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This game was not ugly. That would not do justice to the word. It was awful. It was so un-Virginia Tech-like. Ugly would be the helmets that Virginia Tech wore today. I hope that the equipment managers who oversee the uniforms melt those helmets to never use again.
Head coach Frank Beamer decided to switch to Michael Branthover as the kickoff specialist and the first penalty Virginia Tech committed was kicking the ball out of bounds on the opening kickoff. It was not the start fans were hoping for. The defense gave up 148 rushing yards and 150 passing yards to a Boston College offense that was among the worse in the conference. It was just as bad as for Virginia Tech's offense, made the 109th ranked Boston College defense look really good all day long.
Logan Thomas was 15/32 on passing attempts, for 244 yards and two touchdowns. He rushed for -4 yards on 14 attempts, and punched in once for the touchdown today. He had several close calls with his passes that could have been picked off by a very active Eagles' secondary.
Kyle Fuller made a sick tip that was intercepted by Alonzo Tweedy while he was sprawled on the turf, but a very poor replay review by the ACC upheld the call on the field, claiming it was an incomplete pass, sparking fans' ire against the ACC on Twitter.
The big story, however, was the benching of Marcus Davis in the first half. Whether the coaches benched Marcus Davis in response to the viral video of his poor blocking against Florida State, or just because of his productivity as of late, it was clear that in the second half, he made the most of it, and became the receiver everybody was hoping he would be.
On one play, facing a 3rd and 17, Logan Thomas dropped back to pass, and spotted Davis streaking in the end zone, and he let the football fly. It was badly under thrown, but Davis made a great adjustment and hauled in the catch for the touchdown. Later in the fourth quarter, needing a play to extend the drive, Thomas again found Davis streaking on the left sideline, and connected again for a great first down.
The clock management decided on by head coach Beamer was absolutely head-scratching. It was clear that Boston College decided to run the clock to force an overtime, and Beamer made the curious decision to burn his final timeouts. It didn't matter. Boston College took the knee and allowed the play clock to wind down to zero.
In overtime, coach Frank Spaziani elected to let his defense take the field first. After several runs by Virginia Tech, Thomas connected with Randall Dunn who somehow brought down the game-clinching touchdown pass while keeping one foot in the back of the end zone.
The Hokies defense then did the rest, shutting down Chase Rettig, and preserving the win.
It was not a great game by any means. Statistically, Virginia Tech dominated Boston College, but the eyeball test showed that Tech continues to be a mess on the offense, running everything through Thomas.
With Georgia Tech's win over Duke today, Virginia Tech is now out of contention for the Coastal crown, and all that is left for the Hokies to host Virginia and beat them to gain bowl eligibility.