Just landed in Beijing, where the current local time is 10:56pm on Thursday evening. I was able to stream most of the game during the flight - I'll post my thoughts below.
***SPOILERS BELOW*** IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE GAME YET, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
Overall I thought we looked pretty good. Obviously pleased with the score. I'm not sure why anyone thought Virginia Tech was particularly good this year - an embarrassing loss to ODU, not even competitive vs ND, a narrow victory over 1-win UNC. Glad we were able to show up and win a must-win game. 3 in a row over the Turkeys and 3 in a row in Blacksburg feels pretty good too.
What happened to Bud Foster??? The man used to eat our lunch on a regular basis. I honestly never thought I'd see the day where we hang 40+ on a VT defense coached by him. A little disappointed we couldn't make it 6 scores on 6 drives for the first string, but it wouldn't REALLY be a GT game if we didn't fumble at least once. It looks to me like the DB lined up a little bit offside which is annoying but TQ should have never pitched the ball in the first place. (Really impressed with his play tonight btw - probably the third-best performance of his career with Tennessee and Louisville being #1 and #2 respectively).
As for our own defense, I really think we're progressing well for year 1 of Woody's defense. When the first string was in, they looked pretty dominant. I know it was against a backup QB, but still. Anree has really been thriving in this system and it makes me think of what could have been, had we just adopted a more aggressive defensive philosophy a couple seasons ago. Just wish we could've played like this @USF and @Pitt - probably would've won both of those. But I get it - it's a new system, there's going to be hiccups and growing pains.
Also, just want to give a shoutout to Nathan Cottrell - I know the announcers wouldn't stop talking about him but I have something else to add. All year I've really enjoyed how hard he plays (even when we're down 4 scores to Clemson) and I think he definitely deserved to have such a big night. Just a few weeks ago he scored his first touchdown as a Jacket (did you know??? Jeez I wanted to mute them so badly), and now he's got five - madness! Definitely one of the best games I've seen by an A-back in a while. Excited to see if he continues to put it together, could be a big senior season coming up for him (and we will need all the help we can get at A-back). I think he will at the very least be a great leader in the locker room.
Anyway, I'm heading to bed. For anyone who hasn't watched yet, enjoy - it's a fun one.
