Hokies Squander Chances to the Put the Game Away, Fall to GT 27-24

The Hokies had every chance to put this game away, and they didn't.

The Hokies had a chance to grind out the clock with the running game, and they didn't.

The Hokies had a chance to stonewall Georgia Tech on a 4th-and-15, with a full-throated Lane Stadium behind them, and they didn't.

"We're not doing the things that we know how to do, have done, should do," head coach Frank Beamer said. "We need to take another look at this one and see how many times we could've won this football game and we just needed one more play."

The loss against ECU surely stung, but as an out of conference game against a gifted quarterback, there were ways to rationalize away what happened as just a minor bump in the road.

But this defeat at the hands of a Yellow Jackets team that often looked wildly inferior to the Hokies, particularly on defense, could be indicative of some major problems with this team.

"If you guys are wanting me to say we slept on a team, we haven't slept on a team," said wide receiver Willie Byrn. "We knew what ECU was capable of and we watched them do what they were capable of. We knew what Georgia Tech was capable of and we watched the same exact thing."

Coming into the fourth quarter, the Hokies were in control of the game. They had a slim six point lead, but the offense was moving the ball with some regularity and the defense had only allowed 42 measly yards through the air.

But obscured by the lead is the fact that the Hokies had chances to truly put the game away and squandered them.

"The way that game went, you could point fingers all day long," Beamer said. "None of us did it perfect today."

With the exception of Marshawn Williams' rushing touchdown in the second quarter, the red zone offense struggled once again. The team twice had to settle for field goals inside GT's 25-yard line.

"Anytime you turn the ball over and don't execute in the red (zone), things won't go your way," said offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler. "We've been executing in the red, we just didn't today."

The team also stalled on several drives because of a confusing barrage of illegal substitution penalties on offense. They had four in this game alone after suffering a few on defense last week.

"As you go on in the season, you get more and more personnel (groupings), coaches figure out who they want in which situations, so every single person has to do a better job," Byrn said. "It's going to be harped on during practice and it needs to be. That's something we definitely did take for granted in practice."

The team finished with a total of 79 lost yards in penalties on the day, but despite all that, the lead seemed pretty secure heading into the final quarter.

But the Hokies truly started to give away the game when quarterback Michael Brewer threw a backbreaking interception that was returned for a touchdown to give the Yellow Jackets a late 17-16 lead.

"It was a middle screen and I just had people in my face, tried to throw over them, and it just sailed on me a little bit," Brewer said.

Even still, the football gods smiled on the Hokies. Williams fumbled the ball on GT's 21 yard line, and after it squirted out of a pile of players, Brewer was able to scoop it up and score to revive VT's chances. After a successful two point conversion, the Hokies seemed to have a comfortable 24-17 lead with eight minutes left.

The defense forced a quick three and out, but the offense couldn't run any clock with a three and out of their own.

That's largely due to the running game's continued incompetence. The team finished with just 127 yards on the ground, and even after a few promising bursts from Shai McKenzie, the Hokies couldn't grind out the remaining time when they needed to the most.

"We started running the ball better in the second half, we just didn't finish," Loeffler said. "We had ample opportunities to finish."

On GT's next drive, the game looked over. The defense had forced the Yellow Jackets into a seemingly impossible 4th-and-15, and when Paul Johnson called a timeout, "Enter Sandman" started blaring.

The crowd went wild, evocative of the team's big win over Miami two years ago, but the result was very different than what the Hokies were expecting.

Justin Thomas completed a 19-yard post to receiver DeAndre Smelter to convert in an improbable situation. Then two plays later cornerback Donovan Riley got burned on a double move to Smelter, who waltzed into the end zone for a 31-yard score to tie the game at 24.

"Little things make a big difference, especially down the stretch," said cornerback Kendall Fuller. "We've just got to come out and make plays and execute."

Even after that deflating moment, the Hokies certainly had a chance. Armed with all three time outs, it hardly seemed like a tall order for Brewer to march the offense down for a winning field goal.

But on the very first play of the drive, Brewer got fooled by cornerback D.J. White, tossing an easy interception to give the Jackets the ball at the Hokies' 40-yard line.

"The corner came and pressed up on the hitch route and bailed late. He baited me to throw over the top of him and he made a good play," Brewer said.

Then it was just a simple matter of them bleeding the clock out, kicking a chip shot field goal, and walking out of Lane with a crushing blow to Tech's ACC Coastal chances.

Much of the blame will be laid at the feet of Brewer, who threw three interceptions in the game to give him eight on the season through just four games.

"You take three throws away and I had a good day," Brewer said. "But I made those three throws, and it cost us the football game and we've got to move forward."

Now, people are wondering if the QB competition that lasted the whole summer and spring is suddenly back open.

"I think we'll look at everything right now," Beamer said. "You learn from your mistakes. We're plenty capable."

The fact that the coach has to be evading questions about his starting quarterback just two weeks after Brewer engineered a superb game against one of the top teams in the country has to be mind boggling.

What will practice be like come Monday? Will Mark Leal and Brenden Motley suddenly be back in the conversation?

"I don't know," Brewer said. "I'm going to approach practice just like I always do and prepare for the game just like I always do."

But Byrn asserts the offense has total confidence in the man under center.

"With the few mistakes he had, he's in a position where he's highlighted, a lot more than our mistakes," Byrn said. "I had a few mistakes, and you guys didn't see it, so it's not as evaluated. So he had a few, but we all did. We've just got to get it out of our system."

As a senior leader on the team, Byrn has been the most vocal of all players about what needs to change.

"We can't just say we were three, four plays away, I never liked that because they're three, four plays away from beating us by 14 or 21," Byrn said. "It doesn't matter if there's 100,000 people in the stands or if there's three. We have to play with that sense of urgency. So we've got something to prove now. That's the mentality we had against Ohio State and when you play like that, with a chip on your shoulder, you can prove people wrong."

Beamer, as is his tendency, is quick to point out that the Hokies are still in a fine position to accomplish their goals.

"Our side of the division is plenty wide open," Beamer said. "It's going to be a lot of this team beat that, this team beat the other team."

Yet after losing two games at home that were eminently winnable, is it really enough to simply point to the fact that many games lie ahead?

"From this week and here on out, we've got to prove that we weren't just that one great game," Byrn said.