Crimson Red Sports

First: I want to congratulate the Bama coaches and players on the win.  However, I think all should be glad CJ is on Bama’s team.  I know he couldn’t have scored with the blocking and play of others.  He was the brightest spot on the field.  I hate to say this, but Bama did not look like a number 1 team, especially on offense.

Offense:  The offense must improve.  I have them down for 6 three and outs.  I am not sure if this is worse than the 14 negative plays which include tackles for loss, sacks, and interceptions.    I also have 5 pressures by the VT defense.  I don’t know why Bama couldn’t figure out that VT has at least 6 in the box and some times more.  I really didn’t see many check off which should be a strong point of AJ’s at this time of his career.   Maybe with all the new players the coaches weren’t comfortable with it.  The Hokies decided early they were going to load the box and make Bama throw the ball to beat them.  Bama never really put enough pressure on VT with the passing game to make them quit stacking the box.  I also wonder why when playing man and the defender is lined up inside of a rec why not work the outside?  Bama got the ball in good field position a couple of times and came out with no points.  They only put 14 on the board.  I don’t know if this was a factor, but the offense did lose opportunities to be on the field  because of the punt return, the int return, and the kick off return.

QB:  I didn’t think AJ played that well.  There were too many throws off the back foot and I think the let go of the ball too soon a few times.  There were a couple of drops, some good throws and some bad throws. 

RB:  They were hit many times behind the LOS.  I don’t know why Bama didn’t try to run outside more to get away from backside numbers.   The pass blocking must improve.  I really don’t think any did a consistent job of pass blocking.  VT was well coached because the screen game was not a factor.  I did like AT and felt bad for DH.  The first time DH touched the ball he was hit about the same time. 

REC:  I am not sure if they didn’t get away or AJ wasn’t pulling the trigger.  They were a couple of balls I thought should have been caught, but weren’t. 

OL:   Here is where there better be drastic improvement.   I thought there were times when they looked good, the first drive showed potential.  I thought there were missed assignments because of communication especially when some combo blocks were necessary.   I also don’t think they took proper steps to get to where they needed to be.  I thought at times the some of the OL feet were to wide and couldn’t move well enough to make the block.  I don’t think they stayed on their blocks long enough.  I did see AK pull up in the hole and make a good block.  Probably one of the funniest things I saw was when CJ lined up as a tight end.

Defense: The defense played pretty well except for a couple of plays.  I have VT with 9 three and outs.  The D only came up with 4 negative plays one of which was an int for a TF.  They also pressured the QB about 7 times.  There were a couple of huge stats too me.  First, VT had 212 total yard and 111 came on 2 plays. Second and probably the biggest, I counted at least 6 catchable balls that would have been first downs and kept drives alive.  This was not because of the D, they were just dropped.  With that all being said, this means VT only had 101 yards the rest of the game.  I also think Bama played with a very basic defensive scheme. 

DL: I thought the D line played a solid game most of the night.  I did notice and the announcer pointed it out the Tomlinson got driven past the center.   I don’t know if he was supposed to be on a stunt or if he just got caught and driven. 

LB:  CJM stands out all the time.  He did miss a tackle, but I can take 1 missed tackle when there were few.  Others came in and played well I thought.

DB: One of the biggest surprises to me was John Fulton.  I thought he played well.  The secondary came up and played the option, the few times VT ran it, very well.  They did get beat deep a couple of time, but fortunately they didn’t come up with a play.  VS had a great read on his int and never broke stride on scoring the TD.  As a whole I thought the DB’s played pretty well.  As, I said above, I think they played with a basic scheme, I think coverage will even get better with more blitz packages.

Penalties: Bama had 4 for 25, 2 of which were holding calls on CK.   

Special teams:  This is where Bama excelled.  They had 2 TD’s one on Kickoff Return and the other on the Punt Return.  The coverage was very good most of the night.  The last punt return was the worse, but the punter made the tackle.  I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I think it was 49 that went down on the kickoff coverage team and blew a couple of people up.  This allowed others to make the play.  I also wanted to point out CJM running not quite stride for stride with CJ on his KOR for the TD, but close.

Finally:  Again, Congrats to the Bama team and coaches. 

Please feel free to comment.

Good Luck and Roll Tide Roll 
15 and counting

Thanks fro saying it quitre as we saw it..your analysis is always spot on, and I for one look forward to it as much as CNS" post-game comments.

Great notes HS. By thing is why didn't we run those famous crossing routes. The short passes would have maybe opened things up.  Also I agree we should have run wide to negate the numbers in the box even a reverse to keep them honest.
Line play had better shore things up. Way to many whiffs.
Remember CNS has been talking, the Oline is a work in progress.

Thanks coach, great notes.  Is it true that a team's greatest improvement comes between games one and two?  Sure hope so since the OL needs a LOT of improvement!

Look forward to your notes on the aTm game.  ROLL TIDE!!!   #+

I think it is different for each team.   I do think there can be more improvement from game 1/2 just because there are so many things that can be fixed.   Some of these things many people don't even notice.

Good stuff coach!! :clap:

I am watching the game again and it seems like we were being conservative right from the beginning.

All by design, the ole KISS reasoning for all the newcomers.

I think the game plan offensively and defensively was vanilla.

Ed Zachary! These 2 weeks leading to the A&M game will be preparation for a totally different game plan. You can count on it.

I think the vanilla game plan might have been related partially to AJ's toe surgery.  He was having issues with his footwork -- throwing off his back foot, being a split second slow in delivering the ball.  It wasn't just AJ, but also the O-Line and young RBs missing blocks -- AJ was rushed more than last year.

Beautiful job, Coach.  I looked for halftime adjustments but didn't see any.

I agree.  It was like the announcer said: it looks like Bama was determine to force their will on VT.

I think with the score 28-10 at halftime, the plan was to sit on the lead. Don't show or risk anything.

 #+, Hey HC as always the list was as good as ever. We have a lot of improvement, but we have the coach who run it into the them if he needs to. I am praying for our guys at practice next week. Time to learn and become a team of Eleven and not 2 or 3. One thing for sure, anytime you play a VA. Tech team that Coach Beamer is running you are going to get their best job. RTR!

hscoach, not to look at things through crimson-colored glasses, but in my opinion things aren't as bad as they looked. Don't get me wrong - there is definitely work to be done on the OL. However, VT ran a great scheme in overloading and bringing stunts - there were simply too many to block for the OL and TEs at times. What do you think?

They may not be as bad as they looked.  There must improve the OL play.   It was a combination of bad steps, miss communication, and not continuing the with the blocks.   Maybe Bama didn't want to show the check game too much because they rarely checked out of bad plays.  Maybe Bama read a little of their own press clippings and thought they could just man handle this team. 

I forgot to put this in with RB's. JF did not look very good at blocking when lined up in the backfield at times.  He didn't hit the hole hard and the running back paid the price on a 3rd and 1.  Also, I don't think he looked real confident when he ran the ball.

I hoped he was coming back strong , maybe he just had a bad night
maybe the goblins are in is head , either way , I really hope he improves
from this first outing before ATM ....

I think VT DL and Bud Foster's game plan deserve more respect than we are giving them. Regardless our OL has to improve. VT was over loading the box but our receivers could now get open in man coverage. We have to make the opponent pay when they bring more than we can block.

Did anyone else notice Landon Collins #26 on special teams? He looks like a good player to me.

I agree LC had a good night on special teams.  I can see him getting into the secondary at times this year.   I also agree VT had a good game plan, but why not check out of those bad plays.  Bama had, I think 14, negative plays, not counting pressures.

JF's play ...

looking at last years 1st outing and some of JF's work in that game
was the VT game plan that much better than UM had ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zStxtcjBRmU

Cecil Hurt does not seem as concerned about the OL as we are.

I hope he is correct.