In a re-match of the 2011 Orange Bowl, Stanford and Virginia Tech both hoped to make a statement in their rebuilding attempts. However, quarterback woes and defensive struggles doomed the Cardinal in their first ACC home game.
Virginia Tech held the Cardinal to 258 yards of offense.
Justin Lamson struggled going for 13/24 for 103 yards and one interception. Stanford coach Troy Taylor admitted “[Lamson] didn’t play probably his best game…but I thought he was tough and gritty…I thought [Lamson] gave it all and left it all on the field…and you know when you come up short, you certainly can sense that we need people to play better.”
The ground game did not fare any better.
The backfield averaged 3.3 yards per carry on 41 attempts and 136 yards. “We weren’t able to create any big plays in the run game.” Taylor acknowledged.
Stanford’s conference leading run defense continued to play well giving up only 136 yards. However, a non-existent pass rush and struggling secondary allowed Virginia Tech QB Kyron Drones to make 14 of 19 throws for 201 yards and a pair of touchdown throws to Stephen Gosnell and Da’Quan Felton.
The Cardinal opened up the game with a 10-play, 40 yard drive to the Virginia Tech 35 only to miss a 53 yard field goal giving the Hokies excellent field position to start the game.
The visitors responded with a swift touchdown scoring drive to go up 7-0. With the ball back, Justin Lamson and the underclassman running backs led the team down to the Hokies 2. However, Lamson would proceed to fumble the ball.
“I made a lot of crucial mistakes,” Lamson said. “I was moving the ball down the field, and then I had a turnover early, which put us behind. Not very good as we only scored seven points.”
The new ACC foes traded punts before the Hokies once again found the endzone to go up 14-0. The second quarter would end with two stalled drives from both teams.
Starting with the ball in the second half, Kyron Drones quickly capitalized with a 55 yard touchdown strike to Da'Quan Felton resulting in a commanding 21-0 Virginia Tech lead in under two minutes. Both teams traded punts before former high school quarterback Micah Ford found Elic Ayomanor in the endzone on a halfback pass for the only Stanford score of the day to put the score at 21-7.
“We just never had any big plays really…We were kind of trudging along,” Troy Taylor said. “We didn’t do enough offensively to create some space and some big plays. We had some opportunities there, but we didn’t play well enough in all three phases.”
The Stanford defense held on to force a 3-and-out only for Justin Lamson to turn over the ball on an interception.
Virginia Tech would again find the endzone to pull away 28-7. Another punt from the Cardinal gave the ball back, leaving the Hokies to end the game on a field goal 31-7.
Despite the blowout loss at home, Taylor remained optimistic.
“It’s a tough conference. It’s a tough schedule,” the second year coach said. “We got to lick our wounds and then go to South Bend and play another great football team so it’s a challenge but we love being in the ACC.”
--Sam made me make a signature.