Miami tried its hardest to help Virginia Tech win on Saturday afternoon by committing a whopping 17 penalties for 159 yards. Unfortunately, the Hokies just weren’t quite good enough to take advantage, and the result was a 20-14 loss.

It’s frustrating as a Virginia Tech fan. I suppose it was frustrating as a Miami fan, too. If I were a ‘Cane supporter, I’d probably be saying, “Man, cut the penalties in half and we would have won by two or three scores.” That’s probably accurate, but looking at it from the Tech perspective, the game was sort of wrapped on a silver platter for the Hokies. But they didn’t take it.

Instead, they fumbled in Miami territory on their opening drive, dropped a sure-fire touchdown in the third quarter and later dropped what would have been a first down conversion on a swing pass in Miami territory trailing 20-7 (how many passes did Tech drop on the day? Five? Six?). They took the silver platter that Miami gave them, shined it up real nice, and promptly gave it right back to the Hurricanes.

The result is a 2-5 football team that is 1-3 in the ACC. NC State is next, and that game suddenly seems winnable now that quarterback Devin Leary is done for the season. But to win, the Hokies have to score, and they aren’t doing a good job of that this season. Tech is No. 116 nationally in scoring offense this year. That’s not going to translate to the win column very often.

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