27-38; !Hokies
by Ross Catrow
It is hard for me to write about a Hokie loss. In fact it is hard for me to do anything after a Hokie lose — other than drink breers.. It isn’t a good scene in my house when things go bad for VPI, just ask my wife. But here are some thoughts:
- I’m super proud of our 2nd half effort. Really, I’m proud of our effort during all points of the game save the first ten minutes. It is not an easy thing to stay motivated down 21 points instantly, but I think we did a good job. I wonder if ultimately the quick 21 points is a coaching issue. Were the players not ready to play? It sure didn’t look like it.
- I LOVE YOU SEAN GLENNON ^_^. That kid had a great day (Glennon 27-53-339-1TD). Considering the fact that he was on his rear the entire game those stats look pretty good. He had a great never-say-die attitude too.
- Speaking of, the whole team really pounded it out there at the end. So much effort with so little chance to win. It was cool to watch.
- The 3rd quarter fumble by Glennon for a TD really killed us. During the game I blamed it on Ore who appears to totally miss the pass rush. But one guy I watched the game with pointed out that he moved over to pick up his man and just didn’t see the second rusher. I think that we were out schemed on that play (John Tenuta is awesome). But still, Ore was pulled late in the game and I’d say it was for blocking.
- Speaking of blocking late in the game: I am pretty sure at one time I saw two tight ends pulled to Glennon’s blind side to pick up the pass rush. Kind of funny-slash-sad.
- The second fumble in the 3rd was Sean Glennon’s fault. While Orion Martin missed the block, Glennon held the ball for way too long.
- Our receivers are still awesome. Forget the running game, chuck the ball down field.
- Sergio Render (sweet football name) had a costly penalty at one point. I can’t remember what it was, but stop that please.
- Boone. You are still a fatty (although he did look a little less fatty-esque this week). You hands must also be full of buttery fat. I realize you are young and will only get better, but please please please catch footballs that hit your hands in the red zone.
So there are some thoughts. A loss is never fun or good, but I think there were some positive takeaways from this game. Also this is a great time to have a break until BC next Thursday. w00t!
Technorati Tags: sports, Virginia, Virginia Tech
i was about to stab the tv.
my assessment of glennon wouldn’t be so bright. i think many (most?) of his yards came after it probably didn’t really matter- when GT said “let him have 10-15 yard completions and the clock will run out way before they can come back- just don’t give up the deep ball.” i have a lot of hope for the young qb and i think he has a lot of potential, but the mental mistakes killed (like the fumble(s) mentioned). there were also several times he should have thrown it away or not run backwards for a loss of a billion. also his passing accuracy was less than stellar in my opinion, but when you’re getting killed and have 0 time to throw, it’s difficult.
Max, no real mention of the defense? or lack there of. thoughts? it was a pretty big disappointment for me. i can’t say that i’d have true soph harris one-on-one against c.johnson? reggie ball killed us on the ground early on too. i guess offensive/special teams crappiness makes the d look worse than it really was.
refs- so crappy. we got several major breaks. at the end it was like they wanted us to score. pass interference? terrible review of the spot? they missed some enormous holding from our struggling o-line (i mean tackling the defense). if GT had loss they would have been upset and rightly so.
i think beamer will do something drastic at the o-line. like put some d-line guys in there or full backs or someone.
we are missing a big blocking back with speed (suggs). ore is really small to block a d-end or even a corner for that matter and our other guys are kindof too big and slow and clumsy.
this loss makes me nervous about BC, clemson, and even miami (14-13 over houston??). i just hope we rebound well, which aren’t really known for doing.
Yeah I just popped back on to mention the D which really lost us the game in the first 10 minutes. DJ Parker is good, but in experienced at Safety. Plus the linebackers were apparently missing in the first half. If the RB gets through the D-Line it is the responsibility of the LB’s to pick them up — which they didn’t.
As for the Macho v. C. Johnson matchup, I think it had the results expected. The way we do our CB’s is by field side. Macho is the boundary corner so he always plays the short side of the field, while Flowers (or Minor I think) is the field corner / wide side of the field. So with our defensive scheme different people covered C. Johnson throughout the game. CJ did make Macho look stupid on that short TD pass. Bah.
As for Glennon, I love that guy. I think for a first year starter he is coming along great. He has a tendency to underthrow his passes though. There have been a couple of times this year where if he would have put a little more juice on the pass it would have been 6.
I bet we see a bunch more shotgun type formations, or more of that crazy two TE on the left formations. This sucks because if we need to use up two players for the left side on passing downs that just leaves less receivers/backs and less people to pick up blitzes. I’ll be glad after this year when our OL has some experience for sure.
Also, I was just reading the TSL board and there are a lot of people who want to give Whittaker a try. This I am against.
although in principle i am opposed to 2-qbs, i think i would have split their time against our 1st 2 cupcake opponents, picked one and gone with him through thick and thin. but it’s too late in the season to enter a qb controversy. it sucks for whitaker bc glennon has so much time left. like, when will whitaker ever be qb? his senior year only? maybe my biggest beef with glennon is that he just looks like an idiot. his expressions are always so napoleon dynamite.
http://vmedia.rivals.com/IMAGES/PROSPECT/PHOTO/SEANGLENNON1.JPG
i guess on d i don’t think we should expect any of our db’s to cover cj 1on1, but maybe you can’t always dedicate double coverage to the guy. i think maybe a linebacker spy on ball might have helped. one that could blitz on his discretion. maybe?
http://media.scout.com/Media/Image/16/166648.jpg
man, i’m mean!
Hahah that first pic is awesome.
Yeah I mean we *should* have had saftey help on those deep balls to CJ. I bet we did, it’s just our safety eff’d it up. This is why I wish every game was shot from the Quaterback Cam (Skycam) and I had Tivo. Then you could really see who’s fault it was.