Virginia Tech Football: Hokies need to clean this up against Rutgers

It has been a mixed bag of reviews through the first two weeks of the season for the Virginia Tech defense. Against Old Dominion, they forced three second-half turnovers, which allowed the offense to capitalize on some of them to pull away for a 36-17 victory.

Against Purdue, they played well, but not well enough in a 24-17 loss. Stopping the run has been a concern for coach Brent Pry’s defense after ODU rushed for 201 yards and Purdue 179. They need to find a way to stop the opponent’s run, but they also need to figure out a way to fix this stat moving forward.

Virginia Tech needs to find a way to get off the field defensively on third down

On first and second down through two games, the Hokies are 41st in the country, however, that changes when it comes to third down. They rank 94th in the country in third-down defense and that is not a rank a Power 5 conference school wants to see.

Against Purdue, a big third down in the fourth quarter turned out to be the difference between winning and losing. The Boilermakers faced a third-and-11 from the Virginia Tech 14 midway through the fourth quarter when a completion just past the sticks gave the visitors a first down, which led to the game-winning touchdown run by quarterback Hudson Card. There is no guarantee that Tech wins the game if they get a stop there and force a field goal, but the play-calling changes on the final drive with Kyron Drones in the game as QB, replacing Grant Wells.

The Hokies are banged up on defense heading into this week’s non-conference game at Rutgers and Nasir Peoples is listed as questionable as to whether or not he plays. This will be the first of two games on the road as Virginia Tech will head to Marshall the following weekend. With injuries on offense, it’s going to be difficult for them to score and the bettors think so as well. Depending on which book you look at, Tech opened a 2.5-dog, but the line has ballooned to as much as a minus-7 for the Scarlet Knights. Getting off the field on third down is a must if they have any hope of pulling off a road upset.