Virginia Tech-Duke Review: Mistakes On The Back End

We’re all tired of hearing Pry say his team didn’t make the other side “earn it,” but he’s been right lately. Duke ended up trading mistakes with Virginia Tech, making for an entertaining game that the Hokies ultimately lost.

Defense

Down to a second-string (and then quickly a third-string) quarterback, the offense was playing with handcuffs, meaning the defense needed to pick up some slack. It didn’t, surrendering multiple long passing plays that put the depleted O in an even deeper hole:

Duke’s main read is an overlap of a post route from the field and a deep over route from the boundary, creating a slimmed-down “Y-Cross” concept, which I know I’ve written about recently but can’t remember where or why. Anyhow, the layering of the two routes is designed to put the deep safety in a bind called a “vertical stretch” or a “high/low.” If the safety attacks the low crosser, he gives the post route an open middle of the field; if the safety drops with the post, there’s more grass for the crosser….