Georgia Tech 28, Virginia Tech 23: Sifting Through the Rubble

by furrer4heisman on Oct 19, 2009 2:30 PM EDT Comment 9 comments

I was going to take it easy this week, but then one of my managers called me out. So here's a few more thoughts on Saturday's game.

I actually came to grips with this loss more quickly than I usually do. Most of it was because I thought we were going to lose. Just nothing felt right going into that game. There was too much non-football talk surrounding the Hokies and too many motivational factors for the Yellow Jackets.

After our game I stopped watching football, took care of some things around the house and watched a couple of hockey games. Sunday I grilled, hung out with a friend from college that I usually see once or twice a year and went to the U2 concert. It was great because I had no time to think about Saturday.

This is still going to be a light week. Not only is it the bye week, but I have to help girlfriend4heisman move into her new house. Don't expect a whole lot from me this week, but hopefully I can convince Clark to do a basketball preview. With this being the only bye week of the season and coming off a game like that, it's time to hit the reset button, both for the football team and myself.

Oh, right, the game. A lot of people are back to asking for Bryan Stinespring's head and blaming him for the loss. Honestly, these people just don't know a whole lot about football.

Look at the facts: Georgia Tech was getting gashed on the ground. So we did what we do, which is try to establish the run game in the first half. That didn't work so we made adjustments in the second half and would up scoring three touchdowns.

Let me repeat. Bryan Stinespring made adjustments to his game plan at halftime and they worked. That right there is a reason to celebrate.

And you know how I ripped Mike O'Cain regularly early this season for not developing quarterbacks? My apologies to Mr. O'Cain. As Kyle Tucker points out, Tyrod Taylor is currently No. 5 in the nation in passing efficiency and No. 2 in yards per attempt, hundredths of a yard behind Matt Barkley. Again, that's in the nation. Unreal. (From the incomparable cfbstats.com.)

Virginia Tech lost Saturday because it got out-coached by Paul Johnson. He made adjustments at halftime and his players executed. Bud Foster's boys couldn't make the stops when they were needed. We fell behind against a ball-control offense and it went to work on us.

This one stings (pun intended), but the Hokies can still have a successful season. A 10-2 record with losses to Alabama and on the road against this Georgia Tech team is nothing to sneeze at. Now, let's hit the reset button and then come back ready for a Thursday night home game against North Carolina.

It'll be the only home game of the season I can attend, so let's make it a good one. See you in Blacksburg.

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Swing by nashville

For some GT/Vandy halloween action

The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.

by Winfield Featherston on Oct 19, 2009 2:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Completely Agree

1. I totally agree that Hokie fans need not be disappointed in a 10-2 season with losses to GT (on the road) and Bama (anywhere). I think the team was highly overrated going into the season with many question marks on the defense and a young offense. I’ve been thinking this team’s time is next year since the preseason. But I must admit I got caught up in the hype as our offense started to roll. Hopefully the team doesn’t feel that same let down and rebounds to finish the season strong. 10-2 is right about or above where they should have been.

2. Again I totally agree that Stinespring was not at fault in this game.
   a. Everyone’s #1 complaint is that we didn’t pass enough against a poor secondary. While he only had 14 pass attempts, Tyrod also had 13 rushes (2 sacks) because he was running for his life with the, yet again, awful pass protection from the O-line.
   b. I have no problem committing to the run as it opens up big runs later in the game and we’ve proved that more times than once.
   c. Bud Foster’s bend-but-don’t-break defense finally broke. All year long they’ve let up huge plays and were able to save themselves with Red Zone defense. Can’t play that way all year long and not it expect you to bite you once. It bit us Saturday. 3rd down conversions galore.

3. To anyone that says that place was as loud as Lane is out of their mind. Any noise in the place was pumped in just like at all the other lame stadiums.

by VTinACC on Oct 19, 2009 3:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

A lot of people are back to asking for Bryan Stinespring’s head and blaming him for the loss. Honestly, these people just don’t know a whole lot about football.

Look at the facts: Georgia Tech was getting gashed on the ground. So we did what we do, which is try to establish the run game in the first half. That didn’t work so we made adjustments in the second half and would up scoring three touchdowns.

Let me repeat. Bryan Stinespring made adjustments to his game plan at halftime and they worked. That right there is a reason to celebrate.

There’s one problem with this whole line of reasoning: against that offense, you have to take advantage of all of your possessions, because if you get down two scores, they can choke the life out of the game. It’s been Johnson’s specialty for years, with Georgia Southern, Navy and now GT.

There was no excuse for us to bog down the way we did in the first half. GT was the worst defense in the conference prior to that game. That doesn’t excuse the defense’s inability to make a second-half stop, but the offense has to do its part right off the bat against, again, the worst defense in the conference. The second-half adjustments were nice, but GT got the ball first and went up 10. Once that happened with Paul Johnson on the other sideline, we were in deep crap.

That 17-year-old Hokie sitting in the rafters in Greensboro didn't see any of this coming.

by JoshCVT on Oct 19, 2009 3:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

How about this

Georgia Tech’s defense played outstanding in that first half. It swarmed to the ball and played better than it had played all year in those first 30 minutes. I give a helluva lot more credit to Dave Wommack and the Yellow Jacket players than I do blame to Stinespring.

A bullhorn, a bottle of whiskey and a dream. GobblerCountry.com

by furrer4heisman on Oct 19, 2009 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Give GT credit

They played a great game and did what they had to to win. However, in terms of VT, 3 points in the first half is not acceptable. Stinespring may have made adjustments during the half, but that was already too late. You generally need to win both halves to win the game and you can’t wait until halftme to make these kinds of adjustments. You see the run isn’t working, then put them on their heels with the pass. No need to wait until halftime to fix this problem.

The defense didn’t do their job, but then again, is that because the defense played poorly, or because they were out on the field too long because the offense couldn’t control the clock?

by The North End Zone on Oct 19, 2009 4:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Good post, however...

Both TSL and FBS seem to disagree slightly with your analysis on the offense. FBS especially seems to believe (I’m not sure if I agree, but it’s a valid point) that our points came largely from good talent making big plays, as opposed to a solid gameplan getting executed. The evidence supporting this would be the fact that our longest drive was 8 plays. Furthermore, as TSL put so eloquently, the game ended when the first three drives started on the GIT side of the field and resulted in exactly zero points. That is quite simply inexcusable given that their Defense was the Jackets’ admitted weakness.

I definitely agree that the defense also dropped the ball on this one. The Hokies just couldn’t readjust after the second half, and once that happened it just became a touchdown race with the Jackets already ahead.

In a perfect world, the fans may look at a (hopefully) 10-2 record and be satisfied. But there’s a definitive need to see some sort of progress as seasons tick by. Say what you want about how we “shouldn’t be disappointed,” but the fact of the matter is that in every game that matters (that isn’t in Lane), the Hokies go out of their way to prove that they are consistently an overrated team that ought to be relegated to the Top 15. Great teams don’t lose big games like this on such a regular basis. It’s discouraging and I don’t blame the fans for reflecting this.

by VTJmrgn on Oct 19, 2009 3:22 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree that 10 wins every year is not the team’s or the fans’ goal, but let’s be honest. Our fans were the ones to overrate this team from the beginning with the national title talk. The offense is incredibly young and the defense didn’t have a lot of proven talent. You’re not losing a whole lot on offense, Wang (good riddance) and Render (def. big loss). Plus, the core of a Foster defense (the LBs) are gonna be awesome with Jake and Barquell next year. National title talk should have been next year all along and the fans got caught up in their own hype this year.

by VTinACC on Oct 19, 2009 3:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I never bought into the preseason NC hype, and staunchly refused to do so after the Alabama game even when VT went on it’s 5 game tear. Given the fact that a National Championship is admittedly Coach Beamer’s goal, I don’t blame the fans for actually buying into it a bit, nor do I blame some for getting frustrated that VT’s season has been relegated to a series of “I hope team X screws up” and “Maybe next year” comments.

That really wasn’t the main point of my comment though. Virginia Tech seems as if it has a nasty habit of losing important games that aren’t played in Blacksburg. Forget about winning a BCS NC, any team that just wants to consistently be in the running to compete for one needs to execute in hostile environments and perform well under pressure. That’s what makes the difference between an over-hyped team and a real contender.

by VTJmrgn on Oct 19, 2009 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Blame Game

We lost this one as a team. Stinespring should shoulder some of the blame because some of the play calls, particularly the sweep on the 4th and 3 were less than intelligent. I thought he made good adjustments and the offense worked in the second half. It’s a shame that Bud got absolutely worked over by CPJ in the second half and we had to watch one long sustained drive after another. I was hugely disappointed by the onside kick to end the game. Beamer is supposed to be a special teams guru and I thought he would have some awesome play that he had been cooking up for the last five years ready to go. He didn’t and worse off it looked like Myer had never practiced one before.

Alcohol is my anti-drug. CollegeGameBalls.com

by collegegameballs on Oct 19, 2009 4:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs