Charles Dickens would call this a Tale of Two Cities.

I call it a tale of two halves; gone oddly versa-vica.

In the first 3o minutes the Hokie offense went basically nowhere fast. In the second 3o minutes Frank-n-Stiney re-calibrated and got the ball move rather smartly at times. Nailing down an Ace-10 (or 21) points in the final two Quarter stanza. Not bad.

The much ballyhooed Bud Foster stop-unit was the obverse. We played astute assignment football in the first 3o minutes holding GT to 37 yards rushing; then fell apart and got run over by a very small, that’s a very s, m, all GT Oline in the closing two Quarters of play. That disturbed me more than anything.

I called for 3o GT points in my preview; which was 2 over par. I figured GT would indeed score; expecting several long runs along such lines. I did NOT figure on GT punching Bud right in the mouth and our O&M defensive face turning to jelly late in the game. Depth and Time of Possession speak to this; though it was been a while since we lacked closers or finishers on defense as well.

“Yes” I’m still inclined to say we win out. There is a poll for you on that below. That however has more to do with our closing opposition being a bit lower than I had expected in August; and less to do with our Defense being as great as I had erroneously forecasted way back during in the 8th month of the year.

3rd Quarter 15:00 remaining:
Check out the GT sideline pre-second-half Kickoff. Now compare that to the Hokie sideline. GT’s was literally bouncing up and down. As if they’d been given a hell and brimstone lockeroom speech. Our’s was a carpenters dream, emotionally flat as a board. Will Stewart hit upon it already, though it bears repeating … GT wanted this one more than we did. Read up on R.Will’s post-game comments. When the players say it … you know it has to be true. The only question is … why???

3rd Quarter 11:58 remaining:

Watch #33 Drager with the exceptionally rare double-steal on this play as he keenly knocks his guy on his right on his wallet on the D.Roberts Kickoff return. Then knocks him down again as he tries to get up. WOW! You gotta love that kinda contact welcoming mentality in football folks. In Boxing this would be a 10-7 round for Drager who scored two sensational Knockdowns on one single play!

3rd Quarter 10:03 remaining: (PLAY OF THE GAME)
Sure looked like R.Will got a bad spot on this dicey 4th and a long 3 run. I would have taken the points on the road as a rule; while possibly going for it at Home. Further, why was this spot not reviewed???

3rd Quarter 8:07 remaining:
Watch #88 Smitty totally annihilate the GT right-side Defensive End (De) on this very rare pulling trap-block from a Tight-End (Te) on the R.Will TD gallop on the Inside-Zone call. I called Smitty our best blocking Te in years last week, he did not disappoint. Smitty might even be our next John Burke and have a Sunday blocking career in front of him.

3rd Quarter 4:20 remaining:

Note the uncalled False-Start that gives the right-side GT Offensive Tackle (Ot) a huge advantage on this likewise huge gainer for Dwyer when the Ot blocks down on and totally pancakes ‘Quell. (big PIC link)

3rd 1:27 Quarter remaining:
Outstanding salesmanship on the deadpan Vaudeville routine play-fake by T-mobile to the potential hand-off to Coale on the reverse. TT is rapidly becoming a much more complete D-1 B.C.S. Quarterback (Qb) folks.

4th Quarter 13:25 remaining:
What the hell is this?!? Note the 2 visible chain-links that clearly show that GT is short of the 1st-down. Then the Referee walks up, and re-spots the football for a First Down that still appears to be short. Talk about a pocket full of ExtenZe for GT. Click both pics. I dare you. Man-o-man, this was one jaundiced set of Zebras. (big PIC#1 link) (big PIC#2 link)

4th Quarter 12:08 remaining:
Watch the perfectly executed pitch-out from Nesbitt to Carmichael. Right in Roc’s hands, and Roc’ dropped it. Could have been 6 the other way if the Roc’ caught the pitch-out as he only had about 1/2 a man to beat with nothing but green-field and wide open spaces beyond that. (big PIC link)

4th Quarter 11:03 remaining:
Watch D.Taylor do a 360 spin on the Nesbitt keeper. That’s doing more than just breaking ankles. Kam strikes a nice lick on #20; though that does not help much when Nesbitt is running right on bye. The Flex Bone sure is fun to watch when it is run this efficaciously.

4th Quarter 9:02 remaining:
EPIC old-school forearm shiver delived by Cody to #26’s chin. #26 is dropped like a dead sack of potatoes for it. Things were pretty chippy out there in the final 30 minutes of play.

4th Quarter 7:33 remaining:
Nesbitt with his second errant pitch-out moving to his left as Phil Martin now merits double duty Eye in the Sky love. Nice work P-mart; and if not for this turnover it sure looked like GT was on their way to another score; or at least 3 points on a chip-shot FGA.

4th Quarter 5:59 remaining:
Watch #4 Wilson with the wonderful down-field cut-block on the T-mobile scramble.

4th Quarter 4:47 remaining:
TT gives up his body (mid section) for good ole V.P.I. on this 2-pont conversion. This is at least his 5th ding and dent of the year.

4th Quarter 4:09 remaining:
Watch #56 D.Taylor hurt something in his right arm, or shoulder on this play. May have been the painful though not exceptionally long lasting so-called Stinger.

4th Quarter 2:11 remaining:
Watch the sensational pump fake by TT on #51 that causes #51 to jump off the ground to attempt to bat the pass down as TT then squirts free outside. However … then watch TT with the uncalled Unsportsmanlike Conduct foul along the GT sidelines as he N.F.L. spikes the ball after the play in a fit of frustration.  Stay classy Tyrod. After a stellar game, #91 (Morgan) for GT hurts his back on this play as well. God Bless on that.

2nd Half Tech-bits:

• GT was 6 for 7 on 3rd Down conversions in the second-half? OUCH!
• Why did we not go for 2 on the last TD? That puts us down 24-28, instead of 23-28. Then if we had scored a subsequent TD after the on-sides attempt GT could only have tied us 31-31 on a GT FG attempt late. As is GT would have won on said theoretical FG attempt. Look before you leap; little things like this say so much about out panic mentality when trailing in BIG games. Football ain’t rocket-surgery folks.
• Along those lines, watch the changes (adjustments) in the Slot-back or A-Back blocking by Coach P.J. in the final 3o minutes of play. These crackbacks were on target and they even managed to routinely fell our tallest hind-4 or secondary tree (Kam), repeatedly to close night down in the ATL. This was a major pre-game concern for me as GT has two monster sized A-Backs and ate us up for B, L, and D, just like a little kid does all that candy on the 31st of this month.
• Coach P.J. out-coached Bud in the final two Quarters. Plain and simple. We also saw Dwyer adjusted to run the Belly-Play outside the A-Gap into the B-Gap or 3-hole (left) or 2-hole right. Then we saw the GT A-Back taking a “sweep style” pitch instead of a true option to put him on our defensive edge ASAP. In other words … GT went further outside on us in the final two quarters and it worked like a charm.
• To compound fracture all of that; our second-half Tackling was soft. I even saw Cody Grimm arm-tacking to close the show.
• TT played about as well as he could. Both INT’s were flukes, he ran well and has done a wonderful job of deferring some physical punishment by ducking outta bounds this year. Which brings us effortlessly into some T3 analysis…

Time To Throw: (T3)®
Virginia Tech:
Sacked=2
Hurried=0
Pressured=7
Qb hits=4

Gah.Tech:
Sacked=1
Hurried=0
Pressured=3
Qb hits=3

T3 Analysis:

As I stated in the part I Lo.FM, neither of my two pet metrics is designed with an Option based team in mind. When you only throw the ball 12% of the time (like GT did vs. us) you really do not need a whole lotta throwing time to be successful. However, as with the Lo.FM the VT side is still revealing; though first a quick look at GT.

If not for one NBA esque jump-ball situation Nesbitt would have been a 0% passer on the evening. GT called 9 pass plays and we sacked Nesbitt 22% of the time and got good pressure on 33% of the other GT throwing play-calls. That’s 55% combined. Anything north of 50% is semi decent pressure as the T3 vital is showing that most often you get after a given Qb about 45% of the time. So our better than average pass rush vs. GT was no small part of Nesbitt -who is anything but a pure passer- really only going 11% on the night throwing the football.

Tyrod on the other hand continues to amaze. We called 16 pass plays down in the ATL and TT was sacked on 12% of ‘em. T-mobile had good time to throw on only 43% of his pass attempts and several of those were unscripted darts and ducks outta the collapsing O&M pocket when TT bought an additional look(s) downfield with his wheels. TT was pressure on 57% of his throws and yet he competed 71% of his passes! That is truly amazing folks. Which leaves me wondering out-loud … what in the whole wide Hokie world would TT actually do with a legit Oline in front of him? VT is 5th in Passing Efficiency as a team and TT is 6th in the same as an individual Qb while being forced to try to survive behind the 99th ranked Oline in Sacks allowed. WOW!

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Letter grades:

• 16 tackles for Barquell Rivers seems epic in an O&M Hokie vacuum. However, only one of these was behind the GT line of scrimmage  and numerous ones were on simple Belly-Plays that the VT Defensive Tackle’s did a great job of clogging up through the 1 or 0-holes or the less descriptive yet flasher so-called A-Gaps. ‘Quell looked bad in pursuit at times as well, as he just does not have a great top-speed nor does he put himself in the best position to pursue at times. B+ is the best I can do.
• D.Taylor however has quietly had his best Hokie season by far. 10 times he tackled or got a piece of Dwyer on the inside after the inexpensive-shot injury to John Graves. Not half bad for a undersized back-up. A.
  

  Cowboy up Kam!

• The next time Kam Chancellor busts an A-Back or Wingbacks ass as he dives for Kam’s ankles will be the first. Why Kam did not simply detonate on a couple of these guys at least once is very curious looking to me. Now mix in very poor arm tackling (see pic) and you can plainly see that Kam has regressed and is having his worst season in Chicago Maroon.
• Virg’ had a pretty nice stat line for limited minutes while still being hobbled by a trick knee that will likely need to be cleaned out to end the year. 1 TFL, 1 Sack, 1 pass broken-up, 1 tackle and a handful of first-contacts is a pretty fair exchange for his limited playing-time. B.
• T-mobile gets an A+. 71% passing with yet again suspect Time To Throw and 80 yards rushing not counting sacks is pretty good work if you can get it.  That’s 71% of our offense on the night and that is an A+ to me.
• D.Roberts had one of his better nights as a Hokie as well. 155 all-purpose yards is no bad thing. Be nice to get him the rock on a Reverse as a Wideout from time to time as well. B+++.
• Wang and DeChris played … well, bad. DeChris’ grade was so low the powers that be choose not to publish it this week. I’d give him an F+ and Wang a D- myself.
• On the good side Brooks continues to be nothing but steady. He may not be a knockdown machine; however, nor is he beaten often nor does he miss many assignments. Brooks is rapidly becoming my favorite Hokie OLineman. Highest possible B+.
• Bowden and Myer oddly enough picked the exact same night to have their worst games of the year. This cost us a few 10’s worth of yards in hidden field-position or what roughly equates to at least 2 first-downs, possibly more. D+ for each.
• R.Will got 100 yards rushing and broke tackles on 14% of his running-plays. He seemed to sweat his fever out a bit and played better with at least a modicum of his former explosive self in the second-half. Josh ran basically nowhere fast establishing his low water mark for 2009. Wilson did well returning Kicks and picked up an important first-down coming in cold turkey off the VT bench. I’m grading the Rb’s as a Team Project. Overall they merit a solid B as their pass-blocking was just a tad better this week.

Editors Note:
I’ll be back with a bonus Eye in the Sky Part III with a look at problems and solutions; as I never present problems by themselves. That’s code for complaints and I prefer to marry a remedy to anything that I see that needs fixing.

“LETS GO!”

“HOKIES!”

b’street

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