Well, that didn’t exactly go as planned did it? For Virginia Tech, this was
a game where the starters were expected to get some extra rest and the backups
were expected to get extended work. Kent State was reeling a bit after an
embarrassing loss to Buffalo, so it figured the Hokies would make short work of
them and get some quality snaps for the subs. It didn’t quite work out that
way. The offense came out sluggish and uninspired, leaving the Hokies in a 6-0
dogfight at halftime. But thanks to another dominating performance by the
defense, the Hokies finally were able to pull away in the second half for a 23-0
victory.

There have been a lot of comments and questions about the performance of the
offense in this game, and most of this analysis will focus on that. How could
the Hokies struggle against an overmatched opponent that gave up a bunch of
yards and 41 points to Buffalo just one week earlier? Every game is different
and part of it was that Kent State (with a bunch of players with Virginia
connections) came in jacked up and ready to play. Part of it was the lack of
focus and effort by the Tech offense in the first half. And part of it was the
letdown effect. As Will mentioned in “Monday Thoughts”, this was a classic
sandwich game and after two emotionally charged games against Clemson and Miami,
it wasn’t surprising to see a bit of a letdown by the Hokies. Because of that,
there is a tendency to read too much into it when breaking it down and analyzing
the performance. I have tried not to do that, but this is a game analysis
afterall.

Keeping that in mind, let’s take a closer look….

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