After a crushing loss to Virginia in which the Cavaliers’ tallied 24 unanswered points to hand Boston College football its first conference loss, Eagles’ head coach Bill O’Brien sounded off in his post-game press conference.
“Thank God we got 12 days before our next game,” O’Brien said. “Maybe we can get some things corrected.”
But not a single thing appeared corrected in the first half at Virginia Tech on Thursday night.
The Eagles surrendered 28 points, 332 yards of total offense, and an average of 11.1 yards per play. More notably, quarterback Thomas Castellanos fumbled twice to keep a miserable streak of turnovers from the Virginia loss alive. The second takeaway marked Castellanos’ fifth turnover in the previous seven drives.
Hokies’ quarterback Kyron Drones, meanwhile, had no trouble moving the ball in the first half, recording 144 yards and a passing touchdown on 12-of-13 passing, and 45 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
The only statistic Virginia Tech (4–3, 2–1 Atlantic Coast) trailed in during the first half was time of possession, showing just how flawless and efficient the execution of the Hokies’ offense was. While Virginia Tech surrendered 21 straight points to start the second half and give the crowd in Blacksburg a scare, it capitalized on its colossal first-half lead, defeating BC (4–3, 1–2) 42–21.
“I got to get the team to understand what it takes to win,” O’Brien said. “They don’t understand. So I have to coach it better.”
Castellanos and Drones are considered two of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country. They both finished top-10 in the country in rushing yards for quarterbacks last season and top-40 overall.
Less than 12 minutes into the Eagles’ road contest on Thursday, only one showed why, as Drones swiftly established a 14–0 lead under the lights at Lane Stadium.
After Drones took an 11-yard carry to finish an 11-play, 88-yard drive, which chewed up 5:44 of the game clock and put the Hokies up 7–0, Castellanos fumbled on 3rd-and-1 on the Eagles’ 34-yard line to set the Hokies up to score once again.
“I’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” Castellanos said. “Those are not on the backs of anyone else. The ball is in my hands every play, every snap. I’ve got to do a better job protecting the ball.”
Drones converted a long third down with a 15-yard completion to Stephen Gosnell, which handed Virginia Tech the ball on the one-yard line. He then bulldozed in to make it a two-score game.
BC advanced all the way to Virginia Tech’s five-yard line on its next offensive possession, but the ball-handling miscues continued for BC’s signal caller.
The timing on a handoff from Castellanos to Kye Robichaux allowed the Hokies to pounce on the ball and get Drones back on the field.
“We’ve done that in all our losses,” O’Brien said. “We have to figure out how to correct it. We can’t turn the ball over and win. There’s no correlation between winning and turnovers. God, there’s nothing more important than possession of the ball. It’s not translating.”
The Eagles’ sloppy miscommunication resulted in more points for the opposition, as Bhayshul Tuten broke free untouched for 83 yards to the end zone to put Virginia Tech ahead 21–0 with 12:40 left in the first half.
The Hokies scored again to make it 28–0 before the second half with a 20-yard strike from Drones to Tuten, who finished the affair with 266 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns, and a 20-yard receiving touchdown.
If one player put the team on his back in the second half against the Hokies, it was Ohio State transfer Cameron Martinez. The turnover battle remained a point of emphasis, only this time, it was Martinez and BC’s defense winning it.
Martinez lit up every department of the Hokies’ offense in the third quarter, recording an interception and a fumble recovery, both of which resulted in touchdowns for the Eagles’ offense. He also registered a crucial sack in the waning minutes of the quarter to set up 3rd-and-14 and an eventual punt.
“He came up big for us,” O’Brien said. “He was injured early in the season with a bad hamstring pull, and it took a while to come back from it. When he came back, he wasn’t quite ready, so we were kind of inching him in there. He’s back to full strength now.”
Treshaun Ward and Jeremiah Franklin collected touchdown receptions of 25 and 11 yards, respectively, and Robichaux’s five-yard touchdown scamper made it 28–21 with 2:55 left in the third quarter.
The shift in momentum even had O’Brien clapping frantically on the sideline with a sliver of hope. But a turnover on downs on 4th-and-1 with 12:28 left to play put the Eagles on the ropes once again, and Virginia Tech tacked on a pair of rushing touchdowns—the last of which took just one play for Tuten to rumble in from 61 yards—to seal the 21-point victory.
“I mean, [I] give Virginia Tech a lot of credit,” O’Brien said. “They did a good job, we did not. We got a lot to figure out, but we can figure it out. It’s not over. The sun will come up tomorrow. But it’ll come up slowly.”
