Virginia Tech Football: 3 takeaways from dominating rout of Virginia

Mission accomplished for the Virginia Tech football team in the annual Commonwealth Cup.

Needing a win at Scott Stadium Saturday afternoon against Virginia, the Hokies dominated both sides of the ball, built a 24-0 halftime lead, and saw it peak at 48-10 in the third quarter before settling for a 55-17 win to become bowl-eligible in their regular season final at 6-6.

Here are three takeaways from the second straight dominating performance by Virginia Tech on the road in two weeks after a 48-22 victory over Boston College on Nov. 11.

Kyron Drones led the offense

We will get to the offense as a whole a little later, but quarterback Kyron Drones had an afternoon. He had 294 total offensive yards and three touchdown passes and even though he had just 54 rushing yards, he had some big ones in the first half, and the Cavaliers, like so many teams this season, had a tough time bringing him down.

He threw the ball very well and spread it around to all of his receivers going 10-for22 for 244 yards, with his longest an 84-yard touchdown pass to Da’Quan Felton. Since ACC play began on Sept. 30 against Pittsburgh, the Baylor transfer has been getting better and better at throwing the ball, running the ball, reading defenses, and making the right throws. He has been very good the last eight weeks.

The Virginia Tech offense got a true “team effort” against Virginia

The Virginia Tech offense was clicking from the first snap. You can make the case that the strong second half they had against North Carolina State last week in their 35-28 loss where they scored three touchdowns in the final 30 minutes set the tone for this week.

It started in the first quarter when Drones connected with Stephen Gosnell on a 4th-and-2 for 44 yards and a touchdown. In the second quarter, Tucker Holloway scored on a 33-yard double reverse, and Bhaysul Tuten ripped off a 32-yard touchdown run.

In the third quarter, Drones connected with Felton for the long touchdown pass, and then Tuten returned a kickoff 94 yards to paydirt. Later in the quarter, Felton hauled in a 34-yard touchdown pass from Drones and the rout was on. Malachi Thomas closed out the scoring with a fourth-quarter touchdown run.

Felton finished with 133 yards receiving on three catches and Daae’Quan Wright had 64 receiving yards on three catches. Virginia Tech finished with 500 offensive yards, 252 on the ground, and 248 in the air. The only downside was they were 6-for-15 on third downs, but when you have big plays like they did, it doesn’t matter much what you do on third downs.

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.