Game Recap: West Virginia

Yesterday Virginia Tech hosted their state neighboring rival West Virginia. This game certainly didn’t produce the outcome that VT fans had hoped for after the Hokies dropped their second loss of the season with a final score of 33-10.

The Hokies seemed to be using a similar gameplan from previous games in the first half, relying on their defense to grind out a tough win. It looked as if the plan was somewhat working, with the Hokies leading 7-6 nearing the end of the first half. However, Mountaineer favorite JT Daniels took the lead from the Hokies, completing a 24 yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds left in the second quarter. This sequence took away the Hokies momentum, which they would never gain back. WVU would lead for the rest of the game, with most of the damage being done near the end of the game.

The Hokies could not seem to find points in this game, being held to ten points in entirety and three points in the second half. The Tech offense failed to get their run game off the ground, with only 35 rushing yards in the entire game. After the game Coach Pry said in an interview that, “We’ve got to be able to run the football, it makes it so much harder on the defense.” On the opposite end, the Mountaineer run game had no problem moving the ball with open holes for running backs being present the whole game. The dominance on the West Virginia Offensive line allowed them to rush for 218 yards, which gave them possession of the ball for 38:44 minutes or 64% of the game. Kaleb Smith played his most impressive game of this season showing great deep ball skills on his 28-yard touchdown. Smith accounted for the most receiving yards in any game for the Hokies this season with 70 yards and one touchdown.

Look below to see the Hokies lone touchdown from the game.

Penalties killed the Hokies chances at putting drives together and scoring points. Tech was penalized 15 times, which accounted for 132 yards. This mark ties the second most penalty yards in a game in Virginia Tech’s history. When asked about the team’s sloppy play after the game, Coach Pry said that “we have to stay in the framework, play with fundamentals and techniques, and be mindful of what we are doing." The Hokies must come into the next game with better discipline if they expect to beat a 3-0 North Carolina team.

Virginia Tech held the game close, keeping it within one score until early in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter we saw the Lunch Pail Defense depleted from being on the field for a good portion of the game. Grant Wells could not lead the Hokie offense late in the game, scoring three points in the fourth quarter while also throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown by Jacolby Spells. The pick six put the Hokie's chances of coming back out of reach. Wells threw for 35 passes, completing 16 of them while throwing one touchdown. With another disappointing performance from Wells, the Quarterback job may soon be up in the air.

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All stats from ESPN.com