Virginia Tech=30, Boston College=14
-7 starters for Bud Lite to end the Boston College football game?
</w0w!>
-8 first-stringers if you count Tweedy as a ½ season starter to close the Flying Eagle show?
</double w0w!>
I bid you to just try to nominate a prior Virginia Tech football season(s) with a Hokie stop-unit that was this physically beat up???
Goodness gracious folks, this is getting surreal and you have to wonder just how much Bud Lite v.2o11 can take?
That said, this game was almost precisely the same as last week, and the 2011 script now reads more and more like 2010 every day. We start out slow, fall behind, adjust, readjust, out-coach, and maneuver a win that does not tell how uneven the start was in the final analysis. Does that remind any of you of the first 6-7 games in 2010? It should because it does.
Only exception being the sudden explosiveness of my home-boy David Wilson and Logan Thomas and his 2-3 top-15% of the N.F.L throws per game that can and possibly will make anything and everything happen at any O&M given moment.
That and a whole lot more read-option than anyone other than our very own and highly esteemed Raleigh Hokie predicted. Splash one boggy for Raleigh and splash our seventh win of the 2011 campaign which officially and irrefutably made us Bowl eligible for a staggering nineteenth consecutive season!
Not a bad run for the ole ball coach above and on the right –is it?
Still yet, last time I checked, Virginia Tech was not winning this one as this one reached intermission after the first 30 minutes of scrimmaging. VT has nearly sleepwalked or opened up with 2 quarters worth of a snooze button as the Clemson and Miami stretch sure took something outta this highly sophomoric and downright physically (blank) kicked squad.
That twin set of nationally televised tough games back-to-back and the objective fact that our health continues to worsen much to the chagrin and right before Bud Foster’s very eyes –has left me pretty concerned going forward. Don’t sleep on just how valuable Bruce Taylor was either … more on that below.
1st quarter, 9:40 remaining:
One of the best steals of the year as this one covered nearly 5-6 yards in the air as #27 Nick Dew completely ruined #4? from Boston College on the bottom right-hand of your screen on this fair-catch non-punt return by D.Coale. Goodness, Dew knocked this B.C. coverage kid for a loop and note the impact of the back of his head on the Worsham Field turf, right where the skull is thinnest, right where the military teaches you to scramble eggs in hand-to-hand fighting terms. Ouch! This one is just ill. (Mountain Dew!)
1st quarter, 8:37 remaining:
If you outsourced and came to me and asked me how to defense the 2011 Virginia Tech offense, this play wrote the book all by its ownself. Four words: pressure, up, the, middle. Force L.T. to move laterally as there is still something a bit starchy or stiff regarding the way he runs. Acceleration is just not xL’s (extra Large or extra Logan) middle-name. Also, when you force him to move left or right, you have nearly eliminated back-side passing from a r-sophomore Qb who is at the end of the day, still a r-sophomore Qb who is reading fields by halves or by thirds. Recall as well that L.T. tends to short-arm his follow-though and pull the string in basketball terms on his shot (or pass) when defensive pass-rushing pressure up the gut gets right in his face. On top of that, you will get some extra shots in on the Colossus of Rhodes otherwise known as L.T. Maybe even go for a strip on the ball when he moves to avoid middle-pressure? Ergo, I took the liberty of looking it up; we only face one team with the defensive front-line manpower to do that as a remaining opponent goes … that team’s name is U.N.C.
1st quarter, 7:15 remaining:
I’m NOT a fan of the dog collar tacking rule, to me football still ain’t called “band” for a reason. Don’t like being dog-collared, transfer out. However, and all that to say: how is this not a penalty on #19 of B.C.? (#19 dogs Wilson out)
1st quarter, 6:25 remaining:
Top-left hand corner, near the B.C. sideline, just watch #8 D.Bonner finally steal somebody of his own; and here I thought we were gonna have to fill out a missing persons report on D.B. for being stolen at least a half a dozen times in kick coverage this season himself. Watch as Bonner quite successfully takes on back-up Linebacker #54 who only out-weighs Bonner by 55 odd lbs. That’s what Fancy Gap and I like to call plum “getting’ after” somebody!
1st quarter, 4:36 remaining:
Sure did not like the look of this on film, and VT is calling this a “thigh bruise” or what amounts to the old-school so-called Charlie-horse. Though you can clearly see Exum’s left-knee buckle right before he blasts #83 right on out upstairs with what Coach Wiles calls: “shoulder violence.” Now imagine the impact that Exum would have had, he had both legs under him on this one; as you plainly see Exum limping off the field favoring his left leg after this ballistic version of a hit.
1st quarter, 2:58 remaining:
If for some bizarre or outright brazen reason, you are simply not a fan of David Wilson, than this is the play for you. Watch the left-hand B.C. OLb simply maul my boy in pass protect; and somewhere Montecore and P.E.T.A. are smiling. Roy? Not so much.
2nd quarter, 13:32 remaining:
xL and my home slice Wilson might wanna intern this summer at one of the bigger New River Valley car dealerships; as their salesmanship on the Read Option has gone way way up in the last couple of weeks. This particular play was the second of three different times where I was not sure which one of ’em initially had the rock. Ditto the ESPN3 cameraman who got faked out twice himself on the day as xL and Wilson grow more and more literate in the subtle nuances of the Read Option.
2nd quarter, 12:19 remaining:
This is nothing short of twinkletoes or Fred Astaire savvy footwork from #72, ‘drew Lanier folk on this shield-block that he uses to seal the edge for the Wilson Option carry. Watch his so-called first move, which is the “jab-step” to the left. Now note that he actually nailed this textbook off-hand (or in this case, off-leg) move from a pass-blocking stance men! This about as good as it fundamentally gets; and Magic Johnson is still correct: “…you can’t have fun without the fundamentals.” (BONUS: note the pancake block by Lanier on the play before)
2nd quarter, 6:32 remaining:
Watch big ole N.F.L. sized Becton favoring his right leg (knee) with a stiff legged limp at the end of this Wilson zone-stretch play to the right-side C-gap after this one folks.
2nd quarter, 5:00 remaining – game Duration:
Wanna give a shout-out to Coach Spaz’ of Boston College who sure had his 1-5 Boston College Eagles fired up and ready to soar in this one. Just watch the B.C. sideline react after L.T. leads Coale too far on this throw. You’d never know that this was the 1-5 team folks; this much emotion sure seems like the 6-1 team (or Virginia Tech) to me. Kudos to Coach Spaz’ and his Staff; as his baller’s sure must love this guy to death be playing this enthusiastically for him during such a rough looking season.
2nd quarter, 3:32 remaining:
I could not tell if this was the dreaded no-contact injury, a cramp, or something rather benign, as Tweedy comes out of the game of his
own fruition after the second-n-short stop limping very heavily on his left-leg. Anybody see anything here? Or did any of you see how the training Staff treated this one over on the VT bench? TIA.
2nd quarter, 0:27 remaining:
Mark this one down for ole times sake or for a potential VT trivia question down the road. How many career passes did Logan Thomas have deflected and by who(m) at Virginia Tech? Watch big ole #95 for Boston College (Dominic Appiah) reach up and alter the spin or revolution of this #3 throw. As he just barely gets a finger(tip) on this one. You won’t see many guys this side of Dwight Howard blocking a Logan Thomas shot. I can tell you that much right now.
2nd quarter, 0:03 remaining:
Excellent job by #14 Trey Gresh on fielding the near grounder that was also way inside (towards #14) on this C.Journell FG make. Note that Cody has now found his sea-legs and accordingly has settled in rather smartly and has now nailed seven straight FGA’s. Further note that VT actually and factually has it’s P.A.T. and FGA holder(s) practice fielding bad-snaps, just in case.
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Longfield Management (Lo.FM):©
Virginia Tech:
positive= |||| |||| |||| (1 TD)
negative= ||||
neutral= ||||
Boston College:
positive= |||| |||| (1 B.C. TD, 1 VT penalty)
negative= |||| |||| |||| ||
neutral=||||
Basically we see a Lo.FM that predicts that Virgina Tech will at least double up on Boston College, if not in fact triple-up. That’s basically what the finally tally read as VT won by 214% more points than B.C. did. Although VT could have, and very possibly should have won by a lot more. Coupe of trends stood out here to me in breaking tape on the Boston College football game…
- First up, it’s not that the VT offense had a bad first quarter or even a bad opening half. They were out-gaining B.C. the whole entire time. It’s just that the VT offense was uneven for the opening 35 odd minutes of scrumming. One good play, one not so good play and then a neutral play makes Jack a dull boy. Now notice that VT only had 5 negative offensive plays on the day during Lo.FM situations. That’s not half bad folks, and in fact when your positive Lo.FM plays outnumber your negative ones by 280% that’s actually a damn fine thing for any Qb, much less a rookie season r-sophomore Qb who’s incoming hype was larger than even his size 18 feets. The only caveat being that Logan Thomas does not (yet) nail as many stellar or big-time positive Lo.FM plays as his predecessor once did. Be patient, that will come, as you can slowly yet surely see a couple of major yardage gainers or scores on longfields just beginning to sneak into xL’s (extra large or extra Logan) game.
- Secondly, observe that the Bud Lite rushing defense produced a surfeit of negative plays on first down vs. a rather inert or non-athletic looking B.C. offense that just was not very sexy. Which segues me neatly into point number three…
- Tertiary, Bud Lite began to wear down and nearly went flat in the closing 10 minutes of O&M trading on Saturday afternoon down in the New River Valley pigskin fiscal district. As the European market, or in this case as the Virginia Tech training-Staff began pumping out nothing short of further physically discouraging news which leaves one to wonder just how accurate the early September earning projections are for the fourth quarter or final 3-4 games of the regular season for Coach Foster’s walking wounded. This closing 2011 defensive market could prove bearish indeed; despite its remarkable ability to still open a game in bullish defensive fashion. Critics will be quick to point out that the Boston College offense was missing the pre-season all-A.c.c. Most Valuable Player (Montel Harris); and that’s true enough. However it is also true that Bud Lite remains 7th best in stuffing the run, and 13th best in overall total defense nationwide. Duke may not be much of a threat, so you can get away with holding your Bud Lite shares for a few more days; however I do recommend putting in a Halloween sell order and dumping some equity before our visit to Atlanta and our home date vs. U.N.C. gets here. As those two could prove scary indeed.
Here is where things stand based upon the last 12 quarters of film-study post Clemson…which looks positively 2010 ‘esque to me…
- L.T. starts slow or just a bit off, then he loosens up and finishes well enough if not outright very good. (best pass protection in years folks! PROPS to C.News)
- Wilson likewise starts slow; almost stiff looking, loosens up and finishes very well, if not extraordinary as he is on pace for 1,800 yards and has something of a medium-shot at 2,000 presuming we do enjoy 14 full games outta #4.
- The defense has a suspect opening series or two, then it figures things perfectly A+++ out between the headsets as Bud Foster out-coaches the opponent like a champ. However, we are then seeing a Bud Lite that physically fades a little bit due to injury driven fatigue to close the show as we are starting to look tuckered-out in the final series or two.
- We win the field-position battle and keep the other team bottled-up and pinned deep (B.C. never started beyond their own 38 yardline).
- We go +2 (or better) in Turnover Margin; and we win by 15-20 points vs. the bottom-9 or so teams we play.
That sound familiar to you? It should, as it sure sounds like the opening 6-7 games of 2010 to me. That said we are 7-1, and 15th ranked in both national polls, all that just for following the aforementioned 2010 script.
Individual superlatives:
Kuechley only had 19, that is n-i-n-e-teen freakin’ stops from one guy on the day!
He sucks.
What a bum.
Might be the best defensive baller we’ve faced in a handful of season this side of somebody named Suh.
B.Taylor: Let’s see, was this kid any good this year? You tell me…
- 1st in total tackles
- 1st in Qb Hurries (if you can believe that)
- 2nd in Sacks
- 2nd in TFL
Prolly on his way to no less than 2nd-team all-A.c.c. honors behind the tackling machine named Kuechley above.
WOW!
That’s a whole lotta raw play making ability that just went out the O&M window folks. As Bud Lite edges closer and closer to the proverbial cliff. To me, this could very well be the final straw as Bud Lite finally taps out and just goes flat.
Coale just had the best day of his 2011 campaign. 8 catches for 118 yards in receiving and 31 punt returning yards says so.
Exum played very well; to be dinged up for most of the contest (see: above) –as he tied for the team lead in tackles with the guy below and he did force one fumble .
And Tariq Edwards had his first breakout game in several weeks plural. 7 total stops, a TFL and an INT ain’t half bad work, if you can get it.
Closer:
And yet, there was still something a bit underwhelming about beating Boston College for Homecoming 2011 in a game which saw 21.5 point favorite Virginia Tech chasing for nearly 35 minutes of play. Now here is *the* kicker folks …which team left on our 2011 regular season schedule can beat us? We may split @ Georgia Tech and back home for U.N.C., and still finish no worse than 10-2. With a bit of O&M flavored luck, that could still land us right back in the A.c.c. title tilt down in Photo-Fu’s current domicile otherwise known as Charlotte, North Carolina. Back where we belong indeed.
Now imagine how good this 2011 VT football team would be with those 8 missing defensive parts back and 100% locked, cocked and ready to rock?!? 12-zip? 13-oh? Something like that. Why?
Because we are still a pretty good football team overall that has not yet hit its late season offensive stride; and we are also a football team that has seen its special teams play progress in the last 3-4 weeks and that will likely only continue to get better and better. The only catch being the injury riddled and damn near gutted version of Bud Lite 2011. How long can they hold the door?
I can only speak for myself, and the countless others that I have spoken to post-B.C., when I say that the 2011 football season is now all about Bud Lite, its remaining health, or lack thereof. All fingers point to that.
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street