Hard reality for Hokies
The "GameDay" crew put a lot of attention on how Virginia Tech didn't seem to handle its poor showing in Thursday night's 22-3 loss at Boston College well - but it seemed to me that they missed what was really going on in Chestnut Hill.
These Hokies just aren't that good.
A lot of the focus has been on quarterback Sean Glennon, whose 23-for-34 performance was good on paper only, given how many screens, dumpoffs and flares offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring had him throwing against BC.
The reason Stinespring has Glennon throwing so much of the short stuff is that the Tech line can't block for him long enough to find his receivers downfield.
This is never more evident than when you look at the Hokies' running game - would you believe 33 rushing yards put up by a Tech football team coached by Frank Beamer for an entire game?
Tech football is based on the two most important parts of the game - blocking and tackling. They're clearly not blocking, and the tackling, while clearly better Thursday night than what we saw a couple of weeks back against Georgia Tech, was just as clearly ineffective on the backbreaking fourth-quarter drive that saw the Eagles march 83 yards on 12 plays and run six and a half minutes off the clock before scoring a touchdown that gave them an insurmountable 20-3 lead.
It's not going to get any easier for Beamer's Boys - next week they're home to Southern Miss, which dismantled North Carolina State last month, before games with Clemson and Miami that could prove to be interesting in terms of postseason implications and other implications.
Not that long ago, these Hokies were dreaming of BCS. Now they could very well enter the home stretch in mid-November 6-3 or even 5-4.
Remember how ugly things got back in 2003 when that Tech team imploded after a 6-0 start to finish 8-5? My feeling is that you ain't seen nothing yet.
- Chris Graham