They say football is a game of inches, and it’s one of the truest cliches ever uttered. (I always say, cliches are cliches because they’re true … which isn’t what makes them cliches, so that’s kind of an odd statement. Now, where was I …?)

Football is also a game of plays, of individual plays that sometime turn entire seasons. A college football season for any given team will include about 2,000 plays, from offense to defense to special teams. And sometimes one play can make the difference in a season.

I will resist the urge to descend into nostalgia and share such plays from the past with you, but one of them happened Saturday against Duke. If Greg Stroman doesn’t block that field goal, and Adonis Alexander doesn’t run it in for a touchdown, if Duke instead kicks a field goal to go up 10-7 … all else being equal, we would be crying in our beers over a 24-17 Hokie loss, instead of going over a 24-21 win.

One more time, because it never gets old.

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