Grinding for points is hard. Phil Montgomery and the Hokie coaches are dealing with a lot of that grinding right now. The offense is having a hard time getting more than 24 points in a game, and the defense is having a hard time keeping opponents under 30.
I think it’s up to the offense to get things moving in the right direction. Tech’s offense has a little more talent and experience than the defense. It’s also the nature of the game that gives the offense more ability to change the flow of play—a surprise by the defense usually results in a TFL or sack, but a surprise by the offense often results in a touchdown.
Short of complete schematic/execution lapses like Cal had, the Hokies aren’t likely to run their way to those points. FSU, Miami, and UVa are all very good at clogging gaps. The extra week should give the Hokies time to draw up some fun ground-game hijinks against the Seminoles, but short of rolling out the Wishbone or Single Wing, the Hokies likely won’t run their way to victory.
The Hokies need more chunk yards from the passing game. They need them to shift momentum, rattle defenses, and protect plays from getting overused. Tech has a few good receivers, and Drones is still pretty good at slinging long ones. Still, I don’t anyone thinks it’s likely Tech will suddenly impose its will in the passing game. So if there are more explosives to be found, they’ll probably come from rolling the dice on match-up advantages, and on novel plays that catch the defense by surprise.
Manipulating One-On-Ones
This one is going to drive (and has already driven) fans nuts, because it usually means aggressive passing in short-yardage situations. As Bruce Arians has said, “If you’re just trying to play the sticks all day, you’re not going to score a lot of points.” Montgomery’s done a good job of picking spots and taking shots, but the Hokies need to hit a few more. Short-yardage situations might be the place to do it.
Defenses tend to put bodies in the box in short-yardage spots, usually at the expense of the deep pass defense. In the image below, the offense has come out in a heavy formation on a 3rd-and-short play The formation features 12 personnel (one back and two tight ends) with the receivers slotted to the field. The defense responds to the situation and formation by putting an extra defender into the box.
The defense doesn’t want to be vulnerable to the hurry-up and fast motion, so the boundary-side cornerback anchors to the box. That puts the DC in a pinch to the field, though. There are two receivers and only one cornerback to the field, so a linebacker, safety, or nickel has to cover the slot receiver. That’s an advantage for the offense already, especially if it’s a linebacker or safety going against a receiver.
The decision to load the box creates another advantage for the offense: the free safety is all by himself. The offense is running a post/dig concept nicknamed “Mills” where both routes threaten deep, and using play-action to help manipulate the coverage and aid protection. You can see it causing problems against more of a base look here, with the Hokies running the concept from trips:
The dig route is good for at least ten yards at the point of the catch, on up to fifteen, depending on how it’s taught. The post route is even more dangerous—they aren’t usually caught for less than fifteen yards a pop. They’re also fluid routes, with the receivers generally running in high gear to make the catch while in motion. Catching the ball at speed makes it much harder for defenses to rally for the tackle, and the result is often lots of YAC.
Protection has been a problem all year, but the situation and the use of play-action are big factors here. The Hokies have eight blockers available on the play, and they have the advantage of blocking against a defense that’s thinking about the run pre-snap and is seeing run-action live.
The big questions are the skill players themselves. Drones is good at throwing away from safeties, but his accuracy on intermediate balls over the middle is suspect. The receivers haven’t gotten the greatest separation, and their hands haven’t been reliable. It’s just hard to rely on the conventional dropback passing game right now, even when the formations are in Tech’s favor.
As a supplement, I think the Hokies must engineer situations where they surprise the defense enough that the offense can still have great plays despite less-than-perfect throws, bobbled catches, and slow reads.
Scheming It Up
There’s always a place for trick plays, and I think Drones is due for another TD reception. But there are ways to pants defenses that aren’t outright gimmicks, and the best of them are often extensions of plays the offense has already been running. Tech has already had luck adding wheel routes into plays and using slot motion, which are a common sucker punch for offenses, but there are more options out there. A few of these extensions slot right into the Hokies’ current playbook.
Stalk-and-Go
The Hokies have made a living on the perimeter screen game, especially with Cam Seldon getting the ball. Stalk-and-go calls are sort of the play-action version of perimeter screens. The offense fakes the short screen, and when the defense commits to stopping it, the blocking receiver slips by and runs deep for the long ball. If timed correctly by the play-caller, the receiver is usually so wide open that a ball just needs to be in the right zip code to enable a long gain.
Fans might remember the Hokies terrorizing Pitt with this play a few years back. The offense moves the pocket in one direction and sells hard that the throw is to the same side. All that movement is a decoy, though. As the defense rushes to match the offense, an eligible receiver who looks either like a blocker or part of the rush to the same side changes course: he runs in the opposite direction as everyone else, and plants himself in a part of the field that’s been completely vacated by the defense. This fits right into Drones’ strengths, and could be a good way to get Benji Gosnell involved in the passing game. Here, the Hokies are running throwback screen to the running back:
Tunnel screens are the turducken of the screen game. It’s a wide throw to the receiver, but that receiver is breaking hard inside back towards the defense and ends up catching it almost in the box. This is so he can get behind a bunch of bulldozing offensive linemen screen-blocking for him. It’s a bit of a throwback play, too, as it often features a feigned sprint away from the screen. If you’re a linebacker or safety who isn’t expecting it, it’s confounding trying to figure out why so many OL are angrily migrating in your direction.
One thing all these plays have in common is a short shelf life. Tunnel screens can be a staple sprinkled in and out of games over the course of the season. The same is true for throwbacks, though they should probably be even less frequent. Stalk-and-go might show up a few times a season, tops. Getting these plays working to their potential is one place where the coaches make their money. The OC has to know when to call the play, and the position coaches have to have their guys sharp despite limited game reps with these plays.
Wrapping Up