina it was our beloved 15 point A.c.c. road favored Hokies who were heard uttering an inaudible sigh of relief that they had not turned into a 14-16 pumpkin, or worse on what could have very well been a very upsetting day of football indeed folks.
Coach Cutcliffe and Duke had to be kicking themselves good and hard in the far off Duke lockeroom after this one; as their normally high 80-something percent Kicker was only 25% on the day. Had he been up to his usual snuff, Duke could very well have snuffed VT right on out as they in fact did shut mighty 12th ranked Virginia Tech right on out for the final 40 minutes of play!
Raise your hand if you predicted that one men?
Me neither.
Yes, this one was bad, and upon further film-study review, this one could very well have been much worse. The second half in particular is just not easy on the O&M eyes and has precious little to do with sunshine and puppy-dogs whatsoever.
The first-half however was a different animal everywhere less the scoreboard. As VT smoked Duke out for 3o1 total first-half yards. Didn’t feel like it, although VT had out-gained Duke by a mind-boggling 1,040% on the ground alone in the opening 30 minutes of scrimmaging.
At the intermission, someone was so brazen to opine:
“VT will slowly put this one away; even if this is not as sexxy as we had hoped. Don’t worry – be Hokie.”
Well, VT did win, and yet VT never quite took over and slowly pulled away; in fact VT striped a O&M gear and nearly stalled the entire 2011 season right on out.
So don’t worry toooooooooooo much about Duke men. Do however be a bit concerned by what just happened to Clemson down in the ATL. As Frank just said, that one will be B-I-G in the big-picture indeed.
May Saint James bless and intercede for Virginia Tech Athletic Director Jim Weaver who has been hospitalized as of Sunday.
1st quarter, 13:47 remaining:
L.T. did not get away with one, and then he got away with a 15 yard one at the end. Note that this throw to Davis was way too inside or Davis himself was not inside enough (on a possible Post); take your pick (pun intended). On the replay it looked like the Duke Fs went traffic-cop and interrupted the post route of Davis; and any subsequent collision may have rightfully resulted in the rarefied offensive pass interference call as #40 interrupted Davis’ route via breaking on the throw. Then, at the end of this play, how much further is a hit outta bounds before it is called? L.T. makes contact with the Duke Fs #40 after the Duke Fs is two full strides outta bounds an nearly drives him into the Duke bench. “Three” is very lucky he did not draw any yellow laundry on this one folks. Some days you get the bull, and some days you get the horns and Duke was feeling horny indeed on Saturday afternoon.
1st half, duration:
As you can see, ESPN3 was way way south of epic on Saturday. I saw some threads on TSl.com about how bad ESPN3 was in the first half of play. I was watching on the local A.c.c. affiliate on the TV and was not privy to such –well, at least not until now. So as you can see, this first-quarter Eye in the Sky is much thinner than expected and I for one apologize for that.
1st quarter, 1:52 remaining:
Is there a position in all of college football this side of a Wishbone Qb that makes you a superstar any faster than Field-Cb (or Rover in the Nickle) does at Virginia Tech? In the last four O&M football games K.Full’ (Kyle Fuller) has placed (horse-racing foreshadowing intended) second, second, and first in total tackles for Bud Lite. On Saturday K.Full’ only had 1 sack, 1 fumble forced, 2 TFL (tackles for a loss), 3 passes broken-up, 3 assisted stops and 5 solo tackles all by his ownself for a team leading day. Not to mention his electrifying forth quarter play which showcased no less than a trifecta of drive killing stops to quite literally save the day! (Fuller up!)
1st quarter, duration:
Just a sloppy looking opening 15 minute stanza of scrimmaging from both teams that had set a 12 Turnover and 36 penalty pace to begin the game. If Hawkeye and Trapper’s Swamp style of disheveled living arrangements from M*A*S*H fame is you thing than the first quarter is for you.
2nd quarter, 14:18 remaining:
Don’t get to see this one too often or often enough in my book; as there were steals plural on this VT kickoff return after the shortyardage Duke touchdown plunge by Scott where Rivers simply gambled and hit three lemons straight across when he sold out and hit the B-gap instead of the A-gap in an all-out run-blitz.
First up we see #41 Derek DiNardo getting stolen out in front of the Wilson KO return by #54 of Duke. Not an epic hit in and of itself, though this will be scored as a knockdown hit or a 10-8 round in boxing terms without a doubt. If you are momma #38 watching this play for Duke, don’t. Though do say goodnight to you son as he gets annihilated by #25 Mr. Martin Scales who is edging closer and closer to “likes to fight guy” status as he puts plenty of crunchification upside #38’s head on this one. At the end of the play #34 for Duke puts a nice little stick on my home-boy David Wilson as the pads were a poppin’ and the opposing scrub ballers (errrrrr, ahhhhhh, I mean opposing Lettermen) were a rockin’ in this one.
2nd quarter on:
Any of you see a much more combative Duke football team yesterday? I don’t know what the flash-point was? (1st quarter incident me thinks)
However, from the 2nd Quarter on, Duke is plum getting after VT physically speaking and very much making O&M life uncomfortable by living in VT’s personal space. Some of this is good clean, maybe even a bit mean looking football. NTTTAWWT; I respect that, in fact I even encourage that. However, it just kept going and it kept building and even flat out escalating at times. I’m not sure if taking it all the way and dropping a “dirty” bomb label on Duke is appropriate or not? Though this was not your typical soft-touch garden variety of Duke football either –I am sure of that.
Coach Knowles has his defense flying around this year -as someone pointed out pre-game- and that’s all fine and dandy. Nothing ‘rong with trying that hard in a contact sport. Nothing ‘rong with a salty variety of football either. That said, I am seeing some fringe or borderline things outta Duke that I’ve seen outta Duke, oooooooh, about half-past never in breaking tape on this one.
* So was Duke a dirty football team?
* Or did Duke simply bayonet the O&M wound and punch VT right in the mouth?
Unverified Duke sources suggest that this all began at the ~3:32 minute mark (see: above) in the first-quarter when Hosely inadvertently stepped on the upper-back or lower-neck of Duke Wideout (Varner) in the overhead pic. Yah; I can see where dood is pissed; if Hosely’s left-foot did in fact edge up and step on the thinner cervical spine; I can see where that would snap even a benevolent and forgiving temperament for sure.
2nd quarter, 9:24 remaining:
Somebody cue Michael Buffer’s famous ring-intro’ of: “Let’s get ready to rumble!”
As it was on until the break of dawn after this one; note the technically legal; yet seldom seen and even more vicious forearm/elbow right through the face mask of C.Hill after the INT by #5 Mr. Braxton of Duke. As #5 leapt up and basically ran C.Hill down and tried to kill him at the end of this pick-off return. Goodness! What happened to the “kinder gentler” Duke indeed? (over-the-Hill)
2nd quarter, 9:11 remaining:
Like I said it was on after all of this! Don’t believe me? Just ask Whitley (orange arrow) who went gunning for or headhunting on #3 of Duke on the reverse to the trailing Wr on an outside-zone call off-tackle to the right side C-gap on this one. Don’t believe that? Just as Exum who simply got mauled like the final scene from Legends of the Fall (white arrow) right at the end of this Duke carry. (BOOM! BOOM! POW!)
2nd quarter, 7:38 remaining:
Watch the ankle diving slappy block by #58 of Duke on the only remaining upright and good-to-go Hopkins brother or D.Hop in #98 (orange ellipse). Now, note that that was within the tackle box where it is anything and everything goes trench warfare extraordinaire. Now look at big ole #77 of Duke (white ellipse) and tell me how this is not an ineligible man downfield? (“TWEET!”)
2nd quarter, 5:38 remaining:
Note D.Coale with the left-wrist sprain upon impact after snagging this neat looking deep-post pattern from L.T. Gotta give s shoutout to “xL” (extra Logan or extra large) as well, as he sure has improved his long-ball in season. No more wildly inaccurate throws; and he has not thrown over the incorrect shoulder since E.C.U. I noticed as well that his weight transfer is much better looking going forward in passing motion terms in the pocket. Dood is trying to get better for sure, therefore it is only a matter of when he becomes a truly great Virginia Tech Qb. Not if.
2nd quarter, 0:11 remaining:
I kinda thought that this VT timeout and subsequent delay-of-game penalty might have been intentional. i.e. in order to give Branthover more room to punt and put his full leg into it. However, what actuality happened is that L.T. fumbled, and VT got double-jeopardy bailout lucky. Note that Duke (obviously) does not teach to advance the ball on a fumble; and then, the near all-A.c.c. Duke Kicker Synderwine had basically a career low of a day. The early word was that he had a bad ankle sprain a few weeks ago; and some kinda back/groin problem in-game. If he had been healthy and therefore had he been his usual self, we could very well all be typing about 6-2 Virgina Tech right now.
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Longfield Management (Lo.FM):©
Virginia Tech:
positive= ||||
negative= |||| |||| || (1 VT INT, 1 VT penalty)
neutral= ||||
Duke:
positive= |||| || (2 VT penalties)
negative= |||| |||| |||| ||| (2 Duke INT’s, 1 Duke Fumble)
neutral= ||| (1 VT penalty)
I’ll tell you this in grading the Lo.FM right now; you could see VT start out well enough. After all, VT did punk Duke for a cool 3o1 first-half yards between the goalines spank you very much. However, right at the end of the second quarter of play, you could see VT becoming unraveled, then frazzled in the second-half and nearly undone to close the show. Simply put, that was not an O&M composure symposium, not at all.
Now, before I go any further, I do wanna give credit where credit is due. Coach Cuttcliffe had his boys ready to play, and coached the best game vs. Frank Beamer this side of Stanford and maybe even J.M.U. in a couple of years; maybe more like 2-4. Duke was doing ok, early on. Nothing epic, nothing Duke’ish or suspect in pigskin terms either. Then Hosely (with his bad hammie –mind you) accidentally lands on the C-5 part of Vernon’s neck and suddenly a spark-less tinderbox otherwise known as the year in and year out inert Dukies threatened to exploded. Gotta give Duke a cyber tip of the hat; they rose to meet the challenge and they surely responded in full force. As that was positively NOT what Virginia Tech needed. An uber physical game of rock’em sock’em robots with lowly Duke with the issue quite literally in doubt for 59 minutes and 5 seconds of high octane scrumming up and down the countersunk Wallace Wade Stadium field in Raleigh North Carolina. VT did not need that folks, not one iota. VT needs O&M R&R like a dead man need a coffin. Maybe worse, as VT looked mentally worn down and physically beat-up; whereas Duke suddenly went Tin Man and found some heart and damn near stole one indeed.
I’m not a fan of the adage that there is ever any such thing as a good L. However, if I am Coach Cutcliffe, I surely take away the vibe that my program is not only headed in the right direction, I also take away the intrinsic sense that it won’t be as long as most of the prognosticinti (self-included) thought it would be until Duke does off somebody big. Duke is much more athletic today than they were a couple of years ago as Coach Cutcliffe is recruiting speed, speed and more speed and he is edging ever closer and closer to bum-rushing a few unsuspecting Coastal big-boys soon enough. Helluva a game and props to Coach-C; I hope you guys win out from here on out.
As for the Lo.FM itself, it did correctly predict that VT would win this football game. However, I’m not so concerned about the VT negative plays –we were due for a few of those when chasing the chain-gang. I am however concerned about two things and both of them are surefire signs of fatigue, both mentally and physically in my book…
- First up, where were the good or positive VT Lo.FM plays? Since the fugly looking Klempson debacle, VT had not only been averaging 11.33 positive Lo.FM plays per game; VT had also been playing better and better each and every week. 9, 11 and 14 positive play Lo.FM’s vs. Miami, Wake and B.C. is what I consider to be noticeable if not substantial improvement and growth from such a sophomoric Adonis in cleats specimen of a Qb. That’s what you call moving in the right direction folks. Only nailing 5 positive Lo.FM’s vs. the seemingly lowly Dukies is what you call flat-out stripping an O&M gear and down-shifting from 4th straight into R (reverse). That’s a 226% shift to the bad in positive Lo.FM’s for a VT offense that was seemingly beginning to ripen and seemed ready to be playing some tasty football indeed heading into November. Now we see a VT offense that has either more work to do than we knew, or is way outta synch heading into an epic looking Coastal Division game down in the ATL on 11 days rest.
- Secondly, why was VT do dang sloppy looking in long-range down-n-distance situations after having been so calm and collected for most of the season? Giving Duke three freebie first-downs and costing yourself one adds up to 58 yards the ‘rong way in this case or basically a long-range Meyer FGA in penalties. Ironically enough, that is basically what VT won by in the end anyways.
The VT defense was decent; even if the Lo.FM paints a much more dominate picture than it should. Decent means you allowed 326 total yards. Decent means you came up with only 3 TFL (tackles for a loss on the day) vs. a team that typically gives up almost 7 per game. Decent means you sacked a lame Qb once (back + hip) vs. a Duke oLine that was 75th in Sacks allowed coming into this contest. Decent means you just gave up virtually 70 more yards per game than your season average; vs. the 73rd best total offense in the land. Now do be clear, that none of that sucks. It’s just that we are missing somebody (#51) who is one of the best purified defensive play-makers in the whole entire A.c.c. and we are gonna miss him like the dickens @ Gah.Tech and home for U.N.C. (and maybe even up in paris). You can bet you bottom dollar on that. As the 4-2-5 Nickel base defense that Bud Lite had on tap on Saturday is like a puritanical girl with a great face out on the first date, just not all that heady as a full-time defense in the final analysis.
Why?
Because this Nickle is much more of a read-n-react base defensive set with more (smaller) guys further off the line-of-scrimmage proper via basic entry-level Nickel alignment definition. That, plus the fact that Rivers does not move that well, is out of shape and overweight, tells me that Bud’s much ballyhooed 1-gap system is behind the 8-ball heading into the ATL in roughly 11 days. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the gears turning in Cyrano Jones, I mean coach P.J.’s mind. Those gears have to be intrigued by the possibility of moving the base Belly Fullback belly ride-play or hand-off out into the B-gap which will force poor ‘Quell Rives to cover more and more ground laterally.
Bud Lite did cover fairly well downfield, as evidenced by Renfree’s 48% passing and 2 INT day. The kicker is that Nobody Scott got 70 on only 10 carries and GT will get at least 10 carries in the first quarter of play vs. VT alone!
Such really truly madly deeply has me wondering what defensive wizardly Bud Foster and his 1-gap system have up their injured O&M sleeves with this many Hokie stop-unit hurts in tow for the ATL? Never sleep on the fact that Bud Lite (via design and intent alike) is nobodies individual assignment based defense. It is a singular gap based defense that attempts to spill or funnel plays to the unblocked or uncovered defender typically just beyond or outside of a given De. Accordingly, here is your early weather report for the ATL on November the 10th: “Flood Warning in full effect.” As Coach P.J. will kick Bud Lite good and hard if he can and RUTS up should the O&M front-line defensive levy finally break. Unless the defensive wizard otherwise known as Bud Foster himself has enough magic left up his O&M sleeves to pull one more rabbit outta his hat.
Now all that to say, VT did win.
Let’s repeat that, VT did win indeed men; and starting tomorrow all of this sluggish and inefficient and Duke business will be O&M history.
As Frank and company formally begin preparation for one of their dicier looking away games in quite some time.
No doubt this Duke game was something short of a triple-rainbow; and yet everyday each and everyone of us gets better or we get worse. So let’s get a little better today (Monday) before anything gets any worse.
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street
