Written by C Gally | 17 September 2007

Oh what a beautiful weekend, oh what a beautiful win. Ok, maybe it was just Ohio but still the win was encouraging to me. There was plenty to be learned while enjoying the crisp fall weather in the magical land of Blacksburg, VA.

Positives

• Tyrod notched his first win in his first career start. He threw for 287 yards (58.1%) and used his mobility to by time on plays or grab a few yards.
• Kenny Lewis Jr's coming out party. Branden Ore looked his best so far, and perhaps the OL is starting to mesh. But Kenny Lewis was burning the Ohio defense. His 40 yard td run was displaying possibly the best speed on the team. Wake-up call to Beamer... Speed/agility/ability to break tackles. Give this kid a chance on kickoffs.
• Ohio tallied a net 114 yards. If not for 2 fluke plays, they would have had less yards and been shut out 35-0. The defense also shut-down the run with a few youngsters mixing it up (John Graves, are you here to stay now?).

Negatives

• First and foremost, Brandon Flowers. It is time to sit him down (W&M) and send a message to him. It also wouldn't be bad to give some of the younger CB's that have been praised some more serious time, to prepare in case Flowers gets thrown out of a game (see Jimmy Williams 2005).
• Turnover margin. When was the last time we won this? I know we haven't so far this year. Nor did we win the turnover margin in the Peach Bowl. Focus needs to be made on taking care of the ball, especially with a t-Fr QB starting now.
• Stinkspring. The offense ran better because the dual-threat was there, but he still just doesn't know how to run an offense. First series: WR screen, QB run, HB run. While the WR screen worked semi-well this weekend, I have to chalk that up to a poor Ohio defense. How bout instead of all these WR screens, we run an actual passing play with maybe some quick slants/cuts. It is the same principle of getting rid of the ball quick and putting it in the playmakers' hands, but it gets the defense backing up and sets up a running play. For those that didn't watch the game, that first series was a 3-out.

Overall, I was pleased with the win. Tyrod got a full game in, the team worked on a couple flaws, and it was a beautiful day. We have two more games to fix problems, continue to build better offensive chemistry (lacking at times), and get ready for our next big game, @ Clemson.

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