Virginia Tech 26, Arkansas State 7: Tell Me a Story

They ran a REALLY good play on the first drive that made Kyle Fuller bite. Our high school team used to run it under the name 2 and go, which would essentially mean an out route with a pump fake and the receiver would flash his hands simultaneously and then turn directly upfield for the go part.

After that it was tough sledding all day for the Ark. State offense. So yes, again, the defense was incredibly impressive. The D-Line was great against the run, which we did pretty much stuff. But we were not able to get a consistent pass rush until late. Beamer and Foster expressed frustration with them being able to pick up our blitzes despite us sending the house. However, it still worked, as the secondary put on a fine display of art in coverage. I am confident that the secondary is our TRUE #1 strength. Kyle Fuller and Chris Hill were once again just as huge as Jayron.

Thomas looked better, and you can see that from his statline. But it was actually a lot more of the same in bigger quantities. Yes he looked markedly better. Not one of his passes that wasn’t actually intercepted looked like it was going to be (i.e. the 3-4 passes that hit ECU defenders in the hands last week). There were a couple dropped balls again by the Hokies however. The balls were generally more accurate, but the thing that bothered me is that all of his balls are still coming out high. One of the interceptions was WAY bad. It was behind Davis considerably. He would’ve had a touchdown if he had led him. The other was another jump ball (he’s gotta stop throwing those) and in this situation he came up short (or Danny Coale did). Oh yeah, and Coale had a monster game, not only receiving but blocking too.

The run game never took off for us as they loaded the box early and often. I applaud our coaching staff for seeing that was going to be an issue and calling the game accordingly. They kept going with Thomas, even after his interceptions, which I liked. I just expected it to stop coming based on our past history. But I think we strive for more balance, and when we can, we’ll do it.

As for playcalling, it was frustrating losing points on our standard 3 runs and pass in the red zone. Missed field goal off bar. Demler looked awful still.

But when Thomas threw the interceptions one was poor decision making ( I think that was the Davis one when he was covered by three defenders) and on the coale one it was possible that coale could have come down with the ball as much as the defender did. The defense had a great game especially if to take away the the first pass that aplin threw. Also Thomas had a few beautiful passes that were dropped by various receivers but that’s how it goes sometimes. I also liked how Wilson got stuffed against the run, Thomas was able to throw some beautiful passes to keep the offense moving.

I was surprised (read: disappointed) that we did not generate the pass rush we should have been capable of against Arkansas St., on the flip side, it is something of a testament to the strength of our secondary that despite the absence of a disruptive D-line, there was only about 15 seconds of breakdown in the secondary for the game (that unfortunate pump-and-go, which I think is probably in every high school playbook in the country, but whatever, I would have probably bit on it as well. Alpin, the Ak St. QB, was really pretty good, sold those option-reads exceptionally well and he threw well on the run.

Again, I don’t have a firm grasp on passing mechanics, but something just seems a little off with Logan’s passes, anyone agree? I don’t know it seems he is just hesitating a bit, like he doesn’t quite want to put the whole of that 6’6’’ 250+lb. frame into his throwing motion. I noticed a lot of times he was really trying to guide the ball forcing some air underneath the ball when it wasn’t necessary, there were instances when he did zip it in, but they seemed to be ill-advised attempts into traffic. Maybe, I am just so used to seeing VT QBs running around and fluidly moving from run to pass or pass to run, that the more regimented style of Thomas is disconcerting. I did agree with the above assessment that by and large the play calling was moving in the direction of diversification to fit our QBs needs.

Certainly, this incarnation of the Hokies is loaded with talent hopefully they put it all together against the stiffer competition of the ACC. On to Marshall, I hear they have serious issues on offense and they are something like 107th in points scored in the FBS.

What I saw of it, anyway. Solid, but not breakthrough- except maybe Danny Coale. Now, against the Seminoles… that’ll be key. And it looks like Miami might be back in it; certainly not a pushover this year.

Seeing FSU-Oklahoma brought it home to me. FSU didn’t slouch- but you had a rookie quarterback going up against a veteran, and that made the difference, I think. Thank God LT has time to “cut his teeth”. That’s what frustrates me about UVA, say- we have the talent there now, we could’ve beaten UNC yesterday, but for stupid rookie mistakes (three personal fouls? Talk about drive killers), or not being quite able to connect on that clutch throw. I think VT’s much more disciplined, but it’ll be key things like making sure he can get it done to bring VT all the way.

I like the playcalling

The D is sicknasty

Logan needs to quit throwing it into double and triple coverage.

Go Hokies