Well, that did not taste good.

* Is the golden era of 10 win VT football over?

* Or is 2009 just a blip; albeit a ugly looking boggy on the O&M radar?

I’ve already seen both sides on each of TSL’s football message board’s; so I’ll leave that up to you guys to sort out down below. I do know this however … we depart at least 2 N.F.L. guys on defense (Virg’ and Kam) and at least 3 N.F.L. guys on offense (Wand, Serg’ and “Boooooooone”). The 2010 schedule is more accommodating. Then again; I would not have been so bottom-line starved as Jim Weaver so as to self-delude myself that VT is ready to play the sched’ we had this year.

That said, Miami will be better, GT could be terrific, and Bo.State has 21 back. You do the maths.

So … congrats to UNC. You are at least the third team to out-coach us this year -NEB may argue that that is closer to four- and we sure have a very testy out-of-conference (OOC) match-up with a feisty ECU which will be playing its Super Bowl, World Series and NBA Finals all rolled into one against us on ESPN next Thursday night down in Greenville.

1st Quarter 14:16 remaining:
Look where Boykin’s hands are (still upward textbook pinky to pinky receiving the ball). Now look where the UNC defender’s hands are (”strike hard strike fast no mercy!”) Perfect timing by #12 of UNC as he stripped Boykin of the ball before Boykin even tried to put it away. (big PIC link)

1st Quarter 12:46 remaining:
The always ready to play Hokie Nation was very vocal. Forcing the first of 5 UNC crowd related offensive penalties on the night.

1st Quarter 11:57 remaining:
Excellent cut-block by B.War pulling left on the R.Williams (R.Will) run.  That was inside the Offensive-Tackle (Ot) Box and therefore illegal. What #29 Boyce is attempting at the top of the screen? Not so much.  (big PIC link)

1st Quarter 9:20 remaining:
For the second straight week Bowden nails a perfect punt inside the 5 yardline and we let it hit and bounce into the endzone. This after T-mobile missed Boyce to the outside when Boyce had 2 steps to the inside on the skinny-post. i.e. we had our chances folks! (big PIC link)

1st Quarter 5:41 remaining:
Believe it or not, the INT here by #12 Brown would have actually been better as it would have pinned UNC at their own 11 after we missed going for it on 4th and 3.

1st Quarter 5:35 remaining:

#21 the Roc’ gets absolutely …well… rocked as he turns upfield in pursuit on this play. Look at the circle over his left leg to see just how far he got knocked up into the air. Defend yourself at all times Roc’.

1st Quarter 3:43 remaining:
T-mobile with the delicious Chuck Foreman or Earl “the pearl” Monroe spin-move on this scripted Qb-Draw right up the UNC gut. Note TT is facing the wrong way on the 360 spin in the pic. (big PIC link)

2nd Quarter 14:00 remaining:
A little help here please Boyce; as you dang near got R.Will killed on this screen pass as the 4.39 forty running #54 Mr. Carter totally lowers the boom on poor R.Will. (big PIC link)

2nd Quarter 9:43 remaining:
“Down goes Frazier?” Hell no! More like “Down goes Butchie!” As the NBA small-forward sized UNC punter destroys Hosley on the dog-collar upstairs then proceeds to cut Head Coach Butch Davis down to size on the accidental roll-up down low. Point being … yet another BIG hit in favor of UNC and this was actually the second big lick by the UNC Punter who actually stole one of his own teammates in coverage in the 1st Quarter. At the end watch #90 for us (super freshman Wr D.J. Coles) with the unflagged hit that was so late it was worth 30 yards; not just 15. (pic#2 PileDriver!) (pic#3 UpsideWrong!)

2nd Quarter 6:35 remaining:
Yates is a gamer indeed folks. Hurts his right-ankle on this triple Hokie hit while hanging in there and taking not one but three for the team to complete the throw downfield. Note that Yates game up lame on the play after #36 Jake bent his ankle the wrong way on the pile-up. Ankles are not Jeff’s thing when he plays VT; that much is for sure.

2nd Quarter 4:01 remaining:
#65 Mr. Holland who was playing Center for the already hurt Mr. Dyer suffers the dreaded no-contact injury attempting to block downfield and comes up lame on his left-leg for his hustling troubles. This was a critical injury right at the snapping point of attack as UNC was stranded with two less than 100% Centers all game long after this. Attacking either A-Gap through the 0-hole (right side) or the 1-hole (left side) sure seemed like a good idea after this insalubrious play.

2nd Quarter 3:30 remaining:
Watch the left-Ot (Jolly) with the uncalled Block-in-the-Back downfield on #39 Gibby on this running play. This non-flag might have been enough to pin UNC back and limit this drive to a

mere FGA instead of a jump-ball TD throw …  on which the Roc’ had pretty fair coverage and #87 just made a great leaping high-wire play on the classic lofty Fade Route to the corner of the Endzone for 6. (see PIC below)

2nd Quarter 1:20 remaining:
Note that our scripted half-Rolls for T-mobile nearly always follow our Tight-End (Te) motion. Whichever way “Booooooone” or Smitty or Wheeler motion is the same direction that TT rolls-out. Yet another poker-faced tell by our offense.

Ancillary; this is also the play where a poor hustling B.War gets his right knee accidentally rolled-up trying to peal-block for a scrambling TT which ended B.War’s night. (big PIC linked)

2nd Quarter 0:36 remaining:
R.Will with the really nice cut-block on the blitzing UNC MLB up the middle on this play. R.Will cut #54 Q.Sturdivant right on down to size spank you very much! Nice blocking; better coverage from UNC on this 4th down and out situation.

1st half Tech-bits:

• “Booooooooone” simply did not have a great blocking nite. He whiffed on some blocks, missed assignments on others, then injured his left-leg in the second-half. Greg has found some weight and is not have a meritorious senior campaign as such; possibly even hurting is professional Draft Stock as well.
• Just how many times is it possible to leave the left-side De (#92 Wilson) completely unbocked on Inside-Zone runs?!? DeChris virtually never touched Wilson and Wilson collapsed many a internal run by R.Will by hustling down the line-of-scrimmage for a uncontested stop.
• The key first-half adjustment was the fact that Butchie brought 5 or 6 or 7 men on blitzing pass-rushing situations after the very first defensive series for UNC when the T.Hells got no pressure outta their front-4. Further, the mimicking of GT’s A-back (Wingback, Wb) in motion play with Little was fairly effective itself. Though Little was moving towards the line-of-scrimmage at least once, and possibly twice on these plays. Both went unflagged.
• The No-Huddle by Butchie with the Brahma bull otherwise known as Houston at Running-Back (Rb) was a virtuoso move that kept the smallest VT set of defenders out there trying to gang-tackle Houston as best they could. This was shrewd because it wore Cody, Gibby, and Taylor down as Force does equal mass times acceleration (F=M*A) and Houston is rather massive as D-1 Tailbacks (Tb’s) go.
• Yates may not be the prettiest thrower you will ever see. A side-armed Dennis Eckersely very low release point. A cockeyed Bernie Kosar stance under Center. Yet given time Yates has a very nice touch on the ball despite all of this mechanical textbook technique throwing flaws.

Longfield Management (Lo.FM):®

Virginia Tech:
+ + +
-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -(VT TO)  -(penalty)  -  -  -(fumble)
neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral,

UNC:
+(VT penalty) +  + +(TD) +(TD) + +(4th down)
-  -(penalty)  -  -  -  -  -(4th down)  -  -  -  -(penalty)
neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral,

Lo.FM Analysis:

Not to be unexpected from the 5th from last UNC offense, and likewise from the 7th ranked

T.Heel stop-unit … there were bu-cu Lo.FM’s in this one folks. 19 for our beloved Hokies; and 25 for UNC. That’s a whopping and record setting 44 total Lo.FM’s on the night. No wonder the under ate the Vegas house up in this one. The killer part was that we/VT only effectively navigated 3 Lo.FM’s on the evening; whereas Yates stayed cool as a cucumber and more than doubled T-mobile’s Lo.FM efficiency tallying 7 positive Lo.FM’s for himself good for a backbreaking 14 UNC points or an unheard of 70% of UNC’s total points on the night generated off of notoriously dangerous Lo.FM’s.

That is exceptionally impressive folks. Propers to Yates for staying cool under fire early on, then getting sizzling hot to close the game on a blistering 91% clip.  The disconcerting part is that TT was in very fine form himself before being dusted in powered-blue. T-mobile entered Thursday night’s contest nailing 74% of his throws in the last three games. Yet once Butchie started blitzing Tyrod started sailing very high velocity throws. T-mobile was streaky after that. Enjoying a 4 for 5 3rd-4th quarter span; then yo-yo’ing for the duration after Butchie abandoned his attempts at generating pressure from his front-4 alone after the first series of play.

Also of note is the oddball fact that these two teams combined for three Center injuries on the night. UNC’s starting Center (Dyer) left the game after re-aggravating his ailing left-shoulder; then his back-up was lost and Dyer bad-shoudler and all was forced to renter the contest. On the VT side B.War got his leg rolled up which forced the Offensive-Tackle looking young Michael Via into the game. Via had some pretty solid run-blocking. He sealed the UNC Middle Linebacker (MLb) up well enough on several fold-blocking occasions. However his blitz recognition and therefore pre-snap line-of-scrimmage blocking-calls were wanting; as was Via’s pass blocking at times. This created a discontinuity in the middle of the VT oLine; and the VT oLine could only hold the football for 3 minutes and change in the all-important and deciding forth-Quarter of play. T-mobile did what he could -including the aforementioned hot-streak- and TT did run with authority near the goalline, trucking one of the UNC Linebacker’s for 6 points late in the game. However we just could not make the big play -UNC had 233% more “+” Lo.FM’s- when we needed to; nor could we stop UNC when we had to.

Being RATT: the Golden Era of VT football is......... Over. Past it's apex. We are on our way down as a program. On-going. Just a down year. We tear it up again in 2010. Indeterminate at this time. View Results  Loading ...

Simply put, the better team won, and where would UNC be with an intact oLine to block for Mr. Yates?

I’ll be back with part II in a few days.
Happy Hokie Halloween and remember to set your clock’s back on Saturday night.

“LETS GO!”

“HOKIES!”

b’street

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