VT Defense v. GT 2013

[CTJacket]

Our team ought to be mad also at how they played last Saturday. They could very easily have been in the same boat as VT.

Should be an interesting match this year - two teams that are hungry and unhappy with their last game. We will see who wants it more, and who is willing to fight the hardest to win. I am hoping for a four quarter effort from Tech (the real one, not poly).

Wish I could like it more times for the bold part. They'll always be VPI to me.

 

[Boomergump]

I hope they DO try to run the same D against us this year, but I think Foster would be crazy to do so. Surely they have watched our film and will take notice. Even if you strip away all the false starts etc that set us back in 2013, VT's strategy was all geared to take advantage of slow developing option plays and an indecisive QB who can't read the field in the passing game and takes forever to get rid of the ball. They wanted to force him to play outside his natural rhythm with pressure and they succeeded. They are facing a different animal this week. Foster is no dummy. We are hitting the edge so fast this year, getting passes out quickly, and keeping plays alive on the roll out, that some of the stuff they were doing last year would be suicide. I expect a totally different plan. Well, a plan that has different elements to it at least. Pinning their ears back like last year will be a recipe for disaster, except only as a change up. If JT breaks contain and most VT defenders are in our backfield, it is over. Just look at our last play on offense Saturday against a MLB blitz. JT sidestepped the pressure like superman and calmly hit a drag route for the winning score. How well do you think that play works if the MLB stays home and picks up the drag? I am just saying. Blitz JT at your own risk.

I expect VT to give JT different looks to try and confuse him because he is young, but there will be less pressure overall and a motive to contain instead. Their defense will be better than we have faced, but it will be different this year than last year. I have gone over this game a few times in my head. If they try the same stuff, we crush them. They will try and slow us down and contain, in the belief that their offense will outscore us. That is how I see it. I expect a Duke like defensive plan, that plays more safe. We will see. Maybe I have it all wrong. What you saw against OSU was tailored to their QB. What you'll see against us will be tailored to ours. We have two pretty tough match ups on the outside and a guy in the backfield who can buy time and heave it well down field and accurately much of the time. Leaving their CBs on an island wouldn't be wise. As always, it should be fun. I can't wait.

 

[4shotB]

. I have gone over this game a few times in my head. If they try the same stuff, we crush them.

Boomer, love your stuff and analysis but we have never crushed VT. even during our last NC year it was a brutal 6-3 slugfest. and that was at home AND before Beamer and Foster iirc. We can win of course but under no scenario do we crush them (if for no other reason than defensive issues on our own squad).

With that being said, we are finally playing someone who has me looking forward to Saturday on Tuesday. We will definitely know more about this team after Saturday's game.

 

[GTpdm]

Boomer, love your stuff and analysis but we have never crushed VT. even during our last NC year it was a brutal 6-3 slugfest. and that was at home AND before Beamer and Foster iirc. We can win of course but under no scenario do we crush them (if for no other reason than defensive issues on our own squad).

With that being said, we are finally playing someone who has me looking forward to Saturday on Tuesday. We will definitely know more about this team after Saturday's game.

If we win, and in the process score more than 40 points (I don't care if the final score is 42-41) we have crushed them. Their entire game plan against us has always been to shut down our offense and eke by on their own paltry scoring—and they've generally been effective at it. If we can open up our scoring game we have beaten Bud Foster, and Bud is Vippy-Sue, not Beamer.

If we score big, we've stolen their mojo. I'll take that, and day.

 

[Yaller Jacket]

4shot, that's my feeling exactly. It's like opening day again!

 

[Boomergump]

Boomer, love your stuff and analysis but we have never crushed VT. even during our last NC year it was a brutal 6-3 slugfest. and that was at home AND before Beamer and Foster iirc. We can win of course but under no scenario do we crush them (if for no other reason than defensive issues on our own squad).

With that being said, we are finally playing someone who has me looking forward to Saturday on Tuesday. We will definitely know more about this team after Saturday's game.

I guess when I said crush them, I meant our offense crushes their defense, IF they try the same tactics as 2013. I wasn't necessarily talking about the outcome of the game. By the way, I don't think we will crush them on offense anyway because I believe Foster will have a good game plan for us that mixes things up. We will have a tough battle on our hands and we will have to find a way. I have no idea how our defense will perform. The second half of GSU isn't necessarily a predictor. It isn't encouraging in any way, but it hardly means we won't be able to get stops any more either.

PLEASE don't take my last comment as a predictor of the outcome. I was merely indicating that if I was the DC facing us Saturday, I would have a different plan. That is all.

 

[ClydeBrick]

Boomer, love your stuff and analysis but we have never crushed VT. even during our last NC year it was a brutal 6-3 slugfest. and that was at home AND before Beamer and Foster iirc.

I agree that we have never "crushed" VPI - we have only won three times and the biggest margin was 11 points (38-27 in '06). However, Beamer was there in '90, as was Foster but he wasn't the DC yet.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Our tackles have to play much, much better for us to even have a remote shot of beating them.

If you are right about this, I don't feel very good about this game.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I am hoping for a four quarter effort from Tech (the real one, not poly).

Heck, I'll settle for a 3 qtr effort.

 

[redmule]

That 6-3 game in 1990 was the windiest game I've ever been to. Must have been 40 mph winds the entire game. Took away any hope of passing for either team. IIRC, both teams just stacked the line and played the rush. Scott Sission missed a couple of field goals in the first half I think, but then hit two late when the game was on the line after we ground out enough yards to get close. I don't think the score was indicative of the type team we or they had then.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

Well, if you espouse the theory that our O must score and score often for us to win, I don't feel very good about this one. I do think we can put 20-30 on the board against Bud's defense, but I don't see how our D can hold them under 30. I am hoping they will show me exactly how they CAN do this.

We will need excellent O-line blocking, A-back blocking, and WR blocking to keep ourselves from having negative plays on the offense against this bunch. Hopefully, JT's elusiveness will provide them problems they did not encounter last year.

My belief is that we must score 38-40 points to secure a victory, and against Bud's defense, that has never been an easy (or even possible) task. Either way, Go Jackets!!

 

[Techster]

If you look at the 2012 tape of our offense versus their defense, you can see the progression of VT's defense to 2013.



In 2012, Foster was shooting the gaps, except he waited until AFTER the snap to do it from the defensive alignment. In 2013, Foster just out and out put a man in the gap and declared his intentions:



In theory, what he did was give us a 5 man front look if you count Kyle Fuller (#17) as a DL. This should be a lot easier to block than how he defended us in 2012 because you don't know where the extra defender is coming from after the snap. The OL and ABs have to read who they're blocking on the fly. There's more moving parts to adjust to.

If you look at the first play in 2013 where we fumbled, VT gave up acres of space to the right. I think this is where the no-huddle approach that Navy employs can play to our advantage. It gives a young QB time to look at the field with our staff, and check to another play where we can run to the side with a numbers advantage. That first play in 2013 was a VERY exploitable situation. To a man, every player and coach said they knew what was coming in 2013. You can prepare, but if you don't execute on game day it means nothing.

The staff has had a full offseason to digest the 2013 matchup, and I'm sure we've prepared for every scenario going back to CPJ's first matchup with VT in 2008. VT's defense is hit or miss...something CPJ brought up this week and Stylee alluded earlier. Big plays are there for us. We just have to execute.

 

[Ash]

I think he is expecting VPI to run what many have run against us this year. We have frequently seen a 4-4 with a safety centered ten to twelve yards from the ball. This leaves the corners manned which can lead to big plays passing.

I hope we don't bring the passing attack from the 2nd half of the GSU game with us. If that's all we have we are going to be in for a loooong game.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

If you look at the 2012 tape of our offense versus their defense, you can see the progression of VT's defense to 2013.



In 2012, Foster was shooting the gaps, except he waited until AFTER the snap to do it from the defensive alignment. In 2013, Foster just out and out put a man in the gap and declared his intentions:



In theory, what he did was give us a 5 man front look if you count Kyle Fuller (#17) as a DL. This should be a lot easier to block than how he defended us in 2012 because you don't know where the extra defender is coming from after the snap. The OL and ABs have to read who they're blocking on the fly. There's more moving parts to adjust to.

If you look at the first play in 2013 where we fumbled, VT gave up acres of space to the right. I think this is where the no-huddle approach that Navy employs can play to our advantage. It gives a young QB time to look at the field with our staff, and check to another play where we can run to the side with a numbers advantage. That first play in 2013 was a VERY exploitable situation. To a man, every player and coach said they knew what was coming in 2013. You can prepare, but if you don't execute on game day it means nothing.

The staff has had a full offseason to digest the 2013 matchup, and I'm sure we've prepared for every scenario going back to CPJ's first matchup with VT in 2008. VT's defense is hit or miss...something CPJ brought up this week and Stylee alluded earlier. Big plays are there for us. We just have to execute.

Good point about no huddle.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Also @stylee did you see something in their D of tOSU that changes things?

Just my layman's observation was that the defense sold out against OSU by stacking the box on runs and blitzing on pass plays. They left their secondary in man coverage, often on an island alone without deep safety support. Had the quarterback had more time he would have picked them apart. As it was there were a few times VPI got burned with this approach. It was a feast or famine defense and they were fortunate that going against an inexperienced quarterback it was mainly feast. Give VPI a lot of credit for an approach that worked.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

#17 tore us up last year, but what I recall most is that the timing of the plays seemed to be completely disrupted by their defensive scheme. There was one series where we had numerous false starts that were flat out fugly.
But didn't it seem that the coaches were just as confused as to how to counter the Defense that Foster threw at them as the players were? With #17 consistently crashing the gap, or pretending to do so, that position of the field was left open for exploitation. Seems like a quick throw to the A back in the area of the vacated LB position would have burned their a$$ quite a bit.

I'd be interested to know what others would throw at VT if/when they do the same thing this year.

We had practiced against this strategy last year but in the game could not execute. Part of the problem was the unusually bad run of injuries to the offensive line that hurt continuity last year. We knew what to do we just couldn't do it.

 

[CTJacket]

That 6-3 game in 1990 was the windiest game I've ever been to. Must have been 40 mph winds the entire game. Took away any hope of passing for either team. IIRC, both teams just stacked the line and played the rush. Scott Sission missed a couple of field goals in the first half I think, but then hit two late when the game was on the line after we ground out enough yards to get close. I don't think the score was indicative of the type team we or they had then.

Very true, windy and cold. Plus it was the week after the UVA game, so there was definitely some letdown. Truthfully VPI wasn't very good then, we should've blown them out.

 

[Ash]

I expect VT to give JT different looks to try and confuse him because he is young, but there will be less pressure overall and a motive to contain instead. Their defense will be better than we have faced, but it will be different this year than last year. I have gone over this game a few times in my head. If they try the same stuff, we crush them. They will try and slow us down and contain, in the belief that their offense will outscore us.

I'm with you. All of the off-season speculation about how to beat the VT defense and they will not be likely to line up that way against us. I too expect multiple looks to disrupt JT. Add in the fact they will likely have success against our D and we have a big challenge in front of us. Hopefully we can stay focused and execute. We can't be stopped if we do that.

 

[Longestday]

Right now it looks like you should stop JT. The DE "hides" on the OT and can take the BB but gives up 2 to 4 yards, but can also take the QB at the LOS.

I think you still make JT beat you at the pass as his whole game passing consistency has not shown through yet... but I sure hope he finds it this game.

I would like to see some slants or other quick passes to specific people to get confidence up.

 

[jeffgt14]

Biggest advantage this year vs last year = No James Gayle