The defense, which was already down three starters, and lost a fourth early on in the contest, played a solid game. When you can put in your young, inexperienced players, and they can step up and play like they could be out there all the time, says a lot about the mental approach everyone on this team has. You're always told when you're the backup that you're one play away from being in the game, and these young guys have certainly appeared to prepare that way. We won't know anything regarding injury status until Thursday, but these next two games would be good for these backups to get more playing time.
Jarrett Boykin was the game MVP in my opinion. His deep catches were big for momentum, especially the one before the first touchdown. I agree from the angles I saw that you couldn't reverse that call, but I still think it was a touchdown. It was also interesting to see how much Logan appeared to be targeting Marcus Davis early in the game. Not sure if that was due to gameplan, or just matchups, but it is nice to see how deep our receiving corps goes in talent.
These next two games should, without sounding overconfident, be easy wins. On defense we can get more experience and allow for healing with Boston College, and then see where we're at when we play Duke's high powered offense. Much like September, I'm looking for injury-free first, then worrying about getting upset second, to finish out the month. Hopefully on offense we're able to get backups some time in the game to get some experience. Mentally I don't worry about this team, and know that they know they can't take the foot off the gas, because we may still need to win out to get to Charlotte.
Across the ACC
Even though none of the games this weekend were high profile, there were some good games to watch in the league. Miami almost got taught a lesson about quitting too early, but it was good for the Hokies that they won. Now the Canes and Heels have two conference losses, and both have at least one divisional loss, which could help us in a tiebreaker situation.
GT going against UVA was one of those games I would be happy no matter who won. If UVA loss, obviously I wouldn't be torn up about it. But when UVA won and gave GT their first conference loss, it makes things a lot more interesting. We still need to beat GT as it stands right now, but they play Miami and Clemson before the Hokies, so there is no telling what the standings will look like in November.
The Clemson/Maryland game was one of the most entertaining games of the entire weekend, not just in the ACC. I don't know what Dabo or whoever said during halftime, but you could tell in the second half that the Tigers had their head on straight. Maryland tried to make it interesting with that touchdown early in the fourth, but Clemson responded perfectly with the kickoff return for a touchdown immediately after. Besides the high amount of time still left on the clock, it reminded me a lot of when The Jet returned his kickoff against GT last year.
It is week 7, and I have still yet to predict a perfect week in the ACC. There seems to always be that one upset no one sees coming. Even when I do a good job picking a 50/50 game, or an upset correctly, there is always one team that seems to ruin the perfect week for me. This week it was UVA, and for that they've made "The List". As of now, that is all that being on "The List" entails, but maybe one day I'll get around to punishing the teams and players that are on there.
Week 7 Predictions: 4-1
October Predictions: 14-5
September Predictions: 30-8
Overall Year-Long Predictions: 44-13
H-O-K-I-E-S HOKIES!!!
Follow on Twitter @UtProsimGobbler
No comments:
Post a Comment