On Saturday, Stanford University football lost at home to Virginia Tech by a final score of 31-7. Virginia Tech quarterback Kyron Drones led the Hokies with a 14-19 record, 201 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions, and also rushed for 17 yards and one touchdown on eight carries. . Virginia Tech wide receiver Daquan Felton had four receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown.
Stanford running back Micah Ford led the Cardinal with 47 rushing yards on 11 attempts, 11 yards on two receptions and 19 yards on one passing touchdown. Virginia Tech improved to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the ACC, while Stanford improved to 2-3 overall and 1-2 in the ACC.
Video: Stanford Football Postgame Press Conference: Virginia Tech
Box Score: Virginia Tech at Stanford – Saturday, October 5th
“Yeah, there weren’t really any big plays,” Stanford head coach Troy Taylor said after the game. “I looked down and it looked like I was trudging along, so I took a picture. Part of our plan was to be able to run the football, and that’s what made it important. We knew he was going to get there and then be able to make shots down the field.
“We didn’t connect on that shot, so we either missed the shot, we didn’t catch the ball, we didn’t defend it well. You’re going to have to make big plays against a team like that, all at once. It’s going to be tough going six, seven, eight yards, and at the end of the day, we just didn’t do enough offensively to create space or create big plays.
“We had some chances there, but we just didn’t play well enough in all three phases. I know the defense did some good things, but the reality is they played in all three phases. surpassed us.”
The game was one-way for Virginia Tech from the jump. The Hokies did a great job of not letting the Cardinal get going and scoring steadily in each quarter. Virginia Tech outscored Stanford 7-0 in the first and second quarters and led 14-0 at halftime. Both teams were tied 7-7 in the third quarter, and Virginia Tech outscored Stanford 10-0 in the fourth.
The first quarter went deeper, with Stanford getting the ball early with wide receiver Ismael Cisse receiving 10 yards and tight end Sam Rausch receiving 17 yards. This led to Emmett Kenny attempting a 53-yard field goal, but the kick fell just short. Virginia Tech had the ball from its own 35-yard line and headed for the end zone, with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Kyron Drones to wide receiver Stephen Gosnell capping off a seven-play, 65-yard drive. He quickly moved the ball up the field. The Hokies led 7-0 with 6:33 left in the first quarter.
Stanford’s next drive got off to a good start, methodically moving the ball up the field and into the red zone. Unfortunately for Stanford, quarterback Justin Lamson, who was starting in place of the injured Ashton Daniels, fumbled the ball and committed a turnover, giving the Hokies a loss at their own 3-yard line with 12 seconds left in the first quarter. The ball was returned to me.
“I think Justin is a gritty, tough kid,” Taylor said of Lamson. “He’s going to give you everything he can. I know he probably didn’t play his best, but I thought he gave it his all and left everything on the field.” You can certainly feel that he needed to play better in all three areas when he came up short. He would have liked to have played better, but I think he’s tough. I thought he was a strong player.”
To start the second quarter, both teams traded punts. With 8 minutes and 39 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Virginia Tech began its next scoring effort when the ball reached its own 12-yard line. Drones connected with wide receiver Aiden Green for an 11-yard reception, and on the ensuing drive, running back Beishul Tuten had a 13-yard rush before Drones found Gosnell for a 24-yard reception. Recorded. The drive would end with Tuten finding the end zone on a 7-yard run. The Hokies led 14-0 with 1:59 left in the second quarter. The Hokies held that lead going into halftime.
The Hokies quickly scored in the third quarter when Drones connected with Felton on the fourth play of the drive for a 55-yard touchdown. The two had quite the drive, as the first play of the drive was a 17-yard completion from Draughns to Felton. With 13:01 left in the third quarter, Virginia Tech led 21-0.
Stanford also scored in the third quarter, starting at its own 20-yard line with 8:16 remaining. Running back Chris Davis Jr. gained 20 yards on the drive and wide receiver Eric Ayomanar had an 11-yard reception to the Virginia Tech 33-yard line. The drive ended with Micah Ford finding Eric Ayomanolu for a 19-yard touchdown to the corner of the end zone. Virginia Tech led 21-7 with one minute left in the third quarter.
“Yeah, I felt like we just tried to use him as one of our weapons in this game,” Taylor said of Ford’s passing touchdown. “He’s a versatile player, obviously he can throw, he can run, he’s a smart kid, so we thought we’d expand (the offense) and give us a chance.”
While Miami couldn’t pull off a comeback like the one it showed at Cal later that night, Stanford couldn’t find similar magic. Instead, Virginia Tech went on a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter, winning by a final score of 31-7. The Drones scored a 2-yard rushing touchdown to cap a seven-play, 35-yard drive thanks to Justin Lamson being picked off by Keonta Jenkins. Later in the quarter, the Hokies had a great 46-yard field goal by John Love. Micah Ford was injured in the final minutes of the game and limped off the field. No word yet on his future status.
“Yeah, we haven’t gotten any information,” Taylor said of Ford’s injury. “It looks like there’s something in his leg, but other than that I don’t know.”
This is a truly disappointing loss for Stanford University. Ball safety continues to be an issue for them, as quarterback Justin Lamson threw an interception and fumbled the ball. If they can handle the ball better, they have the ability to cause some problems for teams. And while the defense wasn’t as bad as the offense, allowing 31 points isn’t a great game either. Just around the dud.
“I don’t think I performed very well,” Lamson admitted. “I made a lot of crucial mistakes. We were moving the ball up the field, we had some early turnovers and we were behind. It’s not very good. I only got 7 points.”
A quick note on the situation with quarterback Ashton Daniels, Stanford still doesn’t know when he will be able to return. He was available for the game, but did not practice much this past week as he is dealing with a foot/ankle injury. It’ll be interesting to see when he returns.
“Yeah, he was always ready to go,” Taylor said of Daniels. “To be honest, he didn’t practice much and I didn’t think it was the right thing to put him on the field without practicing. We’d like to give him a few more days on the field. When you go out there and try to move around against a really good defense without practicing, anything can happen.
“Justin has worked really hard so I hope he’s ready to go because like I said, he (Ashton) is available if we really need him. But… We just want to make sure he’s completely healthy and 100 percent so he can protect himself’ back there. ”
“I mean, I knew yesterday, but I did every single rep in practice this week,” Lamson said of finding out he was starting. “So I had a good idea that I would probably get the start.”
Virginia Tech should be happy with how they played. After taking a transcontinental flight, they set out on a journey to run errands. They moved the ball well and did an overall good job of making Stanford pay for their mistakes. If you’re a Hokie, there’s not much to complain about.
“Well, defensively, they’re very athletic, they’re very physical, but we just couldn’t sustain the block, we had a little bit of space and we couldn’t sustain the block, and they “It’s a good tackling team,” Taylor said of Virginia Tech. “As a result, we weren’t able to make big plays in the run game and, like I said, we were underachieving in the pass game. We had some chances there, we had some matchups that we liked, but they just didn’t happen. Ta.
“I think we had a real chance to score there because we were in the top five and we just missed it. That was tough. And on the other side of the ball, the kid was really efficient. I They didn’t force him to make mistakes, he’s a really physical player, and he outplayed us in that area as well on special teams.”
Stanford’s next game is a road game at No. 16 Notre Dame on Saturday, Oct. 12. It kicks off at 12:30pm PT on NBC.
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