VT-GT DVR Replay

Overall

A win is a win, I'd rather be lucky than good, insert cliche here...

Offense

- You're not going to believe this, but I thought Bryan Stinespring did a decent job of calling the game. What you have to realize is there were several pass plays where Tyrod either had containment break down or didn't see anyone open (notice I didn't say no one was open, just that he couldn't find them) and had to scramble.

- Most of the called passes were short routes, checked down to safety valves or scrambles by Tyrod. I didn't count many screens. Far fewer than we usually run. There was the one to Macho on the first play of the game and one to Roberts late in the first quarter. There was another pass to Pickle during the two-minute drill that may or may not have been a screen. I don't think it was. Looked like a dump off to me.

- Tyrod is an impressive athlete, but has a ways to go as a quarterback. He isn't a very accurate passer. See the ball overthrown to Boone in the end zone, the ball that was no where near Roberts, the ball thrown way behind Boone and the play where he overshot Harris by about 10 yards.

- Tyrod also has happy feet when he's in the pocket. I do and don't like that he's always looking to scramble, but he rarely has his feet set on passing plays. That's one of the reasons that when he does pass, it's not a very accurate ball. The plays where he has his feet set are when he delivers catchable passes.

- With Glennon, this game would have been a disaster. Tyrod saved us on numerous scrambles for first downs and one for a touchdown. The pass blocking in non-existent by this offensive line.

- However, the O-line was great blocking for Darren Evans who hits holes with authority I haven't seen since the days of Suggs and Jones. And I saw the first guy who hit him bring him down once. He's always going forward and always picking up yards after contact. There were a couple plays where he got at least five yards after contact. He's the opposite of Kenny Lewis.

- Speaking of Lewis, he couldn't be more timid approaching the line of scrimmage. He does a lot of dancing in the backfield, something the coaches saw out of a lot of the backs in summer practice. It appears Lewis still has these tendencies while Evans has learned his lesson. Evans is getting better with each game while Lewis is getting worse. He may be the Sean Glennon of the running back stable. A senior the coaches are uneasy about sitting on the bench en lieu of younger, better talent.

- Our wide receivers are great run blockers. Roberts had a nice block on Evans' touchdown run. Another receiver, whose number I couldn't make out, blocked two guys at once on the 20+ yard run by Evans on the drive that gave us our last field goal.

- The young receivers are getting better. There was one drop by Roberts on a play where Tyrod scrambled to the near side, but other than that they were pretty sure-handed.

- It was good to see Macho get in on offense. It was also good to see the staff trying to find ways to get the ball. The Jackets had the screen read well on the first play, he botched the pitch on the reverse and he was well-covered and over thrown on the bomb. He may not be used to trying to make moves to get open when being covered by a defensive back yet. That's probably why screens and reverses will be the best chance to get him the ball.

Defense

- Obviously Brett Warren had a good game and was honored by the ACC as defensive lineman of the week. However, I was more impressed by the defensive line.

- The defensive tackles got a lot of penetration into the GT backfield and were able to disrupt a lot of plays. It looked like they had the GT snap count down. Kudos to the linemen and the coaches on that.

- The defensive ends were everywhere. Nekos Brown had a fantastic game and a couple of big hits. Jason Worilds never stopped pursuing and put a punishing hit on Jonathan Dwyer that made him ineffective the rest of the game. Dwyer got one carry after the hit by Worilds.

- With the exception of a couple of plays, the speed option to Dwyer and and option play to Roddy Jones, the Hokies did a great job of playing assignment football. It appeared their goal was to take away the dive and pitch and make Nesbitt beat them. He almost did, but the constant hammering he took from the Hokie defense made him gassed for the end of the game. There was no way he was going to lead a comeback after the Hokies took the lead.

- However, he almost did because of miscommunication in the secondary. Somehow, on third-and-long, the Hokies let Jones get free down the middle of the field. This despite the fact Jones already had a 41-yard TD under his belt.

- On film, it looks like Jones beat Kam "Chandler" Chancellor downfield. However, on the replay, you can see Kam was lined up on the opposite side of the field when the play starts. This means that either Kam was lined up wrong or someone else missed their assignment and Kam had to make up for it.

The Penalties

There were two penalties on the drive that resulted in Virginia Tech's field goal to go ahead 20-17.

- First, the helmet-to-helmet: It's kind of like the UDub-BYU celebration penalty. By law it should have been thrown and it's a penalty they're cracking down on this year. But like Paul Johnson said after the game, I can't believe they threw it in the fourth quarter of a tied game.

- The facemask: His helmet twisted. It was a penalty.