In Focus, DE Anree Saint-Amour and both BBacks

[Whiskey_Clear]

I suspect our problem against Duke reduces to bad play, especially OL (for perhaps a variety of reasons) and Duke having a better D.

And turnovers

 

[ibeattetris]

Longestday pointed it out: they often didn't run the dive to the right place. The dive ought to end up off the guard's inside shoulder headed for the gap created by his block and the OT's. What was happening was that the THM kept running too close to the guard. When they didn't, good things happened; see Howard's first TD. He went to exactly the right place and walked into the end zone. As Longest says, Benson doesn't have this problem. By the end of the year neither will the THM.

This isn't 100% accurate. In general maybe, but I am not sure what play is being referenced.
http://nflbreakdowns.com/2015/09/the-flexbone-option-zone-dive/

In a perfect world, the play would set up like this image, with the B-back having the option to read or hit either the A or B-gap.

Notice the red arrow indicating BB path. The BB is meant to read the play and attack a gap. Obviously if there is a gap open and the BB misses it, then that's on him, but attacking the A-gap isn't inherently wrong.

I also strongly recommend reading all the articles this author posted regarding the offense.

 

[Boomergump]

Another great rundown by @Boomergump but, for this one, you get a 9.5.

Hey, it's not my fault. You've set the bar pretty high for yourself, bro.

That version of the QB sweep was just plain beautiful in it's devastation. Them BB's were seeking and destroying and it was fun to watch. I know the VT defenders were sharting their pants. It was even more fun to watch than the neked version we unloaded on TN in game 1 last season with the 2 OL leading the way.

I'm also really loving 24 aka #Bee-stMode

I have a one question for you and whoever else, of course. {rustles paper}

One play, CPJ sent Cottrell in with the call. Player got a couple steps away and turned back. CPJ mouthed, quite clearly on the broadcast, "Keep!" and the next play was a QB-carry on an "option" play. It was funny because it was one of those typical moments where the announcer highlights the no-play sheet thing and they basically telegraphed the play yet it was still effective.

My question is to what degree did it appear Oliver was actually "reading".

Good Question. The answer is, a lot. There were some called dives and QB follows mixed in for sure. However, there were (I didn't count, but am going to guess ten) several TRUE midline options called where the DT was left unblocked an Tobias was reading him. The genius of it was, because of how we stretched them with the loaded QB sweep, the DTs felt a lot of pressure to get wide and help, especially considering their Mike was getting dumped on his head. That made the first few reads super easy until they caught on we were running midline. At that point, we kept running it about every other play. Despite having it squeezed down some, Oliver kept getting the reads right, so we kept running it. It was very encouraging to see him being trusted with reads finally. IMHO, it was the best execution of midline since the days of Tevin Washington.

BTW, I don't want to overlook the ABs. They did a lot of heavy traffic blocking and drew the Mike assignment some as well. It is interesting to see that the skill position blocking is really starting to take off, much like it did in 2014 right about this point in the season. Our kids have experience and it shows.

 

[Boomergump]

I did love the game Thursday and loved the blocking scheme and play calls that overwhelmed the VT defense. Here's my one BIG objection: Why didn't we do this against Duke?? I mean, we know how they're going to defend us (a lot like VT did). We could've obliterated them the same way. That's CPJ's calling card, that's what makes him CPJ - he's able to make in-game adjustments to his offense that can totally make a defense that thought they had it right become totally wrong. We've seen him do it lots of times. I don't remember how Pitt, SoFl, or Clem's defended us, so I can't ask the same question about those games.

Is it a "This should work, and I'm going to make it work" thing with the triple? Since he thinks Marshall and the rest of the O should be able to execute the triple and then base everything else off of that, did he just say "If we can't do this, we don't deserve to win"? And then when Tobias was the man and he didn't feel like the triple was going to be the best thing for his RS frosh QB, did that finally make his offensive-genius mojo kick in? I'm 100% sure I'm making wrong conjectures with my questions, just wondering aloud.

Maybe TM doesn't run midline very well. We haven't really seen it with him taking snaps. I'm pretty sure CPJ was waiting for the right time to pull that card (midline) out once they caught on to the QB sweep. We need to run triple, just like we need to run midline. When either is missing we are simply running on low octane fuel. We have had a few lean midline years in a row where we run combinations of triple and counter instead, mixed with a little pass.

 

[AE 87]

During the call-in show, Andy mentioned to coach that Bedford had complimented Tobias for not missing reads on Zone Option. I'm wondering if some of those sweeps were Zone Options that were just mostly read as keeps rather than pitch. IIUC, the Zone option is a double (keep or pitch) option where the B-Back is going after a block on the Mike LB.

 

[ibeattetris]

Maybe TM doesn't run midline very well. We haven't really seen it with him taking snaps. I'm pretty sure CPJ was waiting for the right time to pull that card (midline) out once they caught on to the QB sweep. We need to run triple, just like we need to run midline. When either is missing we are simply running on low octane fuel. We have had a few lean midline years in a row where we run combinations of triple and counter instead, mixed with a little pass.

Maybe he doesn't, but he seemed okay against Louisville:

 

[vamosjackets]

I suspect our problem against Duke reduces to bad play, especially OL (for perhaps a variety of reasons) and Duke having a better D.

I think that's some of it. But, I don't think Duke's D is on another level than VT. Didn't VT beat Duke pretty handily? We didn't run the QB sweep with the blocking scheme that we did at all against Duke, nor much midline that I recall. It was that QB sweep with the extra blocker picking up the Mike that made the VT game what it was (which was total offensive domination against a good and well-coached defense). We scored a TD on every drive (except maybe 1??). Against Duke we could barely score a TD at all. If we ran this same scheme against Duke, I believe we would've had a similar result, perhaps not quite as extreme. They wouldn't have been prepared for it, and we could've overwhelmed them.

 

[alentrekin]

Duke has the all acc Mike. Probably non obvious to base a game plan around a slow developing QB load / sweep with a freshman running back responsible for protecting TMs candy shell.

I think this was the tobias offense. CPJ can pretend it's the same but TM doesnt hit north south well enough for midline or the trash and arm tackles generated by this kind of blocking.

 

[AE 87]

I think that's some of it. But, I don't think Duke's D is on another level than VT. Didn't VT beat Duke pretty handily? We didn't run the QB sweep with the blocking scheme that we did at all against Duke, nor much midline that I recall. It was that QB sweep with the extra blocker picking up the Mike that made the VT game what it was (which was total offensive domination against a good and well-coached defense). We scored a TD on every drive (except maybe 1??). Against Duke we could barely score a TD at all. If we ran this same scheme against Duke, I believe we would've had a similar result, perhaps not quite as extreme. They wouldn't have been prepared for it, and we could've overwhelmed them.

I've heard that there was confusion on line calls vs Duke.

Regardless, Duke's a much better D than vpi this year imo

 

[ibeattetris]

I've heard that there was confusion on line calls vs Duke.

The coach said as much in his post game presser.