Postgame reaction from Virginia Tech’s stunning, 33-30 loss to Boise State
Darryl Slater
Sep 07, 2010
The most memorable play from Virginia Tech’s 33-30 loss tonight to Boise State is clearly Kellen Moore’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Austin Pettis with 1:09 left. After all, it surely reminded some Hokies fans of how Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan ripped out their hearts on a rainy Thursday night at Lane Stadium in 2007.
Ryan’s comeback is probably more impressive than Moore’s. Boston College was down 10-0 with 4:16 left in the game. Then Ryan led a nine-play, 92-yard touchdown drive that lasted 2:05. After the Eagles recovered an onside kick, he led another cold-blooded drive: seven plays and 66 yards in two minutes, capping it with a 24-yard, third-down, scrambling touchdown pass to Andre Callender with 11 seconds remaining. Moore tonight needed five plays to cover 56 yards in 45 seconds for his game-winning touchdown.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more ridiculous finish than that 14-10 Boston College win. But this one came close, partly because the stakes were similarly high.
If Tech had defeated Boston College, it would have played for the Bowl Championship Series title game, despite losing to Louisiana State earlier in the season, just because 2007 ended up being such a wild year (a two-loss LSU team won the national title). If the Hokies had won tonight, they would have been in good shape to be 8-0 going into a Nov. 4 Thursday night home game against Georgia Tech. The only game that seems daunting between now and then is Sept. 25 at Boston College.
But for another year, Tech will be haunted by the what-ifs. Anything can happen in college football, of course. But the Hokies now need Boise State to lose—there is no way the BCS would rematch Tech and Boise State—and hope there isn’t more than one undefeated major-conference team out there. And if there is one undefeated team, a one-loss team from the Southeastern Conference would still probably get the other spot in the BCS title game instead of Tech. Oh, and the Hokies have to win out, too.
That doesn’t mean the Hokies can’t have a successful season. They could still get an at-large BCS bid, still win the ACC and play in the Orange Bowl. Just think back to 2004, 2007 and 2008.
In ‘04, the Hokies lost the opener to eventual national champion (and semi-pro team) Southern California. But they still went on to win the ACC and play Auburn in the Sugar Bowl. In ‘07, they got hammered in their second game, at LSU, yet still ended up winning the ACC and playing in the Orange Bowl. In ‘08, they dropped a stunning opener, to East Carolina, on a blocked punt returned for a touchdown. But they still—see a trend here?—won the ACC and played in the Orange Bowl.
Regardless of what happens, nobody is going to forget Kellen Moore and Austin Pettis and that touchdown pass.
But there were plenty of other plays that had just as much impact on the game: Tyrod Taylor fumbling away the snap on the game’s second play (led to a Boise State field goal); the Hokies getting a punt blocked (led to a touchdown); D.J. Coles going nuts and getting flagged for two penalties, totalling 20 yards, on a Boise State punt (led to a touchdown). And those were just Boise State’s first three drives, all in the first quarter. Boise State’s next drive after those three started at its 40-yard line after Justin Myer kicked off out of bounds. (The fumbled-snap drive began at Tech’s 31, the blocked-punt drive at Tech’s 12.)
Oh, and on top of all those special teams errors, on almost every unit (punt protection, punt block, kickoff), new kicker Chris Hazley missed his first field goal attempt, from 34 yards. That adds up to 17 points for Boise State and three that Tech left unclaimed—all on special teams miscues.
We shouldn’t forget that Boise State started its final drive on its 44 after Tech gave up a 25-yard punt return. The Broncos also were fortunate on that return, because the officials originally called a penalty for blocking in the back, but they picked up the flag.
“It was huge,” said Boise State coach Chris Petersen. “No question about it. It changes your whole mindset.”
Said Tech coach Frank Beamer: “I thought the guy threw the flag. They said the other guy [official] had a better view of it. I take them at their word. But I thought we had a block in the back. You’re talking about a big penalty now.”
Here now, some more postgame reaction ...
** “We did some awful things to get ourselves in a hole,” said Beamer. “But we didn’t hang our heads. I firmly believe we’re gonna be a good football team. We weren’t a great football team tonight. Too many critical mistakes. We made too many critical mistakes to beat a top-5 football team. I’m proud of what we’re all about. I’m just not proud of how we’re playing consistently right now – not playing consistently.”
** When a reporter asked Beamer about the blocked punt, he said, “You could have blocked that kick. It was a new guy communicating to a new guy. We turned their best punt blocker loose [Pettis].”
** “You’re kicking with the wind and we kicked the ball out of bounds. Just some things that are not Virginia Tech.”
** Boise State went up 26-21 on D.J. Harper’s 71-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Inside linebacker Bruce Taylor was in position to tackle Harper in the backfield, but missed the tackle. “Give the kid credit,” Beamer said. “It was a good run. But we don’t usually miss tackles.”
(It was a tough night for Taylor, who had a late-hit penalty on Boise State’s last drive, as it was for another new defensive starter, whip linebacker Jeron Gouveia-Winslow, who got beat on Moore’s final touchdown pass.)
** “I haven’t seen Ty fumble all camp,” said cornerback Rashad Carmichael. “Everything was going their way. We tried to stay calm, because we knew it’s a long game. We were gonna get some things going our way.”
** As for what happened on the last drive, “I don’t know,” Carmichael said. “It happened too quick for me. ... We’ve got to get ready to come back, man. Long season. Real long season.”
** Free safety Eddie Whitley wasn’t worried about being down 17-0 after the first quarter because he saw North Carolina nearly overcome a 20-point fourth quarter deficit Saturday against LSU. “I was like, ‘This is nothing. Anybody can come back from this. It’s only the first quarter. We’ve got three more quarters to play. We showed that we can come back and we can fight hard. We’ve just got to execute more.”
** Whitley’s take on making the defensive calls during that last drive, when Boise State was using a no-huddle offense: “They were already in their formation. I couldn’t really look at it and make the calls like I wanted to make [them]. I feel like if we executed more ealrier in the game, we wouldn’t have been in that predicament to begin with.”
** Tailback Ryan Williams struggled tonight, as the Broncos stacked the line, focusing on stopping the run and making Taylor beat them with his arm. Williams ran for 44 yards on 21 carries.
“You really can’t come out and start a game 17-0 and expect to win the game,” he said. “We started out the game terrible. And I wouldn’t have been surprised if they blew us out of the water. ... With them being as physical as they were up front, they were able to penetrate. There were a lot of times that I got the ball and I had defender right in my face.”
** Taylor often faced pressure in the backfield, too, but was able to escape with highlight-reel scrambles. Boise State sacked Taylor three times for a loss of 12 yards. Not counting those plays, Taylor ran 13 times for 85 yards, including a long of 29.
Was he frustrated by Boise State’s defenders getting to him in the backfield?
“I think my legs are good enough to get out of most pressure, in just about time,” he said. “As far as frustrating, it was a little bit. That’s the game.”
** Taylor said the fumbled snap happened because center Beau Warren thought he was in a shotgun formation. “But I’ll take fault for it,” Taylor said.
** Taylor’s final thoughts: “It was an opportunity missed, but I believe that we beat ourselves. It wasn’t anything that they did to beat us. I strongly believe that.”
Sep. 7, 2010 at 09:49 AM
You boys have nothing to be ashamed of in that football games.
With an East Coast corporate team, a home field advantage and lopsided officiating, you were almost able to beat a podunk Idaho schoool.
If I were Alabama or Ohio State, the last thing in the world that I would want to happen is to have to play Boise State.