Sunday, November 12, 2006
Sports columnist Aaron McFarling: Still in search of the offense
Aaron McFarling
Recent columns
BLACKSBURG -- The play epitomized Virginia Tech's offensive season to date: Close to something big, close to something disastrous, but never quite committing either way.
The final seconds of the first quarter were ticking away, and quarterback Sean Glennon was looking downfield, waiting, waiting, waiting for somebody to get open.
Two receivers split out to the left went straight ahead, while Justin Harper, split to the right, ran a crossing pattern across the middle of the field. Glennon's eyes kept looking left. From the right, a Kent State cornerback charged at him. Everybody saw him but Glennon.
Boom.
The ball came loose. But somehow, amidst the crowd's groaning and the opponents' pawing and the pain's surging, Glennon got the ball back.
"They were trying to pull it away from me at the bottom of the pile," Glennon said. "But I kept that arm locked around it. I wasn't going to let go."
Would he have liked to hit a deep pass there? Sure he would have. It's seems all year, the Hokies have been a second or two from greatness.
But barring that, you do whatever you can to hold it together.
Scoop it. Punt it. Move on. That's what Tech's offense did in that spot. And that's what Tech's offense will want to do to any lingering memory of Saturday, win or no win.
A day that offered such opportunity wound up being just another reminder. The running game was off. The passing game was rickety. And when it was over, when the Hokies' defense had bailed out their teammates yet again in a 23-0 victory over slumping Kent State, Tech was no closer to finding the offensive precision it's been seeking for 10 weeks.
"Disappointing," is what Glennon called the offense's performance, and he was right. Only 98 yards rushing on 36 attempts? Only 3.7 yards per offensive snap?
Against these guys?
"At this point in the season, you'd think against a team like Kent State we'd be pretty solid and move the ball pretty effectively all the time," Glennon said. "We didn't do that."
What they did do; however, is what they've done pretty much all year: Keep the deadly mistakes to a minimum, hang around and give the defense a chance to win the game.
In other words, survive.
There's really no telling how Glennon survived that hit from cornerback Jack Williams on the final play of the first quarter.
Williams was completely untouched on the blitz and had a good eight yards to pick up speed as he approached the unsuspecting quarterback.
When asked if that was the hardest hit he's taken this season, Glennon chuckled.
"Hard to narrow 'em," he said. "I don't know. I've taken a few."
He has. And that's an underrated characteristic of Glennon -- his toughness. While many will say he should have seen Williams coming ("and maybe I should've," Glennon said), nobody should downplay what he did after he was hit.
How many quarterbacks recover that ball?
"I don't think you can really think about the pain until you're actually on the sidelines and you actually feel it," Glennon said. "In the heat of battle, I see the ball on the ground, I make sure I get it. I don't care if I got the wind knocked out of me or I've got a bump or a bruise. I'll worry about that when I get on the sidelines.
"I've got to protect the ball first. I'm trying to do a better job of protecting the ball. Didn't want to lose that one."
If he loses that ball, Tech might lose that game. Don't laugh -- the Hokies led only 3-0 at that point and Kent State would have had it deep in Tech territory. There's no telling how the game could have changed.
We'll never know. They scooped it, punted it and moved on. And on they go to Wake Forest, one win closer to 10, flawed but full of hope.
