3 Red Flag Observations After Virginia Tech Football Falls to Rutgers

Nobody said it was going to be easy. However, for the Virginia Tech football team, they continue to make things hard on themselves. It seems to be happening week after week through the first month of the 2024 season.

After rebounding from a season-opening loss to Vanderbilt, the Hokies picked up wins over Marshall and Old Dominion, but they faced their toughest challenge of the season to date when Rutgers visited Blacksburg Saturday. In the end, a late field goal by the visitors was the difference in a 26-23 Scarlet Knights win. Here are three red flag observations from the game as Virginia Tech dropped to 2-2.

Virginia Tech's slow starts continue

It happened once and you expected it to be fixed after Vanderbilt. Then it happened against Marshall, but they were able to rally to win. After two strong drives against ODU, the first-half struggles came back in the second quarter and allowed the Monarchs to rally to cut the halftime deficit to four. Against Rutgers, it was another slow start for the Hokies.

They dug themselves a 14-0 deficit, and rallied to tie the game in the fourth quarter, but just how many times can they continue to have slow starts and not have it hurt? Four games is a big enough sample size and cause for a big concern. If this isn't fixed, it's going to be a long eight-game ACC schedule.

Rutgers was much more physical than Virginia Tech

This week, head coach Brent Pry said that his team was more prepared for Rutgers and their physicality. It turned out, they weren't. Their offensive line was more physical than Tech's defense. Throughout the game and even though the Hokies pushed back some, it was not enough.

The Rutgers defense dominated the Hokies offensive line and caused problems for quarterback Kyron Drones. With all the areas addressed this offseason with the transfer portal, they ignored the offensive line and it's coming back to hurt them. It was noticeable how much more physical the Scarlet Knights were.

Offensive play-calling continues to be head-scratching at times

Through four games, there has been a lot of head-scratching when it comes to play calling by offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen. It seems like when they get something working, they go away from it. Each game is going to bring its own identity, but stick with what your team can do and it feels like Kyron Drones is a mess and not playing with confidence all the time.

It continued late in the game. With three timeouts and down three with just under two minutes left, the Hokies never got the ball in Tuten's hands to see if he could make a play and break off a run. Maybe getting the ball in your playmaker's hands would have been wise. They only needed a field goal with a reliable kicker to tie the game and force overtime.

If some of these are not fixed, the Hokies could be in for a long ACC schedule. This season, the slate of eight games is far from easy for a team that has sputtered through their first four games.