From the instant Make it Real was posted on Wednesday, there was a palpable energy among the Hokie faithful that ramped up until game time and could be felt throughout Blacksburg all day Saturday. You know the feeling. It's an electric buzz in the air that has been missing for years, a sheer force of will emanating from Virginia Tech, its players, and its fans. A feeling that destiny is a big black victory train rolling down the tracks, mowing over everything in its path.

On this night, the Miami Hurricanes were in the way, and looking back on it, they never had a chance. Sure, we can sit down here and break down the film and comment on the trends and plays that made the game go the way it did, but the bottom line is, Miami never had a chance. Virginia Tech knew it, the fans knew it, and though they would never admit it, the Miami players and coaches knew it, as well.

It showed in the way they played. The Hurricanes, winners of 39 regular season games in a row, dropped passes, committed penalties, made dumb errors, turned the ball over, and when the game went south, started pushing, shoving, and even diving at knees, flailing away like bawling infants at the certain fate that awaited them as the clock wound down.

When it was over, Virginia Tech had cast aside a decades-old albatross from their neck, finally beating a top 5 opponent, in resounding fashion, 31-7. The Hokie players attacked from the start, blasting the Hurricanes back on their heels and never letting up, pushing them back like a maroon tide. It seemed as if no matter who had the ball, Miami or VT, the energy flowed from the maroon side of the ball to the orange and white side of the ball. The Hokies were relentless in their pressure.

Miami never had a chance. Never.

It turns out that last Friday's TSLMail, as one message board poster pointed out, was prophetic:

"The message is clear: the Hokies have got to protect the football, force turnovers, pressure the QB, and a score from the defense or special teams would help. These are all things that we know intuitively, and the statistics support it."

Speaking of the statistics, here they are:

• Turnovers: VT 2, Miami 4.
• Sacks: VT 4, Miami 1.
• Non-offensive TDs: VT 2, Miami 0.

And that, my friends, is this game in a nutshell. Analysis over? Not really. While I'll admit that watching this game tape and analyzing it was difficult -- the fan in me kept marveling at the crowd noise and reveling in the sheer power and artistry in Tech's play -- I noted some things that are interesting and worth discussion.

Break down the X's and O's all you want, it comes down to this: players making plays. On Saturday night, a ton of Hokies made plays, and correct me if I'm wrong, but there wasn't a play-making Hurricane to be found.

The Hurricanes dropped passes, including one forever-infamous (in the minds of Canes fans) fake field goal. Their quarterback served up interceptions. Their punter shanked kicks. Their running back went down with the first hit and showed no breakaway speed. Their all-world tight end caught 8 passes for just 48 yards, and promptly gave 15 of those yards back with a silly personal foul.

In short, the Canes had nothing, and the Hokies had just about everything. Nearly every Hokie on the field played well Saturday night, with the offensive line, Kevin Jones, the defensive line, and the defensive backs turning in their best performances of the season. Even the linebackers were pretty darn good, with Jordan Trott subbing for the injured Mikal Baaqee and either holding the level of play or elevating it, depending upon your opinion of VT's linebacker play this season.

The Running Game

Much has been made of the fact that VT ran the ball well and Miami didn't. Virginia Tech had 175 yards rushing on 41 carries (4.3 ypc), and Miami had 116 yards on 38 carries (3.1 ypc).

The Hokies stopped the Miami running game, the pundits have said, which put the Canes in predictable passing situations and allowed VT to apply pressure to the quarterback, Brock Berlin. Berlin produced the expected mistakes, and VT capitalized on them, big-time.

Coming into the game, I felt that Miami was weak at the running back position, where Willis McGahee's early exit to the NFL and Frank Gore's knee injury left the Canes with just two options, senior Jarrett Payton and true freshman Tyrone Moss. I watched the WVU-Miami game earlier this year, in which Gore got hurt and gave way to Payton, and I remember having one thought as I watched Payton: Wow, he's not nearly as good as Gore or McGahee. Wasn't as fast, as shifty, or as powerful.

But that was only one game, so I reserved judgment, but on Saturday night, I saw the same thing. Whereas McGahee went over, around, and through the Hokies last year, Payton went down with the first contact almost every time, showing none of the elusiveness or power of McGahee or Gore. And in the third quarter, on a third and 10, he was pretty gutless on a screen pass, running out of bounds two yards short of the first down. UM didn't pick it up on the following fourth down, either.

Give the Hokies credit. They pursued, filled the gaps, and made the tackles. But Payton isn't nearly the weapon that previous Miami backs have been, and Moss, who promises to be a load in the future, isn't ready yet.

Out of Miami's 38 carries for just 116 yards, Payton toted it 18 times for just 69 yards (3.8 ypc). Not horrible, but not special.

Meanwhile, on the VT side, I think Kevin Jones produced the finest game of his VT career. KJ played like a man possessed from his very first carry, when he ripped off a 20-yard run to start his night. KJ's first 13 carries produced 100 yards (7.7 yards per carry), and once VT had built a lead, he carried another 13 times for just 24 yards. But by then, the Hokies were running the ball up the middle repeatedly, and KJ was just a tool to move the ball forward a little and work the clock. Those first 13 carries did the damage.

Jones ran with speed and power, his signature run of the night coming with 1:30 to go in the first quarter and the Hokies facing first and 15 on their own 35 yard line. The Hokies handed the ball to Jones off right tackle, and with Jon Dunn, Jeff King, and the pulling Will Montgomery clearing out a huge hole, Jones exploded through the line and into Miami's secondary.

He was met there by Miami defensive back Greg Threat, and Jones blew around him like he was standing still (go back and watch -- Threat never even got close to him).

That was the part of the lesson that concentrated on quickness and shiftiness, and next Jones taught Miami about speed and power. He motored down the sideline for a 27-yard gain, and as Miami safety Sean Taylor ran him down from the side, KJ did not go quietly into that good night like some long-dead poet. Taylor, at 6-3, 230 is one of the biggest free safeties you'll ever see at the college or pro level, and Jones, giving away three inches and ten pounds, lowered his shoulder and knocked Taylor on his can.

The two got up and woofed at each other in a fine display of testosterone that makes us all love this game of football so.

During the game, from my position in row WW, I was impressed with Jones, but when I watched the tape, man alive, I was blown away. He ran with fury and purpose like I've never seen from the guy. Weeks ago, as Jones was working his way through a mediocre early-season performance, I was speaking with a VT defender who shook his head and said of Jones' relatively lackluster season to that point, "I just wish you could see the Kevin Jones we saw in preseason practice. Wow."

I think we did see him Saturday night. Wow, indeed.

They say you can't run laterally on a defense as fast as Miami's. Pffffftt. Go watch the film. KJ can. Count the number of times Miami defenders rushed to the point of attack, only to grab air as Jones simply blew past them.

Awesome, awesome performance.

The Hokies unleashed a defensive game that topped the one they showed Syracuse three weeks ago in a 51-7 romp. While Miami did have 377 yards of offense, VT's defense was strong when it needed to be, opportunistic, and relentless. The criticism of the defensive squad early in the year is that they weren't attacking the ball like they used to, but they did a great job of that against the Canes.

No one defensive player dominated for VT, and every player made mistakes at times. But every time one Hokie made a mistake or a sub-par play, others picked up the slack, and rarely a play went by that at least one Hokie defender didn't do something disruptive. The Hurricanes got pressure from at least one Hokie player on nearly every play.

The defensive strategy was simple:

1.) Shut down the run and attack the ball.
2.) Pressure the QB and force mistakes.
3.) Play some nickel package in obvious passing downs, covering Kellen Winslow with a cornerback.

There wasn't much more to it than that. Items 1 and 2 have been staples of the best VT defenses of the past, but item 3 is a new wrinkle from recent years. VT doesn't play a lot of nickel -- substituting a cornerback for an inside linebacker -- but they tried it two years ago, putting Ronyell Whitaker on former UM tight end Jeremy Shockey, and it worked back then.

So VT did it here, too, and the DB assigned to Winslow on most plays was Vince Fuller. Fuller tackled Winslow on three of his eight catches. The Hokies had Jimmy Williams assist Fuller, and outside of that, linebackers Brandon Manning and Vegas Robinson took care of Winslow (who will ever forget Robinson's one-handed horse-collar tackle of Winslow? Not me).

Winslow averaged just 6 yards per reception, five yards below his average, and his longest reception was for 8 yards (twice). And of course, he had no touchdowns. He is Miami's lone exceptional offensive player, and the Hokies neutralized him.

The Hokies used the blitz very effectively in this game. Contrary to what you might think, this wasn't a Tech blitz-a-thon, but when the Hokies did blitz, it paid off almost every single time. We even saw the rarely-used safety blitz, with Jimmy Williams rushing the backfield on a Miami 3rd and 6 early in the second quarter. Williams deflected Brock Berlin's pass, Berlin caught it for a loss, and Miami was forced to punt.

The Hokies also made some big run-defense plays by blitzing the gaps, and there was at least one occasion where the Hokies blitzed all three linebackers for a seven-man rush.

What I thought was interesting is that all of Tech's four sacks and three interceptions came from a simple four-man rush. Here's the sack breakdown:

1st sack: Miami 3rd and 5 on the VT 21, 3:53 remaining, first quarter: Colas flushes Brock Berlin to the left. Eric Green, covering a WR (Moore) on a very shallow crossing pattern, breaks it off and rushes into the backfield at Berlin. Berlin avoids Green, but Kevin Lewis, trailing the play, takes him down.

2nd sack: Miami 3rd and 8, on the Miami 14, 1:30 remaining, second quarter: Nathaniel Adibi stunts to the middle and flushes Berlin, and he and Jonathan Lewis take him down.

3rd sack: Miami 2nd and 6, from the Miami 43, 14:00 remaining, third quarter: Adibi and Colas both get good pressure from the outside, and Jonathan Lewis comes up the middle. Colas and Lewis get the sack, and Berlin fumbles (Miami recovers it).

4th sack: Miami 1st and 10, on the Miami 47, 14:50 remaining, fourth quarter: Coverage sack. Derrick Crudup leaves the pocket, and Jonathan Lewis sloughs off his blocker and makes the sack.

Not only is it encouraging that all four sacks came from the four-man rush, but it's also notable that 3.5 of the 4 sacks were credited to the Lewis brothers � the defensive tackles. VT will take that all day long. Jonathon had a monster game for a DT: 6 solo tackles, 3 assisted tackles, 2.5 sacks, and 3 overall tackles for loss for -11 yards.

Now let's look at the interceptions:

1st INT: Berlin's pick thrown to E. Green for the touchdown: Cols Colas beat his man -- Kellen Winslow. Winslow is not known for his blocking, and his responsibility on the play is to "chip" Colas and go out for a pass. Winslow's chip block doesn't slow Colas down one bit, and although Colas misses the tackle, it forces Berlin to leave the pocket, and he serves up the sideline pick to Green. The throw was very late, as pointed out by ESPN analyst Mike Gottfried, and was easy to intercept.

2nd INT: Berlin isn't ready for the snap, and it bounces off his knees. He picks it up, tries to roll away from pressure applied by Darryl Tapp, and in attempting to throw it away, lobs up a duck that Michael Crawford picks off.

3rd INT: Derrick Crudup avoids inside pressure by Tapp and throws an interception to Vince Fuller in the end zone.

Needless to say, that many big plays coming from the four-man rush is EXACTLY what VT has been missing and what makes that VT defense go. It opens up so many more options when you don't have to blitz to be successful on defense. Great job by both the defensive tackles and defensive ends on Saturday.

The Hokies were conservative on offense all game long, rushing the ball 41 times and throwing just eight passes. There were three reasons for this, I thought:

1.) Bryan Randall was again shaky throwing the ball. He tossed an interception into heavy coverage on VT's first drive, then threw a terrible short pass into the ground on the second drive. (To be fair, he may have done that on purpose, because no one was open.)

2.) Marcus Vick played most of the game. And the thought of young Vick, who threw two picks against Rutgers, trying to match up with Miami's DBs, the strength of their defense, is a little scary.

3.) VT got the lead and dominated the field position battle.

The first quarter was just a feeling-out process, and what the Hokies discovered was that offensively, the running game had it going on, but the passing game was again in a funk. Once the defense spotted the Hokies a 7-0 lead on Hall's fumble return, and once it became apparent that the VT defense and special teams had it going on, too, Frank Beamer could play the kind of ball he likes to play. You know the drill.

I've seen VT bullheadedly hammer the ball into the line when they shouldn't have, but in this game, I had little problem with it. Kevin Jones, as noted, was on fire, and the O-line was run-blocking better than they were pass-blocking. When Randall was replaced with Vick, the Hokies got a backup QB with the same track speed as the starter, but better vision and acceleration.

All signs pointed to the running game, and VT went with it, playing the field position game all the way.

Once VT took the 17-0 lead, forget it, the passing game was out the window � except for one last dagger. All through the third quarter, I kept waiting for VT to launch the missile from Vick to Wilford. Here's how things went after VT got up 17-0:

First Drive: Run up the middle; QB draw; fullback up the middle on third and long; punt.

Second Drive (after the Michael Crawford pick): Two runs by KJ, touchdown.

Third Drive (after failed 4th down run by Crudup): Run up the middle; flat pass to Easlick off play-action; Vick scrambles for first down; Jones run off-tackle; Play-action deep pass to Wilford, touchdown. Miami safety Sean Taylor bit just a little on the play action, but not much. Mainly, it was great blocking on the play, giving Vick time to set up and make a near-perfect throw. Wilford snared it, leaving Taylor crashing to the dirt in his wake, and the Hokies were up 31-0. Ball game over.

Except it was over before it even started, remember?

• Great games: Vinnie Burns and Jordan Trott. I didn't dedicate any ink to them, but I did notice them, and they played well. And James Anderson is nuts. Five tackles, and I think every one of them was on special teams.

• Jimmy Williams still learning pass defense: Free safety Jimmy Williams got off to a shaky start in this game. On an early sideline incompletion to Ryan Moore, Eric Green gave Williams a look after the play that said, "Where were you?", and later, on a long completion to Moore, Green was visibly exasperated with Williams for not arriving earlier. Williams did a better job as the game wore on, particularly in run support and helping out with Winslow.

• VT had 7 penalties for 55 yards in the first quarter, giving them 20 penalties in their last five quarters of play at that point, going back to the WVU game. The Hokies then proceeded to play quarters 2 and 3 penalty-free.

• Lane Stadium was so loud that on Hall's fumble return, you could barely hear ESPN announcer Ron Franklin.

• On Miami's fake field goal, it is generally agreed that Miami's Kevin Everett, who dropped the pass, was an ineligible receiver. Everett was "covered up" by at least one and possibly two teammates on the line of scrimmage, making him ineligible. Everett dropped the ball because he tried to catch it in his belly, and it bounced off his knee.

• There was an article in one newspaper (sorry, I can't recall which one) about how Sean Taylor ran into Beamer on the Hokie sideline, knocking him into a bench and bruising Beamer's hip. But if you watch the play, which came with 4:41 to go on the second quarter, you can clearly see that VT's own Kevin Jones plowed his coach over, not Taylor.

• Nice job by the VT coaching staff, using timeouts at the end of the first half to conserve clock on Miami's possession and get themselves a chance to get a score at the end of the half. The Hokies gave the ball to Randall on the last possession of the half to get that score. Randall made a risky play on first down, throwing it away while in the grasp of a tackler. Fortunately, the ball fell to the turf, and the Hokies later got a 39-yard field goal with seven seconds to go in the half.

• Roscoe "Punching Bag" Parrish: Pity Miami receiver Roscoe Parrish. After being flattened against FSU on a brutal hit a few weeks back, Parrish was battered in this game, too. He was stripped by Hall for a TD, and he took vicious licks from Eric Green and again from Hall, who picked him up and pile-drove him into the field on one completion.

• Average starting position for Miami: their own 27-yard line. Average for VT: their own 42.

• Timely TO: On Miami's drive late in the third quarter, they were running a spread no-huddle offense and having success. Then VT had 10 men on field, called a timeout with 4:59 to go, regrouped, and picked Berlin off on the next play.

• Want to see a great goal-line push by an offensive line? Watch the left side of VT's line on KJ's two-yard TD run. Jake Grove, Will Montgomery, Jimmy Martin, and tight end Jared Mazetta spanked Miami's defense. Grove put 346-pound defensive tackle Vince Wilfork on his butt.

• Almost every time Marcus Vick did something impressive, ESPN would cut to a shot of the VICK-7 banner hanging in the North end zone.

Ah, yes, Pittsburgh. The mediocre football team that looks like an NFL squad when it plays against the Hokies. VT will visit Pitt this coming Saturday and will take them on at 7:45 on ESPN. The ESPN GameDay crew will be there, so there will be a lot of excitement around this game.

One note about ESPN GameDay: typically, they give favorable, heavy coverage to the home team in these situations, so don't be offended if little to none of their pre-game coverage is allocated to VT. The game will probably be a Pitt love-fest early on, too. No sweat. If the Hokies take care of business, that will all work itself out.

We'll return with a preview later this week.

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