It might be hard to remember, but this was a tight game, and early in the first quarter BC took the lead after running right through the Hokies’ defense. It was starting to feel familiar…in a bad way. The Eagles opened the door for the Hokies, though, and Tech grabbed that door by the handle and ripped it off the hinges:

Maybe the most consistent thing for the Hokies from start to finish was just how frequently the line put BC’s defenders on their heels. We’ve seen flashes of it this season, but it all came together against the Eagles. This was a mauling, and it was done without a lot of flash. You know Coach Crook was bustin’ his buttons with pride—a lot of those plays looked straight out of his teach-tapes from Cincinnati.

The Hokies didn’t break out any new plays, with the biggest wrinkle being a reliance on IZ HB Lead plays with Tuten blocking for Drones, though we’ve seen the call before. Nope, these forcible relocations came off Inside Zone and Counter BASH, with Tech executing piles of dominating zone combo blocks and gap-scheme double-teams:

This looks like Split Zone Triple. The way the field-side DE squeezes down creates a keep-key for Drones, but just look at what’s going on over to the primary side of the play. Inside Zone blocking is generally vertical by nature, but this is bonus-points vertical. There’s a whole bunch of BC defenders getting pushed to—and even beyond—the first-down line, and none of them are getting loose.

...