Neither team will be exactly pleased with their offensive performance, especially Virginia Tech in the second half. However, the Hokies had another strong bend but don't break defensive performance combined with enough on offense to cruise to a fairly comfortable victory in the end.
Virginia Tech beat Georgia Tech 21-6 to improve to 5-3 on the season including 3-1 in ACC play while the Yellow Jackets fall to 5-4 on the season including 3-3 in ACC play. This is the first time that Virginia Tech has won three-straight games under Brent Pry and the first time they've done so overall since 2019.
Defensively, Virginia Tech was solid throughout the game, having a few moments where they bent but never breaking at any point. This included the Hokies not allowing Georgia Tech to get inside the 10 yard line and holding them to a pair field goal on the lone drives where they built any sort of momentum in the first half.
To hold Georgia Tech to 5-19 on third down and 1-5 on fourth down is extremely impressive by this unit. That was built off a stout run defense that only allowed 96 rushing yards on 2.9 yards per carry including only 47 rushing yards on 18 carries for GT's star running back Jamal Haynes.
The pass defense was a little suspect after Georgia Tech made the change to freshman Aaron Philo, the Georgia high school record holder for the most career passing yards. However, the Hokies' pass defense was able to tighten up in their own territory multiple times, getting fourth down stops when they needed to down the stretch of this game.
There's also something to be said about holding a team under 50% passing, as Zach Pyron and Aaron Philo were a combined 21-48 for 260 yards and two interceptions.
Meanwhile, Tech's offense had their moments in the first half along with a solid 42-yard touchdown drive off of a Keli Lawson interception in the third quarter. Outside of that, Tech was unable to get anything to go with a load of 3 and outs even when they had great field position, failing to score twice on drives where they got the ball in Georgia Tech territory during the second half.
This was a Tech offense that ran the ball fairly well in the first half with Bhayshul Tuten, but was unable to get anything going in the second half. Based on my accounting, the longest second half run for Tuten was six yards. Part of that was Georgia Tech's clear commitment to stopping Tuten and forcing someone else to beat them. They also keyed in on Tech using TE motion often before a designed Tuten run, stopping him twice in the backfield followed by a one-yard run on three-straight Tuten runs in the second half that involved some sort of TE motion right before the snap.
For the day, Virginia Tech averaged only 3.0 yards per carry and had 99 total rushing yards. That jumps up to 118 yards on 31 carries for 3.8 yards per carry when excluding the sacks but 41 of those yards came on one run by Tuten during the first half. Those run game struggles put them off schedule a lot which showed in the fact that they only converted two of 15 third downs while they also had seven 3 and outs on their 14 drives in this game, excluding the QB kneels at the end.
There was some creativity that sparked the Hokies for their best drives of the day including a reverse to Ayden Greene for a 14-yard gain, a Philly special off a reverse look that set up a six-yard touchdown pass from Jaylin Lane to Kyron Drones, and a flea flicker that resulted in a 28-yard gain for Stephen Gosnell to ignite Tech's offense for their lone points of the second half.
Another positive for the Hokies' offense today was the fact that they scored touchdowns on all three of their red zone appearances. With tougher games looming, that's the type of efficiency that you need if you're Virginia Tech.
Kyron Drones had his ups and downs in this game, struggling at times throwing the football on a day where he felt plenty of pressure from the Georgia Tech front with an offensive line that was struggling. However, it was an okay day overall for Drones going 16-27 for 128 yards and a touchdown plus six rushing yards and a touchdown, and two catches for -2 yards including a six-yard TD reception from Jaylin Lane and a loss of eight on a pass that was deflected right back to him.
Bhayshul Tuten had a solid first half, but Georgia Tech's run defense tightened up in the second half, giving him almost no room to work with on his way to having 79 rushing yards on 17 carries plus two catches for five yards. Meanwhile, Benji Gosnell was the star of the passing attack with five catches for 59 yards and a touchdown while Da'Quan Felton had three catches for 25 yards and Stephen Gosnell had a 28-yard reception.
Keonta Jenkins was a star of this game for Tech with 10 tackles including two for loss with one of those coming on a key second half fourth down stop inside the redzone. Wilfried Pene also shined in this game with five tackles including a sack plus a pass breakup while Antwaun Powell-Ryland didn't have a sack, but he did have three tackles and a team-high 3 QB hurries. Caleb Woodson added eight tackles and two QB hurries while Keli Lawson had three tackles, one interception, and one pass breakup. Jaylen Jones had six tackles plus a late interception.
Coming out of this game, one of the biggest stories will be the health of multiple key offensive piece headlined by Bhayshul Tuten. The Hokies' star running back went down with an injury late in the fourth quarter but did return to the sideline prior to the end of the game in what seems like an encouraging sign going forward. Meanwhile, Xavier Chaplin left the game during the first half and did not return, with Johnny Garrett filling in for him at left tackle. Postgame, Brent Pry said that Virginia Tech would know about Tuten and Chaplin's statuses tomorrow. Public answers aren't likely till Pry's weekly press conference on Tuesday at the earliest.
Overall, this was a rock fight of a game for the Hokies and a disappointing offensive performance to say the least. However, Virginia Tech winning a game ugly like this when their offense isn't close to playing their best is an encouraging sign going forward, since I think it's safe to expect this not to be some sort of new offensive norm for the rest of 2024. This defense also continues to play better and better with a lot of solid pieces who aren't in their final years of eligibility playing a role in their success.
Now if the Hokies struggle again next week offensively at Syracuse, they could be in some danger of the upset unless Kyle McCord somehow replicates his five-interception including 3 pick 6 performance as he did against Pittsburgh. The odds of that seem rather low.
