on youtube.. Those are great, btw - 18 minutes long and you get probably 3/4 of all the plays, and certainly all of the even remotely important ones.
To me it looked like VT dominated the first 20 minutes of the game as much as any team possibly can while still only being up 3-0. They were moving the ball pretty well, and Duke could do absolutely nothing on offense. Then VT botched a hand-off exchange, Duke recovered, and scored on the very next play. And that was it - the wheels fell off for VT - and Duke looked like a completely different team - they were hitting on all cylinders from that point on.
The main thing stuck out to me:
It's AMAZING how much one fumble can change a game. Look at the UCF game. Pitt was in complete control until they fumbled, and then it turned into a totally different game. It sure would be nice if we could cause more turnovers - things might get a whole lot easier for this team.
Also, it looked to me like Duke was trying to do what Pitt is trying to do this year - open up the run game by first having success with the pass. They couldn't do anything to start the game, but by the middle of the 2nd Q, the pass game got going, and then in the 2nd half the read option stuff was incredibly effective.
I'm starting to have less and less of a feel for this game.. I'm still worried about the run defense - I know that sounds silly cuz we've been good there all year and Duke doesn't have good overall numbers rushing the ball. But while we've played a few RPO teams this year, I don't think any have been nearly the threat to run that this Duke QB is. (Perkins also is a huge threat to run, but he just flat-out DIDN'T much). Duke is gonna test our discipline with this stuff - I wouldn't doubt that their biggest plays were on simple RPO hand-offs or keepers.
To me it looked like VT dominated the first 20 minutes of the game as much as any team possibly can while still only being up 3-0. They were moving the ball pretty well, and Duke could do absolutely nothing on offense. Then VT botched a hand-off exchange, Duke recovered, and scored on the very next play. And that was it - the wheels fell off for VT - and Duke looked like a completely different team - they were hitting on all cylinders from that point on.
The main thing stuck out to me:
It's AMAZING how much one fumble can change a game. Look at the UCF game. Pitt was in complete control until they fumbled, and then it turned into a totally different game. It sure would be nice if we could cause more turnovers - things might get a whole lot easier for this team.
Also, it looked to me like Duke was trying to do what Pitt is trying to do this year - open up the run game by first having success with the pass. They couldn't do anything to start the game, but by the middle of the 2nd Q, the pass game got going, and then in the 2nd half the read option stuff was incredibly effective.
I'm starting to have less and less of a feel for this game.. I'm still worried about the run defense - I know that sounds silly cuz we've been good there all year and Duke doesn't have good overall numbers rushing the ball. But while we've played a few RPO teams this year, I don't think any have been nearly the threat to run that this Duke QB is. (Perkins also is a huge threat to run, but he just flat-out DIDN'T much). Duke is gonna test our discipline with this stuff - I wouldn't doubt that their biggest plays were on simple RPO hand-offs or keepers.
