Slow Motion Look

[Longestday]

I went through frame by frame.

Vad is not option expert yet, but he only had 2 bad miss reads that could have big gains. Any others were covered up by defensive players. This loss is not on Vad.

There were a lot of called dives. Don't place a miss read on a called dive that was stuffed.

Vad ran the speed option relatively well.

!!!!False starts killed 4 drives!!!! The penalties forced us out of the traditional game plan.

There were several short passes that work well and a few that were dropped/tipped.

Long passes were short, long, or dropped except Godhigh's pass.

We had two receptions that were caught just out of bounds.

Drive Summaries:

Drive 1 Some good runs to start. Vad fumbles (was the fumble Vad's issue? I don't think so)

Drive 2 Moving the ball down field well by running. 2 true triple options that Vad ran well. 2 false starts for a 2 and 14. Pass is intercepted (suspect call)

Drive 3 False start, bad read/hard read as well, 53 failed to block, blitzed to hell: 3 and out

Drive 4 Triple option and either Bostic or Waller failed their blocking assignment bad! False start and delay of game yields a 2 and 20. Blitzed hard, good pass, but holding not called or Smelter comes down with the reception and 1st down.

Drive 5 Fast pass to WR for 16 yards, QB draw minus 2 yards, speed option for 10 yards, Bad read on TO for no yards. Punt

Drive 6 40 second 2 half, quick pass to WR good, pass to WR foot out of bounds, rushed pass to high, screen pass tipped.

Drive 7 Long TD drive

Drive 8 False start on 3rd and 2 yields a 3 and out.

Drive 9 3rd and 3 dive stuffed. 4th and 3 Dive stuffed.

Drive 10 passes dropped

Drive 11 Last drive ended in an interception

 

[awbuzz]

... false start, number 70... guess he was pressing too hard to beat teh Dline...

thanks for the breakdown, that drive 4 scenario caused me to pull out some of what little hair I have.

 

[Chattjacket]

Thanks for doing these writeups.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

This confirmed what I saw in the stands. The insane penalties were daggers. The passing game was inept anyway and so clearly not the answer (as the typical option hating fan always believes) and the play called on the 4th down was the same as had just failed to work, hence not the best play to call imo, at least not with the same player. I would prefer bringing in Laskey if you want to repeat the same play.

As usual I assign blame to players for performance and the head coach owns the won/loss record. That means things work themselves out over time. As in CPJ has always had this year and next to convince a new AD, Bobinski, to extend his contract. Nothing changed about that. What did change is he went to 1-5 in the VT series. The others that matter are Miami (1-4), UGA (1-4) and Clemson (3-2) as we play these four every year and they are consistently the best opponents we face. If he loses to Miami and UGA this year that will be a winning pct of 20% against those three which will not cut it. That is why he has through the end of next season to prove that he has built a program that can win a higher pct of these every year big games.

I hope he does it and he very well might. This loss doesn't change the picture overall. A win would have helped him a little.