Virginia Tech 38, Old Dominion o

Virginia Tech football won another one on Saturday afternoon in the latent Slusher Beach seasonal New River Valley vs. in-state wannabe rival Old Dominion University.

The Hokies started out a bit slow; warmed up and then (eventually) ran away with this one for their second shutout triumph in four games on the 2017 regular season. The Vice-squad oLine took control of the game, some of the back-up stop-unit 2’s finally took their first developmental step(s) and we set a couple of Eye in the Sky bookkeeping records quietly or ho-hum enough. That’s the good news… the news is that we got a lotta people dinged up in the blown-out second half and the R.A.T.T. news is… #1 and defensing national champion Klempson would like a word –if not a full paragraph- with all of that.

1Q 12:04 remaining:
oLine blocking has improved to the Vice Squad’s credit; although Wr blocking might just be a smidgen better while being a good deal smaller than last year and that’s very very hard to do. Props to coach Wiggins and Co. here as Carrol and Savoy are doing seal-block hard work -in space- which is not an easy thing to stay engaged at kinetically speaking.

Season Duration thus far:
Not that there are a ton of ’em, and not that they are getting caught -by either side- though is anyone else noticing anything else re: JAX’s misses? And do they remind you of anyone? Like maybe an early LT3, who to missed a lotta America’s Cup savvy or sailing throws on the high side. Gotta wonder when Fs’s playing centerfielder are gonna be about this…

Season Duration thus far:
Mook is simply suffering a delightful season as the clean-up spill-man in Bud Foster’s single gap system. As he’s Discovering tackle after tackle 1-on-1 out in space. And the keener thing to me is… he’s getting a lotta stops just inside or at least in and around the Ot-box. Or in other words Mook is mooking around with your yardage total once your cross the LOS (line-of-scrimmage). The team lead with a whopping 20 solo stops per month of play says so!

1Q  :37 remaining:
Is T.Hill reminding anyone else just a scosche of my boy Dadi? As Hill same as Nicholas seems to need a lotta attention; and notice I did not say medical attention. As he was back in the game after the quarter TV-timeout 1 play, later. As there are kids for whom all dings are dents and all dents needs some attentive T.L.C. bondo —as every D has one; even Bud Böck.

2Q  12:14 remaining:
Did not catch this in real-time though did not like the look of it upon breaking tape… as observe as Nijman inadvertently blocks the collapsing right-De of O.d.u. right into the the left-knee of T.Mac’ from behind. Then notice T.Mac’ takes himself outta the game favoring his left leg (God Bless).

2Q 8:24 remaining:
Well, outta 300 odd (eventual) throws… it had to happen and it just so happens that Joshua did not see the Fs for O.d.u. on this one. As this looked like the very same play from two plays before on the always politically incorrect Slant-pattern. Coach Corny went to the well once too often? And boy did the Monarch’s PEACE-out Cam and his signature swagg-signal post-play. wow!

2Q 6:43 remaining:
This does not look real fun in real-time much less in slow-mo’, as watch as Divine’s left foot slips, and looks like it inflects (i.e. breaks) on the nearly umpossible dreaded no-contact injury in something of almost a Michael Jackson moonwalk accidental look along the O.d.u. sideline. However, before that, you can see his left-ankle pronate outwards on what would more so appear to be an ankle sprain; either way… Godspeed Deablo. (UDPATE:  St.Servatus Patron Saint off feet bless: left-foot fracture, done for the campaign)

2Q 6:11 remaining:
“Ahem!”

And here you thought Big Brother and Senator McCarthy were not, watching… (no word yet on what Agent Mulder woulda run).

2Q :43 remaining:
Been since the days of J.B. Grimes, or since you last o.d.’ed on Ex-lax since we saw a push like this. Beautiful!

3Q 13:52 remaining:
Who says tipping does not count? As it sure counts if you had sense enough to run the old-school Tip Drill at practice.; nonetheless, you have to wonder why Peoples was this close to Cam who appears to be the primary target here.

3Q 7:25 remaining:
The other “big” Walker Mountain or our very own #8 at right-Dt quietly had a career day —as Ricky is starting to display a burrowing or ferreting good nose for the ball in our run-fits. As five total tackles per game, 80% of which were solo stops from a starting Dt does not suck.

3Q 5:25 remaining:
See my almost boy S.Peoples come up grabbing the back of his left-hammie after this pretty crispy looking odd or left-side screen pass. This really sucks too; as Steven was just starting to round into a very intriguing looking power rusher and power pass catcher to boot; Godspeed.

3Q 1:41 remaining:
JUST what we did not need… watch Cam hurt his foot/ankle along our sideline on the quick-out as you can see him grabbing it along the sideline for a split-sec as the cam’ pans back across the field. God Bless.

Game Duration:
Saw me what appeared to be two different busted triple or double option point misreads; one by JAX and later in the final stanza another one by Bush. Love to press-pass ask what happened on each of these as whatever it was, it happened twice, to two different Qb’s, and each who had to convert each play into a naked Qb keeper around the end.

4Q duration:
Liked what I saw outta #75 at back-up C2 or one Zachariah Hoyt. Dude is hustling, Larry Flynt hustling his ass off on pick-up blocks downfield. As this seven-five wants sum more P.T. love as his line high R.P.M. motor suggests. And I’d bet the over on the girls liking and fawning for his Samson hairstyle as well.

Ditto #16 Coleman Fox on his rebuilt knee and his swivel hips that notched the game leading rushing effort in what you and I merely call the forth-quarter alone. Way to be one-six. God Bless; as this makes you wonder what this Fox hunt was like was on two good knees; don’t it?

Time To Throw (TTT)©:

Virginia Tech:
Qb pressured=3
Qb hurried=nil
Qb hits=15
Sacked=1

Old Dominion:
Qb pressured=15
Qb hurried=4
Qb hits=16
Sacked=1

Observe the lopsided nature of “gettin’ after” each Qb in this one. As that 17 year old can’t vote; yet; Qb1 (Williams) of O.d.u. got rid of the rock in a hurry, no less than four times in this one. JAX kept a pretty clean pocket less two out-numbered blitz hits and O.d.u. lit him up pretty good on both. Though still, the TTT metric predicts a pretty easy looking win and that is precisely what we got on Saturday afternoon down in the warm Indian summer New River Valley.

Chung did not have his best pass-protect day; though his fold blocking to the 2nd-layer is how I takes my favorite Pizza Hut pie, or supreme. He’s very very good at the right-side or even-side seal or reach block to spring any jet-sweeping or off-T runs. Gallo continues to be a extremely pleasant surprise as he seems to actually be moving forward and shifting into R way way less often this season. The passing cup is about as clean as it can be; and in point of fact, it just broke the 1st-half TTT record; with only one Monarchist Qb pressure allowed! Nevertheless, JAX took a number of contacts and at least two pretty dang big ole licks that left our Qb1 digging himself outta the Worsham Field turf thereafter.

To put it mildly, maybe some of this was O.d.u., and maybe some was not… though this was about as clean of a tackling game from Foster’s halt-unit as I’ve ever seen. The first half 1’s in particular were a damn tackling machine. And I saw several Curtis Taliaferro era sizzling opening field tackles from: Mook, Stro’, and Fayson; all with marvelous open-field stops. Saw me just enough back-up dLine growth to credibly report on it this week, as Belmar at De and Taylor at Dt finally took a few baby or maybe even incremental steps forward on their run-shape(s). They both have a was to go, although they finally were not such a driven off the LOS eyesore; either.

Longfield Management (Lo.FM)©:

Virginia Tech:
positive: |||| ||| (1 TD)
negative: |||| ||||
Swiss (neutral): |

Old Dominion:
positive: |||
negative: |||| |||| |||| (1 INT, 1 ODU flag)
Swiss (neutral): ||||

• 14th in Total O!
• 28th in throw O.
• 34th in rush O.
• 27th in ppg.

With 100% of the right-side oLine, gone; with no less than two all-time leaders, gone; with two catch-game next level talents, gone. With a first year r-Freshmen pivot, with a 3-Guard offense on loan from coach Buzz, with all new Wr’s not named Cam, only one of which fits the bill as a legit sized outside Wr, and with a nugget (rookie) year H-back who’s blocking is hit and miss. Where should an O like that rank overall o-129th?

Me neither on calling being ranked fourteenth greatest in all the land after the first four games and that folks is coaching (the, verb); extraordinaire, A+++, summa cum laude coaching. And yes, I know that @E.c.u., Delaware and Old Dominion ain’t exactly the: Purple People eaters, the Steel-Curtain, or the Orange Crush. Yes I know who has called “next” as the defending national champion who only courts the 3rd best D in all the land; granted. Though you’ve gotta grant coach-Fu’ and coach Corny this… they are doing 98th to 99th percentile work with what they’ve gots left. And yah; 115 other D-1 teams would love to have our (offensive) problems.

Still yet… do see a few things to mind the store on, on tape… Chung struggles at times with a speed rush-outside move, JAX needs to dial those aforementioned overthrows down a bit, Keene has not quite been as keen as others had forecast, and we missed a few blocking assignments vs. O.D.U. Also would like to see more burst to our Rb’s run-fits –as a long carry of 21 yards after month one is just not long enough.

Nevertheless, Gallo is playing his best ball by far at this stage of his career, the left-side is reliant if not outright dominate, our rookie Qb is 65% with a 11:1 ratio, our pass catchers not named Cam are showing signs of life and Savoy in particular has some “zoom” in his cleats, (love his acceleration). And our Top-2 Rb’s and our top Te are all averaging between 25 and 32 ypc (that’s not a typo). Again; a lotta college football teams would love to have our… problems.

The good Lo.FM news is that the previously mentioned superior push of the Vice-squad is limiting the Hokies offensive Lo.FM exposure itself. In terms of quantities I mean, the news however is that it takes this O a while to hit its first positive Lo.FM play every game so far. The R.A.T.T. thing is, that asking more would prolly be asking too much of a r-Freshman newbie Pivot at this stage of his O&M career; and if nothing else; at least he’s not wetting the Lo.FM bed.

p.s. and oh by the way… none other than the sometimes questioned T.Mac is running harder in the last 5-6 quarters of play; struggling forward at times for extra yardage!

the takeaway…

…the takeaway here is… if you did not vote for the GofrothCare health plan option in last week’s poll for our Athlon’s… you should have. Lotta starting dings and dents and one bad break accrued in what amounts to a meaningless game outcome determination wise at the point at which the injuries were suffered.

However, that is the repetitious needy nature of the Fu’fense itself –it needs plays, it needs work(s), it is about as 4th-world repetitious starving, never seen a menu or a crumb as Sally Struthers can get. Though do be aware of this from here on out as early-season blow-out games go… the Fu’ 1’s will get more rep’s than the 1’s of before. That’s just the inherent timing nature of such a synchronized beast.

—as coach J.Lennon just told me…  ♪“there would be days like these… strange days indeed.”♫

***

the skinny…

That R.A.T.T. all being said, for those of you keeping score at home, yes; those tacking stats and blocking stats are both 5 year world records as Vah.Tech and the Eye in the Sky go! Best I’ve ever graded at each; and even if these Monarchs were rather usurped and coup-de-tête, you can only beat who’s in front of you. Or tackle or block the same; and same as #23’s Finals victories; the lack of opposition here is not on us.

As to me, what we just saw was not so much Delaware part deux as it was just a inconsistent football team with the valedictorian of all game-managers still feeling his way around the field. A.K.A., youth, a lotta youth and numerous kids who have now officially played one more month of college football in their respective careers than most of us ever will.

As last time I checked the sporting thesaurus, “inconsistent” and “youth” might as well be listed as synonyms… if not as tangible and intangible (respectively), Siamese twins. And vs. Delaware and O.D.U. and @E.c.u., all of that conspires to make no never mind. Vs. the team up next in the five-hole and those two synonyms hold hands more like Hansel and (re)Gretel.

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As that competition threshold all changes -and dramatically- Saturday night at 8pm in Lane Stadium –nest-ce pas?

As this is only the defending national champion; and ESPN’s very own Game Day crew that are all coming down to the currently sunny-side 24060 or Blacksburg, Va.

Does Virginia Tech football have a shot here?
Yes.
Do we deny this?
No.

Is Clemson also the rightful 7 point favorite here?
Yes.
Do we deny that?
No.

Although right now I’d call it about two to maybe even three shots in ten. And I might have called it more than that sans so many pesky looking O.D.U. dings and dents.

And yet that’s the difference between playing tackle and tuba all over again; c’est la guerre.

Virginia Tech=38, Old Dominion=nil.

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

bourbonstreet**