Second viewing thoughts and grade report: Virginia Tech

The rewatch on this game was reinforced my initial impressions. I felt better about the good things and worse about the rough patches. Overall though, you have to take some solace in that we spotted Virginia Tech 17 points and still won by five.

Offense: B-

Calling Crane streaky doesn’t really capture his issues. I’ll cover the good stuff first before hammering him later in the paragraph. The good news is that I think he is freezing less. He looked much more sure of himself. There seem to be fewer breakdowns between him and his WRs. His decisions when the plays broke down were much better including the deep fly to Robinson to set up the final TD. His touch passes in the red zone were excellent and on the money. He made good decisions in the option and ran hard. In the second half Virginia Tech brought much more pressure. It slowed our offense but Crane stood in the pocket and still got rid of the ball (in most cases). Now the bad, his first throw was terrible, behind and into multiple Hokies for an interception. The Hokies sat in their zones, watched him and jumped his throws repeatedly (hence our best passes were fades, deep balls or broken plays – throws that are harder to jump). By my count he had eight really bad throws (a quarter of his attempts). He took a horrible sack on a critical drive in the fourth. He is holding the ball too long in the pocket. When he should throw it in the stands he forces it and when he should take a risk he throws it away. I think he’s going to cost us at least one more game before this is all over. North Carolina will be an interesting test since they are ballhawks.

Last season Castonzo struggled mightily against Virginia Tech. This year facing the same scheme, he played nearly perfect. He’s also looking much better against the run. His LG Clif Ramsey also had another strong game. Tennant also got notice from the TV guys. His blocking and protection call outs are so consistently good, he should definitely be first team all ACC. My one quibble with Tennant's play remains the snaps out of the shotgun. He has a high snap almost once series. He also snapped a low one on Crane’s second “Pick 6.” With those three playing so well, it is frustrating to watch the other side of the line struggle. Breakdowns on the rightside contributed to one of the fumbles, a blocked FG and the second INT. Claiborne jumped on the first series which left us in third and long. Crane followed it with the first “Pick 6.”Claiborne also struggled with the delay blitzes and with communication with Lapham. Rossi played well, but did not get considerable snaps. Lapham had a really rough game. His run blocking was a mixed bag and he was the weakest member during pass protection. He lost his man on a few occasions. The whole right side struggled but Lapham has me worried. Teams are going to start attacking him. He needs to step up.

Haden seems healthy and is a punishing runner for such a small package. He also showed very nice hands and adjustments on his one catch. The commentators criticized Harris' pass protection but they were somewhat offbase. Harris has to slow his man. It is on Crane to get it off on time. If Harris gets blown up but slows his guy, Crane needs to have the ball out. Regardless, Harris had another strong performance. I’ve figured out his strength – his ability to stop and start. The first TD was a perfect example. He hit the line. Stopped as the play and blocks moved around him, then exploded into the first hole. He even did the stop and change of direction on his one kick return. McCluskey wasn’t as active but played well.

Momah finally gives us a playmaker in the redzone. He’s physical, has good hands and can get separation. Impressively he made a huge catch on the deep post too. Jarvis had a bad drop early. He made up for it later with some solid catches. Gunnell played well. Megwa was only credited with one catch in the box score, but by my count he had two and looked good after the catch. Robinson made some huge plays. Unfortunately he also had three drops. One of them would have been a TD. Purvis only caught one ball, but he remains smart – on his one catch he made an effort to stay inbounds and kept the clock running. Purvis also did a good job run blocking. Anderson had a bit of a rough night. He missed a man in pass protection and he and Crane had a mix up on one of his routes.

The play calling was good. We were aggressive when we needed to be and effectively killed clock when we needed to in the fourth. My one complaint was second half adjustments. VT dialed up more blitzes and we kept stalling drives. Some of it was on Crane, but we could have had more looks for them. Used a QB draw or something to catch them off guard. However, the final drive (which didn't generate points) closed out the game and ate a ton of clock.

Defense: A

The game was won on the defensive line. Brace had his best game of the year. He did a great job occupying space and made some nice plays including getting a hand on Taylor on the final series. Raji was a little more inconsistent. Yes, he had some big plays, but he also made a few mistakes and gave up on a few plays. Ramella may not be a dominant pass rusher, but he stays home and keeps contain. Against a guy like Taylor that is a crucial attribute. Giles was quiet. The second teamers (Newman, Willette, Ramsey, Scafe) also deserve much credit. They played well too especially Newman and Scafe.

Toal’s loss stinks. He was putting together a nice comeback. That said, we are okay. Francois is capable and experienced and looked very good last night. Herzy had another monster game. I was most impressed with his speed. He was closing on Taylor in the open field! McLaughlin looked good and made some nice stops. The second team LBs didn’t see as much action which is understandable when you are focused on one mobile QB.

Paul Anderson delivered another solid performance. In addition to his pass coverage, he is also a solid run supporter. Donnie Fletcher is playing beyond his years and kept making good tackles. Davis struggled a bit. He made some plays but also lost Taylor on some of the long runs. Gause looked good. I know he got dinged again, but he was still out there later in the game making plays. Bowman played too. Because Taylor was all over the place, guys like Rollins got less action. Akins played well. He did a great job spying.

Spaz has used the same scheme against Virginia Tech for the past few seasons…this was one of its best efforts. Focused on stopping the run and containing the QB, he sparingly blitzed. Signature plays in this case would see the four down lineman putting up a slight rush and just sort of pausing in their positions. Akins spied Taylor a few yards outside of the pocket and everyone else just waited back in zones. It worked over and over. I was also impressed by the run stopping on 3rd and short and 4th and short.

Special Teams: B+

Bennett’s kickoffs were probably his best of the season. He launched them high and deep. The coverage team also looked much better than last game and kept VT from breaking anything.

Punt Return looked good. Gunnell showed the advantage of just returning a punt instead of fair catching. He makes one guy miss and then things start to fall into place. Punt returns are not done in a vacuum. Gunnell got good blocks from Rollins and Isaac Johnson. Hats off to Ryan Lindsey too. He’s been battling depth charts and injuries. I was glad he got on the field and contributed with the blocked punts.

Aponavicius'one FG attempt was not great. It was low, but the line deserves some blame too. The reason for the miss was mostly a protection breakdown from Castonzo and Lapham.

Jeff Smith made two mistakes. One big (the fumble) and one little (the bobbling). Both show a lack of concerntration. In the postgame of the NC State, Jarvis explained that he held the ball with two hands in traffic, because "Logan is always preaching it." If he knows that why isn't Jeff Smith doing a better job protecting the ball in traffic.

Overall: B+

Leave it to Bob Davie to discuss the difference between this coach and our previous one. His example of the contrast: following Crane’s second INT returned for a TD, BC got back on the field and pushed for a TD. Many coaches would have sat on the ball and hoped to regroup at halftime. Not our coach. First play run. Second play pass but near the sideline to stop the clock. Third play pass. However, the play broke down and Robinson took off. The TD was what we needed. I also thinks Jags is just hitting the right notes (whether its dealing with Crane or promoting Lindsey to first team punt return). Let's hope he keeps it up.