Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Members of Georgia Tech's offense celebrate after scoring their first touchdown in Saturday's game with No. 4 Virginia Tech. The Yellow Jackets went on to win.

Tech coach Frank Beamer (right) and defensive coordinator Bud Foster offer encouragement to the Hokies' defense.

ATLANTA -- Virginia Tech ran into the Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech on Saturday night.

As a result, the fourth-ranked Hokies saw any shot of playing for national title this season come crashing down.

After holding Georgia Tech's spread option in check in the first half, Bud Foster's defense had no answers in the final 30 minutes, and the No. 19 Yellow Jackets stung Virginia Tech 28-23 in front of 54,405 chilled fans at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Led by quarterback Josh Nesbitt's 122 yards rushing and three touchdowns, Georgia Tech shredded the Hokies' defense for 272 ground yards in the second half and beat a top-five team at for the first time at home since 1962.

"They changed their [offensive] blocking schemes, and it wasn't something we prepared for all week," Hokies rover Dorian Porch said. "We tried to make adjustments and it worked for a little bit, and they switched on us [at halftime].

"So it was going back and forth ... kinda like a chess match, and they won it."

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson, who doubles as the Yellow Jackets' offensive wizard, definitely checkmated Foster on this night. That doesn't happen often, either.

Virginia Tech (5-2, 3-1 ACC), which saw its five-game winning streak end, got evicted from the national title chase.

"I don't think we were looking ahead. They just made more plays than we did," said Hokies quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who didn't have much time to shine this night, as his offense was on the field for only 7:32 in the final 30 minutes.

Georgia Tech's offense was the reason for that. The Yellow Jackets (6-1, 4-1) hogged the ball for 22:28 in the second half.

"They had great time management, controlling the ball what seemed like all the time," said Hokies tailback Ryan Williams, who despite having a weak stomach, ran for 100 yards, his fifth triple-digit effort of the season.

"Every third down, they got the first-down conversion. They ran the ball straight down our throats. They were the better team tonight."

After Matt Waldron's 34-yard field goal with 4:01 left in the first half, Nesbitt completed his only pass of the night -- a 51-yarder to Demaryius Thomas -- to move the previously stagnant attack of the hosts to the Hokies' 13-yard line. Five plays later, Nesbitt scored on a 1-yard sneak to make it 7-3 with 32 seconds left in the half.

Johnson, who said his offense looked "kind of like zombies" in the first half, then made the adjustments that would decide the game. He changed the blocking schemes and some of the plays his offense ran.

Whatever, it worked superbly.

With Nesbitt either keeping the ball, or back Jonathan Dwyer going up the middle on the dive, or speedster Anthony Allen taking pitches and turning up the field off the edges, Georgia Tech ran the ball at will. Nesbitt, who had a 31-yard run in the drive, capped a quick 60-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run to make it 14-3.

The Hokies closed to 14-10 when Williams burst through a gaping hole up the gut and was never touched en route to a 66-yard TD run that enabled the visitors to close to 14-10 with 7:58 left in the third quarter.

Johnson & Co., however, always had a counter move. Chewing up 6:19 off the clock, the Jackets went 86 yards on 12 plays to rebuild their lead back to 11. Marcus Wright's 13-yard TD run capped a drive that was highlighted by a 33-yard Dwyer run.

The Hokies still had a shot after Taylor scored on an incredible 22-yard escape from the pocket, in which he juked two defenders, to make it 21-16 with 4:52 left to play. Taylor's two-point conversion pass was deflected out of the end zone, leaving the Hokies down by five.

Nesbitt sealed it for his team when he capped another 75-yard trip down field with a 39-yard run around the left side in which he tip-toed his way down the sideline to make 28-16 with 3:00 to play.

Foster's defense had yielded an average of 44 rushing yards in winning its first three ACC games. They had no clue how to stop the Ramblin' Wreck, however.

"We couldn't get off the field and it made it really tough because we were getting tired," said linebacker Barquell Rivers, who had a career-high 16 tackles. "They made some adjustments and I guess it dictated what we were going to do. They adjusted and we didn't really adjust to their adjustments too much."

Hokies linebacker Cody Grimm said he's glad he won't have to see Johnson's offense again.

"It's tough to play against," the redshirt senior said. "We started the game and our defense is doing good and our offense not so much. Then in the second half it was the opposite. We couldn't get on the same page and we didn't stop what we needed to."

Tech coach Frank Beamer, whose team fell to 21-61 in games in which his teams have been outrushed, credited Johnson and his club.

"We didn't play as well as we need to, a lot of that had to do with Georgia Tech," he said. "They did a couple things different on us after halftime and we tried to adjust, and it got into a little bit of a guessing game."

The Hokies guessed wrong too many times on defense.

"Most everyone is down," Grimm said. "We've just gotta come up. We've got a bye week now which is good for us."