Plan of Attack: Virginia Tech

You can call the Virginia Tech offense a lot of things--anemic, opportune, underwhelming--but I prefer parasitic. The Hokies' offense lives off their defense and special teams, they need them to survive and so far, at 3-1 against a much tougher schedule than Nebraska has faced, the VT defensecial teams (that's BeamerBabble for defense + special teams= 20-17 wins) has been the happy host.

It goes like this: When the defensecial teams put VT in a good position to score, they generally do. When they don't, they generally don't. When the defensecial teams scores on their own, the offense heaves a sigh of relief.

Of course, you could say the same, more or less, for just about any team in any game but few schools have ever made it their calling card like Tech has. So how does Nebraska beat the Hokies?

They kill the host.

OFFENSE
I wrote yesterday about the importance of Dan Titchener and his ability to a) avoid punt blockage (easy, just juke a guy and run unhampered for 17 yards and a first down) and b) put the Hokies in a position to have to earn their points with solid punts.

But, as reader Bill in Iowa correctly noted, the kicking game is only half the field position battle. Nebraska has to take care of the ball Saturday as taking away the short field is akin to taking away the pass or run against any other team.

Of course, the problem here is Nebraska has at least two players who will see time on Saturday who have proven, shall we say, less than adept at doing just that. Quentin Castille fumbles (or "struggles with ball security" if you prefer) and Joe Ganz has been prone to throw the ol' oskie a time or two.

When LSU rolled the Hokies 48-7 in Baton Rogue last year, on their way to 598 yards of total offense, they didn't turn the ball over once. The only other team to not give the ball to VT last year was Frank Solich's Bobctas who were fortunate enough to recover two of their own fumbles in a 28-7 loss.

So what will Nebraska try to do when they have the ball? I'd expect a good dose of the 2006 offense that took the Huskers to the Big 12 passing game: pound then pass via play action and quick routes. The Hokies have been much better than Nebraska against the pass but they do give up 143.25 ypg on the ground. Let's hope the return of Lydon Murtha really is as much of a factor as it was against New Mexico State.

DEFENSE
If ever there was a time for the Schemey Bo Pelini to get schemin', this might be it. Tyrod Taylor is a potential weapon with the ball in his hand--he rushed for 112 yards against Furman and is averaging over 13 yards per carry on the season--but it's when he releases it that he has problems.

As the Hokies staff admitted earlier this week, Taylor is still a pretty green quarterback and his receivers are even greener. That combination has resulted in a slight 99 yards passing per game (115th nationally).

Defensively, what do you do to a young quarterback on the road? You throw the kitchen sink at him. We've yet to see that trademark attacking defense from Pelini really get cranking yet but I suspect we could see it on Saturday. If the d-line proves they can keep Taylor contained early on, look for Nebraska to really make Taylor work to pick up different blitzes and read more zone coverage than we've seen so far this season.

Cody Glenn...have your fun.

FINAL VERDICT
Virginia Tech is easily the worst offense Nebraska has faced this season. They're also the best defense Nebraska has faced this season. The Hokies will make Ganz be error free, or close to it, but this isn't yet the lunchpail crew that Bud Foster usually throws out there and Nebraska's no slouch offensively.

I'm expecting Nebraska to win but beyond that not much would surprise me. A close, ugly win is a good bet but a comfortable win isn't out of the question either if Nebraska doesn't give anything away to the defensecial teams of VT.

That, of course, is easier said than done.