1) With 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, BC punted from their own endzone. The Hokies, already up 10-0, had all the momentum and were about the get the ball in PHENOMENAL field position. Inexplicably, Coach Beamer calls for a punt block and Dustin Pickle gets through the line and misses the ball but bumps the kicker. It was clearly running into the kicker, a 5 yard penalty, but the ref called the 15 yard variety and the Eagles advanced the ball all the way to their 37 yard line before being stopped. A huge swing in field position prevented the Hokies from icing the game, which became a theme the rest of the way.
2) From his own 8 yard line on 2nd and 10 and the crowd at it's most deafening with 4 minutes left in the game, Matt Ryan delivers a 23 yard strike and begins a TD drive. This ball gave Ryan his confidence and a rhythm despite being tossed around all game and he responded by catching fire. I contend the entire game ends differently if the receiver doesn't make that catch.
3) Obviously the final TD pass of the game is the third key play. Facing 3rd and 20 with 23 seconds remaining, Ryan rolls to his right, looks back across his body and finds Andre Callender who had gotten behind the defense for a 24 yard touchdown to win the game for the Eagles. Despite a mental breakdown on the defense's part, you have to admire how difficult that play was for Ryan to make and he made it to win the game. It should have never come to that, but it did.
5 comments:
You could also argue that the score should have been 3-0 towards the end of the game as VT clearly got a very lucky call on what should have been an incomplete pass.
I'd say Shuman getting hurt was also huge. This led to at least two plays that thwarted chances to score: 1) the lost fumble on the center/QB exchange and 2) the wayward shotgun snap that Glennon had to fall on (which killed a good drive).
Good point anonymous, although the score would have been 6-0. The Hokies were definitely in easy FG range if they ruled the pass incomplete.
Lefty, I think that Warren did an outstanding job once they got the QB/center exchange sorted out. He blocked magnificently and frankly I see little to no drop off this Thursday night with Warren at center.
However the fumble and bad shotgun snap were additional examples of the type of poor execution on offense that really summarized this game for VT. Just horrible, terrible stuff.
The blocking of Warren may have been competent. However, I believe the two crucial snap botches (there may have been one more) were killers. The one killed what should have been at least a field goal. Perhaps not one of the 3 key plays, but if Shuman is in there the whole game, I think VT pulls away.
lefty,
In speaking to someone from Beamerball and watching the tape again, it was Matt Welsh on the 2 fumbled snap exchanges. Warren was actually 3rd string in the BC game and they put him in after the struggles with Welsh.
Ironically it was Glennon's work in practice as 2nd string QB for the 5 games TT was the starter that gave Sean a ton of reps with Warren at center. Hence they had much cleaner exchanges in the BC game.
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