Football is a four quarter game for a reason and despite the fact that Miami dominated the first three quarters, Virginia Tech put together one of their best 15 minutes of the season in the fourth quarter to turn a game where they seemed left for dead for a while into one where they had a chance. However, the Hurricanes were able to do just enough in the end to hold on for the victory.
Miami beat Virginia Tech 20-14 with the Hokies dropping to 2-5 on the season (1-3 in ACC play) while the Hurricanes improved to 3-3 on the season ending their three-game losing streak.
Virginia Tech seemed left for dead for much of the game as the Hurricanes outgained Tech 302-106 in the first half and were absolutely dominated in a way that made is somewhat surprising that Miami only had 17 points (with penalties hurting them greatly). Tech's offense struggled throughout the first 3 quarters having the following terrible stats through the first 45.
- 118 yards of offense including only 12 in the third quarter
- 2-10 on third down conversions
- Only one drive where Tech snapped the ball in Miami territory
Things were bad for the Hokies to say the least, but they showed tons of fight and eventually found their rhythm with the VT defense slowing down Miami albeit as the Hurricanes slightly took their foot off the gas in the second half. Meanwhile, the Tech offense found their rhythm in part due to some big throws and runs from Grant Wells who had one of his best stretches of play as a Hokie in the fourth quarter.
In the end, it was too little too late on a day where Tech had a couple untimely drops that hurt including a likely TD for Da'Wain Lofton plus an early fumble from Dae'Quan Wright on what would have been a big gain which seemed to give Miami loads of momentum that they took advantage of.
Tech's rush defense as a whole was much better this week allowing 3.8 yards per carry while their pass defense struggled with Tyler Van Dyke going 29-46 for 351 yards and 2 touchdowns averaging over 10 yards per completion. It was a day where Brion Murray struggled mightily with Mansoor Delane rotating in a ton before being the primary CB alongside Armani Chatman with Dorian Strong out with Cam Johnson even playing late when Delane had to come out briefly.
Tech's offense languished for three quarters with Tech's pass blocking not being great as the Hurricanes had 6 sacks including 3.5 from Akheem Mesidor. Their rushing game was also weak with 2.6 yards per carry with Malachi Thomas having to fight for every yard he got. While the offensive line struggled, Grant Wells and company didn't play great till the fourth quarter outside of brief moments with Wells not getting a lot of help before having a strong final 15 minutes.
Miami also let this game linger into the fourth quarter as they had a massive 17 penalties for 159 yards compared to only 6 for 56 yards for the Hokies. If you're wondering why Tech even had a chance of pulling off a crazy comeback, there's a big reason why.
Grant Wells was unspetacular early though he wasn't getting a lot of help either. He found his rhythm in the fourth quarter and took over on his way to going 21-33 for 179 yards and a touchdown plus his 10 non-sack carries going for 63 rushing yards and a touchdown. Wells has had his ups and downs, but this was one of his better games and his fourth quarter is a clear sign of progress.
Malachi Thomas didn't have the same success on the ground as he did last week fighting for 41 yards on 13 carries which given Tech's offensive line play was pretty impressive. However, he found other ways to leave his mark on this one with 6 catches for 43 yards and a touchdown with all of those numbers leading Tech's receiving totals.
Tech's receiving corps continued to struggled with Kaleb Smith having a quiet 3 catches for 26 yards while Da'Wain Lofton had 3 catches for 40 yards and no other WR had a catch. Dae'Quan Wright had 3 catches for 37 yards while Nick Gallo had 4 catches for 29 yards with the TEs having more receptions than the WRs. The RBs led the receiving totals with Keshawn King having 2 catches for 4 yards for 8 total catches for the RBs plus a 2-yard carry.
TyJuan Garbutt had a strong performance after missing the Pitt game providing a big defensive boost with 5 tackles including 3.0 for loss (4 of his 5 tackles were either outright or shared TFLs) with 1.5 sacks as well. Jalen Stroman led the Hokies with 11 tackles and added a big pass breakup in the fourth quarter while Alan Tisdale had 9 tackles and a QB hurry in his season debut. Mansoor Delane looked like Tech's best non-Dorian Strong CB with 4 tackles and 2 pass breakups.
The talent deficiencies for this Virginia Tech team were apparent throughout much of it from a struggling offensive line to true freshman like Mansoor Delane and Dae'Quan Wright providing clear upgrades over veteran players while an offensive with multi-year starters continued to struggle. Those talent deficiencies were evident in the first half especially in a game that just seemed like two unevenly matched up teams talent wise.
However, the Hokies showed an impressive fight battling their way back into a game they had no business being in. That's a great sign of a culture of fighting back that is starting to work its way in on the big picture though Brent Pry himself said Tech still has work to do responding to adversity in the immediate aftermath as we saw early in this game.
The defensive shift in the second half as a whole was very good to see while the offense found some rhythm in the fourth quarter that they can take some encouragement in going into their bye. The emergence of true freshmen like Delane, Wright, Cam Johnson, and Braelin Moore along with other younger players like Jalen Stroman, DJ Harvey, CJ McCray, and Nyke Johnson has to provide plenty of encouragement.
Losses are always disappointing, but the fight and improvement over the course of the game should give Tech fans plenty of encouragement in year 1 of Brent Pry's massive rebuild. There will be plenty who will have some fair disappointments and complaints, but there's also plenty to be encouraged by.
