Big plays hinder Hokies again

ATLANTA — Virginia Tech’s defense picked a bad time to revert to old habits.

The Hokies, who seemed to turn a corner last week in allowing only a couple of big plays late in a blow-out victory over Boston College, opened the floodgates again Saturday for a Georgia Tech offense that thrives off of big gainers.

The result was a 28-23 loss at Bobby Dodd Stadium that eliminates them from the national title picture and downgrades them to mere mortal status in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“It’s a tough offense to stop, and obviously we didn’t do what we had to do in the second half to get the win,” Hokies linebacker Cody Grimm said.

Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster said last week that the key to stopping the Yellow Jackets was to keep their big plays to a minimum. Well, the Hokies had a horrendous time trying to do that.

Georgia Tech (6-1, 4-1 ACC), which moved up to 11th in Sunday’s Associated Press poll, burned No. 15 Virginia Tech (5-2, 3-1) with four plays of 30 or more yards, all of which occurred during touchdown drives.

Two were particularly debilitating. Yellow Jackets quarterback Josh Nesbitt only completed one of seven pass attempts against the Hokies, but his one completion went for 51 yards to Demaryius Thomas in the second quarter and led to his team’s only touchdown of the first half.

The other backbreaking play came in the fourth quarter after Virginia Tech cut the Georgia Tech lead to 21-16. Nesbitt orchestrated a seven play, 75 yard drive on the ensuing possession and capped it off with a 39-yard touchdown run down the left sideline that put the Yellow Jackets back up by two scores.

Nesbitt, who had 122 rushing yards and three touchdowns, also had a 31-yard run during Georgia Tech’s touchdown drive to start the third quarter.

Hokies rover Dorian Porch said the Yellow Jackets’ success can be attributed to a never before seen blocking scheme, one that included new motions and misdirections that created mismatches on virtually every play.

“It wasn’t the same thing we prepared for all week, so we tried to make an adjustment and then it worked for a little bit, and then they switched on us,” Porch said. “It was just kind of going back and forth, kind of like a chess match.”

The Hokies can take encouragement from a couple of things from Saturday night’s game. One, they’re not the only ones who have been victimized by the Jackets’ flexbone option offense. Two, they won’t have to see that type of offense again this season.

Georgia Tech rushed for 309 yards, 272 in the second half, and held a decided 38:22 to 21:38 advantage in time of possession.

It seemed like every time Virginia Tech had the Yellow Jackets stopped, they’d fight for the extra yards to keep the chains moving.

“That’s what really made it tough, because we were getting tired, and we really wanted to get off the field and get the offense the ball back, but we couldn’t because they were falling forward for the extra inch and things like that, short yardage, and we couldn’t do nothing about it,” said Hokies linebacker Barquell Rivers, who led all players with 16 tackles.

The Yellow Jackets, who had modest success in the first half in taking a 7-3 lead into the locker room at halftime, exploded for 21 points in the final two quarters.

Their potent offense helped offset a Virginia Tech comeback attempt that fell just short. The Hokies came alive in the final period with 138 of their 334 total yards. Still, it wasn’t enough.

“To be honest, we didn’t really have the ball that much to really see (what they were doing defensively),” said Virginia Tech running back Ryan Williams, who had 122 total yards and two touchdowns despite battling an illness that sapped him of his strength. “They controlled the ball great … offensively and they drove down the field.”

Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor led a 77-yard touchdown drive on the team’s first fourth-quarter possession. He opened the drive with an 18-yard strike to wide receiver Danny Coale, and Williams got the Hokies into Yellow Jackets territory with a 21-yard run.

Three plays later, Taylor scrambled, cut to his left and ran 22 yards for a touchdown that, after a failed 2-point conversion pass, made the score 21-16.

Georgia Tech answered with a scoring drive that included a 23-yard run by Anthony Allen and Nesbitt’s long touchdown dash.

Virginia Tech came right back and drove 61 yards in 1:09, completing the possession with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Taylor to Williams. That kept it a five-point game, but an onside kick attempt was unsuccessful and Georgia Tech milked the remaining 1:47 off the clock.

“Before the season, there were so many talks about the national championship. Then we lost. Then we got ourselves back into the rankings. We took another (loss). We have to be prepared to take every week, week by week, and play our A-game,” Williams said. “We can’t play our A-game in the fourth quarter. That’s what killed us.”

The Yellow Jackets kept the clock moving for most of the second half, holding the ball for 22:28.

There just wasn’t enough time in the end for the Hokies to come back.

“It just seemed at the start of the game our defense was doing good and our offense not so much, and then the second half it was the opposite,” Grimm said. “We couldn’t get on the same page and we didn’t stop them when we needed to.”