Assuming that is true, I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand it means that our offense can either be on or off, and it's not really in our control. On the other hand, he could just be talking in coachspeak and didn't want to give away any real strategy we used. I believe that The Jet only had four carries in the first half, which even if the passing game is running smoothly, is way too low.
I know that the coaches and the new playcaller are probably excited with the production out of the passing game compared to almost any year in the Beamer-era, but when you have a dynamic player like David Wilson, you give him the ball no matter what. And if the second half is any indication, staying truly balanced between run and pass will give this team a lot of success in scoring points.
Defensively we had a lot of success as well, sans the first short-field drive, especially considering how many backups we have to play now. And of course the injuries keep piling up for the Lunch Pail Crew, as Gayle re-injured himself on the first drive, and now we've lost Bruce Taylor for the year. Perhaps the reason Bud Foster has had so much success as a defensive coordinator is due to the fact he long ago sold his soul to the devil, and is possibly behind in his monthly payments, resulting in losing one or two players a week. It's the VIG that kills you.
Going up against Duke next week shouldn't be a problem, but you'd rather be short a handful of offensive guys, as their offense has the capability to make big plays and drive the field consistently. I still think that players who are on the edge of being healthy should sit out this one. Unless it gets to a point late in the game where it is actually close, and we've experienced trouble stopping them, this should just be one of those games we tell the young, inexperienced guys that this is their game.
Across the ACC
This is the first week all year I've gone perfect in my predictions. Ironically it came the week I said I was unsure about most of my picks. In the end I just went with my heart/head instead of over-thinking each matchup, and it apparently paid off.
Clemson once again looked scary good, as they put up more points than I can count to on one of the supposed best defenses in the conference. It's hard to tell if UNC is just hitting that mid-season lull do to all the offseason and off the field issues, or if they're just playing that many teams that are better than them. Either way, it's frustrating to watch how good Clemson is, and know that we did a good job against them defensively, and couldn't get just one or two touchdowns that would have made the game interesting.
Wake and Duke didn't have quite the shootout that I expected, and it was actually a pretty boring game. For most of the game I expected to see drive after drive, only to watch two teams seem to get in their own way. Wake Forest is the only real threat to Clemson ending up in Charlotte mathematically, but nothing short of a natural disaster hitting only South Carolina is going to derail them now. Just hopefully we're there to take care of them in Charlotte so we don't have to hear about how an undefeated ACC team was left out of the National Championship.
FSU whipped up on Maryland like they should have, so...yay? I'm not really sure what to say anymore about the Noles, because it doesn't really matter what they do the rest of the year, they'll be viewed as underachieving. Almost more embarrassing than FSU however is what Maryland has done after Week 1. I expected them to contend for the division for at least a little while this year, and after beating Miami it looked like they would pick up where they finished off last year. Now they've played six more games and have only won one.
While I did pick Miami to beat the Yellow Jackets, the fact that they gave up only 7 points is pretty impressive. The best way to prepare for the GT offense is to either have an extra week to prepare, or in Miami's case, have a very fast defense. The Hokies could have both in their favor, but we'll still probably need more than that depending on how many guys are still hurt in two weeks. Even though it has always been in their own hands, it is nice to see VT atop the Coastal Standings all by their lonesome.
Week 8 Predictions: 6-0
October Predictions: 20-5
September Predictions: 30-8
Overall Year-Long Predictions: 50-13
H-O-K-I-E-S HOKIES!!!
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