But man was Saturday's game bad. The quarterback who threw for the most yardage ever on a Bud Foster defense (and probably most-ever on a VT defense, though I can't find a robust enough database to get the full history) wasn't throwing darts in the least. Many of his passes were wounded ducks, and there were just no DBs within acres of the receiver.
I fully understand that the lack of experience is a huge problem, but it's more than that, too. Hopefully getting Deablo back and shifting Ladler out of a coverage-heavy role improves things, but the corners were bad too, the pressure wasn't there, etc.
To a large extent, you have to hope it was just a one-game lapse of not taking a team seriously (and going into the game, honestly, you wouldn't have blamed the team), and a learning experience that tunes up the mental/attitude side of things. If that gets back in line, the physical/experience shortcomings are far less damaging.
I fully understand that the lack of experience is a huge problem, but it's more than that, too. Hopefully getting Deablo back and shifting Ladler out of a coverage-heavy role improves things, but the corners were bad too, the pressure wasn't there, etc.
To a large extent, you have to hope it was just a one-game lapse of not taking a team seriously (and going into the game, honestly, you wouldn't have blamed the team), and a learning experience that tunes up the mental/attitude side of things. If that gets back in line, the physical/experience shortcomings are far less damaging.
