Game Review - vs. Wake Forest

Saturday, the Virginia Tech Hokies took on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Coming off some disappointing losses, the Deamon Deacon head coach Jim Grobe decided to mix things up by putting some second string players into the starting lineup. He had the goal of shaking things up on his squad to breathe some new life into his team. However, the first half of the game amounted to nothing less than a Hokie explosion offense. In the first half, they got into the endzone on all but one of their possessions. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor consistently made completions to receivers Jarratt Boykin, Danny Coale, and even backup quarterback Logan Thomas. Taylor's passing displayed his ability to scramble and move to find the open man. The defense held the Demon Deacons to three and out for their first two drives. They allowed 14 first half points. If this trend continues, the days of the Hokie slow start may well be behind us for the rest of this season, and good riddance if so!

Jayron Hosley has continued to impress me as a developing player in the last few games. First, he had a 58 yard return to set up the Hokies first touchdown. Several times playing corner back, he made difficult tips to prevent pass completions. He also made multiple single tackles, some even causing Wake Forest for a loss of yards. He did fumble one of his put returns, and it seems that having the dropsies was well spread across the Hokies. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor let one slip out of his hands on a quarterback rush. David Wilson also fumbled on a return, but in each case the Hokies recovered. Against a tougher defense, things may have turned out differently. The defense for the most part kept the Wake Forest offense at bay. Both of the Demon Deacon touchdowns resulted from long rushing plays. The first touchdown happened when the Hokie defensive line left a big hole and the safeties found themselves too far out of position to make the tackle. The second happened from a long run resulting from a missed tackle by defensive end Steven Friday.

The third quarter went fairly quietly with only one Wake Forest touchdown and one Virginia Tech field goal. By the third quarter's end, the Hokies controlled the game by a score of 52-21, and some of the Hokie second string had taken the field.

The fourth quarter went by even quieter as neither team scored a single point. Backup quarterback Logan Thomas began taking snaps. He stands a towering 6'6", and seems to have good poise. Thomas didn't really connect for any big plays during his time on the field, but he did show some ability to move the ball. He made a series of single yard gain rushes and found receivers for modest passing yardage gains. In the end he threw 3 completions in 8 attempts for 22 yards. His rushing amounted to 15 yards across 3 carries. He also successfully threw the ball out of bounds under pressure during several plays thus avoiding risky situations that could have led to turnovers. However, he didn't get Virginia Tech onto the board. Not having the agility and speed of Tyrod Taylor, he didn't avoid some of the pressure resulting from Hokie offensive line collapses, something the Hokies' current starting quarterback consistently displays the ability to do. Given that he hasn't seen much action as a backup this season, we can't be too critical of Thomas. I hope we get the opportunity to see him play a couple more quarters before the season ends.

The offense as a whole played well. They earned a total of 605 yards, went 12 for 17 on third down conversions, completed 63% of their passing, rushed for 291 yards, threw for 314 yards, and held possession for 41:26 of the game. This is a welcome change from games passed, even against an opponent like Wake Forest. The defense played well too, but there are still signs of development needed. Missed tackles, big holes in the defensive line, and out of position safeties allowed for some big gains in Wake Forest rushing. The defensive secondary, however, looked nearly air-tight. They only allow 4 completions on 17 attempts for a total of 92 yards. Special teams had a couple of big plays in punt returns, and given some of the mistakes we've seen by those squads this season, only a few positive surprises in this area is a welcome thing.

While overall this resonates as a good win, the Hokies didn't execute perfectly. The biggest lesson I think they need to take away is that they can't bobble the ball. The fumbles they had didn't result in loss of possession as they recovered all of them. However, should all of those fumbles have resulted in turnovers, we could have been looking at a very different game. Against a Miami and Georgia Tech defense, it's nearly certain that one, two, or even all three of those fumbles would have resulted in a change of possession. Turnovers can be the undoing of otherwise good teams, and the Hokie coaching staff needs to drill that into their players heads for the remainder of this season. That's critical if they want to keep their eye on the ACC championship.

LET"S GO HOKIES

Previewing the Wake Forest

Wake Forest is coming to Blacksburg at a great time for the Hokies. Wake has been struggling this year at 2-4. Of course, two of those four losses are to some pretty good teams in Florida State and Stanford.

The Hokies are finally starting to look like the team that they should have been. Save for the first drive, the Hokies took care of business on defense against Central Michigan. They'll be tested once again through the air as Demon Deacon freshman Tanner Price has been lighting up defenses. He threw for 326 yards in the loss to Navy. However, in an unfriendly environment such as Doak Campbell Stadium, he came in to replace Ted Stachitas and threw 6 for 12 for a miserable 35 yards and an interception.

Meanwhile, the Tyrod Taylor show developed well last week. However, each episode has been different. This week the offense faces a Wake Forest defense that is giving up an average of 35.3 points a game. Taylor may also be able to take advantage of Wake Forest's 107th ranked passing defense that averages 429.3 yards against per game, 231.7 of which through the air.

Outside of Taylor, we need to see more production out of the backs. The lack of significant carries for David Wilson and Darren Evans in the Central Michigan game put too much pressure and cause Taylor to rush waaaay too much.

On a side note, how much of a badass is Greg Nosal. Nosal lost part of his pinky during the Central Michigan game. Rather than head to straight the sidelines and eventually the operating room, Nosal opted to play out the rest of game. They found the severed piece of his pinky in his glove and were able to reattach it later.

Go Hokies!

Chips and Dips

The Hokies took care of business demolishing the Central Michigan Chippewas 45-21. The 21 is slightly misleading as 7 of those came on the Chippewas' opening drive and rest of the points were scored late in the game.

MadJay outlined three goals that the Hokies needed to reach in order to dominate. While they failed to meet goal 1: to jump out big early, they did eventually jump out and held a comfortable lead throughout the game. They had opportunities to have two interceptions that could have dramatically changed the game but failed to secure the ball both times. Goals 2 and 3 were definitely met, and we were able to see some play from many of the non-starters and play a complete game.

The Hokies defense came out aggressive and the Chippewas were able to move the ball through the use of short passes along the outside. Ryan Radcliff appeared very comfortable distributing the ball, while the Hokies rush was not able to get to him quickly enough. Central Michigan went up seven with a perfect play action throw to Jerry Harris. The defense played well but were just beat by heads up play calling.

However, Tech followed this up with a bang. On the second play from scrimmage Tyrod Taylor off of a speed option outran everyone for 72 yards and the touchdown.

After a three and out by the Chips, Bryan Stinespring called his classic play that never works: a play action deep ball. It's a play that he notoriously calls on first down at the start of a drive (usually the first offensive play of the game.) It's so predictable, it's sick. The Hokies also went three and out.

Both defenses clamped down through the rest of the first quarter. The Hokies missed two easy interceptions that could have changed the game dramatically. But overall, the defense seemed to get back in groove after the opening drive.

To open up the second quarter, the Hokies drove methodically down field, with the help of the men in stripes who called two, albeit legitimate, pass interference calls, for another touchdown. The drive was capped by a Darren Evans touchdown run of six yards.

This was Evans' second touch of seven for the day. I know that scoreboard was in Tech's favor in the end, but I don't understand why they were not running all over the Chippewas. David Wilson would also only have seven. Taylor ran the most with nine carries. It's scary to see him be the leading rusher time in and time out. With Wilson and Evans, Tech has them as their respective backups. RMFW will be back at some point. With Taylor we only have, yet to really be tested, Logan Thomas. I hold my breathe every time he takes off down field.

On the next drive, Davon Morgan took advantage of a floater from Radcliff. The Hokies would only get three more points to go up 17-7. The defense was unbelievably efficient through the rest of the game until the coaches decided to start swapping out the starters. (Even then they faired pretty well.) Outside of the first drive, the Hokies held the Chippewas to 202 total yards and 0 points excluding the first drive in the first three quarters.

Meanwhile, Taylor worked the field one more time in the first half culminating in a 7-yard touchdown pass to Andre Smith.

The third quarter was a bore with only one good drive of note. On essentially three big plays the Hokies scored another touchdown to go up 31-7. Taylor threw a screen to Evans who took it 15-yards, threw a 39-yard strike to Jarrett Boykin, and ran a 15-yard scamper for Taylor's second rushing touchdown.

They opened the fourth with a 68-yard beautiful run by Wilson. The Chippewas turned around and produced an impressive drive to match the opening drive touchdown.

The Hokies came out with Taylor with 10:45 to go in the fourth quarter. He received a standing ovation as he left the game after four plays. Logan Thomas came in at quarterback. Thomas came in and went 1 for 2 and fumbled only to recover it. The Hokies would be forced to punt.

The defense came out mostly with the younger players. They held well and Jayrod Hosley off of the punt was able to glide by the defense with the assistance of a wall of blockers.

Thomas and the offense came out again only to have Tony Gregory fumble on his first carry. This set up the Chippewas' last touchdown giving them there full 21 points.

Overall, this was a very complete game for the Hokies. There were some missed executions but in general they were very few.