Virginia Tech=14, Duke=10
The final 30 minutes of scrumming down in Durham, North Carolina last Saturday afternoon … in breaking-tape, I saw a Virginia Tech
football team that did a lotta little things well, some medium things kinda ok, and not much after that.
Or in other words, VT infamously played down to their level of competition and scraped by in this one by the hair of their chinny chin-chin.
Think about it … is VT really only 4 points better than Duke?
Vegas said VT was 15 points better, which would suggest something in the neighborhood of a 25-10 VT victory on the day. I’d say VT is a little better than even that; although diminished and chronically injured VT does narrow the margin. As does a heavily mentally fatigued VT with the Coastal game of the year looming large, in-change and up next down in the ATL at Georgia Tech.
Ergo, I can forgive a very forgettable VT win.
Last time I checked you don’t apologize for being right or on the right side of the scoreboard when the proverbial fat lady sings.
That said, this was an out-of-tune looking second half of play. Beyond several key K.Fuller open-field stops, some smart internal run-fighting from ‘Quell Rivers and one late game VT offensive drive that at least managed to consume a little game-clock sans any points. Don’t believe me, check it out … below.
3rd quarter, 14:54 remaining:
This is what I call setting the tone, as there were no less than 3 steals on the opening second-half kick-off. Two to the good, and one not so much from a VT point-of-view; as the tone was set that Duke “would not go gentle into that good night” as the terminally clever Welsh poet Dylan Thomas once put it.
3rd quarter, 5:32 remaining:
How many of you had your Hokie hearts in your Hokie throat on this one? Boy is this simply a dangerous looking softy-lofty lollipop of a floater by L.T. to Wilson out in the right-hand flat on this one. Good thing #38 was playing the man (Wilson) as opposed to the ball –because if #38 had broken on the ball, he almost surely would have taken this floater of an L.T. pass all the way back to the house for six. I have to say, L.T. got away with one on this one, and this one would and possibly even should have been his third INT on the day.
3rd quarter, 4:44 remaining:
Drager got proverbially shaken up at the end of this really outstretched and nearly defenseless catch on the rudimentary down-n-out pattern when L.T. lead him a bit too much. Nothing lingering on this one, as his bell was rung and that’s that.
3rd quarter, 4:25 remaining:
#74 Andrew Miller sure plays until the proverbial echo of the whistle, or until it fades. This is semi close to a late hit on Miller and it was clearly a block-n-the-back downfield vs. #91 of Duke, who Miller proceeds to spatula or flat-out pancake at the end of this play. Miller may not be a dirty player like say a Jake Grove per se. Though there is something a little bit rough and occasional abrasive to his game; and he sure hustles his ass off fold-blocking downfield, –making it tough to hate on a kid who is trying this damn hard. (Miller time)
3rd quarter, 0:46 remaining:
Nosal’s career almost came to an end; as his left leg (foot) got pinned under him and he was forced into an involuntarily so-called hurdlers-stretch on this one. Note the torsio or twist in the left-knee and the lack of linear alignment from Nosal’s left-thigh-pad down to his left-knee-pad. Dood is Luck with 10 capital L’s on this one and than some. “Dear knee-brace manufactures … thanks!”
4th quarter, 15:00 remaining:
Far out scene by the Dukies right before the fourth and final stanza of scrimmaging began. Accordingly, who did this bouncy scene remind you of? Reminded me of, oh, say, a very in-your-face version of a Miami or some such caliber team from years gone by. Clearly Duke was feeling no pain, and more intriguingly than that is the fact that the formerly bedeviling intrinsic vibe that used to surrounded this kicked version of a habitually A.c.c. cellar-dwelling football squad seems to have changed of late. My Illinois sports psych course under Dr. Minnix is telling me that that this has the real live feel of a Duke football team that believes in itself; and that such is beginning to manifest itself in on-field “don’t push us or we will push back” terms. (Duke psychs themselves up)
4th quarter, 12:27 remaining:
Hosely should have hustled and caught this Synderwine “doink” off the left-upright; right? ‘rong! The FG itself is dead as it is considered to be out-of-bounds according to the letter of the rulebook law. Think Frank coaches theses guys up on playbook literacy or what? (heady move by Hosely)
4th quarter, 9:20 remaining:
This is what Chris Coleman was talking about on his radio show this week when he said (in so many words) that when ‘Quell Rivers gets you, you stay got; and in between the Tackles, #52 can still get a lot. ‘Quell is just a beefy looking cookie-monster as an inside run-fighter goes right now; looking to gobbled everything and anything up between the C-Gaps. Which leaves me wondering if P.J. and his G-c-G trifecta –which is more talented that his Ot’s- will try the depleted VT Mike and Dt’s on for size?
4th quarter, 3:34 remaining:
I can see why Coach-C and staff over on the Duke sideline’s were livid about this one. If this is not a late hit on #74 ‘drew Miller it surely is a block in the back on #48 as the picture clearly demonstrates. While I do admire the kids moxie, hustle and flat-out “want to” I don’t want to see him misapplying the same into accidentally wiping out a big ole Wilson carry with what ultimately amounts to a futile and pragmatically useless block as Wilson was already on his way down.
4th quarter, 3:19 remaining:
This is somewhere between a tripping penalty, a kick in the ass, or I don’t know what. As Davis somehow went Daniel-son, crane-kick move and totally annihilated poor #4o of Duke to spring Wilson free on a kick out block (pun very much intended) on the outside-zone-stretch play to the left into the 5-hole. Somewhere Mister Miyagi is smiling and somewhere the Duke coaching staff is crying watching VT enjoy every single benefit of the closing late-game doubt. “Wax on, wax off” indeed.
Or maybe not, as I have been informed that this may have been a dreaded no-contact injury for #40 of Duke. Godspeed on that.
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Time To Throw (T3):©
Virginia Tech:
Sacked=|
Qb hits= |||| |||| (1 VT fumble, 1 VT INT)
Qb hurries=zero
Qb pressures= ||||
drops= zero!
Duke:
Sacked=zero
Qb hits=|||| |||| (1 INT, 1 VT personal foul)
Qb hurries= |
Qb pressures= |||| |||| ||
Sometimes it is better to be lucky that it is good.
Duke’s normally all-A.c.c. caliber FGK swung his right leg no less than four times for three points; or this second-half Eye in the Sky would have been dislodging a very upsetting plank indeed.
Trying to skull a 1-iron or nail a last second 57 yarder is a tough shot indeed. That one is a bit forgivable, even for an all-A.c.c. kinda place-Kicker. However, the “doink” off the right-upright and the plain ole slice (no matter how close it was) only counts in hand grenades, horseshoes and pregnancy, and with most Tech fans who had to be thrilled to get outta Dodge with a win in a very physical and hard hitting contest down in Durham North Carolina.
Was Virginia Tech lucky to win this one?
Well, maybe not luck as in four leaf clovers, rabbits-feets, and horseshoes turned upsideright.
I’m not German, I’m ½ CCCP, a quarter Scotch and a quarter Ginger Ale, and at the risk of having a schadenfreude buzz-bomb dropped on this weeks Eye, VT was however a bit fortuitous that Synderwine was less than healthy, as I fully expect a healthy (ankle, and groin in-game) Synderwine kicks VT good and hard and kicks VT right where it counts with no less than a 75% day. Some days you get the bull — some days you get the horns and these Dukies were bedeviled and feeling horny indeed post-game. Ergo, when you examine the Time To Throw metric, it paints a fairly even picture; or one that ever so slightly leans in VT’s favor. That’s almost precisely what this one was. As VT’s margin of error was zero on one kick (the “doink”) and about 4-5` on the other. Sure, VT scraped by and found a way to win when they did not play their best. Someone said on TTL a few weeks back that none other than Mr. Clutch -Jerry West- once authored that very quote and that according to Jerry, finding a way to win when you do not play your best is the the truest signature of a championship team of them all. Come December third, let’s all hope that truer words were never spoken when we look back on a rather sleepy looking October twenty-ninth.
Now, to some real-live Time To Throw analysis based nuts and bolts. What do you notice about the TTT or T3 metric this week? Could of things leapt right out at me: first up, is the VT pass-blocking for real? 14th best in sacks allowed does not suck and is a far cry from 86th best last year, and the low water mark of 115th in 2007. When taken as an Index, that’s a 614% improvement from last year, and a staggering 821% from 2007 as national rankings go. Don’t give Curt Newsome a pat on the back; give him a raise if this kinda protection keeps up! Am I being too effusive in my praise? Check back in 2012 when we will return exactly 1 single solitary oLine starter and see if L.T. suffers through something of a junior year jinx.
Secondly, the TTT painted a pretty even looking picture overall; and guess what? The game itself was an isomer of that and proved prophetic indeed. However, upon closer inspection you will note the following, same as me:
- VT played 8 snaps of its base 4-3.
- VT was in the Nickel nearly full-time erstwhile.
- VT plays one Saturday football game in 27 days.
- VT plays one home game in something going on 70+ odd days to close the 2011 show.
What does all that conspire to tell all of you? It tells me that VT is either gonna end the day as road warriors or road weary. As the Nickle is just not so grand as scheme when it comes to getting after the opposing Qb and our plethora of dLine hurts ain’t helping things one iota either. Nor is the presence of B.Taylor’s absence, as he was not real far removed from averaging 1 sack and 3 Qb hurries per game all by his ownself. Such is just not ‘Quell Rivers game -though Jack Tyler has some measure of this in him- and Nick Dew is 2012 away from being able to contribute and 2014 away from coming due. So do keep an Eye on Qb pressure after we play Georgia Tech.
Finally, check out the Drive Chart above and on the right. Note that VT ran 46 plays on its final 11 drives for zero points off of 207 yards. This tells me that the book is finally out on how to play VT and the meteoric sophomore phenom in cleats otherwise know as L.T. Pretty simple, and pretty familiar as well. Just play Beamerball vs. none other than Frank Beamer his ownself. Or in other words: “when in doubt, punt it out”, and pin VT deep and play a field-position based game all day long.” Control the spot of the ball, at all costs and magnify the following as much as you can: First, make L.T. make throws, the longer the better and test his accuracy. Second, crowd the VT Wr’s no matter what. This has the twofold benefit of putting more run-fighters in the proverbial box and even a blind man could see it with a cane, the VT Wideouts block next to nobody and they are still very uncomfortable when being jammed right at the line-of-scrimmage as releases go. Finally, base your offense off of the VT Mike Linebacker. When ‘Quell is out there make him (try) to run laterally the whole entire 53` 4“ on every single play and see how long that bum leg holds out. Then run right at the rookie VT Dt’s, who are inexperienced and light-in-the-pants; all the more so if you ever see Jack Tyler at MLb.
Up Next: @ (7-2) Gah.Tech:
There is no doubt in my mind, that this game is *the* A.c.c. Coastal Division game of the year! (well: unless hosting U.N.C. is I mean)
Right now, and as you can clearly tell by the pic below and on the right itself, I’m pretty split on who will win this one. I do know that we have gone off-campus (yet again) and sought out some more real-live adroit advice as to how we might finally defense Coach Cyrano Jones (A.K.A. Paul Johnson or P.J.) and is much vaunted so-called Flexbone offense.
Right now Georgia Tech is:
- 2nd in rushing offense (328 per game on the ground)
- 9th in fewest penalty yards against per game
- 18th in Time of Possession
- 37th in total defense
- 42nd best in turnover margin
- 68th in rushing defense
Or in other words, Georgia Tech does not appear poised to give Virginia Tech much in the way of assistance or outright help in winning this football game.
Not bad for a team that was said to be at least a year away (maybe two) from being a bona fide Coastal Division threat once again. In point of fact, Phil Steele only nominated 6 Yellow Jackets in his pre-season Top-100 all-A.c.c. teams plural –a stinging indictment indeed.
However, what I want you to focus upon is the 2011 Wrambling Wreck turnover margin. Forty-second best is damn good for a new battery of belly, keeper, and pitch and possibly pitch again set of players. To put it another way, VT only has 6 less fumbles than Georgia Tech does, and VT has pitched or optioned the football precisely three times thus far this season. I would have bet a lotta pre-season money against that, and a lotta money is exactly what that would have cost me up to this point in time. Right now Gah.Tech has their option-integrity (spacing) sorted out rather well and is only putting the rock on the floor and turning it over 0.6 times per game since the first day of October. Georgia Tech will throw the ball about 10 odd times give or take in this one, which means that Bud Lite and his 13 interceptions are gonna have to tap into some other version of driver killers to take Gah.Tech down in the ATL
Sure would be nice to run on Georgia Tech and that sixty-eight ranked rushing defense a little bit and keep that much ballyhooed flex-bone offense seated upon its own arse over on the Jackets bench. Though that is code for me yet again putting the cart before the horse and that is another preview for another day.
Although I can and will tell you this much right now … it’s all about the body. Your body is your resume. And the Bud Lite body of work is in reverse as we head into hot’lanta for this one. With so many VT stop-unit injuries you have to wonder if the wink is already in before the die is cast?
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street