During the bye-week this year I picked out some areas I thought the Hokies had a chance of improving. If you want to take a look, you can find it here.

With the season wrapped, let’s see how Tech fared, with an emphasis on the last three games of the season.

Passing Game: Work the Middle

The intermediate and deep portions of the field are where offensive coordinators get into their opponents’ heads. Dig and post routes in the seams hit receivers in stride and put a huge amount of stress on the defense.

Taking the middle is sort of like seizing the high ground from the defense: there’s no sideline to act as an extra defender, the throws are easier than fly routes and fades, the line can’t bat down the higher passes, it exposes your linebackers and safeties to play-action and RPOs, and you can’t shrug off a deep completion like you can a short screen or stick. When a passing attack gets clicking against a good defense, it’s often because the middle opens up.

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