Margin Call: Reviewing Virginia Tech's 16-35 Loss at Rutgers

In Piscataway, New Jersey it was a throwback to some bygone moments in the Big East. A team with a run-heavy, sometimes struggling offense, was content with punting the football and playing outstanding defense until the other team imploded. This was a trademark of many ugly victories in the Frank Beamer era. Unfortunately, it was the former Big East bottom feeder, Rutgers, that used that formula as Brent Pry's Hokies collapsed once again. In many facets of the game, for three quarters the Hokies outplayed Rutgers. Yet, Virginia Tech still found themselves trailing as a result of losing the turnover battle, special teams plus defensive breakdowns, and brutal penalties at key moments. Rutgers was gifted three touchdowns in the first half. The margins for the Hokies, particularly with their two best offensive playmakers sidelined, are way too narrow to overcome at this point in the program's development. Tech cannot stumble and expect to win against teams, even mediocre ones, that play mistake-free football.

Box of Chocolates on Defense

From repetition to repetition you never knew what you were going to get from Tech's defense. There were some positives. Jalen Stroman was excellent before his injury. Tech's top three cornerbacks were solid when challenged and better than average in run support. The linebacker play was more physical and assertive. The Hokies held Rutgers to numerous three and outs, primarily because their pass defense was sound when Rutgers tried to throw the football on first down.

Then there were the negatives. Defensive tackle should be a position of strength, but outside of Josh Fuga the group didn't make Rutgers pay for trying to block them one-on-one. Miscommunication and poor tackling by inexperienced safeties Jaylen Jones and Mose Phillips, particularly after Stroman left the game with an injury, broke the back of the defense. And in a callback to one of my most miserable days writing film reviews, Rutgers followed East Carolina's 2015 blueprint of using the tailback to account for the unblocked defender on designed quarterback runs as their only consistently effective play for three quarters.

The biggest positive takeaway from Saturday was Tech's linebackers played a more consistently gap sound game.

Rutgers runs a variation of an outside zone read against. As you recall, both Old Dominion and Purdue racked up several 3rd-and-long conversions running the same play. On this variation, Rutgers optioned backside defensive end Antwaun Powell-Ryland (No. 52). WILL linebacker Keli Lawson (No. 21) blitzed through the backside B-gap unblocked. When Lawson didn't get home to disrupt the mesh point between quarterback Gavin Wimsatt (No. 21) and tailback Kyle Monangai (No. 5), Rutgers had the advantage of all five offensive linemen blocking playside against four front-seven defenders.