Darn you Hokies!

Boy did the Hokies blow it! As I watched the Virginia Tech Hokies take on the Boise State Broncos at FedEx Field on Monday night, I was sure that Frank Beamer would break his infamous streak of season-opening losses and his habit of losing regular season games to ranked non-conference opponents on neutral fields. Late in the fourth quarter, the Hokies stopped the Broncos and got the ball back with a 30-26 lead and Boise State unable to stop the clock with under three to play. After two running plays, it was 3rd and eight with just over two minutes to play when Beamer and his staff had a brain-fart. The Hokies elected to throw a low-percentage deep ball into tight coverage over simply running the ball and milking the clock. The pass fell incomplete and suddenly a huge punt return had the Broncos in business. Several plays later, the Broncos scored the go-ahead TD and the Hokies were cooked.

I am not playing the “hindsight is 20/20” card here; I was yelling at the television WHILE it was happening, you should RUN IT. Tyrod Taylor was on fire for most of the game, but he was the most effective on the run with short passes. I realize that if the Hokies connect on that pass, then it is ball game: over, but again, I go back to the low-percentage pass selected and thrown. Why in the WORLD would you risk stopping the clock with an incompletion when you could have run about 43 seconds off of the clock before punting?

The Broncos had the ball down around the fifteen yard line of Virginia Tech at the 1:20 mark which is about when the Hokies should have been just punting the ball away with a running play on 4th and four. True Ryan Williams did not get off for any big yardage (though he did rush for two scores and he caught a third), but you are telling me that Taylor couldn’t have scrambled around for about four yards and killed eight seconds before taking forty seconds to punt it away and making Boise State make a miracle run with 1:10 instead of 1:50? That is MAJOR at the end of a game.

The Hokies’ shot at a national title is likely done but a BCS bid is still available. Too bad a poor play call that could have iced the game is to blame. Credit the Broncos for making the plays at the end. Fault the Hokies for allowing time for the Broncos at all.