Author: bigbeergame

week 7 recap/week 8 preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

Well, we got through the bye week without taking a loss, which is more than can be said for 7 ranked teams that lost to underdog unranked teams, including 4 top 10 teams.  With the various losses by other teams, VT has now moved (back) up to #14 in both polls.

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 7:

++ No out of conference games this past week, or this week coming up.

++ our regular season opponents went 5-7 on the week, and are now 40-36 for the season.  WVU had a nice comeback to beat 25th ranked Texas Tech, and Delaware shut out W&M.  ECU and ODU are both terrible, and both got curbstomped (21-63 against UCF and 3-35 against Marshall, respectively).  Our OOC foes are now a combined 11-14 on the season.  In terms of our ACC opponents, BC had a nice bounceback from their loss to us, beating Louisville in a barnburner 45-42.  Miami broke out it’s lucky horseshoe for the second week in a row, winning on a last second field goal against GT (after winning on a last second TD against FSU last week).  They are living on the edge, but they are continuing to win and move up the rankings (currently 8th).  GT drops to 3-2, despite having led or been tied for all but 4 seconds of second half play this year.  Their two losses have come by a combined 2 points, one in OT and one with 4 seconds left.  UNC fell to uva 20-14 to drop to 1-6, while uva improved to an unlikely 5-1.  I had them preseason predicted to be 2-4 at this point.  Pitt lost to NCSU, dook lost to FSU, and Clemson was shocked by Syracuse at the Dome of Evil on Friday night.

This weeks game:

The Dirty Rotten Cheating Tarheels of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1-6, 0-4 ACC).  The game kicks off at 3:30 Saturday in Lane Stadium, and will be televised on ESPN2.  VT is a 22-point favorite.  I think that’s a little high personally, but I hope we beat them by twice that much.  UNC lost a lot of talent off of last years team, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, and those losses combined with a Karmic Cavalcade of injuries (I read that they have lost 16 players to season ending injuries) has resulted in them being…not very good.  Their lone win was a 53-23 win over ODU, whom we defeated by a similar margin (38-0).  They have lost to Cal by 5, UL by 12, dook by 10, GT by 26, ND by 23, and uva by 6.  Despite being known for their offensive prowess under Larry Fedora, they are struggling mightily on that side of the ball:  87th in rush offense, 112th in pass efficiency (thanks in large part to 9 ints thrown on the season), 99th in total offense, and 97th in scoring offense.  On the defensive side of the ball, they rank 115th against the run*, 114th in total defense, and 96th in scoring defense.  They have given up 8 scrimmage plays of 60+ yards on the year, last in the nation.  And that’s your BDG Sneaky Stat of the Week.

* They gave up 403 yards rushing to GT (#3 rushing offense), and 341 to ND (#5 rushing offense)….otherwise they are averaging a more respectable 172.4 yards against, which would rank “just” 79th.

week 6 recap/week 7 preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

Well, *that* was certainly a different game atmosphere than we experienced last Saturday night.  Looked and sounded like a High School crowd.  Supposedly there were 32,057 people there (capacity 44,500) but I’m not buying it.  Cam Phillips left on the second series of the game with an ankle injury, and at that point the Hokies were playing without FIVE of their top receivers heading into the season (Phillips, Carroll, James Clark, Caleb Farley, Phil Patterson).  They still had Savoy, however, who has been playing well as a true freshman this year and stepped up with 9 catches for 139 yards and a TD.  Anyway, VT scored a pair of first half TDs and the game was basically over at that point, because BC is awful at offense (Hi, Scott Loeffler!).  Super boring 2nd half just trying to get out of there with no more injuries.  Joey Slye set the VT career record for points as he went 3-3 on FGs and 2-2 on PATs for 11 points (needed 7 for the record).  Also, Travon McMillian carried the ball 17 times for 88 yards and a TD, after being benched in the 2nd half against Clemson last week.  The 17 carries was his most since he had 18 (for 134) in the Miami game last year (Oct 20).  And that’s your BDG sneaky stat of the week.

Also, Pam went to Norman to watch Oklahoma whoop up on 31 point underdog Iowa State.  Oops.

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 5:

++ ACC went 0-1 OOC, with UNC losing to ND 33-10.  UNC is now just 1-5 on the season, and are an UNDERDOG AT HOME against uva this week.  Crazy.  Anyway, ACC is now 30-11 on the season.  5-10 against P5.  No more OOC games for the next couple of weeks.

++ our regular season opponents went 4-7 this week (35-29 on the season), and 1-3 for our OOC foes (9-12).  The one win was Delaware.  If SoS was going to matter for us in anyway this year, we’d probably be in deep doodoo.

This weeks game:

BYE WEEK.  Comes at a good time, as we are nursing a variety of hurts.  Get healthy, iron out some wrinkles, and come back to stomp unc in 2 weeks.  Huzzah.

week 5 recap/week 6 preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

That went…poorly.  Set up the tents on Friday night, headed downtown to check out the gameday set, then went home and made sure not to break Jason.  Took our time on Saturday morning, and didn’t get out there until about noon.  Of course, possibly the biggest downside of taking our time on Saturday is that WE FORGOT TO PLAY THE GAMEDAY MIX / WHO LET THE DOGS OUT.  So maybe that’s the root cause of the poor play on Saturday night.  Tailgate was good times…pam turned 48 and took a silly string blast to the eye for it.  Stork brought her a nice cake.  Stork and pete were twinsies.  Children grilled for us.  big beer game was so big that we had to turn people away (still had like 25 participants).  Random guy from neighboring tailgate drew the joker and challenged “that Clemson sumbitch right there!”  He won.

The game atmosphere was pretty awesome.  There were skydivers with flags.  There was a “Lets Go Hokies” card trick.  There was Enter Sandman.  There was a ton of maroon, both on the field and off.

But as far as the game itself…well, you saw.  Offense couldn’t do much.  Defense was mostly stout, but when they weren’t it was noticeable.  Joey Slye missed another FG, though on this one it looked to me like a pretty bad snap/hold.  WRs were dropping balls and missing blocks.  Travon fumbled and never got back in the game.  Coleman Fox was once again our best RB late in the game (which isn’t a good thing).  And in the end, VT lost 31-17.

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 5:

++ ACC went 3-0 against a bunch of bad teams this week OOC and is now 30-10 on the season.  5-9 against P5.  That will likely drop to 5-10 this week, as the only OOC game is UNC against ND, and I think the cheaters will get slapped around in that one.

++ our regular season opponents went 5-4 this week (31-22 on the season), and 0-2 for our OOC foes (8-9).

This weeks game:

Saturday @ Boston College, 7:15pm on ESPN2.  BC is 2-3 on the season, with losses to Clemson, Wake, and ND, and wins over Northern Illinois and Central Michigan.  BC always seems to give us trouble (well, maybe not last year haha), but their defense is struggling so far this year.  In their 3 losses they have allowed an average of 39 points per game.  Also, a good sign for the Hokies is that their QB is not much of a runner (18 carries for 27 yards through 5 games).  And that’s your weak attempt at a BDG Sneaky Stat of the Week.  VT is favored by 16.5 pts on the road.

 

week 4 recap/week 5 preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

4-0 and ESPN College Gameday is coming to town!  Wooooooo!  Week 2 in our new parking spot worked out just as well as week 1.  Well, for most of us anyway.  It’s possible that we broke Jason Oshell on Friday night, and he spent most of the tailgate looking…rough.  Pam’s buddy Mike lost the big beer game to a first timer from a nearby tailgate, and got to drink some delicious 4Loco peach as a result.

For the game itself, VT started slow but picked up steam in the 2nd and 3rd to pull away, and got our backups in the game in Q4.  Pam got to hang out with her boyfriend Ben Taylor, and Katie had to take Jason home at halftime.  I remembered to get some good shots of the action on the field this time, including the TD pass to CJ Carroll.  Cam Phillips had another 100 yard game, and continues to lead the nation in total receiving yards with 523.  We *did*, unfortunately, come out of the game with several injuries of unknown severity.  Divine Deablo is rumored to have a broken foot, though that hasn’t been made official yet.  At various points in the game, Peoples, McMillian, Hill, and Cam all left the game with dings and did not return, though none of them appeared to be serious. Hill is the most worrisome of that second group, the other 3 guys just kinda limped off the field with no official injury timeout.  Also, the 3rd quarter “Lets Go Hokies” cheer was led by Frank Beamer this week, and it went….better.  Still wasn’t exactly awe inspiring or anything, but better.  Also, he did a Mic Drop when he was done, which is pretty awesome.

image018

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 4:

++ Last week I guessed 4-2for the ACC OOC, and they went 5-1 (surprise!  Did NOT expect uva to win).  0-1 against P5 syracuse fell in a tight one at LSU, 26-35). Just 3 OOC games this week, and they are all stinkers where the ACC team is a significant favorite.  ACC is currently 27-10 OOC, but just 5-9 vs P5 teams.

++ our regular season opponents went 7-4 this week (26-18 on the season), and 2-1 for our OOC foes (8-7).

This weeks game:

booya!  #2 Clemson comes to town for an 8pm kickoff under the lights at lane stadium on ABC, and ESPN college Gameday will be here to cover it.  Craig might have to fly back from Iceland early for this one!  …or maybe not, haha.  Clemson is 4-0 on the season, and has a couple of wins over ranked teams already (14-6 at home against then #13 Auburn, and 47-21 on the road against then #14 Louisville).   They are battle tested, and have risen to the task when challenged.  Your BDG Sneaky Stat of the Week:  over the past 2+ seasons, Clemson is 11-1 against ranked teams, with the lone loss coming in the national championship game 2 years ago against Alabama.  They are currently ranked in the top 5 in scoring defense (3), total defense (3), and sacks (2).  On the flip side, they rank just 91st in turnover margin (-2 through 4 games) and 101st in sacks allowed (10 through 4 games, 2.5 per game).  Which is why it would be good if Trevon Hills injury is nothing serious, though it looked at the time like it could be significant.  Clemson is currently favored by about 7.5 depending on where you look.

 

week 3 recap/week 4 preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

VT moved to 3-0 on the season with an impressive 64-17 win over ECU.  It should be noted that I missed Q1, and it was 7-17 when Katie and I started watching.  So VT outscored ECU 57-0 while we were watching the game.  No more being late to the viewing party for me!  Several VT records were tied or broken…off the top of my head, I think Joey Slye got the career record for both FGs made and total points (went 3-3 in this game, plus a bunch of PATs), Cam Phillips got the record for most receptions in a  game (14-189 and 3 TDs), and he also moved into 2nd all time for total receptions, and the 675 yards of total offense tied a record set against Pitt in 1993.  And Josh Jackson tied a record with 5 TD passes.  Basically, we did whatever we wanted on offense in this game, though there were still some distressing redzone struggles in Q2…at which point we apparently decided all of our scores should be from beyond 20 yards so we never actually entered the redzone.  Your “BDG Sneaky Stat of the Week” is a 2-for-1:  Joey Slye leads the nation in total touchbacks (22 of 23) and is 2nd in touchback percentage (95.65%) to a guy who has only kicked off 9 times.  Also, Cam Phillips leads the nation in receiving yards (417).  That’s right:  a VT player leads the entire NATION in receiving yards.  Boom.

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 3:

++ Last week I guessed 7-3 for the ACC OOC, and they went 7-2 with 1 game canceled (GT vs UCF).  1-2 against P5 with dook getting the lone win (vs Baylor), while both Pitt (vs OKST) and BC (vs ND) dropped their matchups.  Just 6 OOC games this week, none of any real interest.  1 P5 game (Syracuse at LSU), the rest mid-majors or FCS.  Probably looking at 4-2 this week.  ACC is currently 22-9 OOC, but just 5-8 vs P5 teams.

++ our season opponents went 6-4 this week (19-14 on the season), and 2-2 for our OOC foes (6-6).

This weeks game:

vs ODU at 2pm.  ODU is 2-1 on the season with a pair of lackluster wins (31-17 over FCS Albany, and 17-7 over 0-4 UMass) and a resounding defeat at the hands of UNCheat 53-23.  Also, apparently they are going to start a true freshman 17 year-old at QB.  VT is currently a 27.5 pt favorite.

week 2 recap/week 3 preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

First home tailgate of the season is in the books.  Our parking pass situation with Wes was looking a bit tenuous, especially given Craigs upcoming travel plans as well (off to Spain for work today, then off to Iceland for long vacation shortly after that) so we decided to go all in on tailgating in the lot 5 spot.  And it was pretty awesome.  Nice views, get to listen to the band warm up all during the tailgate, and plenty of grass all around us.

image005

We didn’t set up a TV, but I don’t think anyone missed it.  We might just not bother for the rest of the season.  Maybe play it week by week.  For the second week in a row, we had 15 people for the big beer game.  We also once again played it 90 minutes early, instead of 60, which resulted in us being in our seats 10 minutes before kickoff, which was a mostly new and interesting experience.  This time it was Craig who drew the joker, and lost RPS 2-0.  Kinky Craig!

WRT to the game, it was pretty boring quite honestly.  We were about as plain on offense as we could possibly be…took a few deep shots (and the WRs definitely have some penis-fingers, or this game could have been 21-0 in the early 2nd quarter), made no effort at all to establish any sort of run game.  I think the coaches basically said “lets get some reps for our young QB and WRs, lets keep Jackson clean, and lets just get out of here with a W”.  Which is what they did.  The new seats are pretty awesome.  Brent bought 6 tickets off of stubhub that were “1 section over from us, but same row” for his crew of 6 (Brent, Clara, Maggie, Hoppy, Liam, and Sophia).  As it turns out, my seats are the last ones in section 15 and his were the first ones in section 13, so we were all together for the game, which was awesome.

image011

Katie and Craig, of course, were swanking it up in the box so pam and stork joined us in my seats.  I didn’t actually get any pics of our field view from the seats (at least none that came out well), but they are pretty awesome when action is in the south end…we’re right on the 25, 20ish rows back from the field.  And all our neighbors seemed quite cool, no grumpasuaruses present.  I was a bit too zoomed in (and washed out) in the pic below, but it at least gives a sense of where our seats are:

image013

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 2:

++ACC went a pretty weak 5-3 OOC, with 2 games postponed (cancelled?) due to hurricane Irma.  2-2 against P5 with dook and Clemson getting wins (against Northwestern and #13 Auburn, respectively), while loluva and pitt absorbed losses against Indiana and #4 Penn State.  10 OOC games again this week, but not many of interest.  3 P5 games (BC vss ND, dook vss Baylor, and Pitt vss Oklahoma state), and I expect the ACC to go 1-2.  Probably looking at 7-3 overall, with a loss by at least one of uva vss uconn, syr vss CMich, or unc @ ODU.  ACC is currently 15-7 OOC, and 4-6 vs P5 teams.

++ our season opponents went 5-6 this week (13-10 on the season), and 2-2 for our OOC foes (4-4).  Two of our OOC foes played each other, as WVU whomped ECU by jumping out to a 49-3 halftime lead and coasting to a 56-20 win.  ECU is just a bad, bad football team under new(ish) HC Scottie Montgomery.

This weeks game:

well would you look at that, it’s ECU, the team I was just talking about!  ECU is 0-2 and is currently ranked 129 out of 130 teams in total defense.  They have given up over 600 yards in both games this season (JMU and WVU), despite WVU calling off the dogs in the 2nd half this week.  Not surprisingly, ECU fired their DC yesterday and promoted Robert Prunty to DC.  Starting with the VT game last year (VT 54, ecu 17) they have lost 11 of 12 games and given up an average of 42.1 points in those 11 losses.  And that’s your “BDG Sneaky Stat of the Week” (shamelessly stolen from TSL).  If the offense is going to “break out” this season, this seems like the game when it should happen.  Of course, we already have the built in excuse of “new DC, no film, things we didn’t expect!” if the offense struggles at all.  VT is a 22 pt favorite.

 

week 1 recap/week 2 preview

Posted on by bigbeergame

Well, that was fun!  (for me at least, not so much for some others…Andrew).  We piled 10 of us into Norms RV at around 12:30, got to FexEx around 1:45, and sat in the road drinking until around 3:00 when they finally started letting people into the lots.

 

People that were not already queued up at 3pm were pretty much screwed with traffic and spent most of their tailgating time sitting in cars.  We had 15 people for the big beer game, which was lost by a first timer whose name I can’t recall, who then beat Trey at RPS…so Trey had the honor of being the first to wear and sign our new sash, courtesy of mom Oshell.

We then spent 30 minutes or so trying to clear security to get into the game.  Once all THAT was done, it was a hell of game!  I’m sure everyone watched, so I don’t need to recap the game itself too much.  A bit disappointed overall with our defense (hailed, once again, as “maybe one of Bud Fosters best ever”) but they made plays when they needed to.  Special teams was “the best of times, the worst of times”… Slye missed those 2 short field goals that could have made for a much more comfortable ending, but we also killed them in hidden yardage on punts and kickoffs.  Our net punting average was 10 yards better on 8 punts (9 for WVU), and 7 yards better per kickoff (on 6 for VT, and 5 for WVU).  The end result is that the average starting field position was the 33.4 for VT and the 21.3 for WVU.  And that’s your “BDG Sneaky Stat of the Week”.

Recap of our conference mates/season opponents in week 1 (spoiler alert:  not good):

++ACC went 10-4 OOC, but a miserable 2-4 against P5 opponents.  They were 0-3 against the SEC (FSU vss Ala, GT vss Tenn, NCSU vss USC-e), 0-1 against the P12 (Carolina fell to Cal at home), 1-0 against the B12 (VT vss WVU), and 1-0 against the B1G (Louisville vss Purdue).  Overall, a lot of the “mid-tier” teams looked less than stellar (UL, UNC, NCSU, Pitt).  GT looked pretty good but snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  There are 10 OOC games this week, with 4 coming against P5 teams.  The highlight of the week is #5 Clemson vss #12 Auburn, with the other P5 games being Pitt@PSU, uva vss Indiana, and dook vss Northwestern.  I could easily see 0-4 there, but I’m hoping for 2-2 (and 8-2 overall for the week).

++ our season opponents went 8-4 this week, and 2-2 OOC.  ECU looks pretty bad again, and got rocked by JMU.

This weeks game:

The mighty Blue Hens of Delaware!  Delaware is 1-0 after beating Delaware State last week 22-3.  They are a middle of the pack CAA team (1-aa).   I don’t think there is a spread for the game, but I would expect somewhere around 35ish, as VT is expected to cruise.  Of course, it’s a short week after a night game at FedEx, and we all know how that turned out last time.  The game kicks off at 330 pm, and is on the ACCN (which I’m not entirely sure what that means…but I think it means it will be available online and also syndicated onto some local channel).