The Hokies fought hard in the fourth quarter and overtime against Vanderbilt, outscoring them by 14 points in the second half. The Hokies, who were widely favoured to win this game against what some would consider a “fairly easy win,” did not quite go as planned, and now we will look at three modifications that are required for a win next week.
1. The defence will have to do better.
34 points.
That is how many points Vanderbilt scored after four quarters and overtime. Despite having a new offence, coordinators, coaching, and quarterback, the Commodores managed to score 34 points.
Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt’s transfer quarterback, finished the game with 190 passing yards and two touchdowns. Diego Pavia even rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown against the Hokie defence, which was unable to halt Vanderbilt’s heavy run option game plan, which began with Diego Pavia and Sedrick Alexander. Alexander finished Saturday’s game with 69 rushing yards and two touchdowns, one received and one carried.
2. The offensive line requires better protection.
The Hokies’ offensive line allowed four sacks today, putting quarterback Kyron Drones under a lot of pressure and causing him to make odd throws or scramble for little yardage, something he didn’t have to do with last season.
When Drones wasn’t under pressure, he was incredibly efficient with the football, including a game-long 62-yard pass to Ali Jennings. The offensive line also struggled with rush blocking, as running back Bhayshul Tuten managed only 34 yards on the ground and had to leave the game late due to injury. This is the first game of the season, therefore let us not overreact, since this could be corrected this week.
3. The play-calling has to improve.
Similar to the first two portions of this post, offensive and defensive play calling must improve next week. The team battled with every look that Vanderbilt threw at them.
It didn’t matter which plays were used; everything worked against Virginia Tech’s defence, as it has in the past. The offence might have targeted Vanderbilt’s secondary more aggressively instead of relying on short pass plays and runs that were ineffective early on.
On Saturday, Virginia Tech will host Marshall, with kickoff at 4:30pm.
Leave a Reply