What Happened Against Boston College
Great coaching and blocking help Hokies overcome hidden injuries and some surprisingly poor individual performances
Virginia Tech dismantled Boston College last Thursday night under the lights at Lane Stadium.
Although the third quarter surely had some fans muttering, “Here we go again…”, the final stats show complete domination by the guys in the all-orange jerseys.
The game can be summed up with two advanced stats:
EPA per Play
Virginia Tech: 0.46
Boston College: 0.10
Post-game Win Probability: 0.2%
EPA per Play reflects what all of your eyes saw. Tech’s offense gashed the Eagle defense, both on the ground and through the air. BC’s offense, meanwhile, mostly sputtered.
The Post-game Win Probability shows that if the game was played again with each team accumulating the same statistics, Boston College would have a 0.2% chance of winning (1 in 500).
While the result was convincing, the Hokies’ level of play was inconsistent across the board. And that includes the players who did the most to light up the stat sheet.
A record setting night
Offense
Bhayshul Tuten ran for 266 yards, setting a new single game rushing record at Virginia Tech.
Nonetheless, his preliminary PFF grade was just a 70.6. If you think that’s harsh, keep in mind Tuten was running through massive holes and was basically untouched on the two long TD runs, which together accounted for more than half of his rushing total.
The offensive line deserves a lot of credit (that record is theirs as much as it is Tuten’s).
highlighted the offensive line’s in-season improvements as a unit, all points I want to echo.Each starting lineman has demonstrated very solid year-over-year improvement.
I look for an overall offensive grade increase of five points as a baseline number for a really strong developmental program. That would take a guy who, for example, played in a few games during a redshirt season and notched a baseline grade to around 80 as a senior, which is roughly all-conference level.
Here are the Y-O-Y changes for the starters:
LT Xavier Chaplin: +16.7
LG Bob Schick: +6.4
C Braelin Moore: +4.1
RG Kaden Moore: +5.4
RT Parker Clements: +8.8
Those guys deserve a ton of credit for their individual improvements, and so do the coaches.
Boston College’s defensive line, coming into the game, was every bit the equal to Tech’s offensive line. Each of the above listed Hokies played well against BC, with Xavier Chaplin turning in one of the best single-game performances by a Hokie this season (88.8).
Still, it was clear from the size of the holes the Hokies were opening up that the coaches put together an outstanding game plan. I imagine this week’s film reviews will reveal new wrinkles on new wrinkles.
Gold stars all around for the coaches.
Defense
On the other side of the ball, APR turned in his second four-sack game of the season.
But, like Tuten, his PFF grade (64.8) was surprisingly low, mainly due to poor tackling (26.3).
Clearly, Thomas Castellanos was still nursing an injury. Not only did he lack explosiveness, but he also went out of his way to avoid contact.
If you go back and watch him closely, he often would dive to the ground just before he was about to be hit.
Plays that he would normally extend by escaping the pocket turned into soft sacks (like the one in which APR escorted him out of bounds a yard or two shy of the line of scrimmage).
Keep this in mind as the season progresses. It won’t always be as easy as it was on Thursday night.
More hidden injuries?
Sam Brumfield started the game, but only played 21 snaps and netted by far his lowest grade of the year (38.1).
Translation: he’s hurt.
Ditto Keli Lawson (28.0), who looked really slow and struggled to change directions while logging 25 snaps.
Lawson’s injury flared up in the 29 snaps he played at Miami, where his grade (36.5) sank below 50 for the first time this season.
Sitting out the Stanford game, then resting up during the off week does not seem to have fixed the issue.
Mose Phillips also turned in a very poor performance (36.1). He played 66 snaps, but one has to wonder if that was more about the lack of experience behind him.
Quentin Reddish and Jaylen Jones are both free safeties, and it sounds like Jalen Stroman is out for the year.
So, keep an eye on Phillips next week. Maybe this was just a one-off thing (a respiratory virus?). If he is nicked up, though, it will surely show up in his PFF grade next week.
Two weeks of sub-40 grades = playing hurt.
Final thoughts
Against Boston College, Tech looked like the team everyone expected to see in week 1. However, looks can be deceiving.
Injuries are beginning to take a toll on the Hokies.
Luckily, the same was true for BC and likely will be next week for Georgia Tech, whose starting quarterback, Haynes King, did not play this past week against Notre Dame.
Brent Pry’s player rotation - he plays the second stringers at almost every position every game - will be the key to getting through the season with as many players in as good a health as possible.
That said, Aycen Stevens, a redshirt freshman former linebacker, is currently in the two-deep at defensive end.
The more the starters get nicked up, the deeper down the bench Pry & Co. will have to reach.
As a result, even blowouts in the Hokies’ favor will be far from clean affairs.