#13 Virginia Tech=17, n/r Pitt=35
Allow me to take you on a little stroll down Memory Lane…
… once upon a time a certain Virginia Tech football team that did finish the season #3 in the B.C.S. got totally smoked 48-7 by the eventually national championship football team out on the road as a 11 point underdog.
Last Saturday a 10.5 point favorite Virginia Tech football got pumped good and hard by an o-2 football team out on the road that is prolly a B.C.S. conference runner-up or thereabouts.
See what I mean?
Pittsburgh is no national champion Louisiana State University and we may not even be the third team in Big East right now. Yes, I said in the Big East.
So let’s put the rubber to the road…
“It’s not like we got beat by some dog-ass team…”
-Bud Foster-
-or the old-school Horse Racing idyom-
“It’s not where you start — it’s where you finish-
Prolly, I’ll give Bud Foster the 10-9 nod in a very close round; he’s earned that much. However, this is the toughest coaching job Frank and company have faced since the 2003 closer and 2004 start conspired to post a 4-7 mark over those 11 combined gamed. And now would be a good time to get started, before we truly are finished.
3rd quarter, 14:54 remaining:
Let’s see, a nice 7 yard gain by M.Holmes? Check. Nice kick-out block by the Fb J.Phillips on the lead-block? Check. And then your very own teammate #76 finally finishes a block on #90 the Pitt De and he knocks said De into your backside which accidentally steals you (#74) big and blue? Yup, you just know it is not gonna be your day when D.Wang’s man Wang-Chungs you from behind.
3rd quarter, 12:09 remaining:
Looks like “R.V.D.!” is gonna be a staple in the Eye in the Sky from here on out. As #37 R.V.D. just declawed and distempered #87 of the Panthers on this purfect and crushingly good open-field steal. You do this in the third-quarter up at Pitt and you win the Hammer Award for hit-of-the-game. You do this out in public and you get 5 to 6 locked up in the clink.
3rd quarter, 11:48 remaining:
I like this Cole kid. Dood leads very old-school with his facemask and therefore obviously sees everything he hits. 8 stops, 5 of which were solo’s in just over 34 minutes of play is pretty damn good. You could say #2 has a nose for the ball because he does. A true sandlot throwback baller who would play for free if that was the only way to find a game. This Cole kid is gonna start at some point before 2015 ends. That may be at Rover, though I’d like to see old King Cole and his sizzling hot 4.01 shuttle-time, 395 lb. front-squat and 37“ vertical at Fs myself. i.e. Cole is way more of an athlete than people are giving him credit for, and Fs fits his size metrics better than the forward-facing run-crunching Rover does anywho.
3rd quarter, 8:05 remaining:
Hate to say it, though #45 J.Phillips needs to send D.Wilson his glasses up in New York. Express and same-day space-shuttle overnite as vision is just not his thing. Keep you head up “four-five” or you are risking cervical involvement with a head-down man-down approach. (PIC)
3rd quarter, 6:39 remaining:
Every other Tech website is authoring takes about the B.Taylor takedown that may or may not have been a personal foul. ‘pends how sharp your Eye is, right? Note the absolute mugging of poor #2 M.Cole by the Pitt Fb #43 as #43 hit Cole so hard the Umpire should have come over, gone boxing, and given Cole a standing eight (count). Now watch Ty.Wilson #66. Why he was in the game with his strong yet undersized stature at this juncture is difficult to explain. Though watch him right behind B.Taylor post-play. Is this not a personal-foul as well? To me both Tech guys were making rather needy plays right up until the echo of the whistle. Could you whistle this? Yah; I suppose so if you are a stickler and this may have been an attempt to gain control of the game move by the Zebras as things had already gotten plenty spitty as trench-fighting and post play antics go in the first half outta both sides. (more below) Still yet, I’ve seen worse –much worse- go unwhistled as well.
I left this out of part I, mostly because I forgot; so here goes…
- Did any of you see Tino give the Scarface looking “lesbian” tongue joust to J.Gayle??? WOW!When you do that to James Gayle you’d better be loaded for bear; and these Panthers are plum up in our face.
- Then D.Roberts back-punches the Pitt Cb outta bounds.
- Did you see the Jarrett head-kick on T.Graham?
- How ‘bout the punch from Corey Marshall #96 in the dog-pile at 6 minute mark in the third?
See what I mean about the B.Taylor sling-down personal foul now? This may have been an attempt to simply restore mutually hyper frustrated law-n-order between o-2 Pitt and Vah.Tech who was #13 and trailing by about 3 plays.
“Everything is better when it works.”
-Frank Beamer-
Tru dat.
4th quarter, 14:19 remaining:
Kan’t say I’ve ever seen an accidental defensive let-whip on a Qb already wearing some kinda wrap and/or padding on his right-leg. Though that is exactly what happened on this one as Ty.Wilson, who was one of the few truly encouraged defenders on this otherwise grand master funk kinda day. As #66 did just that on the diving fly-by attempt to get to Tino during this particular pass rush; and I will give a very lame looking Tino credit for taking the pain to close the show.
4th quarter, 14:11 remaining:
For those of you who think our offense tips our possession based hand, well here you go. Watch #97 of Pitt key the J.C. Coleman delay handoff on the zone-stretch to the 5-hole over on the left; though don’t watch #97 for long as it takes him less than the backyard “one-one-thousand” to get into the hip pocket of #64 Arkema and trail the play right through the left-side B-gap to the Tb for a 5 yard TFL (tackle for a loss). Accordingly, this might be the worst blocked play I’ve seen in a couple of season’s outta Virginia Tech upfront as both Arkema and Miller had good or good enough cut-off angles to cut #97 down to size.
Game Duration:
My compliments to ESPN3 for the best overhead or SKY-cam that I’ve ever seen That high-hung camera really gave you an ideal look at the pocket when focused on the given Qb, or the routes vs. coverage’s downfield. I for one would not mind seeing more of that as that was the only way I saw the Shell-3 and Cover-2 deep zone looks that at least slowed Pitt down a schosche in the second-half that have not been reported erstwhile.
4th quarter, 3:44 remaining:
I wasn’t so upset by the hit itself – as football ain’t called “band” for a reason. I was a bit upset by the timing, which was a bit tardy indeed. However, upon replay, this hit on LT3 after the throw went well beyond the 1-step rule whereby sporting-mechanics, inertia and momentum make it umpossible for a defender to pull up in time in order to avoid hitting the Qb. However, this is effectively a 4-step drop by big bad #97 of Pitt before he drops LT3 right on his keister. And yes, I have a problem with that.
CONGRATs to the victorious Pittsburgh Panthers!
You beat our ass and than some.
Sportsmanship always wins.
Loading ...Time To Throw (T3):©
Virginia Tech:
Qb sacks=2
Qb pressures=12
Qb hurries=3
Qb hits=12 (1 TD, 2 INT’s)
Pitt:
Qb sacks=1
Qb pressures=1o
Qb hurries=zero
Qb hits=10
Qb Coach Mike O’Cain admitted he did not know how many times LT3 got hit. A spurious admission to put it mildly; though I digress. As the TTT always knows because as a matter a fact, the TTT is predicated upon plum gettin’ after the Qb. Which Pitt really did in the second-half of play where LT3 got more than his feelings hurt on 2 chin-checking hits.
So there are a couple of take always here that are worth pointing out. The T3 metric did correctly predict a Pitt win, though it sure predicted a tight game that would appear to have been settled by one play or less.
First of all, notice that Pitt was playing with a limpy and gimpy looking Qb. That artificially inflated a few T3 scratch marks in Virginia Tech’s favor. Or in other words, besides J.Gayle, and Dadi –when he plays- where is this Virginia Tech pass rush that I for one incorrectly told all of you about coming into this season? Excuse me while I wipe the egg from my face.
However, that is eggactly my point. How will Wiles/Foster find some pass-rush with 3 of the 4 secondary starters playing outta position and all four of their back-ups unable to drink (legally) until at least 2015? That’s a real live problem folks. Don’t believe me? Ask the current A.c.c. passing efficiency metrics where F.S.U. and @ U.N.C. and @ Klempson all rank about a 154 point passing efficiency rating right now! Or to be sure, Bud Lyte and Coach Gray’s hind-4 have precisely 120 minutes of scrumming to set things straight; as there are only 15 more shopping days until our date with the T.Heels.
***
Will just went all #1 or Commander Riker and called the Virginia Tech offense a Borg cube-ship. Well, if the prosthetic fits…
“We will add your offensive distinctiveness to our own.
Your read-option will adapt to service us.
Your Texas tempo will be assimilated.
We will add your Ace formation and terminology to our offensive collective.
Identity is futile…”
Yah; I’d say that’s about right, and yes Will, it’s true all over and yet again. We have no tangible or even alleged chalk-board identity on offense. Are we an Ace team or a Pro-I? Are we Pistol whipped or Jumbo upfront? Which of our three different center to Qb passes fits LT3 best and which one for that matter is ‘drew Miller best at? Or should LT3 just operate full-time under Center? Hell if I know and frankly I doubt they do either.
In all fairness, they don’t have a heterogeneous hand of 10 or 11 of a kinda. That’s not very sporting; and that is really gonna be tough on the run-first quarter-century or 25 year old Frank-n-Stiney fall back routine of simplifying the offense, going with more helmet-on-helmet or man-blocking and simply crushing people upfront.
Asking them not to do that is like asking Brown Water to switch to rum. Or like asking F4E Hokie to turn in his wings. Asking Will to upgrade the message-boards and abandon his “van down by the river”. Asking me not to carpet-burn the TSL terms of service in caption the pic mode or like asking Steve Jones to take your stunning daughter to prom. Well, I suppose you could do that, if you don’t like your daughter. And that attempt at comedic relief aside; you just don’t do that as you let your stars star. Only caveat is our Astronomy roster has an enrollment of 1 with a friend or two who occasionally kill time by showing up here and there as they please. Ergo, there really wasn’t much to laugh about up at Pittsburgh last week. This joke is offensive indeed and right now the joke is on us.
I’m gonna issue my very first free-pass to Coach Foster. Why? Because first up, Bud Foster has earned it for going Atlas and carrying Virginia Tech on his back for so many seasons. Number two says see number one and finally I do like the early Bowling Green practice reports that I am collecting outta Blacksburg, Va.
That, and if you are a defensive Virginia Tech parent opening this Eye, I feel bad for your son already. As you might wanna call him a hour early this week, as he may just need some extra sleep after Coach Foster goes real man and finishes what he starts!
“LETS GO!“
“Hokies!“
bourbonstreet**
B’street –
If ever there was a man who deserved a pass, it is Bud Foster for the reasons you mention.
BUT – did you notice he didn’t take it – he shouldered the blame and said he would bet it fixed! LUV IT!
No need to talk offense, you covered it pretty well and at this point, it would be a piling-on personal foul.
Best to Hokie Nation!
/r
Slim
Bud ain’t nobodies cat synonym.
He takes this kinda bad day personally.
i.e. not just professionally.
b’street
PS – God bless all our Cadets and all service members serving around the globe.
Good call on that one!
r/
Slim
Nice work B. Good reads on #37 and #2.
National Rankings Chart: FSU x 12 times in that chart. Granted that early schedules are skewing the numbers across the Div1 dataset, but staggering is the tell-tale metric that VT v.2012 is middlin’ to trailin’ within the conference the Hokies have dominated the last 8 years.
OUCH Photo: Who’s number ‘R’ in that picture?
Tackling errors chart: I like that, a good, no make that great metric. Can we make that a staple in the post-game analysis? I’ll give credit to the Pitt RBs for several of the missed tackles, that’s their job to win that 1-1 match-up. But man did it seem that they wore our LB/DBs down quicker than anything GT has thrown at us the last 3 years.
Tackling errors chart: Any way we could do this for the opponent to grade out our VT RBs? I swear I didn’t see (or c’aint recall) one VT RB winning the 1-1 matchup with the unblocked defender. Not once.
TTT break-down: Let’s see, our Defensive Coordinator schemes hits on QB which seems intuitive these days but our QB Coach doesnt track it for our own QB? I’d say he was bobbin and weaving on that one, no way he doesnt watch that. But then again, it’s probably difficult to guage the effect of TTT on your QB when you’re 100+ rows of bleacher seats away and cant work with him on the sidelines between possessions. For the life of me, if there’s one coach outside of the head coach that should be on the sideline it would be the QB coach. Are we that short on coaches to put up there in the booth?
Motivator photo(s): Dont change a thing.
Thank you Sir!
Remind me –please!
And I’ll try to add a chart or pie-chart and get excel on the whole thing as the ideas or film-breaking suggests. Maybe an Inside-Zone chart; or which Tb got the rock, or whatever.
b’street
You are a Whiz at breaking it down, B’ Street, I gotta hand you that. You know, I was talkin
to somebody Yesterday, and they said that “I thought you guys were to the point where You just ReLoad every year.” I thought the same thing. I did not watch the Game, I will never watch the Game. Now We are a Darkhorse, a Spoiler, We have nothing to lose, and Alot to prove. I say give Edmonds a chance, throw some passes to Knowles, put Jarrett on Offense in some capacity, Also, maybe a Campus-Wide Audition for O Linemen, some Fat Boys who can Pancake Block, rather than Fat Boys who block the door at the Pancake House. Give me 6 Jake Groves, know what I mean. Then, maybe We will not be shamed by the likes of Pittsburgh, and I will not have to catch crap from Everybody! on the once-again Overrated Hokies. By the way, thanks Defense for a suck performance last Saturday, when the O was worse than usual. You are supposed to save our ass from times like these.
Thank you rainey!
I did not see the Trey french and the other writers saw is all I can give you. I did not see the oLine or the Holmes and J.C.C. they all saw either.
Though I am now left wondering if the O looked better than expected because the D was really less than expected??? As bassackwards as that may be, could that be it?!?
b’street
You are right on with Bud. I believe everyone believes he can fix the problems if not only out of pure fear of the man the next week of practices. Defense will come around, Bud can and will fix it.
O on the other hand is another story. I’d like to see the backs that I heard about during the pre-season. I don’t think I’ve seen holmes break a tackle yet and for the life of me I can’t understand why Scales isn’t starting the games.
Good article.
Scales could be the one offensive wild-card.
If we go bunker mentality and totally run-inside.
That’s not umpossible either Bragg.
b’street