UVA vs. Virginia Tech: Hoos loses against Hokies in the most painful way

Virginia Tech has preserved two important streaks with a 34-31 overtime win over Virginia on Black Friday. The most obvious: Tech's UVA 14-win series now has 15 wins, and UVA has still not won this game since November 29, 2003. The other big win: VT's Hokies' 25-game winning streak. and the NCAA say that it is the longest period of activity in the country.

Oh, wow, was it painful for the UVA? Even more than you would have thought.

The Cavaliers were 14-0 in the first quarter. They hid for a while, but struggled to break through. They were still down 24-14 at the beginning of the third.

But then, they did something that UVA footballers rarely do: they arrived in a huge moment, making a few stops and finally going up 28-24 to seven minutes from the end. They added a field goal later and led by 7 with 2:41 left.

For another team, it may be the end of the exciting part of the story. This team just won. But Virginia is not this team. The Hokies drew on a player with three consecutive games, one of their players having been hit by a 50/50 throw, another capturing what appeared to be a breakaway from QB Ryan Willis, and then someone recovered a fumble in the end zone. score at 31 years old.

To realize how much the touchdown was nonsense, note that Virginia Tech (the brown team, you know) scored on a game that produced this:

The game has progressed in overtime. Virginia Tech had the first possession of OT and scored a goal on the field. On the counter-possession of the Hoos, they fumbled to lose.

Of course that they did it.

It's a terrible blow for UVA, who would not even have to make a big comeback to blow up the match in the first place.

One of Tech's two touchdowns in the first half came during a blocked punt recovery. UVA had no half point, because Bryce Perkins and freshman receiver, Tavares Kelly, took this media coverage scandal or anything else …

… and turned it into an incomplete pass, on a fall after a sub-run. And this may be the ninth biggest reason why L will be in Charlottesville for a long time.

People will hardly remember it, because the UVA has just covered it with sadness.

Honestly, UVA was supposed to win this game. The perpetual loser in an unbalanced rivalry was the favorite, both for Vegas and for computers.

In Las Vegas, the Hoos were the 4-point favorites at the post, after the line moved slightly during the week. They had not been favored since 2003, making it the most troubling part of a week of hate brimming with strange gaps.

S & P + gave them a 61% chance of winning and a margin of 4.6 points in Blacksburg, an additional anecdote in a year in which Virginia Tech was not Virginia Tech.

Tech had undergone a series of attractions, including the loss of QB Josh Jackson and defenses important enough for the defense. Two weeks ago, the Hokies had suffered one of the most spectacular destruction in the history of Power 5 as part of a defeat against Pitt. Absolutely everything said it was supposed to be the Hoos year, and it was not. When will it be? Maybe never. I do not know.

For Tech, the trail of the bowl is not out of the wood yet.

Virginia Tech canceled its match against the ECU in the middle of Hurricane Florence in September. They only played 11 games, they are 5-6. They scheduled a 12th game next Saturday at home against Marshall, a team that has ranked a few places higher in S & P + this week. The Hokies could absolutely lose this match, but for the moment, their series remains active.

That's another part of the pain for UVA.Had Tech lost, the Hokies will cancel the Marshall game. The Hoos could have broken their run of losses and literally convinced their rivals to cancel the rest of their season. It would have been an unprecedented rivalry, and they let it slip between their fingers.

(Tech's pass streak is impressive in itself, but I have to note here that Florida State, not VT, has the longest and longest active streak of all time. bowls 36 years in a row, but the NCAA and Virginia Tech are using a game left vacant to claim that the FSU series has never been so long, believe this fiction if you want.)

One thing is sure and undeniable after this game.

Virginia Tech owns Virginia.

No one can claim that the Hokies have just praised the Hoos psyche for 15 years. Few people did it before this result. UVA will win this game whenever VT decides that it does not matter, which will probably never be.