Well, that one went about like Will and I thought it was going to go.  I picked it 34-27 Hokies, and I was eight points off for each team. 

But where we really got it right was our description of the nature of the Louisville offense.  The Cardinals came into this game as one of the best teams in the country in big plays, but their overall offensive numbers were mediocre.  Those numbers suggest that when Louisville isn’t hitting big plays, they do a whole lot of nothing.

That’s how a big chunk of Saturday’s game went.  At one point in the third quarter, 172 of Louisville’s 387 yards had come on two plays…both of those third and long plays that went for touchdowns.  They were very frustrating plays for the VT defense, because they were avoidable.  But at the same time, that’s just sort of what Louisville does.

We can analyze the what-ifs all we want.  The fact of the matter is that Virginia Tech could have blown Louisville out if Alan Tisdale didn’t tip away that sure-fire pick-six from Brion Murray that would have made the score 28-7 right before halftime.  Instead, the Hokies allowed a 90-yard TD on the next play.  On the other side of the coin, Hendon Hooker fumbled on the first drive of the game, the Hokies recovered, and Tech went on to score a TD.  Keshawn King fumbled a kickoff return that Dax Hollifield recovered. (That one isn’t actually in the box score; the scorekeepers missed it.)  What if Louisville had jumped on those fumbles instead of the Hokies?  This article would probably be very different in tone.

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