Addazio continues to surprise in the best ways. For a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve and chews out any official within reach, he stays remarkably calm when BC is down. Down early and he's composed. Blow a big lead and he seems engaged, not stressed or defeated. It is not what I expected and I think it makes for good game management. I hope Addazio is with us a long time and keeps winning because I am going to feel stupid for this fawning if this all falls apart.
Offense: B
There were a few people who commented that Murphy should have done a better job throwing away the ball, but that's nitpicking in my opinion. Any time he was caught for a loss, it was usually because of some poor blocking. His percentage wasn't good but I thought he threw the ball pretty well. His overthrow of Phillips on the open post was the only costly mistake. His decisions on the option were very good -- including Willis' TD.
Willis didn't get a ton of touches but made the most of an open hole. He's not the power back and hasn't been as explosive this season, but I still think there is a lot for him to do. He's our best in the zone read. I don't understand playing Hilliman so much if he's hurt. Outlow looked strong as his sub.
Alston made a nice catch. He wasn't able to break a big one on the sweep. Bordner's 4th quarter catch was huge. He blocked well too. Callinan blocked well and held on for his TD. Phillips had a nice catch. McClary dropped a catchable ball.
The Offensive Line was not great. Part of it was VT stacking things, but they weren't consistent as a group. Silberman seemed to have problems with their speed. So did Betancourt. The interior guys were better but still had trouble. Kramer gut blown up in one of the short yardages. It wasn't all bad though. There were some good pulls and the jumbo group was solid.
VT invited us to pass and we stuck with the run...and it was the right call. I thought the approach and the adjustments were good. I thought it was smart to go heavy jumbo in the second half and that led to Murphy's final TD and a long pass to Bordner.
Defense: B-
Once again I thought the DLine was the best unit on the Defense. Moore had his best game and got good penetration. Mihalik played well. Wujciak sacked Brewer and had good pursuit throughout. Adebayo played well too. Kavelec wasn't as active.
Daniels had a great game in run support. His coverage wasn't as good. Keyes brought pressure but also missed a few chances. Strizak was good and Duggan is looking better.
Asprilla made multiple plays in coverage. Brown had his most productive day too. Simmons was good but not as active after getting dinged. Yiadom played well.
I don't know why QBs get better against us in the second half. It is not because we go stale or vanilla. Brown still brought pressure in the second half. But the OLine and Brewer adjusted and did a better job of picking it up. That led to BC not being able to get off the field on 3rd or 4th down. The Defense has come a long way but I still don't feel comfortable with a lead.
Special Teams: C
Allowing VT to gouge us with a fake punt was terrible. Addazio took the blame for it himself in the postgame. Our regular coverage on punt and kick returns also allowed big plays again. I don't know why this is such an issue.
Howell is our special teams at this point and of course he's inconsistent. Many of his punts were perfectly placed but he still had some short ones. His kickoffs with the wind were good. And his field goal was huge.
Willis nor Alston did anything special with their respective kick and punt returns. Dudeck nearly took a knee with his return.
Overall: B+
This is another game where the overall grade is better than the individual parts. Even though this was not a great (or even good) Virginia Tech team, it was still an ACC conference win on the road in Lane Stadium. That counts for something. It was also a game that saw us display the right amount of patience and the right amount of aggressiveness.
As I mentioned in the Special Teams section, the only real mistake Daz made in managing the game was not being ready for the fake punt. Otherwise he used the clock and timeouts well and didn't lose faith when we fell behind. In fact kicking the field goal was a gutsy call that turned out to be the right one.
I didn't think we would get to six wins by now. This team is overachieving again and that only happens when a coach is doing a good job.
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9 comments:
Yeah - but what a pleasant change from the Spaz era. I think the more Murphy passes - the better he gets. It takes a while to gain that touch on the bombs. Kid is a great athlete. I'd love to see Alston put in at the RB slot a few times. The guy has great burst and he is so tough to see among the elephants. And Addazio's passion for the game and for turning BC into a winner is incredibly refreshing.
ATL
You won't feel stupid, Daz is the real deal.
The problem w/ the second half passing is that we send 5 guys pretty much every down, which I think is good. If you do that you have to play a soft man. As you point out Daniels is not strong on pass D. He has to key off the back. If thay guy comes out of the backfield he has to take him. If the back stays in to block Steve has to drop back in the middle. I don't think he does backward very well. I assume if we had someone else to do this they would be in the game.maybe we sub him for a third safety in obvious passing downs? He's a great run stopper though, so it's a tough call.
Flutie commented that Golston didn't use the laces when he threw. Murphy was the same. Lately, it is noted (Flutie: there is a reason that the ball has laces)that Murphy is using the laces and throwing over the top and using his shoulder. He has stopped "slinging" the ball. I have to give him all the credit in the world for working so hard and showing such great improvement. He is cool under pressure. Louisville has a blitzing linebacker who eats quarterbacks including Winston for lunch. If BC handles him, we can win.
Play calling needs improvement.
The announcers were almost begging Day to do some pass off of the play action. Day is one stubborn dude with his play calling.
I was watching the Mississippi State game and the QB "pulled a Tebow." That is to say, the QB (mobile QB) started running into the line, then stopped, jumped and threw a short pass over the middle. The Mississippi coach, Mullen, was the OC at Florida when Dazz was at Florida so Dazz knows this play (and so does everyone else). C'mon Dazz teach Ryan Day that play....it could work nicely
I was impressed with Outlow's toughness and second effort.
2nd half defense was bad news, just like against Wake. Some adjustments are needed - like having the offense keep the ball longer in the second half.
Can we beat Lousville?....They have some pretty fast and elusive receivers.....It will be a challenge... our DBs are much improved over last year.....so it should be inteesting.
The second half passing is a product of a couple of things in my opinion.
#1 Depth on Defense - I think I heard an announcer (during Wake game?) say our defense has something like 25 scholarship guys? Not sure how true? Seemed low. Couple that with Mihalik and Simmons all going down at various points during the VT game (both returned to action thankfully) but that left us thin. We have also lost B. Jones & Mehdi for the year (and I guess John Johnson???, not sure about John but haven't seen him since Clemson game when he was playing really well. I'd love to see him back soon).
#2 We have to send 5 and sometimes 6 guys to get home. That leaves us short in the back-end. We don't have a stable of pass rushers. Good run stuffing DL that go hard but they don't seem to get home without help from the blitz. Blitzing seems to get us more one on one battles, less double teams, etc. (remember we were 120 in sacks and 120 in TFL's less than two seasons ago so we know what happens when we 3 and 4 man rush).
I agree I really don't see our scheme changing much in the second half in terms of pressure. I've really focused on that. I think we keep coming during the second half of games, I just think other teams start to adjust and we get worn down from lack of depth.
But, we have seen our 3 and 4 man rushes don't get home. So, i think we just keep coming and hope pressure causes a mistake late. It did versus Wake Forest.
I enjoy watching this team compete. They just keep fighting and finding ways to win. Can't wait to see us compete against a very talented Louisville team.
I agree mod34b - Outlow was really impressive. I know his numbers don't reflect a great game but he ran hard and made something out of nothing a couple of times.
The combination of Hilliman, Outlow and Alston is going to be fun to watch moving forward. They are true freshmen playing like men. Really exciting. The future is bright.
BC's receivers deserve much praise. In the VT game Phillips got behind everyone but the pass was overthrown. He also beat ALL American Fuller deep down the middle. The pass was on the money but the DB grabbed him. No call, poor officiating. Callinan beat Fuller for the TD. Outlaw caught a TD. Bordner and Dudeck made nice catches as did Alston. Overall a quality effort. Speaking of poor officiating that terrible Hennigan crew was awful in the FSU game. The only holding penalties were on FSU not the former Big East member Louisville. On a pass late in the game Parker gave the FSU DB a two handed shove to get open resulting in a sixty yard gain. Again no call on the Big East team. FSU and BC have to insist that former Big East refs don't do their games. In the Orange Bowl last year the Big East refs gave Clemson the shaft. Even ESPN pointed out the one sidedness and discrepancies. 2. In the polls Clemson is 19, CSU 26 and USC 27. BC played those three about even. So where should they be placed? Probably in that range. 3. The announcers in the FSU-Cardinals game were boasting of 30 players on the Louisville team being from Florida. How will players from the Sunshine state do in 30 degree temps on Saturday? Running, physical teams can handle weather better than passing teams. Conditions will favor the home team.
If you look at the 4th quarter TD drives, Brown didn't send much pressure at all. he usually dropped 7 back into a zone coverage (ala the CSU and Wake games). After BC blew the lead, he started bringing the heat again which slowed down Va Tech's offense. The more disconcerting thing is BC's really vanilla, run out the clock offense it utilzes in the 4th quarter. You're not going to be able to burn much clock going 3 and out on a consistent basis. The jumbo set runs up the middle are excruciating because it's so predictable. I have no problem with the rushing but for God's sake, vary up the formations and play calls.
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