Your FREE-view Clemson Eye in the Sky part I:

Clemson=23, Virginia Tech=3

Boys and girls……………today’s word is: roshambo.

As VT just lost a no-legged groin kicking contest vs. Bigfoot himself.

OUCH!

That one left a mark indeed.

Gotta wonder who we will be playing next week in fact … the fifth quarter of Clemson –or Miami?

As these upstart and downright resurgent Clemson Tigers not only just tamed Virginia Tech; they kicked our beloved Hokies ass at home, in Lane, at night, on ESPN2 National TV, and under elemental (weather) conditions that surely seemed to oppose Clemson success pre-game.

To quote Brad Pitt from a River Runs Through it:
“Damnation. “ -Paul Maclean-

There is just not enough lipstick in the world for this pig.

Let’s see … all-world Tajh Boyd only goes 13 of 32 for 40%; we hold Ellington to 42 yards rushing, Watkins to 48 yards receiving, we hold the Indy up-tempo Clemson offense to 67 plays, we win Time of Possession going away by 9 minutes and change; and we did not just get beat; we just got pumped by 20 at home, on national TV at night, inside of the Thunderdome?!?

Really?
I mean r-e-a-l-l-y?!?

DANG men.

Two major themes jumped out at me during my once over of my hand-written game-notes:

1. Where was our kick some well known soft-touch Clemson ass with a mega hard hitting high velocity VT kinda football game? I saw some big return game hits from Tech, to be sure; and not much else. Where was all that high octane Hokie fuel on the VT fire? That was a very uninspired looking effort. That really has taken my mind out behind the O&M woodshed. I’ve got nothing. You?
2. Is this team just too sophomoric? Did we peak vs. Appalachian State and then subsequently play much more true to form vs. low(er)-level E.C.U., Arkansas State and Marshall? Because I’ve not seen the Appalachian State version of VT, well, not since Appalachian State.

1^st quarter, 14:49 remaining:
Do Gayle and Boyd have a history? I’m not a V.A.H.S. guru by trade. Although Boyd sure ran right at Gayle and slapped #99 right across his face at the end of the first Clemson offensive possession. I’m not saying that retaliation is a good thing, though even a Qb so pious as one Bart Starr once said you never turn the other cheek on Sunday afternoon. This bitch-slap was a foreshadowing of things to come; as you have no friends once the whistle blows in a contact sport. Ergo, you do not take a shot like this and simply walk away in a contact sport; that’s bad form; as Boyd surly psyched Gayle out on this one. (2nd PIC link)

1^st quarter, 13:01 remaining:
Who is this VT Staffer who jerks Whitley’s chain backwards good and hard after Whitely just has to run his mouth at the all-Conference Te from Clemson post play? Stiney? If so good for Stiney. As the need of today’s baller to talk foul-mouthed S never ceases to amaze me. I thought we’d cleaned most of this up? As you can most certainly cop a ‘tude and play good clean, hard-nosed, hard-hitting, football sans all the lip. (big PIC link)

1^st quarter, 10:00 remaining:
Finally found something new in football folks. Never seen this in my 4 decades of pigskin either; just watch the Clemson Te lined up as an H-back outside the 4-hole, pull right to left and fake a trap block on Jarrett only to slip behind #34 on the modified boot-play on a simpleton of a down-n-out pattern for a Pee-Wee or junior varsity easy pitch-n-catch for about 8 yards on this reception. I would not mind seeing us pirate this play for use with C.Drager when he lines up as an H-back for us.

1^st quarter, 7:50 remaining:
Try try and try again, and if at first you don’t succeed…just watch #90 Perez-Means try and try again to steal #15 at first. After a good-clean miss on #15 Perez-Means hops right up and totally steals #21 on the barely legal blindside hit at the end of the Hosely punt-return. I can watch a play like this 5-10 times and love every minute of it!

1^st quarter, 5:25 remaining:
Check out my boy #4 getting his right-wrist worked on by the VT training staff after the fumble; which non-coincidentally enough occurred via his left-hand. Go fig’ on that? (big PIC link)

1^st quarter, 3:32 remaining:
Note this play calling-by Clemson –does this play look familiar? It should, it was their first play of the game. Except this time the Tigers fake the bubble screen they threw earlier and set Bud Lite perfectly up for a needle threading catch downfield over Exum and behind C.Hill. Simply amazing and try as all the fancy metropolitan themed football vernacular in the world might; football still ain’t rocket-surgery men.

1^st quarter, 2:17 remaining:
Goodness gracious! Did my boy Wilson launch himself into #17 for Clemson as a human torpedo on this KO Return or what? WOW! Just wow! (see: above pic)

2^nd quarter, 14:34 remaining:
B.Taylor’s bad left-shoulder is back; as you can see by the massive shoulder-brace he is wearing on the left side only under his shoulder pads; and yes, this is the same one he just had cut on back in the Spring. (big PIC link)

2^nd quarter, 4:42 remaining:
To me this was the pivotal play of the opening 30 minutes of scrimmaging; if not the game. Note that L.T. executes a jump-pass of all things almost 7 yards behind the LOS (line-of-scrimmage). Why? Did he think the 10 yardline stripe was the LOS itself? Why not pump fake the pass to the left and tuck it under and head right (curvilinear orange line)? On the right hand side you will observe two Hokie blockers for three Clemson defenders. All of which under weigh L.T. by 50 odd lbs. You say that may not work? I say make the Clemson Free-Safety (orange ellipse) choose his path either under or over (white lines) the Umpire (black elipse). Why not use the Umpire to set the pick in basketball terms? If nothing else this has to slow the Free-Safety down and give the much larger #3 an acceleration and therefore raw Force based edge. Thank you very much Sir Isaac Newton. (see: above pic)

2^nd quarter, 2:41 remaining:
Watch #17 Fuller on this play and explain this to me? Go ahead, I dare you. Why bother having even arms if you are not gonna use ‘em? Just play the game with nubs. Dood comes running up, with nice depth and a good angle on the Body keeper and instead does a Magic Johnson spin move counterclockwise on your screen to miss Boyd entirely and allow Boyd to squirt free for 2.75 bounds yards on this one. Huh? Who in the world teaches this? Now watch Fuller do a dirt dive two plays later sans his arms on the Ellington TD run when he had Ellington dead to rights almost 3 yards inside the Tiger backfield. If dood is hurting that’s one thing; because that’s the only thing I gots.

2^nd quarter, 1:47 remaining:
Watch Joey Phillips effectively pull top to bottom on your TV screen and unconditionally detonate on poor #38 of the Clemson kickoff coverage team. Joey knocked this dood about 8 days into next week. Joey beat #38 like a drum.

This 5 game Buzz skip is really code for what??? A beat-up VT hoops team is wearing down. Poor free-throwing. Leaving points/wins out there. Not enough defense; next to last in A.c.c. scoring defense. View Results  Loading ...

Longfield–Management (Lo.FM):©
Virginia Tech:
positive= |||| ||| (2 Clemson penalties)
negative= |||| |||| |||| ||| (1 VT INT)
neutral= ||||

Clemson:
positive= |||| | (1 VT penalty)
negative= |||| |||| |||| |||| (1 Clemson INT)
neutral= |||

Curiously enough, both the Lo.FM and the TTT (Time To Throw) metrics paint a fairly good-looking opening 20 odd minutes of scrimmaging in favor of Virginia Tech. Then the balance of power began to swing as the Hokies staying power momentarily flickered and then short-circuited all together during the final 20 or so minutes of the second-half. Clemson accounted for 4 sacks and a backbreaking 10 TFL (tackles for a loss) on the evening and yet the Lo.FM stayed nearly even for the duration of the contest. Andre Branch the Clemson De merits the unusual consideration of being mentioned as an individual opposing defender in the Lo.FM for his monster night of 3 sacks, 5 tackles for a loss behind the Hokie line-of-scrimmage which accounted for -52 yards worth of O&M offense all by his ownself!. Dood may have just made his N.F.L. bones; that’s how epic Mr. Branch’s game was on Saturday night men. On the other side of the ball Bud Lite did not play a bad game; although tackling got a little ragged and play-making was almost nonexistent. What’s curious to me is that Clemson nearly ran exclusively away from Tariq Edwards and thereby bypassed out best defensive play-maker of the season thus far. On top of that, Clemson channeled their nearest Jim Harabaugh and went right after Hokie Rover Eddie Whitley. Although Whitely and Exum were first and third on VT in total tackles on Saturday night; it is never a good sign when you Fs and you Ss (or Rover) are having to make that many stops downfield. In fact three of our four secondary starters were ranked in the Top-4 for VT stops vs. Clemson on Saturday night. Additionally, VT only had 3 tackles for a loss and one sack; good for forcing Clemson to shift into -23 yards worth of reverse. That said, Clemson’s much maligned stop-unit knocked L.T. and my boy and company backward for a outcome threatening -77 yards on the night or just about a 300% to doing damage when damage is done.

Or in other words, Bud Lite did not play all *that* bad overall; only caveat being that Bud Lite never really forced Clemson’s hand at the opportune time in a game of 3-card Monte before going full-Monte on Frank and company when Frank let go the O&M rope and elected to punt with just over 4 minutes remaining in the fourth. Even though the Lo.FM paints a tie or draw of a picture; the kicker here is that when Clemson made plays on either side of the ball; they did more damage to Virginia Tech than that which Virginia Tech could do to Clemson when the Hokies did make a few things happen here and there. Clemson was playing chess and Virginal Tech was playing Go Fish.

Wanna comment on Tajh Boyd as well: dood had five first-half carries for four 1^st downs rushing –seems like I read about that somewhere in someone’s preview. Also wanna quickly comment on Tajh’s throwing motion. Did Lee Trevino teach this guy how to pitch? Note Boyd’s release point which causes him to throw a natural sailer on most pass plays no matter how softly or catchable it arrives. Now notice how he side-arms some throws, and how he throws some other passes with more of a textbook 12 o’clock overhead release. Finally, note how Tajh dips his leading (or left) rebuilt A.C.L. knee on some of his releases as well. Whole lot going on with this kid folks; and not much of it is literate in as textbook fundamentals good. Other than the fact that Tajh is now 5-o and the near midway point to odds on favorite to win the A.c.c. player of the year award. This kid looks like a passing mistake just begging to happen; and I know I lost my mind and my clipboard several times on the tipped throws and the couple of wounded ducks that got through. All of that is true less the fact that Tajh just has that magical “it” that all true winners possess.

“LET’S GO!”

“HOKIES!”

b’street