1. Our defensive ends have turned the corner! It was such a huge relief to see how well Friday played against BC against a great lineman. But I was more impressed with Drager’s play. I have never given him any credit, but he really impressed me at BC. And unlike Friday, he’s shown he is a force against the run and pass. Even Gayle came in off the bench and played well! Combined the 3 had 7 tackles for a loss, 4 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles. It was an absolutely huge day! And I expect more of the same against NC State. They are a pass first team that spreads you out, so the ends will have a green light all day. They have to watch out for the draw, but I expect Russell Wilson to be pressured non-stop, just like he was last year. See how the title of the blog worked two ways now? Clever aren't I?
2. Even though my boy, Jeron Gouveia-Winslow, had a great game against BC (aside from an early blown coverage), it could be another game where we play predominately nickel packages like we did against ECU. I expect Exum to get his 2nd start and Whitley to move back up to the Whip/Nickel slot. I really like our nickel personnel this year. That said, I’m happy GW had a good game at BC, because I did feel bad for him and how he performed in the first two games. Maybe it’ll give him the confidence boost he needs going forward.
3. Our defense is better than our buddy Al Groh’s. GT couldn’t much pressure on Russel Wilson and their secondary played a soft zone. I expect us to have more success on defense than GT did. We might have more trouble scoring though…
4. Our offense is still underperforming. I still like what Tyrod is doing. I like what David Wilson has done. Coale and Boykin have been good when they have enough time to run their routes. But the offensive line is still struggling. NC State’s defense is nowhere near as good as BC, but we also struggled against JMU… The play calling must be better, because 19 points might not win this game.
5. Ryan Williams might be back this week, but apparently he’s far from full strength. He hasn’t been full speed this week in practice or done full contact. Plus he hasn’t looked that good all season…
6. NCST opponents are 6-10 overall. VT opponents are 11-2 with both losses being to VT.
7. How is Russell Wilson still playing football!??!! Didn’t he get paid good money to play baseball? Same goes to Kyle Parker and that safety from GT (all of which the Rockies drafted last draft somehow).
All things considered, I expect us to win this game. We’re a 5 point favorite, and we killed them last season. We harassed Russell Wilson all day last year. What I saw last week against better offensive linemen has encouraged me to think we can hold NCST to under 20. This should be a favorable matchup. So I think VT wins 27-17. Of course, maybe our offense figures out how to run more screens (which we ran once last week for like 15 yards…), short passes, and effective play actions, and we put up a lot of points.
If I left you wanting more with my weak effort you can find more information about just how bad our red zone offense and play calling is; take a look at Kyle Tucker’s blog the last few articles.
http://hamptonroads.com/blogs/kyle-tucker
The good news is Stinespring has been hearing a ton of pressure from the media (including said Kyle Tucker), and maybe we can expect a little more inspired play-calling. But I’ve fallen for that trap before. Like 4 weeks ago…
In unrelated news, we just got a verbal from Dorian Finney-Smith, a 5 star SF from Portsmouth, VA for the 2011 basketball class. ESPN ranked him as the 15th best overall prospect of the class. We’re currently ranked 10th in recruiting for 2011. That’s 5 spots higher than we ended up in football recruiting for the years we got Tyrod Taylor and Ryan Williams. I told you we were a basketball school! We even have a Deronimo practice facility:
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UPDATE: No Williams this week. Oglesby is back though, which may help the run game a bit.
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