Operation Sports Forums - Week 10 Discussion

This Saturday night really has the potential to be an ugly ugly game. Both VT and Miami are top 15 in yards/play allowed. Top 20 in scoring defense(even with Miami's defense playing more snaps than any defense in the nation), and both are top 10 in points/play allowed.

Couple that with the fact that both offenses have been struggling lately. VT's not even averaging 4 yards/carry on the season and WVU's terrible defense is the only P5 defense they could even hit at least 4.0 yards/carry against. They were last place in the ACC in the month of October with a 3.36 yards/carry average. Their starting LT is also out for the game and the backup is a 5 year Sr who has never made a start in his life and has seen limited action his whole career.

Miami's offense has had a bit more success running the ball, 5.2 yards/carry, despite their OL being hurt, but they are dropping balls at one of the worst rates in the entire nation at the moment. Their two best players on the whole team have been hurt, Mark Walton for the year, Ahmmon Richards has had hamstring and ankle issues all year(though he's expected to be healthy finally this week). The offense has been too reliant on big plays instead of putting drives together, but fortunately for them VT has been one of the worst defenses all year against explosive plays.

When you look at the QBs, their stats are eerily similar.

Josh Jackson
149-239, 2032 YDS, 17 TD, 4 INT
67 ATT, 193 YDS, 2 TD

Malik Rosier
143-252, 2071 YDS, 17 TD, 4 INT
69 ATT, 211 YDS, 2 TD

However, in conference play Jackson is
80-133, 976 YDS, 7 TD, 3 INT

and Rosier is
100-189, 1521 YDS, 11 TD, 3 INT

Rosier has had the benefit of playing 1 extra game in conference play, Jackson has the benefit of playing 1 more game overall on the year to this point. Still, their stats are incredibly close.

In conference play only VT is averaging 3.34 yards/carry and has 5 TDs in their 4 games. Miami is averaging 3.66 yards/carry with 4 TDs in 5 games. Miami has 26.2 pts/game in league play, VT is averaging 25.5 pts/game in league play.

You have two offenses right now that are clearly struggling and two defenses that are playing lights out. This game has the potential to have a score similar to 16-13 and be a boring game to most around the country.

I honestly have no idea what to expect. If Rosier is healthy, I'd love to see him get back to how he was starting to look heading into the UNC game before his shoulder got beat up. His accuracy was improving along with his decision making. I'm also hoping the last 3 games have just been some weird oddity with all of the drops. Ahmmon Richards himself has more drops already than he did all of last year in significantly less targets. If he can get going that will be a huge boost for the offense because he's been non-existent to this point.

If either team can actually get a running game going, I imagine they will end up winning because I find it hard to believe both teams will find much of a rhythm on offense.

Also, Miami is trying a blackout. I'm pretty sure this is the first time ever the program has tried anything like this with the crowd. Should be a crazy atmosphere like the OB used to get at night. The stadium just won't be about to collapse now.