“Okay, fine...engage.”
Big Play Breakdown:Stunted Growth
That was an interesting early turnover. But we don’t have to talk about it.
But we should, though, because there’s a whole lot we can learn from it.
If dumb moments ruined what should’ve been a good showing by the defense, then the offense was hacked off at the knees by poor blocking:
Every stunt has two parts: a “penetrator” and a “looper.” The penetrator is a decoy. He goes buck and attacks at an angle in order to attract blockers and drag them away from the real action. That creates an open rushing lane. Meanwhile, the looper circles behind the penetrator and pops through the spot just vacated by the offense. If you don’t see it coming, it’s like an angry, bear-sized Jack-in-the-box just opened up on you. “Long stick” means the looper is crossing multiple gaps. Here’s what it looks like drawn up:
And here’s the video again, with tags this time:
It wasn’t Drones’ responsibility to account for this rusher. If anything, he should be comfortable knowing that he won’t have pressure in his grill. You can’t play well if you don’t trust your teammates to execute. The quarterback is responsible for those extra defenders outside of the box who can rush in and outnumber the blockers. The Hokies have five blockers for five rush threats, and end up with only four actual rushers. This is a blocking failure.
What should have happened? When it comes to blocking stunts, every offensive lineman learns some variation of this rule:
The best way to stop stunts is to realize the defense is trying to create a rush lane when that hard slant hits. If the blocker follows the penetrator, the battle is lost. And even if the blocker tries to split the difference and waits until he sees the next guy coming through, it’s often too late. That looper is running full-tilt, while the blocker has to disengage and defend a big gap.
It surprised me that Tomas Rimac (LG, #55) is the guy who turned the rusher loose. Rimac’s the resident Montgomery Burns of the offensive line, and should be looking for late-arriving trouble. But he’s got his facemask buried into a rusher’s shoulder. Rimac’s head needs to be up and looking for the next man through so he can grab the second rusher and ride him out of the way.
Tech looks like they’re running a “half-slide” protection. Half-slide is a mix of man and zone blocking that’s generally good at picking up stunts. Zone blocking allows the line to protect a general area, which is great for stopping criss-crossy stunts, blitzes, and the like. In the image below, the zone side of the protection is circled; it involves the left tackle, left guard, and center. The right guard and right tackle are blocking man/base:
Notice that depending on where the defensive end on the zone side rushes, he can be picked up by either the tackle or the guard. At the snap, the zone blockers step to the outside (their left side) and trust the guy inside of them to do his job.
The remaining two blockers man/base-block the two nearest defenders. That means they identify the most dangerous nearby threats and block them, unless those rushers do something drastic, like fall off in coverage or leave the area on a stunt. If you go back and watch the clip, Wake Forest does both of these things, and the man blockers switch to secondary assignments.
Because the three-man side is zoning in half-slide, it should do a good job of picking up blitzes and stunts. And for the Hokies during the interception, the zone side ended up being the side the stunt attacked. The problem was that Altuner gave up his zone responsibility too quickly, and then Rimac committed too quickly to helping him at center. Rimac abandoned his outside responsibility and the rush hit home. If he figured out what was happening a tiny bit faster, he could’ve at least popped his arm out and slowed the rush enough for Drones to get the ball away.
Rimac has been a great team-player this year. He’s manned four different spots on a young and oft-injured line. But it looks like that team-first ethic and having to help out so many youngsters is coming at a cost. He’s been asked to do too much, and it’s hurting him. Saturday might’ve been his worst performance of the season.
Is there an easy solution? Or even a solution of any kind? I don’t know. If folks don’t get healthy, Tech’s stuck with a bad hand. Right now, this line doesn’t do anything consistently, and if Stewart’s still hurt, there isn’t anyone on the offense who can overcome blocking limitations like he can.
From the Peanut Gallery: Quarterbacking
Here’s what PFF thought of the Hokies’ offensive performances on Saturday:
Judging from internet chatter, a lot of folks would be surprised to see Drones grading anywhere but dead last, and they’d be really surprised to see him earning a middling grade that’s one of the top grades for the offense.
Drones had a below-average day throwing the ball against Wake. And he hasn’t had a great year. But he’s had some good games, some great moments, and overall, he’s been pretty average. He’s got undeniable holes in his game. He’s gotten better at reading the field and working the pocket, but his accuracy remains inconsistent and the fumbles are killers. He has some strengths, too, especially running and improvising. Unfortunately, he’s having a hard time showing what he does well because so much is going wrong around him. Well, he’s showing off his iron chin, because he’s taking big shots every game.
I’m hearing echos of Grant Wells in terms of the blame Drones is getting. Like Wells, Drones is playing behind a line that would give Mike Vick problems, and in general he’s dealing with diminished talent around him (remember that Wells’ Marshall squad had several guys who would’ve started or gotten good minutes with the Hokies.) Wells had Pry on his back in post-game interviews, which might have swayed some in the fanbase, but Montgomery’s been supportive so far.
[Editor’s note from CC: That’s a great comparison. Wells was Tech’s third-highest grading starter on offense in 2022. Drones is No. 2 this year, so it’s very similar.]
Chute Drills
- Linebacker Watch: Chambers balled out, and Keller might’ve had his best game of the season.
- Those coaches’ shirts looked like they had placeholder text font on ‘em.
- Wake closed the game on a long stick stunt.
- Because of course they did.
- In addition to stunts, the Deacs spent a lot of time bringing safeties and nickels in late.
- Folks are ragging on some soft spots in the zone, but remember the defensive backs are mostly guys no one’s heard of.
- And those guys are injured and being replaced by new guys no one’s ever heard of.
- Is it just me, or does CW not cut to commercial as much as other stations?
- The Hokies have been running more Toss Read like I hoped they would, though they aren’t getting as many of the mug looks that made me want to see it in the first place.
- I’m wondering if some jet motion on passing downs might be a way to crack things loose, or at least force the defense into something more predictable.
- I know slow screens to the running back have been the answer to unstoppable pass rushes since dinosaurs ruled Lambeau Field, but I don’t know if I’d trust this crew to run them.
- And I’d wager the reason we haven’t seen slow screens yet is because the coaches haven’t been able to get this crew to run them.