Virginia Tech Football: 3 Good, 3 Disastrous observations from Vanderbilt loss

In the overall big picture, it wasn't pretty for the Virginia Tech football team on Saturday afternoon in Nashville. The Hokies season-opener against a team picked to finish in the basement of the SEC was as about as bad as the final score indicates.

After falling behind 17-3 at halftime, Virginia Tech mounted a second-half comeback for a late 27-20 lead, only to have the Commodores rally late to tie the game and win it in overtime, 34-27. It's a shame that the Hokies lost the game for as bad as they played in the first half, and they played badly, they played better in the second half, but it wasn't enough.

There is no sugarcoating it, it was a bad loss for Brent Pry's team. It's not a season-ending loss that will hurt for a long time, but it's a loss that will hover over them all season long. Is this a season-ending loss? No, there are still 11 more games, but it shrunk their margin of error for sure.

Some good came out of the game and some disastrous things came out of the game and here are three of each.

3 Virginia Tech good observations from Vanderbilt loss

Bhayshul Tuten

One look at the boxscore and Bhayshul Tuten's numbers are not going to jump off the screen at you, however, when he had the ball in his hands, he made things happen. He had one rushing and one receiving touchdown in the second half. He rushed for just 34 yards, the Hokies finished with 75 total and had 18 yards receiving. He needs the ball in his hands more.

Kyron Drones

It wasn't Kyron Drones fault. The second-year starter threw for 322 yards on 22-for-33 passing and a pair of touchdowns. He did it being under pressure a lot of the afternoon and the one interception he had in the first quarter was tipped by a defender who broke through unblocked. An injury late in regulation hampered him in overtime, but we should have never been in overtime. That will be discussed further below.

Ali Jennings & Stephen Gosnell

There was one point in the game where I had to look and look and look to make sure that Ali Jennings was actually in uniform. Then late in the fourth quarter, I found him after the Commodores lost him in what turned into a 62-yard touchdown pass. He needs more targets.

As for Stephen Gosnell, he had three receptions for 72 yards including a big 44-yard strike. Again, there are four talented wide receivers, and throwing the ball more, especially early on when the run wasn't working, needs to be explored more.

3 Virginia Tech disastrous observations from Vanderbilt loss

Mansoor Delane

It was not a game that Mansoor Delane will have on his highlight reel. Vanderbilt picked on him and time after time, they won. Pavia threw the ball in his direction and when they did, they usually had success. Chris Marve needs him to be better and the Hokies defense needs him to be better in the secondary.

Tyler Bowen play calling

The play-calling in the first half was rather questionable at best. They tried time after time to get the running game going and couldn't. Then when they threw the ball, it was short throws and screen passes, one of which led to an interception that Vanderbilt turned into a touchdown.

In the second half, throwing the ball down the field was a success and it opened up the running game. Drones were very effective when they moved him around in the pocket and he was able to hit some receivers for some big plays. There are just too many talented receivers on the roster to dink and duck the ball down the field. It's not going to work. They need to open things up like they did in the last two months of last season.

Coaching decisions

Give Pry credit, he took the blame for a lot of what happened in a game that needed to be a win, but some mistakes that were made are mistakes that just can't be made. No bigger gaffe than in the third quarter when Vandy was lining up for a field goal, only to have a delay of a game penalty called to force a punt. Then they punt and the Hokies get called for having two No. 0s on the field. The ball moved back forward five yards and the Commodores kicked a field goal that turned out to be a big three points.

There was also a lack of adjustments made throughout the first half on both sides of the ball that led to a 17-3 halftime hole. If you let a team hang around that is not supposed to be in the game with you, bad things can happen. Bad things did happen for the Hokies who travel home 0-1 on the season instead of 1-0.

It's going to be a long week in Blacksburg and there is only one way to go after being upset by Vanderbilt and that's up.