VT vs. GT - 9/3/12

[Sleepy T]

Great win last night!

--I told you guys that Corey Fuller would be a breakout guy this year! We heard his name entirely too much during the spring and summer for him not to be a factor. With that being said the others (DR,MD) were quite disappointing. I think with some more practices and a couple more patsy games (and a healthy Coles and Davis) we will have a formidable receiving corp.

--Although it is quite obvious that the O-Line did not as well as they should have, I am going to reserve judgement on them (which is rare for me). I am going to go out on a limb and say that based on their performance, GT has/will have a much improved defense this year. It pains me to say this, but Al Groh called a great game. He had a good game plan, made adjustments when needed, and seemed to know what we were going to do. They were tough and fell a little bit short.

--Special teams was fairly good IMO. I know..the botched punt snap and the missed FG, but other than that, we shouldn't be complaining. The punting was much improved.

--We could go on and on about this defensive player or that one, but they all played well. I heard all of their names at some point or another. Maddy really showed out the most. Our defense will be among the nations best once we get some 2nd and 3rd stringers some crucial reps in the next few games.

 

[VTscores]

Apart from the one missed snap, punting was great last night. Also, the punter managed to recover the football. If this had to happen, I'm glad he got it out of the way already.

The defense was pretty good, with a couple of breakdowns at crucial times. I think they'll only get better.

The offense, however, was not hitting on all cylinders. Thomas was not as accurate as he needs to be. That said, the guy can perform under pressure. That last drive in regulation was awesome.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

One thing on the punter: He was good on the short kicks but on his one opportunity where we needed home to boom one, he kicked it like 42 yards which is NOT good. Still, it was better than last year.

To hunz,

I liked our safeties. Went back and watched a bunch of plays on DVR and they were in good spots. With the TO, they have run responsibility as well and get coaxed up. I think that we will be devastating against the pass this year with essentially four big cornerbacks out there that like to hit, but with the TO, they got a caught up occasionally but still looked good.

 

[sparko]

I'll give the defense and secondary, in general, a pass on their coverage. They prepped for the flexbone, not a passing attack. By the looks of GT's passing, if TW can continue to pass fairly well like that, they're gonna torch some defenses this season. I'll give some credit to GT's defense but all-in-all, I don't feel like the pass protection was great with our OL. Oh well -- it's a win and on to the next. Injury report anyone? I'm sure a lot of them are banged up but Maddy, Davis, and DJ come to mind (we really need Coles this season)

 

[sparko]

punting was good enough .. punt returns were non-existent. I agree that Dyrell looks a bit timid back there but GT's punt coverage was good

 

[sparko]

the thing that stood out most to me was that our offense came through when it needed to and helped win the game for us in the end. Usually in those types of situations, the defense wins us the game if we win. LT came up big when he had to, Fuller stepped up, Cody Journell made the FG when he needed to ... but there is shit to fix for sure. Glad to escape that one with a W .. now moving on to Peay .. Piss on Peay

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

 

[NickVT10]

Great pic. Bruce makes him look like a little kid

 

[VTscores]

Journell must have felt pretty redeemed last night. The guy has nerves of steel.

In that regard, so does Thomas.

 

[NickVT10]

-LT couldnt get in a rhythm and the coaches didnt give him any easy passes to get him started so that was disappointing.
- the read option was working but I dont want LT running too much like that this season. I bout pooped my pants on that early run when they hit him in the knees from the side.
- I hope DJ Coles comes back, I think he is our best receiver.
-Corey Fuller will be a stud slot guy
-Our RBs both looked good. I like Holmes' get up field mentality and JC will be a handful for teams this year
-The OL played decent but they need a little more work to open running lanes.
-The DL played very well along with the entire Defense. I loved how Jarrett hits. He hits like a 220lb safety. Can't wait for him to bulk up a tad.

I liked the new offense mixing it up with no huddle and getting the TEs involved. Logan looked rusty but I think after watching real film he will bounce back well with a few patsies coming up. Our outside WRs werent a factor most of the game but not sure if it was them or the routes just weren't open. I would like to see more curls, outs and crosses in our play calling for the WRs.

 

[NickVT10]

And also our STs (aside from the botched punt) were pretty good. The KR by Coleman was very nice, The punting was better than last year and the kick coverage was nice. We were very close to blocking 2 punts if i recall. One of them we should have had if our guy would have dove instead of just lifting his arms.

 

[sparko]

It was very obvious that there was some focus on not roughing a kicker on those punts, which I'm perfectly fine with. Our PR team has fucked us with roughing calls over the past several seasons a lot more than making big plays. It's extremely difficult to block punts cleanly. Get one here and there but bottom line -- don't let special teams lose the game for us. I actually think that special teams looked pretty OK, except for not returning any punts really. Journall missed the 47-yarder but he had the distance (maybe he'll realize that he has the foot and quit trying to kill the ball) .. He bounced back and was clutch when he needed to be. Botched punt -- freshman punter in his first game. Glad we got that out of the way -- sort of. Doubt it happens again.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

Two other real quick points:

Tweedy is still money in the open field. What a special teams demon.

Stiney and O'Cain should be given coins for the bubble screen and only be able to cash in three per game.

 

[HoHumHokie]

Two other real quick points:

Tweedy is still money in the open field. What a special teams demon.

Stiney and O'Cain should be given coins for the bubble screen and only be able to cash in three per game.

Lol. Looked like Stiney and OCain were flipping coins to decide on plays at times last night.

 

[hokiecheme11]

Two other real quick points:

Tweedy is still money in the open field. What a special teams demon.

Stiney and O'Cain should be given coins for the bubble screen and only be able to cash in three per game.

Tweedy should have been able to down that one punt, but other than that he played well

 

[Sleepy T]

Two other real quick points:

Tweedy is still money in the open field. What a special teams demon.

Stiney and O'Cain should be given coins for the bubble screen and only be able to cash in three per game.

Agree. It was quite obvious that Groh prepped the defense for that play, as it was an integral part of the pass offense last year. They had it sniffed out every time.

 

[VTscores]

How about that catch by Dimitri Knowles?

First college catch, and it was a great one, even with interference. Way to keep his concentration!

 

[Hokie200proof]

Are we the only fanbase in CFB that is screaming for more runs? Coleman and Holmes looked (small) good last night... but we need to give them more than 20-25 carries. Especially when we're trying to get something started.

And WhyTF are we trying to do hurry-up when 1) we're not really driving 2) that plays 100% into GT's gameplan. When we hurry-up and go three/six and out, we're just going to tire out our own defense. Ridiculous plan.

Glad we won. We usually lose those. I gotta feel for the GT fans last night. They had every chance to win that game and then blew it in amazing fashion.

 

[VTfoozball]

Once again the in game adjustments sucked with the play calling. I would not have let LT keep throwing for so long when he was clearly off. Maybe running the ball wouldn't have worked too well but the fact they didn't try it says a lot. And that was the worst that those WR screens have looked since Clemson. Maybe those 2 teams have spotted a tell with that play

 

[Lumbee09]

A few things to add on to what everybody has said:

-WRs could be an issue, but looks like we have more options than we thought. Knowles is a good deep threat and Corey Fuller seems to be reliable in the slot. Marcus Davis worries me the most. We tried a lot of bubble screens that he dropped or didn't seem to run the right way. He also ran a few of his usual half-ass routes. Can't have that from a starting WR. Needs to be 100% all the time.
-While LT looked bad early, I put part of the blame on the new offensive scheme. He seems to need more time to settle into that. The biggest thing from him, though, is his resiliency. It showed last year at times (Miami) and it showed in the drive to put it into OT tonight. This is the first time since MV1 where I trust us to run down the field and score when we need it if there are less than 2 minutes on the clock.
-O-Line was shaky tonight at times, but overall didn't lose us the game.
-I questioned Holmes early, but when he got holes he hit them. Coleman needs more touches and I think he will get them. I see the two of them being a solid 1-2 punch.
-JGW was good in run coverage, but pass coverage will be a worry.
-Safeties were good coming up against the run. I felt like I heard Jarrett's name a lot. We'll see what they do against a traditional offense, though.
-DTs were great. GT played the dive more than usual and they handled it.

Overall, a win we can improve on. I'm looking forward to watching a game where I don't feel like my chest is going to explode in the 4th quarter. I'm wayyyy too invested into sports.