Hokies Fall, Losing 28-21 to ECU in Heartbreaking OSU Follow-Up

The Hokies' demoralizing, deflating 28-21 loss to East Carolina ended pretty much the way it started.

After letting the Pirates take a 21-0 lead thanks to a barrage of deep passes by talented quarterback Shane Carden in the first quarter, the Hokies' defense tightened up in the second half.

But when it really mattered, after Tech tied the game with just 1:20 left in the game, the secondary got burned once again for a 31-yard pass and a 28-yard pass to put Carden in the position to run it in for an easy score to take the lead.

Yet it wasn't just the long passes that let the Pirates steal the game. A pair of illegal substitution penalties, an issue that was plaguing Tech all day, and a kickoff that sailed out of bounds near the goal line gave ECU the extra yards it needed.

"They were good and we helped them," said Frank Beamer. "I don't like kicking the ball out of bounds and giving them good field position to start with. I don't like having too many guys on the field and giving them those yards, I don't like that a bit."

The sudden jolt of offense from ECU came as a bit of a shock, considering how well the defense was playing. After letting the Pirates throw 370 yards of offense on the scoreboard in the first half, Bud Foster's group allowed just 13 in the third quarter alone.

But the defense couldn't come through when it mattered most.

"As a defense, if it's going to be a close game, you want it in our hands," said linebacker Chase Williams. "And we can't help them out with those penalties, that's something we're going to look to eliminate."

Just the fact that Tech was even in position to send the game to overtime with a defensive stand seems like a minor miracle.

Everything that could possibly go wrong for the Hokies in the first quarter did go wrong.

Carden went off for 174 yards, feasting on Brandon Facyson and the Hokies' safeties. Tech allowed passes of 35, 22, 47 and 23 yards in just the first 15 minutes of the game.

"They've got some receivers that can go up and go get it. And their quarterback, I don't think anyone throws it any better than he does," Beamer said. "He put some deep balls right on the money."

While some of Carden's throws were excellent, others were lobs that merely managed to get Tech's cornerbacks turned around. Even Kendall Fuller was guilty of losing a few passes, and Facyson struggled so that the staff turned to last week's hero, Donovan Riley.

"He's missed a lot of time, missed a lot of practice time and you can't make that up," Beamer said. "He's a terrific athlete and a good kid, he'll be a better guy next week. And Riley is a tough guy that played his heart out."

ECU's offensive barrage wouldn't have been quite so damaging had the Hokies managed to put any sort of offense together to counter them.

Instead, Tech finished with a grand total of 14 total yards to end the quarter.

"We knew they were going to be tough defensively, we knew they were going to be ready to play, they did some things up front and were able to stop our run game and get some pressure early," said Michael Brewer. "There's really no excuse other than they outplayed us in the first half."

Brewer looked erratic and uncomfortable in the pocket, a strange sight after how poised he seemed against one of the best defensive line's in the nation a week ago. He threw a pair of very ill-advised picks early in the second quarter that just kept putting Tech's defense on the field.

"We need to eliminate those turnovers," Brewer said. "One of them was just an uncharacteristic throw, throwing back across my body, trying to make something happen when I should've just thrown it away. The second one, the DB made a good play, I was a little late on the throw. But then again, that's a credit to their defense."

Even with all the long throws and offensive miscues, the Hokies were still very much in the game as the second quarter came to an end. The defense tightened up, and the offense finally found some rhythm, scoring on an Isaiah Ford catch that could've easily been overturned had there been a clearer view of the ball.

But Tech went into the locker room down just 21-7, a minor miracle after ECU failed to convert a fourth down on the 11-yard line and then fumbled on Tech's 24-yard line earlier in the second.

The offense couldn't get any points in the ensuing quarter, but controlled the time of possession and gradually looked more functional.

"I've seen some times when we started out bad and ended bad, but offensively I thought we started out slow and got better as the day went along," Beamer said. "We've got some improving to do, but I think we can look at our blocking, at why we weren't able to run the ball early and again late."

It helped that the pass rush, led by Ken Ekanem's 1.5 sacks and Deon Clarke's two, hounded Carden relentlessly in the second half.

"We just got a better feel for the offensive line and what they were doing protection wise, we had a few scheme changes during halftime, so we got to the quarterback more and I got a better feel for my tackle," Ekanem said.

Yet Tech failed to convert a fourth down of its own on the 2-yard line as the final quarter opened, and that largely sealed the Hokies fate.

"We had an opportunity in the red zone. We had a play that had a shot and it just didn't work out," said offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler.

But on their next drive, the Hokies marched 80 yards down the field for another Ford touchdown, and suddenly it was 21-14.

Two drives later, they were gifted with starting field position on the 47, and made it count, tying the game with an 18-yard catch by Cam Phillips.

At that point, it seemed overtime was inevitable.

"I've got complete faith in the defense, I thought we had a chance all the way down (the field)," Phillips said. "We have a great defense at Virginia Tech, but in tight games things can flip in an instant."

Then Carden burned Riley and Chuck Clark on those long completions, and the game came to a stunning end.

"I'm going to blame myself for the deep ball, I should've faded to that side more," said free safety Detrick Bonner. "We made some minor mistakes substitution-wise, but that doesn't mean that we can't correct it."

Now the Hokies are left wondering how they're back talking about games like 2013's losses to Duke and Maryland, or even 2010's letdown against JMU, after achieving one of the biggest wins in program history.

"That was one thing we preached to our guys all week was, we're not taking a step back and not doing the thing we did last year, which was play great one week and then fall down the next week," said receiver Willie Byrn. "We just came out a little slow and then the defense played great in the second half, and the offense was getting first downs, but we weren't doing the ultimate goal, which is punching it in. We just ran out of time."

Beamer was still oddly positive following the heartbreaking loss.

"I'm more convinced than ever that we can really be a good football team," Beamer said. "We got down and never once did we panic, we hung in there and gave ourselves a chance to win. So we can learn from it and be better and I think the potential is good. Last I week I thought the potential was good, and this week I think the potential is good."

His calm likely comes from the fact that he knows that, the win over the Buckeyes notwithstanding, the talk of making the playoff or winning the ACC was likely premature given how young this squad is.

"I don't think I've ever had a game that I felt like when we look at it we can learn as much as we can from this one," Beamer said.

Winning the division remains a realistic objective for the team, even if the effort looked brutal at times against the Pirates.

"We didn't finish today and that's on us and that's on me, and I'll take ownership of that," said defensive coordinator Bud Foster. "As good as we played last week, we weren't very good in the back end today."