Texas Tech - Virginia Drive Chart: The Defense

We tackled the offense last night, now we take a look at the defense. Virginia punted the ball 8 times and had a total of 345 yards, 96 of which came on 1 play.

Enjoy.

Much like Texas Tech's first drive, Virginia's first drive isn't good. Sewell misses badly on 3rd and 9, which is a common theme for the game.

Also like Texas Tech, Virginia's second drive is their best drive of the game. Virginia does a nice job of mixing Sewell's passing with Simpson running plays. The longest play on this drive was for 13 yards so there was no huge chunks of yards gained. Joe Garcia was in on 3 tackles and this drive ultimately ended with Sewell throwing the jump pass to Stupar. As an aside, I thought the jump-pass was completely unnecessary.

A nice defensive stand by Texas Tech after giving up a touchdown. Simpson starts off the drive with a short run and then B. Williams sacks Sewell for a loss of 6. Sewell then misses badly on 3rd and 13. Third and long is troubling for Sewell and Virginia all day long.

Another nice job by the defense. A quick first down and a late hit by Riley gets Virginia on Texas Tech's 42. Wall makes a nice play on a slightly overthrown pass by Sewell. Sewell decides that the best way to get 10 yards on 3rd down is a screen pass which nets 1 yard. Just a bad play for Virginia and a nice play by M. Williams making the play on the screen.

96 yards and a cloud of dust. This drive only takes two plays and the one thing that I noticed was that Parker and McBath get sucked in on the run which gives them bad angles to make a tackle on Simpson and to catch him. Boo.

Another drive that ultimately ends in a punt. Jackson gets Virginia a quick first down and then Hunter makes 2 tackles on Jackson leaving VA with a 3rd and 4, which Sewell completes to Inman and Rowland on the tackle. This is where this drive stalls. Simpson is stopped by Duncan for no gain and then Sewell misses on a pass to Inman and then completes one to Inman for only 6 yards. Again, a pass out in the flat which isn't going to get Virginia the 10 yards they needed.

Virginia gets the ball on their own 40 with over 2 minutes left in the half and they don't really even sniff the endzone. That's a problem. This is the drive where Parker gets the personal foul for "celebrating" the tackle which gets Virginia to Texas Tech's 16. Only getting a field goal here should be the most disappointing thing about the game for Virginia. Don't forget that Virginia's OC thought that it would be a good idea to get the ball in the flat to an offensive tackle. Let that sink in for a minute. The inability to even take a couple shots at the endzone coupled with thinking that passing the ball to a tackle is inexcusable. Not even a pass attempt in the endzone (me, shaking my head).

Simpson gets a couple quick first downs running the ball along with a Sewell pass to Stupar. Sewell completes a pass to Simpson for 3 yards and then the drive sputters to an end. I believe at this point Simpson is injured on a rush for no gain. Without any other viable options, Sewell is forced to throw the ball for more than 5 yards which can only mean that it will be incomplete. Virginia punts.

Another stalled drive. Sewell gets 8 yearly and Jackson completes the first down. Jackson runs again and the Sewell takes the reins running the ball, fumbles and loses 3 yards. What does 3rd and 8 mean for Virginia? Punt. Sewell misses badly on this 3rd down play, doesn't even give the receiver a chance.

Virginia's 2nd best drive of the game. Sewell is injured after gaining a first down and replaced by Lalich. Lalich throws 3 incomplete passes before connecting with Santi for 8 yards and Simpson returns to get the first down. Parker is then penalized for celebrating, a call which is still a bad call, even now. Lalich completes his 2nd pass of the drive for 11 yards and a Simpson touchdown. Think about this for a minute, Lalich attempts 6 pass attempts on the drive, completes 1 for 8 yards, another for -1 yard and the last one for 11 yards. Only 19 of the 52 yards on this drive were through the air and the touchdown to Sewell was, I believe, a pass in the flat that was a lot like a run. Texas Tech should have done a better job of selling out to stop the run on this drive, especially with Sewell injured. Should have brought the heat on Lalich and forced a bad play.

Jackson gets the ball 3 times in a row for a total of 8 yards. Completely uneventful drive for Virginia and I thought that the defense really did sell out to stop the run here. It's a shame that it took the last drive to figure that out.

Holy smokes. Virginia starts the drive with a false start which means that Virginia is trying to figure out how they are going to throw for 10 yards. Simpson rushes for 2 yards and Texas Tech calls a timeout. I would imagine that Ruffin is telling his players to go balls out when Lalich goes back to pass, which is exactly what happens. Henley and Whitlock get a piece of Lalich whle it is Ratliff who recovers the ball. I questioned calling this timeout at the time, but looking back, this may have been the best called timeout of the game. Genius and good call by Ruffin.

Sewell enters back into the game and now Virginia needs to do one thing and one thing only. Run out the clock. With a little over 3 minutes left, Virginia actually runs the ball, I know, shocking, on the first play, while Sewell throws an incomplete pass and I think it's McBath that makes a good play on the ball. Sewell runs the ball for 3 more yards and then Virginia has to punt. What's amazing about this drive is that Texas Tech did not call one timeout or need to call a timeout. Virginia self-destructed on their own. The other disappointing thing for Virginia was that they only got away a 23 yard punt. That just stinks.

The kickoff hits one of the Virginia players effectively ending the game. Game over.