CC On Sunday: Virginia Tech Grinds One Out

Virginia Tech
It wasn’t pretty for Brent Pry and Virginia Tech, but they got it done. (Ivan Morozov)

Sometimes your A game just isn’t going to be there and you have to find a way to win anyway. Virginia Tech was able to do that in a 21-6 victory over Georgia Tech in Lane Stadium on Saturday. The Hokies are now 5-3 overall (3-1 ACC) and are still alive in the ACC title race. Brent Pry also has his first three-game winning streak as a head coach.

Winning Saturday’s game was important in the evolution of the program. All of Brent Pry’s ACC wins have come by 17-plus points and were all legitimate shellackings. Saturday’s game was a 15-point win, but it was not a blowout in any way, shape or form, and had a couple of plays gone different, the dynamics of the game would have changed. The Hokies had to grind out the win, and at some point, good teams are going to have to be able to do that. In fact, you probably can’t be considered a good team until you show the ability to do that. It wasn’t a one-score win, but it was definitely a type of victory that Tech hadn’t had previously under Pry.

When you win, there are generally more good things to take away than bad things, but it’s certainly fair to point out the red flags and note some things that can’t happen again if the Hokies want to continue to win. For example, I was pretty happy with what we saw from the Virginia Tech defense yesterday, but I also have to acknowledge that things might have looked a lot different had Haynes King been able to play and had the Yellow Jackets been able to catch the football on third and fourth down. The Hokies did a good job of controlling what they could control, though. They tackled well on defense and didn’t give up many big plays. Offensively, they managed to not turn the ball over despite generally being outplayed by the Georgia Tech defense.

Let’s talk about the offense first before moving on to the defensive side of the ball:

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