Virginia Tech Must Prepare for Tough November Stretch

After beating Central Michigan last week, Virginia Tech is 4-2 and feeling much better now than after the 21-16 loss to James Madison.

With a four-game winning streak in progress and the probable return of Ryan Williams to the backfield, things are looking bright for the Hokies, right? Not so fast.

The four wins Tech has notched are a good confidence booster, but other than the victory over North Carolina State, they have shown nothing about the team.

This is no surprise—everyone knew that the competition was minimal between the Boise State game and the Thursday night showdown with Georgia Tech on Nov. 4.

Look at the stats of the teams the Hokies have beaten.

ECU was the first team Tech put up big numbers on, but the Pirates’ defense is ranked 117th out of 120 FBS schools, giving up 42 points per game.

The game against Boston College was the first time Tech’s defense dominated an opposing team, but their offense is almost as bad as ECU’s defense. It is 104th—averaging 18.8 points per game.

Overall, Boston College, NC State, ECU and CMU are a combined 3-8 when playing against opponents in BCS conferences. In fact, all three of those wins are by NC State. BC, ECU and CMU have yet to win a game against a school from a power conference.

Tech has come a very long way in these four wins, but fans shouldn’t start thinking ACC title just yet.

Looking at the victory over the Chippewas can show a lot about how the Hokies are still in trouble despite winning.

CMU may have only scored 21 points, but they racked up 401 total yards—seven more than the Hokies gained. Two missed field goals and a failed fourth-down conversion on the Hokies' 29-yard line contributed to CMU's underachievement.

The Chippewas were able to sustain drives on the Hokies all day, and it was only near the end zone that Tech could dig its cleats in and make a stop.

On offense, the 45 points the Hokies scored masked a glaring issue: Tech went 0-for-8 on third downs.

Not being able to score in the red zone is a big issue, but if the Hokies can’t convert on third down, it will be irrelevant. In order to struggle in the red zone, you have to get there first, which you can’t do if you can’t drive down the field.

The bulk of the Hokies' points on Saturday came from big plays because of superior athleticism: Tyrod Taylor’s dazzling option that went for a 72-yard touchdown, David Wilson’s 68-yard run and Jayron Hosley’s 80-yard punt return.

Those plays work against schools where Tech holds that athletic advantage, but what happens when they don’t? November starts out with games against Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Miami—all teams as talented as, if not more talented, than Tech.

Big plays will be hard to find in these games, and if the Hokies can’t produce legitimate drives, then points could be scarce.

Tech has two more weeks to work out the issues before the real competition comes to town. Wake Forest and Duke are technically in the same conference as the Hokies, but they aren’t in the same league as far as talent is concerned.

Because of this, the Hokies need to use these two games to work on things that could be their Achilles heel in November.

The offense needs to find its identity and work toward producing drives that eat up clock time and end up in a touchdown when it gets into the red zone.

On defense, Foster needs more consistency out of his players—especially in the secondary. Throughout the season, the secondary has been very Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; there are some series where they are truly dominant, but there are times when the other team picks them apart with ease.

The team has the talent, but they are still in the process of learning while they are on the field.

Right now, it is hard to tell how good this team really is. It is not often that you can say that seven weeks into a season, but as strange as this season has been so far, nothing is surprising at this point.

This article was featured in today's Collegiate Times—the Virginia Tech student-run newspaper. You can follow Nick Cafferky on Twitter @Caffscorner.