Through the first three weeks of the season under former coach Brent Pry, the VirginiaTech football team found a way to hurt themselves. Whether it was self-inflicted mistakes, turnovers, or whatever you could come up with, it was costly.
The last two weeks against Wofford and North Carolina State, it appeared that they were turning the corner in terms of those mistakes, but against Wake Forest, it returned, and boy, was it costly. Turnovers or unnecessary penalties, you name it, and it doomed the Hokies in a deflating opening 30 minutes on Saturday.
It was Virginia Tech's defense in the first half that committed unnecessary mistakes, including two personal foul penalties. The first one was a late hit on Demon Deacons quarterback Robby Ashford, where the defense forced a fourth down. Instead of Wake Forest punting, they went down and scored a touchdown.
If that wasn't bad enough, later in the second quarter, Ashford on third-and-long gave himself up along the sideline, only to be hit late out of bounds, giving the Demon Deacons a first down. They ended that drive in the end zone as well. Fourteen points when Wake should have either been punting or trying a 50-yard field goal.
Offensively, the Hokies turned the ball over on their first drive when Drones was hit and the ball popped up in the air for an interception. They scored a pair of touchdowns by Marcellous Hawkins and Takye Heath for a 14-10 lead, but two drives with penalties that extended them and put Virginia Tech into a 24-14 halftime hole.
Virginia Tech was looking good toward the end of the half, but unnecessary penalties cost them, something they cleaned up in the last two weeks.