Georgia Tech Film Review: Virginia Tech - Second Quarter

Notes

• (Wrapping up the last minute of the 1Q) 1Q 1:00 1st and 10 VT - Quick curl route out to the flat by VT, Milton is playing in soft coverage, and isn't within 5 yards of the ball when it is caught. He then misses the tackle. Austin cleans it up. This happened a lot and was infuriating, from the soft coverage to the missed tackles.
• 2Q 15:00 2nd and 10 VT - VT puts their backup QB in here to run the read-option. Roof Blitzes the Nickel, and the QB keeps. Anree Saint-Amour is unblocked and wraps up the QB for a 2 yard loss. This was a really good call by Roof, anticipating that VT would go read option. Saint-Amour is unblocked and is meant to be the option man, but Austin comes in quickly and forces the QB to make the read early. At that point, Saint-Amour is just an unblocked man behind the line of scrimmage.
• 2Q 14:20 3rd and 12 VT - Roof Blitzes both LBs and drops Rod Rook-Chungong to spy the QB. Anree Saint - Amour has a decent rush, and Noble has a great, aggressive blitz that forces the ball out a bit early. DJ White breaks on the receiver and breaks up the pass. Now that is how you do 3rd down defense.
• 2Q 13:25 2nd and 5 GT - Midline. This play was weird, and took me several watches to figure out exactly what was going on. Luther Maddy is the option man, and is unblocked. Thomas pulls a bit early, and Maddy had a chance to make this play. However, Freddie Burden badly whiffed blocking the other DT. The essentially unblocked DT trips and falls into Maddy, essentially cut blocking him for the Jackets. Will Bryan misses the DE ,Dadi Nicolas, badly but Lynn Griffin comes around and lays the wood on him, driving him back out of the running lane. Great block by Griffin. Willis doesn't get enough of the OLB, who makes the tackle after a 4 yard gain. Something I noticed on this play was how the OL seems to be concerned about firing out low, which is good, but they aren't getting their heads up to look at the guy they are supposed to be blocking. As such, they aren't able to react to swim moves and guys forcing them down into the ground. Yet another coaching issue.
• 2Q 12:40 1st and 10 GT - Zone Dive. Still using the same scheme where the AB comes inside to block the OLB or MLB. The DE makes Will Bryan's job easy, going outside for the pitch that was never going to happen. Joe and Willis double team the MLB, and do a great job, but one of them should have gotten the OLB. Nice gain for 9 yards. Burden also plants Maddy in the turf on this play. It was refreshing.
• 2Q 12:15 2nd and 1 GT - Rocket Toss. Klock and T. Marshall don't get  their men. Loss of 5. The VT defense charged hard to the outside at the snap, making the blocks difficult, but it was still quite bad.
• 2Q 11:35 3rd and 6 GT - Zone Dive. Will Bryan misses his backside cutoff assignment, who drops Marshall after a gain of 1. Klock also blocked the wrong guy, so this wasn't going anywhere anyway. Drive stalls when we had 2nd and 1....
• 2Q 10:30 2nd and 10 VT - This may have been a run-pass option. The line fires forward on the play action, but Brewer is looking at the edge. He sees DJ White start 8 yards deep, then backpedal at the snap and throws a quick pass to the flat. The receiver puts a move on White for 10 yards. This is why I hate soft coverage.
• 2Q Just under 10 min to go 2nd and 5 VT - VT runs a power off left tackle, and leaves Kyle Cerge-Henderson unblocked, thinking he won't be able to get to the point of attack. Wrong, Cerge-Henderson runs the play down from the backside. No gain. Great athleticism by the big man.
• 2Q 8:42 3rd and 5 VT - We blitz 6, so Brewer looks to shallow double crossing route. Golden and Davis both go after the same man, and Brewer throws to a Wide open Cam Phillips. Demond Smith misses a tackle in pursuit. huge gain into the red zone. White saves the TD.
• 2Q 6:02 3rd and Goal VT - Power run up the middle, and the Jackets plug it up well, with Brant Mitchell coming through the line. However, nobody sets the edge, and the RB bounces left for the TD. DJ White was set up  more to cover the TE than play the run, so there simply wasn't anyone to stop the RB from bouncing outside. Also, the defense was still in Nickel at the 2 yard line with VT in a heavy set. Gotta question Roof on that one. This TD changed the momentum.
• 2Q 5:56 1st and 10 GT - Triple Option. This one hurts, but not for reasons you'd expect. Will Bryan does a fantastic job here, chipping the DE inside then completely sealing the MLB. Thomas keeps after the OLB cheats to the pitch. This was wide open. Burden, Allen and Jeune were downfield blocking, and nobody was going to stop Thomas. The OLB turns and gets just a piece of JT's jersey, dragging him down from behind. This is the play of the game nobody will talk about. The play went for 12 yards, but easily could have gone the distance. It hurts because all the blocks were executed. This was the only perfect Triple Option I've seen at this point in the game, and one of the few this season, and the VT defender happens to make a great play by his fingertips. Nothing more could have been done, just bad luck. To make matters worse, this drive stalled out. Could have been 21-7, or at worst 21-14, at the half.
• 2Q 4: 41 3rd and 11 GT - Pass. Another painful pass protection breakdown. VT puts on the twist stunt and blitzes 2 men. Braun crashes down at the NT, whom he should have left to Burden, because the DT lined up over Braun runs right by him. Klock also runs after the DE, who stunts from the left side to the right. A blitzer runs through his assignment area as well. Willis has 3 guys to block and has no hope. There were 7 guys in to protect on this play. Burden, Joe, and Skov had nobody to block. This play perfectly illustrates that this OL has no concept of how to establish a pocket, which is on the coaches. Klock's first step is forward on a  pass play with no play-action. That's not how you play LT. The OL seems to have too much of a "man" blocking mentality, and can't adjust to any type of twist or stunt whatsoever.
• 2Q 3:50 1st and 10 VT - Power Run. Gamble does a twist stunt, vacating the very area where the ball is run. Marcordes tries to gap fill but is pancaked. Very questionable call by Roof. 1st down.
• 2Q 3:00 3rd and 2 VT - Pass. Smith attempts to jam the TE, but misses and has to run him down. Anree Saint-Amour beats his man to flush Brewer  from the pocket, buying Smith time to recover. VT gets a short 1st down conversion on the scramble drill.
• 2Q 2:33 1st and 10 VT - Pass. Another play that made me want to drink. Bucky Hodges gets a step on Austin, and Brewer throws it that way. Milton peels off his man and steps in front of the throw, but can't hold on. Another huge missed opportunity that could have changed the tide of the game.
• 2Q 2:24 2nd and 10 VT - Bubble Screen to Hodges. Austin is peeking into the backfield, and Brewer throws it out to Hodges, who makes Milton miss and gets a huge gain
• 2Q 1:32 2nd and 4 VT - Off-Tackle run. Gamble gets moved out by the double team, and Antonio Simmons comes too far into the backfield to properly set the edge. If Simmons forces the runner back inside, Mitchell was there to make the play. Luckily this was only a gain of 3.
• 2Q 0:50 1st and 10 VT - Back shoulder pass. White doesn't get his head around. TD. Tied at the half after leading by 2 TDs in the 1st.