Great command of the O. No mistakes. Ran and threw the ball when we needed you to.
But you need to slide and not take so many big hits.
But you need to slide and not take so many big hits.
Great game Josh Jackson!
- Thread starter BigDaddyHokie
- Start date
Yes, great game by all, except the kicker. I told my wife before each of his misses that he would miss and sure enough, he did. Slye is iffy beyond 35 yard line and today he couldn't even make a 32 yarder. While his two misses didn't cost us this game, the next ones probably will. Time to move on and give someone else a chance.
Thought Jackson played really well for his first game, looks like the future is bright at QB for VT. Downside on offense seemed to be the best RB is the QB. I didn't feel the defense played as well overall as you have come to expect from Bud. Grier had all day to throw just about every time. I believe that made it tough on the DBs. The VT punter had a good night especially compared to how bad the WV punter was. VT had good field position all night compared to WV, a win for VT special teams. Only expectation was the missed FG's by VT kicker. It was a really good game to watch, especially the 2nd half. Both teams look to have good seasons.
As usual, Bud was too straightforward in an early game. He didn't blitz until late in the game, which put too much pressure on his backfield, and they couldn't perform under those circumstances. I was stunned at how uncontested the slants were. The effort was great, Jackson's football IQ and composure is off the charts for a youngster. In many ways he reminded me of an older Bryan Randall. Great game, I was sweaty and exhausted at the end, and I was on my couch watching. ...and guess who didn't fumble.
Agree with everything said about Jackson. You could see him settle in as the game went on.
The play calling in the 1st half was reminiscent of Stinespring. Much better in the 2nd half.
No pressure at all on the WVU quarterback. and he just sat back until he found an open receiver. The guy does have a hot looking wife and the camera guys loved her.
So, a great game to watch but they've got a long way to go to be able to beat Clemson.
Hope they solve Slye's problems with field goals. Most fired up crowd I've ever seen at FedEx.
That was a pretty good QB though. He showed us he has a big arm, and he was well protected by his line all night, even though I thought a lot of fairly obvious holding wasn't getting called for a large part of the game. With as much time as he had to throw he's going to get his yards. We've seen Bud's defenses before giving up a lot of yards between the 20's to these kind of QB's, while still holding them out of the end zone enough for us to win. I think that was the case again with WVU only scoring 24 points, and it seems to me that in order to beat a Fuente offense most teams will need to be scoring in at least the 30's to have a chance beat him. WVU couldn't score enough. To some extent I also think our D line depth had to do with WVU's good pass protection too. But the schedule is favorable for us to have some time to work on that line depth before we get to Clemson.
Bud had me seriously shaking my head in the 2nd qtr. WVU had a new QB back there who looked like a deer-in-the-headlights in the 1st qtr, and WVU's playcalling was almost exclusively read options and trap plays up the middle at that point (they had 1 first down in the opening 18 minutes). So what does Bud do? Totally unloads the box (6) and alternates rushing 3 and rushing 4...neither of which got any pressure at all. Meanwhile - and suddenly - with all day to set up and look over the field, the WVU QB regained his composure and lit VT's secondary up for the rest of the game.
Dammit, Bud...you almost cost us big time there. The old Bud Foster would NEVER have called off the dogs when the opponent couldn't block a loaded box. The new, gentler, kinder Bud Foster of the past few years has been a curious beast. The fact that he kept 6 in the box the rest of the game really raises an eyebrow with me. Dude, it wasn't working. At all. Go back to what was working and quit playing prevent, which tried it's best to prevent us from winning.
Dammit, Bud...you almost cost us big time there. The old Bud Foster would NEVER have called off the dogs when the opponent couldn't block a loaded box. The new, gentler, kinder Bud Foster of the past few years has been a curious beast. The fact that he kept 6 in the box the rest of the game really raises an eyebrow with me. Dude, it wasn't working. At all. Go back to what was working and quit playing prevent, which tried it's best to prevent us from winning.
I hate prevent D just as much as you do, but I didn't see us generating any pass rush either. We knew going into this season that D-line is going to be average. Our starting DT are great, but there isn't much behind them, and DE's, other than Hill, are very ordinary. What that, I think Bud's options are limited.
The 6 in the box also allowed their inside read option and trap plays to start picking up chunks of yardage on the ground, which helped jump start the rest of their offense.
WVU's offense might've eventually woken up either way, but I was just commenting on it due to the noticeable "take foot off throat" effect I noticed it had on the flow of the game back when it happened, and how you never would've seen that kind of thing happen 15 years ago.
I was pretty happy with the offense overall. Less productivity than I was expecting in the 1st half, but quite a bit more productivity than I expecting in the second half, so it averaged out nicely. So...we have 4 years with this QB, barring life events, injuries and NFL $$$? Heck yeah...sign me up.
WVU's offense might've eventually woken up either way, but I was just commenting on it due to the noticeable "take foot off throat" effect I noticed it had on the flow of the game back when it happened, and how you never would've seen that kind of thing happen 15 years ago.
I was pretty happy with the offense overall. Less productivity than I was expecting in the 1st half, but quite a bit more productivity than I expecting in the second half, so it averaged out nicely. So...we have 4 years with this QB, barring life events, injuries and NFL $$$? Heck yeah...sign me up.
Yeah the 2bd qtr when Bud unloaded the box our pass rush got weak with only 4 and we lack depth on the D line so the 1st stringers got tired and the backups were not a factor. It was a tough night for our DBs who looked good.
I never saw so much cramping in cool weather before.
I never saw so much cramping in cool weather before.
Bud addressed this in one of the post game interviews and basically said that due to lack of depth on the defensive line, and playing against a spread tempo offense, and that the defense as a whole had expended so much energy in the first half, that we wound up dropping eight in order to offset the shots he knew they were going to be taking down field . I've seen a lot of criticism for bud not blitzing more, but it sounds like he had thought it through and decided the best option with what he had was to do what he did. I Think that's why he was so incredibly relieved and happy that we got the stops when we needed to And walked away with a win.
I thought our PK was automatic from 50 yards in. The best way to solve kicking problems, is score TDs and not send FG kicker on field.
All that makes sense.
I guess what we need to do now against the Not-Clemson part of the schedule is to rotate as many bodies as we can along the front and see if can find some contributors so that this doesn't continue to hamstring the defensive alignments all season long.
If VT has a solid running game without Jackson always being the lead rusher, I believe his upside is huge. The dual threat is great but he can't do it all every game. I was very impressed with his poise on such a big stage game one.
Coach Foster says we don't have depth on the D-Line.
We have more than 25 O-lineman and TEs on the roster. Many of them played both ways in high school. Why can't he draw upon this beef on the pine to supplement his D-Line! We need fresh leg to rush the passer!
We have more than 25 O-lineman and TEs on the roster. Many of them played both ways in high school. Why can't he draw upon this beef on the pine to supplement his D-Line! We need fresh leg to rush the passer!
