Hokies’ Comeback Falls Short In 26-23 Loss To Rutgers

Raza Umerani

Editor-in-Chief

September 21, 2024

BLACKSBURG — Once again, too little, too late.

Another slow start for Virginia Tech wound up resulting in its second double-digit comeback to tie the game in the fourth quarter this season. But, in a reprisal of the season opener at Vanderbilt, it once again couldn’t close it out as Rutgers’ late surge propelled it to a 26-23 victory on Saturday evening inside Lane Stadium.

“There's signs out there in each of these four games, the wins and the losses, of the team that we can be,” Tech third-year head coach Brent Pry said after the game. “We just haven't put it all together. Another slow start today. You can't dig yourself in a hole. As proud as I am of the way we battled back, you can't dig yourself in a hole. 

“We’ve got to coach better and play better early in the game. But it's a four quarter game. Games like today prove that.”

Despite coming back to tie the game at 23 apiece late in the fourth quarter, the Hokies (2-2) found themselves down 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and in a 23-7 hole entering the final period courtesy of the same old problems that continue to emerge this season: poor execution in all three phases. 

Missed opportunities on offense, untimely poor play on defense and persevering special teams errors put the Hokies in the hole that was just deep enough that they couldn’t quite claw out of it.

Like last year in Piscataway, Tech essentially spotted the Scarlet Knights (3-0) a 7-0 lead after Jaylin Lane fumbled the ball on a punt return following a three-and-out — marking the fourth time in as many games that its special teams unit has had a gaffe. 

Eight plays later, the Hokies turned the ball over on downs on the plus side of the field, which Rutgers responded to with a seamless six-play, 61-yard touchdown drive to take an early 14-0 lead.

Though the Hokies responded with a touchdown drive of their own, which was capped off by a 23-yard scoring scamper from Bhayshul Tuten, the next 30 or so minutes of football were an absolute struggle, particularly on offense.

When Tech’s defense came up with a massive stop as Mansoor Delane and Keli Lawson laid the wood and forced a fumble inside the 5-yard line, quarterback Kyron Drones was stepped on by right tackle Parker Clements in his own endzone and lost control of the ball, flinging it into the south endzone stands for a safety. 

To start the second half, the Scarlet Knights drove the ball down the field with ease, going 75 yards in eight plays for an easy touchdown to make it 23-7. On that drive and several others, Rutgers’ offense utilized the same-looking RPOs and play-action fakes to catch the Hokies’ defense lacking time and time again.

The Scarlet Knights didn’t necessarily blow the Hokies away with their patented ground game — in fact, their offense threw the ball far more than expected with Athan Kaliakmanis racking up 269 passing yards — but still ran the ball with the effectiveness to never be rattled offensively. Despite not ripping off a run longer than 12 yards, they accumulated 153 rushing yards on a whopping 52 total attempts, with all three of their touchdowns coming from running backs.

Star Rutgers back Kyle Monangai was relatively bottled up to the tune of 84 yards and a score on 26 carries, but backup Samuel Brown V had a career day with 60 yards and two scores.

“I thought they ran the ball just well enough to stay on schedule and to allow for the play action, which they did a nice job of,” Pry said. “[Kaliakmanis] was calm and cool. I thought more than the first two games they played, they really took a look at the defense, really tried to see what we were in, particularly in the first half. I think that hurt us. Good job by them. That's a well-coached team. They're big and strong and physical.”

Then came the comeback, which was equal parts missed opportunities from Rutgers and improved execution from Tech. 

After Drones fumbled the ball on Tech’s first play of the third quarter, the Scarlet Knights opted to not kick a field goal to go up three touchdowns, favoring a one-yard touchdown instead. That touchdown would not come as Kaliakmanis was pressured on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line and spiked the ball into the turf.

On its next drive, Rutgers missed a 53-yard field goal that once again could have increased the lead to three possessions. Even still, its defense kept the Hokies at arms length, forcing a three-and-out and a turnover on downs.

Eventually, momentum had to swing back to Tech’s side. That arrived in the form of back-to-back sacks leading to a punt which Lane returned to Rutgers’ 39-yard line. Two plays later, the Hokies were back in the endzone, once again courtesy of Tuten, this time from 14 yards out. With a successful two-point conversion, the Rutgers lead was cut to one score at 23-15. 

And after the Hokies defense forced another punt, their offense once again drove down the field and found paydirt with Tuten notching a hat trick with a two-yard touchdown plunge. A two-point conversion toss from Drones to Stephen Gosnell later, and the ballgame was — borderline inexplicably — tied at 23-23. 

But the pendulum of momentum swings back and forth. And after reaching its apex with Tech, it quickly moved back in the direction of the Scarlet Knights, who picked up 63 yards on the very first play of the ensuing drive courtesy of a perfectly designed and executed screen play to Ian Strong. Four plays later, Jai Patel booted the go-ahead field goal through the uprights from 25 yards out.

With under two minutes to play, the Hokies had a shot to force overtime or win the game in a situation that once again resembled the end of the Vanderbilt game all too well. And like toasty that afternoon in Nashville, they once again fell short as Drones’ third-down pass was batted in the air and intercepted by Robert Longerbeam in one fell swoop to seal the win for Rutgers.

Though he ran for 60 hard-earned yards, it wasn’t Drones’ finest game as a passer. The junior signal caller missed multiple deep shots up the middle of the field to wide receiver Da’Quan Felton which very well could have been touchdowns of 82 and 94 yards. He posted his lowest completion percentage of the season (48.1%) and didn’t throw a touchdown, though both two-point conversions came through the air.

“I think [Drones] is disappointed,” Pry said. “We’ve got to take shots. I'm not so sure there's not more we’ve got to take. You connect on one of those, and it's the difference in the game. So we’ve got to keep dialing those up, keep calling those. We’ve got to land them.”

In a game where both teams made a plethora of mistakes, it comes down to who executes when it matters most. Despite leaving 20 points on the board thanks to two turnovers inside the 5-yard line and a pair of missed field goals, it was Rutgers who made the key plays both early and late to separate themselves and send Tech to a loss that’s already becoming all too familiar in 2024.

“The whole game, we were shooting ourselves in the foot,” Lane said. “We've got a lot of stuff we've got to clean up. But at the end of the day, we had a chance to win. ... We just got to look at that and just know we're a resilient team. If we just clean up the other stuff, we're gonna be hard to beat.”

It’s a trend that has dampened the feeling around what was supposed to be a special season in Blacksburg. The Hokies have lost both of their games against Power Four competition, increasing their losing streak to teams now in power leagues to a whopping 13 having not beaten such a team since 2017. And Pry is now a drab 1-9 in games decided by one possession.

Still, the entirety of ACC play lies ahead. Tech turned things around in 2023 following the conclusion of its non-conference schedule. It will need to find itself quickly to do the same in 2024.

“We know the team we have, we know the potential we have,” Pry said. “But you can't just be about potential. You gotta meet it. And we're not doing that right now. We are a better team than what we showed today.”

The Hokies will look to right the ship in perhaps their most difficult test of the season: a road trip to No. 8 Miami on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium to open ACC play.

“We can't do anything about the games we played other than learn from the mistakes and be a better team,” Pry said. “And we gotta own it as coaches and players. If we go be the team that we can be, we'll be hard to deal with. But we've got to do that. We've got to move the needle in all three phases.”