Well, *that* didn’t go well.  For the second time this year, VT had a Saturday night primetime game against a top 10 opponent, and for the second time this year VT shat the bed.  To be fair, I don’t think VT choked, I think we just aren’t all that good of a team yet.  Not a bad team, but not a top 10 team.  And when we face those kinds of teams, particularly top 10 teams with very strong defenses, our inexperience / lack of skill on the offensive side is glaringly obvious to see.  Specifically…well everything.  The OL cannot hold up against elite defensive lines, as we have seen against Clemson (#2 nationally in sacks/game, #6 in TFLs) and Miami (#1 in TFLs/game, #6 in sacks).  At QB, we saw Jackson struggle with “valuing the football” against those same elite defenses (combined 4 int, 2 fumbles, 1 lost fumble).  At WR, we couldn’t get open, and when we did we struggled with dropped balls as well.  At RB, we don’t really have anyone that can make a play.  Basically all our positions on offense right now are merely adequate, though when taken as a whole and combined with good coaching and a very strong defense (most of the time) that gets us exactly where we are… a top 25 team that can dominate against average to weak competition, but is going to struggle against other top 25 caliber teams, and is going to *really* struggle against elite teams.  IIWII, as they say.  It’s not a terrible thing, and the fact is that we’re well ahead of where we were for the last several years of the Beamer era.  Our two losses have come to Clemson (8-1, #4 ranked, defending national champ) and Miami (8-0, #7 ranked, longest active win streak in the FBS at 13).  There’s no shame in that…just no joy either.

Random fact:  the only division 1 team with a longer win streak than Miami is…JMU, who have won 21 straight games now.  Go Dukes!  And that’s your BDG Sneaky Stat of the Week.  Also, I think it’s grammatically incorrect to say JMU have won 21 straight.  Oh well.

Regarding the game itself, I’m sure we all watched it so I don’t need to rehash it too much.  For those of you who *aren’t* Jimmy and Craig and didn’t get my complaints real time, I only really had 3 big gripes in the game:

1. That PF for hitting the qb carrying out his fake…WTF?!?!?  I’m getting pissed off all over again just typing about it.
2. Our first failed conversion on 4^th down should have been a false start and never happened. EVERYONE moved except the center.  First – and probably last – time you will ever hear me complain about NOT getting a false start call against us haha.  I guess the ACC refs are too used to letting GT get away with false starts on half their plays, and just let this one go as well.
3. I hate that stupid !%&!*$& turnover chain.

Speaking of the failed 4^th down conversions, I wasn’t a big fan of going for it (twice) in scoring range, but I don’t really disagree with the decision either.  It’s not what I personally would have done (especially the 2^nd time), but I totally understand why coach did what he did.  Having said that, VT has now gone for it on 4^th down in “scoring range” (+40 or better) 4 times in the last 2 games, and converted exactly zero.  That’s a lot of potential points and/or field position left on the field, and a good reason for Fuente to re-evaluate whether or not he wants to continue that strategy going forward.  I also wasn’t a big fan of the super-conservative start, but it was also very obvious later in the game *why* we went super conservative to start…our OL couldn’t hold up against their pass rush, and our WRs couldn’t get separation (or hold on to the damn ball) in the passing game.  Once we were forced to be more aggressive, we had a lot more negative plays (8 TFLs, 4 sacks, 4 turnovers, 2 failed 4^th down conversions) than positive plays.  Defensively, we missed an insane number of tackles.   Never a good thing, and we can’t afford to let that happen again next week against the GT triple option.  I imagine Bud and staff will be all over them this week about tackling.  One comment Herbie made during the game that I found very interesting, and a bit concerning…he noted that Miami *knew* they couldn’t stop our DTs, so they based their read option game around reading those guys, moreso than reading the LBs and DEs.  That gave them several nice cutback openings through the middle of the line, and then it was just a matter of making Tua and/or 22Edmunds miss…which we all know isn’t a terribly difficult proposition.  I don’t know that GT can employ a similar strategy, because of how their offense works, but Pitt certainly can.  Anyway, I’m tired of talking about this game.  VT is now eliminated from winning the Coastal Division.  Moving on.

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 10

ACC went 0-1 OOC again, with Wake serving as this weeks ACC sacrificial lamb to #3 ND (37-48 final).  ACC is now 30-13 in OOC games on the season, and just 5-12 against P5 teams (including ND).  Big matchup this week, as ND actually has to leave South Bend to face an ACC squad, and it’s none other than the 8-0 #7 Hurricanes (and their stupid !@^&!^! turnover chain) that just whupped us in…wherever the hell they play, that’s not quite Miami.  Also, dook plays @ (surprisingly good) 7-2 Army.  I could see 0-2, and I could see 2-0.  I’ll hedge my bets and predict 1-1.

Our regular season opponents went a solid 6-2 this week (57-49 on the season), and 3-1 for our OOC foes (17-19).  A whopping FIVE ACC teams had byes this week.  Clemson held on against NCState to take control in the race for the Atlantic Division title, uva pulled off a 40-36 thriller over GT in front of hundreds of Scott Stadium fans to keep their coastal hopes alive, ECU went back to their usual ways of losing while giving up 50+ points, WVU knocked off a ranked Iowa State to move back into the polls, and ODU won 6-0 thriller over Charlotte.  Delaware beat someone too, but who really cares?

Coming Up

This week we get our first early kickoff of the season (at any venue), 12:20pm @ Georgia Tech on the ACC Network.  The battle of the Techs.  Bud Foster against Paul Johnson.  Dirty rotten knee divers.  Jersey gate.  PJ and his punch-me face.  I don’t like them.

 

GT is just 4-4, but their losses have been very close (1 point against both Tennessee and Miami, 4 pts against uva, 14 pts against Clemson).  With an almost guaranteed loss against #1 UGA to end the season (and only 11 games due to a hurricane cancellation against UCF), GT will need a win to have any chance of reaching 6 wins (and bowl eligibility) on the season.  They have relied heavily on first year starting QB TaQuon Marshall in their running game (ranked, as usual, #3 nationally behind fellow option teams Army and Navy).   Marshall (5-10, 185, JR) is averaging a whopping 23.5 carries and 108.8 yards per game, good for 2^nd in the ACC (behind, oddly enough, Lamar Jackson…crazy that the top TWO rushers in the ACC are QBs).  Their top RB, Kirvonte Benson (5-9, 211, SO) is also averaging over 100 yards per game, at 105.5.  For the most part, Marshall has struggled in the passing game, going just 36-86 (41.9%) for 667 yards, 6 Tds, and 2 ints.  Those of you who are good at the maths will have astutely noticed that he’s averaging nearly 20 yards per completion (18.5, specifically) which is pretty much par for the course for GT.  They thrive on hitting big plays on those rare occasions that they throw the ball (averaging just under 11 attempts per game).  Obviously, the ground game is key and we are going to have to tackle A LOT better against these guys than we did last game against Miami.  GT has only been held below 200 yards rushing once this season (198 against Clemson), so we need to adjust our expectations of a “good” game stopping the run accordingly.  Our 2 standout DTs should be able to create major havoc in the middle, and it will be up to the LBs, DEs, and safeties to take care of the edges.  I look for all 3 LBs to have big games, as I don’t think there will be much running room up the middle.  VT is a 3 point favorite.