Virginia Tech 51, Purdue 24

Virginia Tech won a sloppy game in West Lafayette 51–24 against Purdue. The Hokies had 11 penalties for 87 yards. There were miscues in all three phases of the game. In spite of that, Tech went on the road and did what they were supposed to, they soundly beat a team they were better on paper than.

The rest of my post-game report is a hybrid of refined stream of conscious and bullet points. I didn't have the benefit of easy-access replay in the press box, so I tried to limit in-depth football observations. Most of these thoughts are in chronological order.

Adonis Alexander started at rover over Desmond Frye and made the most of his opportunity. He notched an interception and led Tech in total tackles (7, all of them solo).

Defensive tackle Woody Baron started over Corey Marshall. If my count and eyesight were correct, I believe Marshall made his initial appearance on Tech's third defensive series.

Purdue took advantage of a plethora of Hokies' mistakes on its first scoring drive, its only non-garbage time offensive touchdown. The Boilermakers drove 74 yards, and 2 of its 4 first downs came by way of Virginia Tech penalties. Greg Stroman seemed to get picked in coverage on Austin Appleby's 27-yard completion to Cameron Posey. Kendall Fuller got frozen in man coverage on a fade route to the corner of the end zone and drew a pass interference flag to prevent the touchdown. Ronny Vandyke got sucked inside on a play-action inside zone read, and Appleby overthrew an open receiver for six. However, on the next play Appleby made good and scampered in for an easy 2-yard score.

Greg Stroman made an interesting decision to field a bouncing 69-yard Purdue punt that look destined for a touchback at its 2-yard-line. Without the benefit of replay or his account, I can only fathom he thought the ball might have hit him and he wanted to field it to prevent a turnover.

Motley engineered two stellar drives back-to-back after Stroman's head scratching punt return. The ball made its way into the end zone both times, once for the Boilermakers and once for the Hokies.

Tech marched down the field from two-yard-line to two-yard-line. Motley completed a big-time 20-yard pass on 3rd-and-7 from Tech's seven to spark the drive. He kept the possession alive with a dazzling 61-yard completion to Isaiah Ford. Motley's protection quickly broke down (Jonathan McLaughlin), but he eluded pressure, bought himself extra time and found Ford who snuck behind Purdue's secondary for the bomb pass. The promising drive abruptly ended after Purdue's Antoine Miles clocked Motley from the signal caller's blindside, forced a fumble and Danny Ezechukwu made a 90-yard Purdue house call.

Motley and crew cooked up an answer on the next drive, and prevented a major momentum shift. Tech went 75 yards over 12 plays, ate 6:03 off the clock and scored an overdue touchdown. Motley was in complete control of a more efficient Virginia Tech offense—not only on this drive, but the entire game. Tech finished with 471 total yards (238 rushing, 233 passing, 20 first downs). Two good quarters against Furman is not enough evidence to thoroughly convince even the most optimistic members of Hokie Nation Motley could carry the offense in Michael Brewer's absence. However, Motley's line of 15 completions on 23 passes (65%) for 220 yards and 2 touchdowns against a Power 5 team on the road might be enough to win over some naysayers.

I muttered, "Gone," in the press box as Der'Woun Green trotted past the Purdue 39-yard-line on his 82-yard kick return to open the second half. But nope, he was caught from behind. It is rarity to see a Tech returner in space like that and not stick it in. Tech couldn't recover from an illegal substitution penalty on first down and had to settle for a Joey Slye 42-yard-yard field goal on the four play, -7 yard drive. (I haven't done the math either, that was the stat given in the press box.) Slye has a howitzer for a leg.

Virginia Tech sniffed around a punt block all afternoon. Terrell Edmunds' block and Anthony Shegog's subsequent scoop and score rekindled the lost art of Beamerball.

Mike linebacker Sean Huelskamp was inconspicuous for most of the afternoon. Whether the walk-on would sink or swim in the middle of Bud Foster's defense was a major storyline once he was named starter in the wake of Andrew Motuapuaka's MCL sprain. In his first game out, he appeared to do neither. He brought down an interception, but only added one tackle. It's hard to conclude whether or not this is good or bad. More than anything it will be interesting to re-watch the film and see how Foster utilized the green mike.

There were a handful of pass attempts after which Motley was scraped off the turf by one or more of his offensive linemen. Purdue got its licks in.

Virginia Tech never felt like it wasn't in control of this football game.