We'll just chalk that one up to a few things:
-- Nobody playing well.
-- Everyone playing badly.
Does that sound like what you saw? That was basically why we lost. I suppose, if I was really inclined, I could offer some praise for a couple players here and there, but not after a 56-20 loss where the score made it look deceptively close.
That's why we lost; the reason we got blown out had more to do with Georgia Tech. Their execution: flawless. Paul Johnson threw in a very non-GT-like play as a wrinkle to start his first drive, which worked to perfection. Quite possibly that scared our defenders and kept them tentative the rest of the game, afraid to give up another lightning strike and two steps slow as a result.
Other than that, I'm not much at figuring out who's responsible for screwing what up when I'm watching live, and I deleted the recording before the game even ended, so I don't have anything to look at. I'll just drop my expectations for the whole front seven a notch, and silently thank the schedulers that there aren't any more triple-option cutblocking teams on the schedule. I saw how close the Michigan-Air Force game was and I'm damn happy the Zoomies aren't on the UVA schedule. Maybe they should be in the future, with the insistence that we play GT the week after, every year.
Well, I did tell you this would be a tough three-game stretch. I even predicted we'd lose this one, and you can lose by 1 or 40 and it still only counts as one loss. Given that, I don't want to hear any panic out of any of you. Nobody said we'd be in contention for the ACC championship, so everything I wanted to see this season is still perfectly achievable. It's not like the rest of the ACC is any great shakes, anyway. I mean, did you watch Wake Forest's attempt at football this week?
There is, I guess, one final consolation: our opponent didn't lose to, say, Youngstown State by two touchdowns. (The transitive property of college football, however, suggests the last game of the year will be difficult, and that we would lose to YSU 71.)
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I don't think I did all that well on my predictions this week. That's because I expected competence and a reasonably close game. Let's find out:
-- One of UVA's backs has a run of at least 20 yards. Negatory. Kevin Parks came close with 18.
-- Other than that, UVA averages less than 3.5 yards a carry. Actually they were up around 4.4, and if you take out that 18-yarder it's still 3.8. Most ineffective-looking 4.4 yards a carry I ever saw. I wouldn't have guessed it was that much just by watching the game.
-- Darius Jennings has at least three more catches than the next UVA receiver. No.
-- Jake McGee has the highest per-catch average, again. No, again.
-- Georgia Tech puts together at least one drive of eight minutes or more. I said this because I expected our defense to have trouble with GT's offense. I thought they'd have their moments and get more punts than they did, but I expected frustration. I certainly got that. The problem was, our poor-ass defensive showing proved me wrong after all, because GT never needed eight minutes to score.
That means a big fat goose egg this week. I get to share in the incompetence, and drop to 5-for-16 on the season. And I move to 3-0 on straight-up predictions and 0-1-2 ATS, since I said we'd cover.
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From Old Virginia Ballot - Week 3
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 2 | Florida Gators |  12 |
| 3 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 5 |
| 4 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 5 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 6 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 7 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | -- |
| 8 | Clemson Tigers | 1 |
| 9 | Georgia Bulldogs | 3 |
| 10 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 11 | Stanford Cardinal | 5 |
| 12 | Texas Longhorns | 1 |
| 13 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 4 |
| 14 | Michigan St. Spartans |  -11 |
| 15 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 16 | West Virginia Mountaineers | 2 |
| 17 | Kansas St. Wildcats | 2 |
| 18 | Louisville Cardinals | 7 |
| 19 | Arizona Wildcats | 1 |
| 20 | UCLA Bruins | 2 |
| 21 | Iowa St. Cyclones | 2 |
| 22 | USC Trojans | -20 |
| 23 | Northwestern Wildcats | -- |
| 24 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | -- |
| 25 | Ohio Bobcats | -- |
| Dropouts: Virginia Tech Hokies, BYU Cougars, Tennessee Volunteers | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
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Last section of the week: Senior Seasons, the compilation of high school football results for our verbal commitments. Here they are:
Damascus 37, Wootton 8: Zach Bradshaw was held to 55 yards on 7 catches, and didn't score, but the WaPo points out that he's already scored on offense, defense, and special teams this season. Damascus is 3-0.
Good Counsel 49, H.D. Woodson 0: Good Counsel didn't need to step on the gas for this one. Brendan Marshall threw just eight passes, six of them complete for 127 yards. Kirk Garner caught one, and ran for a 2PC as well. OLGC is 3-1.
Ocean Lakes 45, Bayside 0: Corwin Cutler was 10 for 11 with 223 yards and three touchdowns. Taquan Mizzell, on the other hand, went nowhere. Ocean Lakes is 4-0, Bayside is 2-2.
Oscar Smith 42, Indian River 6: Zack Jones had one TD catch in the rout. Oscar Smith is 2-1.
Gilman 37, Charlotte Christian (NC) 14 (Micah Kiser) - Gilman is 2-2.
South Iredell 65, West Caldwell 0 (LaChaston Smith) - South Iredell is 4-1.
A.L. Brown 69, J.M. Robinson 21 (Keeon Johnson) - Brown is 4-1.
Battlefield 33, Potomac 14 (Donta Wilkins) - Potomac is 1-2.
North Attleboro 27, BC High 7 (Jack McDonald) - BC High is 0-2.
Monsignor Donovan 18, Lakewood 14 (Brad Henson) - Donovan is 1-1.
Port Arthur Memorial 31, Houston Westside 16 (Hipolito Corporan) - Westside is 1-2.
Varina 37, Thomas Dale 8 (Tim Harris) - Varina is 2-0.
Fork Union 41, Powhatan 20 (Malcolm Cook) - FUMA is 3-1.
St. Christopher's 35, St. Anne's-Belfield 10 (Jack English) - St. Chris is 2-1.
Injury update: that big A.L. Brown win was without Keeon Johnson, who is out with "like turf toe." Add him to the list of injuries that includes LaChaston Smith and Andre Levrone. His coaches hope to have him back in a week or two.
1 comment:
I'm surprised how poorly you played vs. the option, esp the dive and other interior runs. The INT just before the half and the TD we scored on the last play was a killer. Good luck with the rest of your season.
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