Virginia Tech Football: 3 takeaways from a statement win over Syracuse

They say defense wins championships. The Virginia Tech football team in 2023 hopes defense helps them become bowl-eligible.

Playing their first game in 12 days and following a much-needed bye week, the Hokies jumped all over visiting Syracuse early and often in rolling to a third ACC win in four games. Like Pittsburgh and Wake Forest found out, it’s not easy playing on the road at Lane Stadium.

Virginia Tech’s defense allowed zero rushing yards. Yes, you read that right, zero rushing yards. That mostly had to do with the fact they increased their ACC lead in sacks on the year to 30. Along with shutting down the running game, they also forced Orange quarterback Garrett Shrader to throw the ball earlier than he wanted to, when he got rid of it.

Offensively, the Hokies did what they wanted, when they wanted, whenever they wanted in the first half on Syracuse’s defense. It seemed everything that was called, was executed the way it should have been and the offense left the rest to their defense.

Here are three takeaways from the Hokies’ dominating victory that inches them closer to becoming bowl-eligible. They still have a long way to go, but they still have hope.