That hurt. Probably one of the tougher losses to take in recent memory.
It was so tough for me because it almost certainly decided the Coastal, and we really had a good chance to win it. I bet you at the end of the season, the record will show that a 6-2 GT team with a win over VT would have been playing in the ACC Championship game.
The most frustrating part is that we had chances, several chances, to establish a pretty good lead and take control of the game.
We just did not execute.
In terms of mistakes, this game was a lot like Clemson last year. We made a bunch, and most of them were not really forced by VT.
The difference in this game and the Clemson game last year is that in this game, when we were not making crucial mistakes, we actually played pretty well most of the time. Against Clemson last year, we generally did not play real well and we also mixed in several catastrophic mistakes.
To be fair, both teams made mistakes (Which happens in every football game.) VT had several stupid penalties and a lost fumble in GT’s red zone. So they made some big mistakes.
But, most of VT’s mistakes did not occur at critical points. They did not, for example, commit a personal foul after sacking our QB on 3rd and 19, giving up an automatic first down when it would have been 4th and more than 20.
I would say that VT simply had a good game, and we just had one of those games where we were not able to focus. But, VT has made a habit of doing this. At some point, you have to stop saying they had a good game, and just say this is what they do. I think its pretty clear that Beamer and the rest of VT’s coaching staff are simply good at getting their players to play smart, efficient football. Their players understand the situation, and they simply do not make many critical mistakes. They might hit a guy a half step out of bounds on 1st down (which they did, giving us a personal foul after a 7 yard run). But they rarely risk that kind of hit on third down. They know what they are doing. They understand the situation, and play accordingly.
We did a few things that were somewhat out of character. For example we missed a ton of tackles because we decided to spend long stretches tackling high and trying to strip the ball rather than wrapping up legs. But, for the most part, I thought we played well enough to win. Limit the mistakes to a more normal amount, and GT probably wins that game and the Coastal.
I do have to give VT credit. They executed very well, and made some really great plays at key moments. In particular, Thomas made some great throws, and their WR’s made some really excellent catches.
Well, no need to dwell on this game too much. I’ll just list the crucial mistakes and let that be that. We are still a very young team and I expect us to be even better next year. We return almost everybody. If we were good enough this year to challenge for the Coastal, I see no reason why we would not challenge for it next year. Hopefully next year, we can make the key plays we need to make.
Anyway, the mistakes:
1) The entire second series. After starting off just about as well as you could ask for, we get the ball back leading 7-0 near the end of the first quarter and just shoot ourselves in the foot repeatedly. (To be fair, VT made a stupid error of their own to give up the TD, jumping offsides on 4th and 5. If they don’t do that, we probably call timeout and take a FG.) Anyway, on this possession, if we can move the ball and eat up some more clock, at the very least we play field position and get closer to taking a lead into halftime. If we score, we can take a 14-0 lead with what probably would have been less than 10 minutes remaining in the half. Instead, what we do is this:
First Down: Tevin misses a read (triple option, blocked well, they have one cornerback to take both Tevin and the pitch man. Tevin, for some reason, pitches immediately, making the cornerback’s decision easy. If Tevin holds the ball and makes the defender make a decision, we probably get 15 or 20 yards on this play. Very strange decision, pitching when the only defender is more than 5 yards away.)
Second Down: Fumbled snap, falls on it for no gain.
Third Down: Orwin drops a very easy catch that would have been a first down.
The significance of that third down drop can’t be understated. We were backed up inside our ten, and the resulting punt from our end zone gave VT the ball at our 35 yard line. If Orwin makes that catch, we have the ball at our 25 or maybe further, and even if we end up punting, VT would at least have to go on a real drive to score. That effectively is a turnover. Orwin makes the catch, GT ball at 25. Orwin drops it, VT ball at 35. Only a 10 yard difference there. Pretty much like throwing an interception downfield.
So essentially, this drive was basically a gift to VT. They did nothing to stop us on any of the 3 plays, and yet we gained 0 yards, at a juncture in the game when we had a real chance to take serious control. Instead, we use up no time really at all, and put our defense in terrible position. VT quickly scores, and we effectively threw away our great start.
(By comparison, in the 3rd quarter when VT faced a 3rd and long from inside its own 10 yard line, their WR, Coale I think?, made a great, acrobatic bobbling catch for a 30 yard gain. That great execution, by both QB and WR, allowed VT to avoid punting from its own end zone. They successfully execute a 30 yard deep pass into good coverage. We fail to execute a 10 yard wide open crossing route. Sigh.)
2) Busted coverage assignment on the ensuing drive. Even after the above mistakes, we could have held VT to a FG. Its 3rd and 7 from GT’s 20 or so, and we have everybody covered well. They have one WR running a deep route. Our cornerback is running with him, and we have one safety playing in the middle of the field. The corner overplays his WR to the inside, even though he has safety help there. As a result, when the WR cuts outside, our corner gets turned around and does not see Thomas release the ball. If he guarded against the outside cut, as he should have since he had safety help to the inside, Thomas probably does not even throw the ball.
3) Busted Coverage assignment on their second TD. Once again, we force 3rd down and long (this time 3rd and 9) and have a chance to force a FG. I am not sure what coverage we called, but we ended up with 3 guys standing right next to each other in the center of the field on the 2 yard line, watching the ball float over their heads to an open WR in the back of the end zone. Pretty sure Groh did not design that coverage to have 3 guys in the same place.
4) On our ensuing drive, we badly mismanaged the clock. I actually put this mistake on Coach Johnson, which I think is pretty rare. Anyway, once we got inside VT’s 40 yard line, there was around 3 minutes left and we had 3 timeouts. In other words, we have plenty of time. We need to be running as much time off the clock as possible.
Instead, we snap the ball with 18, 15, 12, 12 and 12 seconds on the play clock on 5 consecutive plays. That is a total of 69 seconds. After failing to convert 3rd down from VT’s 25 yard line, there was 1:30 on the clock. We run it down as far as we can, to about 1:00, and call timeout to try a FG. Had we been running the play clock down to 5 seconds, the clock would have been around 45 seconds left. At this point, we could have run the clock down to 15 or 10 seconds to try the FG (yes VT could have called timeout to stop it, but they chose not to do so with the clock at 1:30, and let us run it down to 1:00. I don’t see why they would have called timeout with 45 seconds, given that decision)
Note that with 45 seconds left, had we converted the third down, it is our ball inside VT’s 20 yard line with 3 timeouts. That is probably plenty of time to run 6 plays, especially if we make an effort to get out of bounds, and/or pass the ball some. So we can still make the full effort to score a touchdown.
If VT takes over with under 15 seconds left in the half, they almost certainly take a knee, and we would have been playing prevent defense anyway, so a long TD would have been very unlikely. As it was, with 1:00 left, they decided to try to attack, and of course hit the long TD pass. Our defense should have gotten a stop there, but we did not even need to put them in that position. Poor clock management.
5) Busted Coverage on the long TD pass before the half. Once again, our corner does not know where the safety help is. This time, we have 2 deep safeties, playing the outside of both sides of the field. Our corner overplays the WR faking a deep out, and when the WR cuts inside, he is open for a long pass. This was especially frustrating because in this case the DB was behind the WR, so he was looking down field, staring at the safety. The WR was running right at the safety. So I have no idea why the corner was guarding so heavily against the cut outside.
6) Personal Foul by Attaochu on 3rd and 19, as he is sacking Thomas. Looked like he got frustrated, lost his cool, and punched him. Attaochu said he was trying to punch the ball out. I guess that is possible. If he was, he missed by a significant margin. But maybe he was. It was during a tackle, and he was not exactly under control. If he was trying to punch the ball out, the best I can say is that was stupid to try to do in that situation. The ball was tucked away pretty tightly, the QB was almost down, and he was holding the ball so high that any punch attempt at the ball is likely to hit his shoulder or head. However, based on the video, I would say its more likely he was just trying to punch him. Either way, that was a crucial situation, and you simply have to understand how important getting the ball back is there. As soon as you get him wrapped up, you need to calm down, and basically stop everything. He is not going to drag the pile 20 yards. Nobody should be trying to throw him down or do anything that might possibly draw a personal foul. Just hold him in place, stack him up and wait for the refs to blow the play dead. Incredibly stupid play.
7) Two consecutive major execution errors by Tevin on 3rd and short and 4th and short from our own 30 yard line. I know a lot of people disagreed with Coach Johnson’s decision to go for it. Personally, I loved it. If we punt, and our defense can’t get a stop, VT can drive downfield, eat up almost the rest of the game, and score a TD. They do that, and we have maybe 3 or 4 minutes, maybe less, to come back. This way, its their ball at the 30, they can only eat up maybe 5 minutes at most, and worst case we have 6 or 7 minutes to come back. Only being down a point, it will be a 1 score game either way. So, the down side is not very bad, and you have to figure we’ll convert 4th and less than 1 75% of the time or more.
So, the mistake. Both times, we called the QB follow, where Tevin fakes the dive and follows the B-Back. Both times, Tevin panicked and cut in front of the B-Back. Neither time did VT really jump the play. They only had 1 guy there to hit Tevin. If he waits for the B-Back, and follows him, as the play is designed, I think he easily converts the first down either time. I believe that is why Coach called the same play on 4th down. He saw that it was there on 3rd. And it was. Tevin needs to execute the play the way its designed, not panic and rush it. But he rushed it, and he ran right into the only defender that had a chance to stop him. There were other defenders nearby, but they were not in position to stop Tevin from getting a half yard.
8) After we got the ball back down 34-26, Tevin missed a WIDE open Roddy Jones on a deep seam route. I mean he was wide open. We ran 4 guys on deep routes, and they only had 3 defenders. The safety took the other A-Back, and there was not a guy within 15 yards of Roddy. He might have scored an 80 yard TD, but at the least he gets 25-30 yards and then maybe runs for more. Tevin never saw him. What makes it worse is that, given how VT lined up, Tevin should have figured the corners would take the WR’s, so he should have simply watched the safety, and thrown to the other A-Back. It was fairly apparent that VT was not going to have all 4 covered, based on their pre snap alignment.
Now, I should add, both teams made a bunch more mistakes than this. That is normal. Every game you expect to make 15-20 mistakes at least. That is just football.
I would categorize these mistakes as more egregious, due to their nature, the situation, or both. You simply have to be able to focus in a big game, know the situation, and not blow these plays. VT did it. We did not.
I would say 2 or 3 mistakes of this magnitude are normal for a game. You can’t make 8 and expect to win.
We just have to execute better. I hope its youth. We are a young team, and usually experienced teams execute better than young teams.
Hope we learned from this.
Go Jackets!
