Virginia Tech outgained No. 13 South Carolina 336-328 but the Hokies failed to good drives into touchdown drives, only reaching the red zone once on their way to a 24-11 defeat to the Gamecocks. It was a offensive performance defined in large part by a litany of sloppy mistakes, inconsistent QB play, and a struggling offensive line that was dominated by a very good South Carolina defensive line.
So with that said, here are my takeaways from the Hokies' 24-11 loss to South Carolina.
Too Inconsistent From Kyron Drones
Kyron Drones has shown a high ceiling throughout his collegiate career and did that once again in this game. However, the thing that holds back solid players from being great often is consistency and for the Hokies' starting quarterback, he was simply too inconsistent for the Hokies to win this game.
Drones was 15-35 for 221 yards and two interceptions while running for 37 yards on 10 non-sack carries. He made some great throws and decisions in this game, but there were too many misfires and bad decisions that proved costly for the Hokies' offense in the end, something that Brent Pry recognized postgame.
"Honestly the throw in the red zones I was really disappointed. That stuff that he's moved past, I haven't seen that necessarily in camp. We can't make that play. We need those points down there. We got to be smarter than that. We had three drops out there that we got to have. I thought there was a couple down the stretch in the fourth quarter that need to be on the money right there. He's got a chance to keep the change going and make that thing a one-score game again and we were misfiring there but we'll look at the film. He'll own it more than anybody but he did some got things with his feet. He made some nice throws. I thought he showed poise," Pry said.
Part of that seemed at times to be Drones trying to do much and do more than his abilities allow him to do. Look at this quote from Drones on his first half interception during the lone drive that VT reached the red zone.
"It wasn't a forced ball. I saw Takye (Heath) in the end zone. I just didn't throw it high enough. I thought I did I knew as soon as it left my hand I didn't," Drones said.
There were a few times where Drones simply tried to do much and make throws that simply are outside of his abilities, usually when he was on the run and not fully set. The Heath throw was an example where Drones saw what he thought was a possible opportunity but one that required him to go outside his abilities and ended in disaster as he immediately realized was going to be the case. That showed again later in the game with a pair of low throws that were incomplete to an open Benji Gosnell on back-to-back plays.
Just because you may not be able to make the throws that a Patrick Mahomes can make doesn't mean that you can't make lots of plays still. Understanding your limitations and playing within them rather than trying to do things that you simply don't have the abilities to do is an important growth area where Drones needs to grow from after this game. If he can fix that and the general inconsistency he had, then Drones can reach his maximum potential and shine this fall.
Of course, he also could use a lot more help from his offensive line too.
