Film Study - Offense vs VT

Boomergump

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First of all, I think you have to give a ton of props to Bud Foster. You may hate him, but you better respect him, because he had those kids ready to play a pretty complex scheme against us. Most teams line up with one base formation all game and just do a couple simple variations off that based on down and distance and our formation. Not BF and the VT defense. They did a little of everything and often mixed, from down to down, who had QB, who had pitch, and from a totally different look. It is obvious they wanted to confuse JT and our OL. Personally, I think the game ball (for either team) goes to #36 on VT's defense. He played better than anybody else on the field. Although we owned the action in the G-C-G area of the field, we just couldn't get a hat on that guy or take him to the ground pursuing to the edge. He single handedly kept our dive from blowing up on them and he single handedly allowed them to run some of the tactics they did in the flats. Without him, they are not even in the game. He made tackles everywhere and seemed to easily defeat our attempts to pick him up. I don't think he took a single false step all game except one play where JT jukes him and took off for a 20 yarder. If I had to guess, I would say he made 40% of their tackles by himself. You have to go all the way to Vellano for MD at DT, to find as good a game played against us by a single defender.

With all that said, VT had a hard time adjusting to the speed of our option early. The guys on the edge screwed up assignments in the first series and we busted some runs. Eventually they settled down. Most of the day they had 8 in the box in one variation or another with as many as 6 on the line or as few as 4. They didn't jump the A gap but a few times. They did come with pressure this year, probably more than I would have expected, but the difference was they usually had one guy held back who spied JT. This was the "containment" tactic that I had alluded to in prior posts leading up to the game. They often fired corners and rotated safeties over to the boundary. We picked this up nicely, in scheme if not execution, by having the WR crack inside and the play side AB taking the firing CB. Once again, despite the lessened pressure, they were daring us to beat them through the air. Their defense flowed quickly to the pitch lanes and CBs were left to fend for themselves. There were a ton of plays "there" that we didn't hit for 3/4ths of the game with Smelter in the clear or a wheel route.

I thought CPJ did a masterful job with the play calls and I don't use that term lightly. With the game on the line late we ran two plays that took advantage of #36 in the middle a little bit, an AB dive, and a QB follow where we essentially optioned him off by having him take the BB. Those weren't big gainers but they mattered big time in the flow of the game late. The best play call of the day was the last TD to Smelter on the stop and go. CPJ guessed right that they would fire the corner on the play. That put a ton of pressure on the safety to get over to Smelter in a timely fashion and interrupt a quick throw that we had tried earlier. Well, he was running full speed over and DS baited him perfectly. The only other player on the field was a safety on the other side. He had no chance.

I don't think we played particularly well on offense as a whole. There were just a slew of unforced errors on the day. Penalties, just like last year, really killed some drives. ABs didn't play all that well. There were too many missed blocks or blocks that were too easily defeated in space, or penalties that brought plays back. While our OL generally blocked very well and got the best of the guys in front of them, they let down by turning a guy loose at the worst possible times. The biggest thing I can say is that we persevered. That seems to be our character this year and it is a good thing to say. There were a ton of reasons to throw in the towel and we didn't do it.

I am so proud of JT I can't even put it into words. He was asked to grow up yesterday. He was confronted with a puzzling and frightening array of tactics all day and he kept the pedal down throughout. He is a warrior who, once again, put his team on his back. We don't win yesterday if anybody else was in his place. The number of plays he keeps alive for modest gains, or makes huge gains out of seemingly routine plays is staggering. He sees holes developing before they open. He reads defenses very well for his relative inexperience. The two most important things about him are that, right or wrong, he commits to the decision and plays it out as fast as he can, and he makes adjustments as he goes along learning from his mistakes rather quickly. He has developed a tendency to overthrow receivers right now. His arm is strong and he is speeding things up a little too much getting rid of the ball. At crunch time you could see him consciously trying to take a little off to MAKE SURE of the throws. From that point on he was money. Eventually, he will learn to put air under the ball when he needs it. He hasn't yet. Some of his touch throws don't have enough altitude. I feel strongly, very soon, he will be coming out of the gate hitting important throws early.

Bottom line, there were a ton of plays missed yesterday. There were still many others that were an eyelash of going for huge gains that didn't. From my vantage point, we weren't all that far from blowing them out. We CAN play better. The locker room talk is the truth. We looked like the better team. They were under an extreme amount of pressure. They were well prepared. We were inconsistent, but we made played with talent. Yes the T word. We have some on offense.

Sorry I have to go. One last word. There is no doubt Freddie Burden was jacked up to play. That first series, he knocked his guy back about 4 yards a pop one on one. No kidding. He looked like that guy who got his car vandalized on "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". I haven't seen that from him yet. He has played well so far but that first series really showed what he can do. WOW.
 

4shotB

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I am so proud of JT I can't even put it into words.


Bottom line, there were a ton of plays missed yesterday. There were still many others that were an eyelash of going for huge gains that didn't. From my vantage point, we weren't all that far from blowing them out.

I am very hesitant to put the cart ahead of the horse here but JT may be the person who reenergizes GT football. I keep think "lil Joe" when I watch himand I hate to do that to a RS So with 4 starts.

That game could have been a blowout either way. We got a finger tip on the ball at the LOS on a TE slant that was wide open for 6. That was just before the FG we blocked iirc. Without 3 egregious turnovers from their QB we don't have a chance at wining. The last one was a great play by #28 but the other 2 were gift wrapped. they stalled several drives with penalties which is atypical of them. Some is catching $&*! in Blacksburg about the substitution penalties.

Not to take away from our kids and the win - we have been on the other end of these games with them more often than not. It's great to be 4-0 and to have fought so hard in these last 2 games.
 

AE 87

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Nice @Boomergump That #36 from VPI you mentioned is Chase Williams. He was involved in 17 tackles against us, 8 solo and 9 assisted. That's more than the 16 total he had for the first three games combined.
 

4shotB

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Nice @Boomergump That #36 from VPI you mentioned is Chase Williams. He was involved in 17 tackles against us, 8 solo and 9 assisted. That's more than the 16 total he had for the first three games combined.


He had a great game. However I got the sense he was wilting a little there at the end. That is quite a pounding to take.
 

Buzzwax

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Really happy for CPJ and the team!! Nice to see CPJ able to show some of his electric enthusiasm on the sideline and in the locker room! I really hope this energizes the team to come out against Miami with confidence to play FOUR damn quarters of SMART football!!
 

George P. Burdell

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On the do or die series when it's 17-24 and 3 mins. The first down was a busted play which resulted in 2nd and 15. Then we go for 3 pass plays in a row. What is your thoughts on that? We had been averaging 6-7 yds/carry. It seemed desperate to keep throwing and not run our offense. It worked out in the end, but makes me wonder does CPJ "panic" in these situations. Or is CPJ calling that because he truly feels we have an advantage there.
 

Stonewall

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plain and simple, JT is carrying this team to victories. something we haven't seen since nesbitt and it's damn refreshing. his ability to improvise and keep plays alive when it hits the fan is a huge step up over vad's ineptitude to handle the pressure and tevin's absence of physical tools. let's pray to all that's holy he continues to take a licking and keep on ticking.
 

takethepoints

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We were very, very close on many plays yesterday. That 18 yard run Laskey had was a finger length - that's what the VT DB had when he tripped him up - from going all the way. We had WRs open all over the place. For awhile there we looked like the Braves; men on base every inning, but no timely hits to get them in.

Then, as Boomer says, JT calmed down. That did it. All of a sudden he started hitting his throws and we win. Give him a few more games and we'll have ourselves a right fair country QB back there.
 

GTBandit22

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I liked how they had the backup playing for Marshall at DT for the first series due to his bad wheel. After we knifed through them most of the drive, they put him in the game and he played the rest of the way. He ended up with 6 tackles too.
I might be wrong with this but this is what I gather from that: Foster thought they could beat us without a banged up Marshall. He knew after the first drive that this wasn't they team he beat last season.

Thanks for the writeup Boom. I'm sure you were itching to re-watch that barn burner.
 

GTNavyNuke

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Needs to be spelled a play or two throughout the game to be fresh in the end. Byerly can give you 4 or 5 plays a game in my opinion.

This week I didn't call for Byerly like I usually do since the game was so important and, well, so damn important to win. Also because I knew we had an off week coming up.

But we really need to keep JT's "run count" down. There were 62 or so offensive plays (that weren't called back) and JT rushed for 22 plays. You could see how tired he was at the end. And hobbling. We ran Vad into the ground in the UNC game and he was never the same. I think for Vad that was largely between the ears, but he didn't have the same spark. I also think that TWs end of game problems were due to fatigue - every QB we have had who plays 60+ plays gets dog tired. That's because the D's like to force the QB to keep a lot, and the QBs don't want to risk a turnover in heavy traffic.
We need to treat JT like a fine wine and let him age. He'll learn as much playing 45-50 plays a game as 62. Byerly can use the experience for when JT gets hurt. But against VT and UGAg, there can be no prisoners.

Hopefully we get a comfortable lead at some point and put Byerly in. Many game we are going to have 70+ offense plays. End of bi-weekly rant.

Great as always Boomer.

I think we really missed Perkins blocking on the edge. But I also think that the VT defense was by far the most accomplished we have faced. Which is why we only scored 20 (accepting Butker miss and Refs bad calls).
 

Boomergump

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On the do or die series when it's 17-24 and 3 mins. The first down was a busted play which resulted in 2nd and 15. Then we go for 3 pass plays in a row. What is your thoughts on that? We had been averaging 6-7 yds/carry. It seemed desperate to keep throwing and not run our offense. It worked out in the end, but makes me wonder does CPJ "panic" in these situations. Or is CPJ calling that because he truly feels we have an advantage there.
I think those pass plays were good calls, for several reasons. First and foremost, they left their corners alone out there and were all geared up to shut the pitch lanes. The pass plays were there and had been there all day. IMHO if we couldn't hit those then we didn't deserve to win. The other main reason was JT had to be exhausted. If you looked at his body language that last series, you would see an athlete who was spent and on his last legs. Running for him would have been all adrenaline at that point. I'm not sure how much he had left and he represented 70% of the running yards up to that point. There was no real reason to think suddenly the edge was going to open up.
 

GTNavyNuke

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Oh I forgot to mention how excited I was when we passed on 3rd and 2 yesterday. All 17 other times this year we have run on 3rd and less than three. And all 66 times in 2013. I just knew we would pass once against VT since I'm sure VT had all of CPJ's tendencies mapped out in great detail. What was even better was the attempt was completed for 14 yards.
 

Boomergump

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Oh I forgot to mention how excited I was when we passed on 3rd and 2 yesterday. All 17 other times this year we have run on 3rd and less than three. And all 66 times in 2013. I just knew we would pass once against VT since I'm sure VT had all of CPJ's tendencies mapped out in great detail. What was even better was the attempt was completed for 14 yards.
This is a good point. After watching that film an seeing every play a bunch of times I am convinced that Foster had a detailed map of what our tendencies were because he didn't always line up the way you might expect given down and distance. This was BY FAR the most entertaining film study I have ever done from an intrigue standpoint. It was truly a cerebral game being played out there Saturday. But then there was also just some athletes making plays too, despite the chess match going on at the sideline.
 
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