College Football Breakdown

V Tech beats Miami 38-35 in a good one

Blacksburg-Virginia Tech scored the winning td on an option read 19 yard touchdown run by QB Logan Thomas with 56 seconds to play to beat Miami 38-35.  This was an exciting game with plenty of momentum swings in the second half.  Early in the game, the Hokies looked as though they would dominate this one.  QB Thomas was playing pitch and catch with wide open receivers and Miami seemed defenseless.  However, Miami QB Jacory Harris made some key throws that kept Miami in the game.  The Hurricanes trailed at half 21-7.  In the second half, the Miami’s big offensive line started to pound on Virginia Tech’s front and the powerful Miami RB Lamar Miller started to catch fire.  Miller made first down run after first down run and the Hokies found it tough to get him to the ground.  On the flip side, Virginia Tech continued to move the ball in the air with Logan who finished an amazing 23 of 25, 310 yards and 3 tds.  Both teams went back and forth.  While trailing 31-28 with less than 3 minutes to play, Miami had a first and goal.  But multiple penalties moved them back to the 30 yard line which made it apparent that Miami would at best have a game tying field goal attempt.  However, Miller (18-166, 1td)  would not hear of it.  He busted through the Hokie defense that had crowded the line hoping to take Miami out of field goal position and scored on a 30 yard td run to put the Canes up 35-31.  The crowd was stunned.  Tech’s Logan was not done yet.  He used 10 yard out passes as he had done all day to march down the field giving the Hokies a chance.  At the 19 yard line with less than a minute to play, Logan faked a hand off on a read option run which had basically zero success all day, and took the ball straight up the field for a wide open touchdown run.  The Hokies had taken the lead for good, 38-35.

Bottom Line: Virginia Tech really looked troubled by the big offensive line of Miami in the ground game.  The Canes who have been poor in run defense this year were worse in pass defense.  They could not apply any pressure on Logan and their corners played well off the receivers.  How else does a QB go 23-25? This was a tough loss for the Canes who played hard but it shows that Golden’s team isn’t a team of quitters.

JJBeatz

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