DCHusker

DB grabbed his arm just as he was about to catch it, should've been pass interference....I think that questionable deep pass interference call we got later was a make-up for it....

The difference between the first and second halves was really marked...it wasn't just that he was under pressure and there was good coverage....he missed many wide open, routine, short/intermediate throws.....11/30 is not "managing the game" There was either something physically wrong with him or he lost his mind having to think about how big a game it was at half time....but if you've had all summer to prepare and think about this game, why would you be fine in the first half and wait until the second half to lose it? I don't know....didn't see anything physical other than that tweaked knee, but he was off the rails before that happened....gotta assume he choked and hope that this will be a learning opportunity for future big games...

The sad part is, that pass ranks in the better half of his second half passes. That's not saying much at all. Yeah...at least it was catchable, which is more than you can say for most of his other second half passes...

Totally agree about the long pass play.....West should have been with that receiver all the way down the sideline...with no VT timeouts you take your chances if they run it, you don't take chances trying to hand off a streaking receiver to a safety....

I can handle one per year...Texas '06 broke my heart...right now this one feels worse but I'll see how it feels in the AM...

Except this happened last year against T tech too.....It was like i was watching the same game I agree. But After One loss I,m not ready to throw the Offense under the bus like so many other's I have seen seem to be. It is one loss to a relitivley good team. I mean honestly there is a reason that Vt has been ranked in the top 25 for the last 5 year's It all comes down to Lee. I don't know what happened to him in the second half. Either he had some kind of minor injury we didn't know about that was affecting his mechanics or at halftime someone told him he had a chance to end VT's 30+ home non-con win streak and win our first road victory against a top 20 team in 13 years, and he completely lost his mind and choked Something wasn't right with him out there....hopefully it was something physical/mechanical that can be fixed.....but if it was psychological, we need to be worried about him in big games from here on out

Theoretically indeed...after what Alabama and now we did to them with the running game, I'm not so sure any more, we'll see what they do from here out, but I wasn't impressed with their run D... I love Helu, but great run defenses don't give up 169 yds on only 28 carries to a single back, I don't care how good he is....and it's not like he broke off any huge 50+ yd runs.....he was getting consistent yardage with every touch....

Explain that one to me. You lose momentum by punting? How? The offense had been putrid all day. We put it back on the defense and VA Tech's offense. A battle we had won all day and give them incredibly long field. Don't see how that took away momentum AT ALL. Because you're trying to run out the clock and they've stopped you from doing it with over a minute left.... You can't have it both ways...you're saying that giving them the ball at their own 39 is a HUGE momentum shift, but giving them the ball at their own 10-20 is a victory for us....I don't see that big a difference between the two... Okay, simply put .. You punt the ball on 4th down. Defense and ST comes off the field and Tech's offense comes on. Do they come on inspired and the crowd really that fired up? Defense makes a stand. Crowd goes insane. Tech sideline goes insane. Tech's offense comes onto the field inspired. Our offense comes off the field deflated and our defense sees that. Which swings momentum more? If you cannot realize that, then I don't know. I certainly concede that not getting a 4th and 1 gives them more momentum than does punting, I never said otherwise, I just don't think it's that big a difference Look, I'm not saying that going for it is the obvious call, it's a tough decision...but based on how we ran the ball all day, I'd take the 10-20% risk that we don't get it and give them an extra ~20 yards and extra MO than they would have after a punt in exchange for the 80-90% chance that we end the game...

It just wasn't on that last TD pass but the whole freaking game. You're a defensive lineman and you're suppose to rip the QB's head off and they didn't play like they wanted too and it was downright disgusting. ATTACK THE QUARTERBACK......DON'T DANCE WITH THEM I'll disagree with that....we knew going in that the DL's responsibility was going to be to keep Taylor in the pocket and make him throw and specifically not to force him outside the pocket...that "dancing" worked all day...

Just posted this in another thread....but he was right to hesitate and get his hands up, that's the way they played TT all day and it worked...contain and get hands up in his passing lanes....it's when you get aggressive with him that he burns you with his legs....they just made an unbelievable throw and catch

That was just the way they decided to play him the whole game, contain him in the pocket, make him throw passes, and get hands up in his passing lanes...it was effective all day....and it took a nearly miraculous throw and catch to beat us on that last play...

I threw several objects of varying size and shape. But, I've learned to manage my rage in such a way as to not break anything. Kinda proud of my performance. That's the positive I'm taking away from this game.

In fact, when you take into account the 30+ home non-con win streak for VT, voters who only see that we led by 5 with the ball and under 2:00 to go may even be impressed

Yeah.....Kansas and Miami should jump us...NC or Michigan could also jump us....maayyybe Missouri....we probably jump ahead of Utah, maaayyybe GT, but nobody else...Ok St looks safe so far, maybe Cincy if Oregon St blows them out I'd guess we'll be 22-25 Frankly, I don't think we deserve to be in there, but most of the voters won't have watched the whole game and won't realize how pitiful our performance was...They'll just see the highlights and say we had VT beat in Blacksburg until the last minute of the game....

Explain that one to me. You lose momentum by punting? How? The offense had been putrid all day. We put it back on the defense and VA Tech's offense. A battle we had won all day and give them incredibly long field. Don't see how that took away momentum AT ALL. Because you're trying to run out the clock and they've stopped you from doing it with over a minute left.... You can't have it both ways...you're saying that giving them the ball at their own 39 is a HUGE momentum shift, but giving them the ball at their own 10-20 is a victory for us....I don't see that big a difference between the two...

Well, I couldn't find the NCAA rule, but here's the NFL rule; I believe they're the same: "if a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact with an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball after he touches the ground, whether in the field of play or in the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete." Gotta hold on throughout the process of hitting the ground...not just the first knee down....it's not called very consistently though...

I've never bought this argument. If the defense is that incredible, then it should be irrelevant whether you have to defend 60 yds of field or 80 yds, you go for the yard to end the game, and you trust your defense enough to know then won't give up 60 if you don't get it.... It's a game of momentum in that situation. We are talking as if we had not gotten in - if we had not, every drop of momentum swings towards Tech and we our put on our heels to defend a shorter field. People treat MO as if it isn't real and doesn't affect the game, but it does - ALOT. You're already losing a lot of momentum by being forced to punt with 1:00+ on the clock, you're on the road, you take the risk and try to end the game....

But here's the thing, IF we do not get it, every single drop of that momentum we had is gone, in one play. The crowd goes insane and you give the Tech offense a shorter field to work with. You punt the ball away, you keep the momentum we already have and force Tyrod, who had not done a single thing all game, to go almost 90 yards on us. I like my chances with the latter more than I do anything else. Unfortunately O'Hanlon botched a coverage horribly. It happens. Fortunately, we showed what we are capable of. I've got enough heat to go on Pelini for some mistakes in this one. The punt isn't one of them. But NOW we get to see what type of real coaching staff we have. A bad coaching staff will let this bother their team for the rest of the sason. A good coaching staff will use this to show a young team how good they really are and as a motivating factor into the B12 schedule. I say it again, and I'll go to my grave believing it. You have a running back averaging over six yards a carry. A QB sneak/draw hadn't failed all game. Sometimes you just have to smash through for that yard and damn the torpedos. But he played conservative. He did the safe thing. Well whoopie. Moving forward I hope this staff never chickens out like they did today. If you want to have a team with attitude, you've got to believe you can get one God damned yard to win the biggest game of your life. Agreed, look at it this way... You punt: you have to defend 80-90 yds You go for it: you end the game if you get a yard (likely), even if you don't get a yard (unlikely), you are still defending 60 yds It is well worth risking that 20 yds of field position given the high likelihood you can end the game!

I've never bought this argument. If the defense is that incredible, then it should be irrelevant whether you have to defend 60 yds of field or 80 yds, you go for the yard to end the game, and you trust your defense enough to know then won't give up 60 if you don't get it....

I don't think the play calling was fine.....they went away from the run way too easily inside the 20....of course, it's hard to blame the play calling when Lee misses half a dozen wide open straightforward passes...

How can you run the ball the length of the field and then get inside the 10 and go away from the run....absurd

One problem with this that I see, there were very few receivers ever open. Yes, Lee missed a couple of short passes that were open. Holt dropped a touchdown that would have won the game, the defense gave up an inexcusable play on the last drive. This loss was not all on Lee's shoulders and I hope that the people that want to call for his head TIVO'ed the game and go back and watch it again. Watch it again?! What kind of sick sadist are you?!

Lee didn't look bad in the first half....I wonder if there isn't a ding to the hand/shoulder/elbow we don't know about yet....he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat in the second half....should've been pulled halfway through Q3

You can't expect them to cover for 20 seconds, it was a great play. If you want to blame somone blame the D line for standing there and watching Taylor instead of attacking. I think he's talking about the play that put them at the 3, not the TD pass...could be wrong.... O'Hanlon should've been over the top, but I don't understand why West completely bailed out on the coverage either...he should have been on the wideout all the way down the sideline...it was the other side of the field they had loaded with receivers...

One of the worst second half offensive performances I've ever seen, one good pass play on a blown coverage that Lee still almost threw out of bounds.....then the defense manages to completely negate a solid half with a single, profoundly studid play