Columbus, Ohio — Virginia Tech beat Ohio State on Saturday night at the game the Buckeyes want to play. The aggressor wore white, and the spoils were a 35-21 victory and greater national respect.
According to the oddsmakers, the Hokies’ win qualified as an upset, but few who watched the game probably came away feeling like there was much doubt which team deserved to win or which is better at this point in the season.
The Hokies hit harder, covered better, ran more effectively, threw more efficiently and just generally executed what they needed to when they needed to at a much higher rate than did the eighth-ranked Buckeyes, who lost at home and in the regular season for the first time in Urban Meyer’s three seasons as head coach at Ohio State.
Virginia Tech also put the Buckeyes’ hopes of making the first College Football Playoff into serious jeopardy, though maybe not as much as what happened elsewhere in the country did in the matter of a few hours.
To be sure, Ohio State is a mess right now. After struggling early against a good Navy team at a neutral site then pulling away in their opener, the Buckeyes played from behind almost the whole night in their first home game of the season.
The Buckeyes have questions all over the lineup, from freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett to an offensive line that has four new starters to a cadre of inconsistent wideouts. No one has yet emerged as a go-to player from a handful of hotly recruited scholarship tailbacks, either. And that’s just the offense.
On defense, Ohio State has its share of new faces, but the scheme is new, too. And this was the first week the Buckeyes really got to try it out against someone in a jersey of a different color since the Midshipmen’s triple-option attack gave them a different look than they will see the rest of the season.
Continue Reading: Hokies upset shows Buckeyes ill-prepared for prime time
