Virginia Tech Football: 3 takeaways from dominating rout of Virginia

Virginia Tech’s defense was dominating all day long

After Virginia beat Duke last weekend, Cavaliers quarterback Anthony Colandrea made the bold prediction that they were going to beat the Hokies. Sometimes it is not best to make such a statement in a rivalry game.

Virginia Tech’s defense was putting pressure on Colandrea all night, they sacked him five times, and they didn’t allow a single point in the first half. The closest the Cavaliers came to scoring was on their final drive, but a pair of sacks moved the ball out of field goal range.

Colandrea’s final line is a little deceiving as he finished with 243 yards passing, going 29-for-46 and most of that came in the second half. He had 76 yards passing in the first half and most of that happened on the final drive of the second quarter. Wide receiver Malik Washington had 14 receptions for 115 yards and 91 of them came in the second half when the Hokies defense was much more conservative.

Alan Tisdale had eight tackles, Pheldarius Payne had seven, and Cole Nelson finished with six and both had two sacks. It certainly felt like they could have and maybe should have had more.

Virginia Tech got what Brent Pry wanted, a win and another month of football for his staff and players with a bowl game and extra practices. Oh, and the Commonwealth Cup is staying in Blacksburg for another year. It was a successful final Saturday in November for the Hokies.