Friday, October 26, 2007
A loss not soon forgotten
Randy King
Randy King's Tech Insider is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Thursdays in season.
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Hokie Nation woke up today with a BC headache.
Was Tech's stunning 14-10 loss to Boston College at Lane Stadium preventable? No doubt.
Hang this one on the coaching staff, not the players.
Tech's defense had stopped Matt Ryan and BC's offense for 56 minutes by playing hard, aggressive football. Then, for some inexplicable reason, Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster decided to go soft and went to the prevent defense.
It prevented something, all right. Prevented victory, that's what.
Knowing Foster, I'm sure he's sicker than any Tech fan today. I'm also certain if he had to do it over again, he wouldn't have gone to a three-man rush on the Eagles' final drive that allowed Ryan to run around and around, plus make a sandwich, until he found an open receiver. And when he spotted one, he got the ball to them and they caught it.
Give Ryan all kinds of credit. For nearly 56 minutes, he looked like an imposter candidate for the Heisman Trophy. He seemed to be pressing. He made bad decisions. He was picked twice.
Then, in the final four minutes, the 6-foot-5 Ryan suddenly looked like the reincarnation of Doug Flutie. He scrambled around like a guy with his hair on fire. And when it came time to finally pull the trigger, he delivered the football with the zip and accuracy of Tom Brady, that other QB who toils in the Boston area.
Ryan completed nine of 15 passes for 157 yards on BC's final two drives in the game's final 4:16. Unreal numbers, considering he had gone 16-for-38 for 128 yards in the first 55 minutes and change.
Until Foster took his foot off the gas pedal, his defense had laid rubber all over Ryan & Co. Tech's defensive front had played spectacularly, getting the four-man pressure on Ryan that the Hokies had to have to win this game.
The incredible performance of Tech's front four, particularly end Chris Ellis, was going to be the theme of my game story. Then, just like that, everything disintegrated for the Hokies, not to mention my story.
Ellis's play was simply unbelievable. He looked like a combination of a couple of ex-Tech All-America D-ends: Bruce Smith and Corey Moore.
Eagles senior left tackle Gosder Cherilus, who is considered by most to be a lock first-round NFL Draft pick next April, had no answers for Mr. Ellis.
The 6-foot-4, 267-pound Ellis finished with 1.5 sacks, two pass breakups, and four quarterback hurries, a monster performance that certainly will vault his name up the draft boards of a lot of NFL teams.
Ellis wasn't the only guy on Tech's D-line, though. End Orion Martin of Martinsville was superb, making five tackles, recording a sack, with a pass breakup and three QB pressures. Inside, tackles Barry Booker and Carlton Powell had huge games against a BC front that had permitted only six sacks in the previous seven games. Booker had a shared sack, a pass breakup and two hurries. Powell had four tackles and shared a tackle for loss.
While Foster has to rue his decision to go to the three-man pass rush on BC's final drive, he wasn't the only Tech coach sent to the blame box for this one.
When free safety D.J. Parker intercepted a Ryan pass at the BC 31 with 6:01 left, Tech's offense had a shot to put a 10-0 game on ice.
Two Kenny Lewis runs -- his only two carries of the night -- netted 2 yards. Don't ask me why Branden Ore, who had rushed for a season-high 97 yards on 20 carries to that point, wasn't in the game. I never got a chance to ask that question because I had to redo my entire story to make a midnight deadline.
Anyway, facing and third-and-8, Tech calls a timeout with 4:32 left on the game clock. When QB Sean Glennon couldn't hook up with Eddie Royal on a 15-yard square-out to the right sideline, the incompletion stopped the clock and kept another 35 seconds on the game clock that BC certainly needed at the end. Mmmmm ... curious. On fourth down from the 29, the Hokies lined up for an apparent 46-yard field attempt by Jud Dunlevy.
Tough chore on a wet field, for sure. I'm certain Beamer also was concerned about a possible block and return for a quick score by BC. So Tech snaps the ball to Dunlevy, who sends an effective "pooch" punt to the BC 8.
His team 92 yards from the end zone, Ryan and the Eagles then proceeded to show why this BC team is special. With BC throwing on every down, Tech's front four quickly became gassed from all the chasing. No rehash here is necessary. Simply, Ryan goes 4-for-8 for 81 yards as BC scores with 2:11 left to cut Tech's lead to 10-7.
No biggie, Tech fans must have still thought. Just field an onsides kick and this one's over, right? No way, Frank Beamer's heralded special teams make a mistake at a time like this, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong.
The onsides kick heads right at senior wideout Josh Morgan. The ball takes a bounce and bounds off Morgan's chest 5 yards towards the onrushing BC coverage team. Tyronne Pruitt recovers the ball at the BC 34.
Hmmmm ... the pilgrims in the stands start to sweat in a cold rain.
With Tech getting no pressure with three rushers, Ryan proceeds to pick his way downfield from there as he runs circles in the pocket. Four consecutive completions quickly whisks the ball to the Tech 26 with :46 left.
Ryan then finds a wide-open Rich Gunnell in the back of the end zone for a touchdown with 27 seconds showing. Wait a second, there's a flag. Holding BC. Ball moved back to the Tech 24 with 27 seconds left.
On third-and-20, Ryan then sticks a dagger in Hokie Nation's back. He rolls right and makes a U-turn and strolls left. Then, in a spectacular pass, he throws back against his body and arches a high spiral towards the end zone. The ball drops directly into the cradled arms of tailback Andre Callendar for the game-winning TD.
One of the defenders on the play? D-end Orion Martin. Go figure.
Here's your BC powder, Hokies.
