A few thoughts from the weekend:
By now everyone knows about how Virginia Tech’s game with Miami ended. And everyone seems to have an opinion one way or another, ranging from conspiracy theory to the call should not have been overturned (which seems to be the most popular opinion being presented on social media).
Many, however, are misstating the issue to advance their opinion on the play. You can’t really say with absolute authority one way or another whether Da’Quan Felton caught the ball, because depending on the replay shown, you could go either way. But that’s not the issue.
The officials on the field called it a touchdown. And when instant replay was introduced, everybody wisely made as a part of the rule that it must be “incontrovertible visual evidence” to overturn the call. It was to prevent one judgment call being overruled by another judgment call and head off any of this “the league had it out for the other team” talk that is now freely flowing on social media.
In other words, there needed to be evidence everybody could clearly see. Otherwise you stick with the call on the field.
That’s the issue.
An explanation from the league office with a still picture – which those who thought it was not a catch point to – is not what the rule says. A still picture is not and will never be incontrovertible visual evidence because many plays look like things they are not when frozen in time. The explanation from the league is just another judgment call.
Seems to me they didn’t like having to follow the rule of going with the call on the field and that’s why the written explanation. Which I don’t buy for a minute.
Bottom line: The Hokies officially lost the game. Time to put it behind and move on to the next game with Stanford, because nothing is going to change the result.
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Kyrone Drones played well for Virginia Tech Friday night, but there were times I found myself wishing the Hokies would find a dedicated quarterback coach for him
He made big plays. But he also threw behind his targets multiple times, with one resulting in an interception. On several plays you could see when they showed the end zone replay that the receiver was initially open, but Drones was late with the ball.
These are technical mistakes that can be fixed. It’s not like he wasn’t seeing the field or identifying a target in time, although he still occasionally hesitates before throwing. His best plays – like when he scrambled around and ended up throwing a touchdown pass for the Hokies’ final official score of the night – are when he sees an opportunity and just lets it rip.
A quarterback coach who has played quarterback at a high level can help with that because undoubtedly all quarterbacks struggle with these kinds of thing. He can walk a QB though the mechanics, the thought process, and share with Drones how he overcame these mistakes through either practice or preparation.
This is no offense to Tyler Bowen, who is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, but I’m not sure someone who has spent his entire career coaching offensive line and tight ends has the knowledge of those finer points of quarterback play. It would be like an English major editing the copy of a newspaper columnist. The big things would be caught and corrected, but the finer points of writing a column would only be noticed by someone who spent a career writing columns and opinions. It’s not the same.
It could be the difference between Drones being good or developing into something great.
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The last time the Washington Commanders – who were called the Redskins then – scored 38 points or more in two consecutive games was 1991, the same year they won the Super Bowl under Joe Gibbs. That sort of thing where Washington dominated an opponent while leaving you as a fan comfortable with the notion “we’ve got this” was pretty standard for then and the previous decade.
I will always remember driving down the road then and hearing on the radio after the season that Gibbs was retiring, and this feeling of “oh no, all this might be over” hit me. It turned out to be exactly what happened, as while there have been highs and lows since (most lows of late) that feeling of confidence never returned.
That’s what makes yesterday’s win by Washington over Arizona kind of special. They scored on most of their possessions, the defense did the classic bend but not break, and there was a feeling all afternoon that did not involve a nervous stomach that this group might figure out a way to blow it. They’re now 3-1, lead the NFC East, have a very good quarterback, and they all seem to like each other like the teams back in the 80s used to.
They weren’t a group of independent contractors Sunday. They were a team.
So when younger friends used to ask what it was like back in the glory years since their experience following the team had mostly been a stream of suckage, yesterday’s game kind of illustrated that. They’re not perfect, the defense has a long way to go, and I find myself repeating “don’t get too excited about this early start” about every hour.
But it seems like the bad days of old are like black clouds easing out of the area after a storm and the sun is getting ready to shine.
I could live with that 😊
