Mission accomplished. Defensively, focus is indicated most obviously in how a team tackles. Against NC State the Hokies tackled sloppily, coming in high, sliding off tackles, and committing inadvertent face mask penalties. Against Duke, however, they were sharp, hitting hard and taking down the Blue Devil ball carriers on first contact almost every time. For the game, Tech missed just three tackles, versus 15 against NC State.

The Hokies got good penetration along the defensive line, not allowing linebackers Vince Hall and Xavier Adibi to show their stuff (except for one play where Xavier Adibi held QB Curt Dukes up and Hall flattened him high). Every time Duke tried to run the tailback up the middle, it was stuffed for no gain or a loss, and Jonathan Lewis put on a clinic in penetration by a defensive tackle. Lewis had a 12-yard sack in which he beat the center so badly that Curt Dukes was running for his life the instant he pulled back from center. Tim Sandidge and Noland Burchette also had good penetration on the play, but unfortunately for them, Lewis had great penetration.

The Hokies were disciplined in their assignments, not getting fooled by misdirection, though admittedly Duke didn't throw a lot of fancy stuff at VT. The only time the Hokies struggled at all came when Dukes entered the game and started running the option. Dukes picked up 17 yards on his first three carries, before the Hokies quickly figured out what was going on and slammed the door on it.

A couple of interesting notes about Duke's 3 carries and 17 yards: (1) Duke only had 17 first half yards total, so the rest of their first half plays netted 0 yards; (2) Duke only had 35 yards total, so other than Curt Dukes' three runs, the Blue Devils netted 18 yards on 50 offensive plays. Wow.

The Tech defense was so mentally focused and played so well that Duke had just two plays over ten yards all day long: a 13-yard rush by Dukes and an 11-yard rush by starting QB Mike Schneider. 42 of the Blue Devils' 53 offensive plays netted three yards or less.

I could go on and on, but you get the point.

The Hokie defense clamped down on Duke's rushing attack and spent a good portion of the day in Duke's backfield, despite the fact that starting DT Carlton Powell didn't play a snap. As noted above, Jonathan Lewis played well, with two tackles for 17 yards in losses, including a 12-yard sack. The defensive line had eight of Tech's ten tackles for loss, and all five of the Hokie sacks.

As expected, the backup DL saw a lot of playing time. With Powell out and William Wall staying off the field (as near as I could tell) to preserve his redshirt, that left a lot of playing time for backups Kory Robertson, Barry Booker, Tim Sandidge (who started), Orion Martin, and even walk-on Omar Hashish.

The aim (as always) was to force Duke's QBs into second and long and third and long situations. The box score classifies plays as second and short, second and middle, and second and long, ditto for third downs. Of the 19 second-down plays run by Duke, 18 were classified as second and long, with one classified as second and middle. Duke ran 14 third down plays: 11 third and long, two third and middle, and one third and short.

Anything other than second and long or third and long was very rare for Duke, and those situations were set up by the Hokies stuffing the run on first down. Duke's 16 first down runs netted just 18 yards, and 11 of those yards came on one run, by Schneider. The other 15 first down runs gained a total of 7 yards. That's complete domination up front.

Duke's tight end duo of Ben Patrick and Andy Roland didn't catch any of the five receptions Duke had, and the Blue Devils were unable to isolate Patrick and Roland against VT's linebackers or rovers. Only one pass was thrown to the tight ends all day long, and that was a pass down the middle to Roland that was covered (and broken up) by Jimmy Williams, not a linebacker or rover.

One aspect of this game that I found interesting was the fact that the Hokies blitzed Duke a fair amount, often sending Vince Hall and/or Xavier Adibi right up the gut, while leaving the VT DBs in single coverage. Raleigh Hokie anticipated this, so it wasn't a surprise, but what drew my notice was how ineffective the blitz was. Like NC State, Duke did a good job picking up the blitz, and neither Hall, Adibi, James Anderson or the backup linebackers had any sacks.

That doesn't mean that the Hokies didn't challenge the Duke QBs. Duke dropped back to pass 23 times and got sacked five times, and there weren't many passing plays where Dukes and Schneider weren't "challenged." The incompletion to Andy Roland referenced above was caused not just by Jimmy Williams' coverage, but by a blitz that forced Schneider to throw off his back foot. As of this writing, QB hurries weren't posted in the Tech box score, but Schneider and Dukes were pressured frequently.

As far as disguising coverages to mentally challenge the Duke QBs, that sort of technical football analysis is best left to football whiz kids like Raleigh Hokie and Phil Martin. But as far as physically challenging Duke's quarterbacks, Virginia Tech certainly accomplished that.

There was a time when the Hokie coaches would have simply run the ball down the throat of a physically inferior team like Duke. Who can forget the 61 rushes and just 8 passes against Central Florida in 2000, or the 66 rushes and 12 passes against Marshall in 2002? Hokie fans often groused about games like that in the past, particularly the Marshall game, because the opinion was that the Hokies needed to work on the passing game for tougher games later in the season.

So far this year, the coaching staff is carrying out game plans designed to bring Marcus Vick along as a quarterback and have him evolve as the season progresses. The thought was that the coaches would challenge Vick more in the passing game and allow him to make some throws downfield, which he did. Vick threw beautiful TD passes of 37 yards to Josh Morgan and 35 to David Clowney, plus he took a couple of other shots downfield.

Vick's number was not called much in the rushing game. There was one planned QB rush that I recall, which picked up a modest gain of 12 yards or so and was wiped out by a holding penalty. Vick only had four "carries," two of which were sacks, and at least one of which was a scramble after being pressured. That came in the second quarter, when Vick was flushed right and could have run for a healthy gain. Instead, he stayed behind the line of scrimmage looking to pass, and he was cut down for no gain on a nice open field tackle by Duke's Brendan Dewan.

Frank Beamer expressed the opinion that Vick should have run the ball on that play, but at this point, I think Marcus is concentrating on learning how to manage the pocket and the passing game. We already know he can run; he has to work on his passing for later in the season, when the Hokies will be challenged by teams better than Duke. Vick needs to learn to progress through his reads, because everyone already knows he can tuck it and run.

The play breakdown in the box score classifies VT's play calls as 42 rushes and 24 passes. Given that the Hokies could have run it 56 times, passed it ten, and won going away, you can see that there is a concentrated effort on developing the offense as a whole. That's a welcome change of pace from the days when the Hokie coaches would bludgeon weaker teams with the running game and then take a so-what-we-won attitude in the post game media sessions.

This is really a team issue, not just an offensive issue, but we've already discussed how the defense stayed focused, so let's talk about the offense.

Last week against NC State, the offense pulled off the incredible feat of recording zero penalties (with the exception of an intentional delay of game). The Hokies had five penalties in this game, just two against the offense -- a holding call on backup OT Brandon Frye early in the game that killed a drive and a facemask call on Josh Morgan that negated a touchdown by George Bell. (Fortunately, Bell scored again later on the same possession.)

Those are errors of action, as I like to say, not mental errors. There were no illegal procedures, no delay of game, nothing to indicate that the pacing and concentration of the Hokie offense were lacking. The running backs ran hard, and Vick threw the ball well and accurately.

There were three dropped passes, two by Eddie Royal and one by Justin Harper. There were also a few mistakes by the offensive line, including the hold by Frye and a missed block by Jimmy Martin on the first drive that got Cedric Humes thrown for a three-yard loss on a flare pass. There was also a blown protection that left Will Montgomery alone to block two defenders, a feat that even Montgomery couldn't manage.

It's hard to say what the breakdown was on the interception by Vick. John Talley, a good cornerback, cut in front of Royal to make the pick, and the TV replays didn't show if the blame could be place on Royal for poor positioning or Vick for an ill-advised or inaccurate pass. In any event, Talley played the ball very well and earned the interception.

Other than that, the offense was sharp in its execution. They were a little out of synch early, but once they got on track, they did well. I thought that Morgan and Clowney absolutely schooled Talley on their two touchdown receptions, and Royal beat him for what I think would have been a 64-yard TD, had Royal not dropped the ball. (It's possible that safety Brian Greene could have tackled Royal, but I think Eddie would have turned on the jets and beaten him down field.)

As discussed above, the coaches let Vick air the ball out a little and put some more responsibility on him to make plays, though they didn't give him much responsibility in the rushing game. I'm starting to wonder if the option and designed QB running plays aren't going to be much of a part of the Hokie game plan, though it's early and we need more time to see.

Vick's top three receivers were a tight end (Jeff King, five catches), a wide receiver (David Clowney, three catches), and a running back (Cedric Humes, two catches), indicating a variety of passing plays and an effort to distribute the ball around the field in the passing game.

I can't evaluate how much responsibility Vick was given to make checks and reads at the line for run/pass options, but the plan to bring Vick along and make him a more complete quarterback is in progress.

Tough situations for the offense refers to second and long, third down, fourth down, and goal-line situations. The Hokie offense, despite racking up 22 first downs, five touchdowns, and 362 yards, converted just four of 11 third downs. That 4-of-11 mark included just 2-of-8 on third and long (third and five yards or more). Even more interesting is that the two third and longs that were converted were converted by Branden Ore and John Candelas, backup tailbacks, meaning that the first-teamers didn't convert any third and longs.

One guy that did come through in tough situations was Jeff King, who caught a 7-yard TD pass for Tech's first score and caught another 7-yard pass on Tech's only fourth down, a fourth and two.

Breaking it down a little further, the Hokies faced 11 second and long situations, and they picked up first downs on three of them, plus gained nine yards on a second and 10.

That's an interesting case study, but does it mean anything? I don’t know. I'm reluctant to say that the Hokies didn't do very well in "the tough situations," because the success the Hokies had in other down and distance situations decreased the importance of their relatively weak 36% third down conversion rate. I've broken down losses in past seasons where the tough situations that the Hokies faced were important, but in this game, it just didn't matter. Still, it's something to watch in future games.

• In case you haven't heard, the decision to play Cory Holt and Grant Throckmorton and not play Sean Glennon doesn’t say anything about Glennon's place on the depth chart. It says more about the possibility of Glennon redshirting. Frank Beamer was quoted in the press as saying, "Sean actually asked that if it was going to be mop up, to use Cory. We'll go back and sort it all out, but I felt Cory did some good stuff in there."
  
  
• You can't argue with the accuracy and strength of Marcus Vick's throws, but you also can't argue that his mechanics are often poor. Vick has thrown off his back foot numerous times this short season … including some of his best passes. Oh well, whatever works, and for Marcus, it certainly works.
  
  
• Marcus is displaying the same penchant his brother Michael has for not getting rattled and for playing well in pressure situations (as NC State was last week). Hey, if I was that physically gifted, if I could run that fast and throw like that, I wouldn't be nervous either.
  
  
• If you asked me to name a surprise player of the season so far, I would say Nic Schmitt. Schmitt has punted nine times, with an impressive six being downed inside the opponent's 20-yard line, against just one touchback. Punters who kick the ball into the end zone drive me nuts, and Schmitt hasn't done that. He has done a great job of getting air under it and kicking a ball that, when it lands, hits softly and is easy to down. I really didn't expect Schmitt to show this much touch and be this consistent. He has averaged 40.8 yards per punt, but he has been so close to the end zone so many times that his average is skewed by his attempts to coffin corner the opposition.
  
  
• Speaking of kickers, Jared Develli has been outstanding on kickoffs, including a sequence at Duke in which he kicked into the end zone, had to rekick because of an offsides, and kicked into the end zone again. He also pulled the crowd-pleasing feat of putting a kickoff through the uprights. Develli has kicked off 11 times this season for 7 touchbacks. Compare that to last year, when he kicked off 70 times for just 29 touchbacks, and you can see that Develli has elevated his game. At this rate, if Develli kicks off 70 times in 2005, he'll have 44 touchbacks, 15 more than 2004.
  
  
• Brett Warren can fill and drill. Twice in this game, Warren charged up the middle and planted running backs dead in their tracks. In this day of west coast offenses and mobile quarterbacks, we don't know if Warren can cover in the middle of the field or shadow the Reggie Balls of the world, but we do know he can charge into a hole and drop a running back in his tracks.
  
  
• Jimmy Williams had a personal foul in this game, demonstrating his Achilles Heel as a team leader. Namely, he's prone to too much emotion and has the potential to make a critical mistake if he momentarily loses his head. That's just my take, and it doesn't cancel out what Williams has done to be a leader in practice, in the locker room, and during games. But he needs to keep his head, so he won't commit a costly personal foul at a critical time.
  
  
• Eddie Royal is having a tough season. He was slowed by sickness against NC State, and in this game, he really stood out as the one player who played poorly, dropping two passes and muffing a punt. Wide receivers coach Tony Ball, in his BeamerBall.com comments, has fretted a few times recently about getting Royal to "focus." Sophomore slump? We'll see, because there's a lot of football still to be played. The positive part is that I don't question Eddie Royal's character. He's a good kid from a good family, and not the type to get a big head.
  
  
• It was good to see George Bell get his first collegiate TD in his home state of North Carolina. Bell showed some nice moves for a powerful 220-pounder. We've heard a lot about Bell and Branden Ore, who also flashed some impressive abilities in this game. When combined with Elan Lewis, the future of Tech's tailbacks is bright.
  
  
• One of the more enjoyable plays registered by the backups was Orion Martin's batted pass play in the fourth quarter, when Martin knocked a pass to the flat up in the air and almost intercepted it.