Instead, I'll take a look at Tech's most complete defensive game of the year, and discuss what led to a special teams explosion that has been on the verge of happening all year. We'll give lots of props to those that deserve it and talk about what the Hokies need to keep doing well to have a chance at their first Big East championship since 1999.

Syracuse came into the game ranked 8th in total offense in the NCAA (466 yards per game), with a nice balance between the running game and the passing game. Tailback Walter Reyes was averaging 170 yards per contest, and QB R.J. Anderson was throwing for just under 200 yards per game, with no interceptions in four games.

The Syracuse offense looked like a balanced attack that could give the Hokies problems. I wasn't sold on VT as run defenders coming into this game, and their pass defense had been soft in coverage at times, and had just 10 sacks in five previous games.

I had been continuously critical of Virginia Tech's linebackers this year, feeling that they weren't up to snuff for a championship defense. Earlier in the year, rover Michael Crawford and free safety Jimmy Williams had also looked shaky, but Crawford snapped out of it from the Texas A&M game onward, and Williams had had a good, confident outing against Rutgers the week before.

In this game, the linebackers stepped up as well, and the entire Hokie defense finally came together. From the moment Jonathan Lewis broke through on Syracuse's first play and threw Reyes to the ground for a one-yard loss, the Hokies sent the message that it wasn't going to be Syracuse's day.

There are two ways you can measure a defense's performance. Statistics are important, of course, and statistically, the Hokies did very well in this game. They limited Syracuse to 172 yards of offense, 73 of which came on three plays: a 17-yard Anderson run, a 19-yard Reyes run, and a 37-yard catch by Johnnie Morant. Take away those three plays, and Syracuse had just 99 yards of offense on 55 plays, a paltry 2 yards per play. That's crazy.

Reyes was limited to 40 yards on 16 carries, and if you take away that 19-yarder, it's even more dismal: 15 carries, 21 yards. Reyes' yardage total included four rushes that lost 9 yards, one rush that went for no yardage, and four runs that went for just one yard apiece. That's right, 9 of his 16 carries netted -5 yards rushing, and only one of his carries, the 19-yarder, was longer than five yards.

The Hokies held Syracuse to 6 first downs. Do you want to know how good that is? That's the fewest first downs ever allowed by a Frank Beamer-coached Tech team. Even UAB, victim of some of the biggest defensive beat-downs ever handed out by Tech, managed 8 first downs in both 1998 and 1999. Even Syracuse, in the 62-0 massacre in 1999, squeaked out 7 first downs.

Do you want to know how bad 6 first downs is? Remember that completely inept offensive showing the 1998 Hokies had at Syracuse? That was the high-water mark for poor offense, as the Hokies ran just 40 plays and had 152 yards, 76 of which came on one play. Well, the Hokies only had 6 first downs that day. That's how bad 6 first downs is.

The Cuse faced 17 third downs and converted just 3 of them, only one of which was longer than six yards (they converted a third and 11 on their very first series). Nine of Syracuse's possessions were three and out.

On and on we could go with the statistics, but we won't.

The other way you can measure a defense is by how it looks, and Saturday's Hokie defense looked like a proper Hokie defense. They gang-tackled, they pursued, they covered the perimeter on the running game, and they didn't stand around watching other guys make the tackles.

Yes, they did fail to pick off a pass for the first time in 14 games, but they had three golden opportunities, two by DeAngelo Hall and one by Jimmy Williams. They just didn't come up with the catches.

All three units played well. The defensive line played well, including the tackles. Jonathan Lewis had 7 tackles, including one for a loss on the first play of the game. Tim Sandidge led the team with two QB hurries. Darryl Tapp turned in a Corey-Moore like play, running SU tailback Damien Rhodes down from behind on a sweep, causing a fumble and knocking Rhodes out of the game.

The linebackers played well, with Mikal Baaqee roaming sideline to sideline and finishing with 8 tackles and his first two "negative" plays this season, a tackle for loss and a QB hurry. He also made one of the more remarkable tackles you'll ever see, when he got knocked on his butt by a fullback and still managed to lunge at and tackle Rhodes as he ran by.

The defensive backs played pretty well. Michael Crawford led the team in tackles and tackles for loss yet again, notching nine stops, three of which were TFLs for a total of nine yards in losses. Jimmy Williams played the passing game well, and for the most part, the cornerbacks did well.

Those comments are short on analysis and high on praise, but there's not a lot you can say, after a game like that. Suffice to say that if the Hokie defense can continue to play that well, a Big East championship is certainly in sight.

VT's special teams have been on the verge of exploding for a few games now. After taking it easy against UCF and James Madison, the Hokies went after Texas A&M's punter, only to have a great run (by the punter) and an offsides penalty negate some good plays in the punt-block game.

Against UConn, VT blocked a punt for a TD and returned a kickoff for a TD, Then the Hokies coasted again against Rutgers, who did a pretty good job of guarding the punter with an unorthodox blocking scheme.

In this game, VT had all phases of special teams clicking, led by DeAngelo Hall's two punt returns for TDs. While the two returns looked similar, they were set up very differently.

The first punt return was set up when the Hokies showed a punt block before the snap, then fell back into a return after the ball was hiked. The problem for Syracuse was that every one of their players on the line fell back into blocking, with none of them releasing downfield. The Hokies were able to set up their blocking schemes, and Hall got a good look at the field without anyone pressuring him right away. He took it from there and got some great blocking downfield.

The second return was set up by a punt block attempt. The Hokies again lined up with most of their guys on the line and got a strong push after the snap. Syracuse punter Brendan Carney got the punt off, but it only spent just over three seconds in the air. Hall caught it clean, on the run, with plenty of room in front of him. Once again, he took it from there, along with some good blocking downfield.

It's hard not to want the Hokies to go for a punt block every time, because they're so good at it, but it makes sense to vary what the punt return team does. In this case, the mere threat of VT's punt-blocking capability led to two TD returns. Syracuse saw a block threat and circled the wagons on punt #1, enabling Tech to set up the blocking, and on punt #2, the block threat caused Carney, a freshman, to get off a made-to-order-for-returning punt.

Then there are other cases where the Hokies don't try to block or return the punt, setting up in what's called "punt safe." Punt safe is when the defense stays on the field in a punting situation, dropping one man back for the return. This is done whenever a strong threat of a fake exists, mostly in a fourth and short situation around midfield or closer to the Hokies' goal line. In this case, Tech (and other teams) will just leave the defense in to guard against the fake. I remember VT getting an interception when ECU faked a punt back in 1998 against VT's punt-safe setup (a very, very poor coaching job by ECU, I might add -- everybody in the stadium saw the fake coming).

Carter Warley has been solid on field goals so far this year, going 3-for-3 and now standing at 8-of-10 on the season. That�s one kick better than his best year, when he went 7-of-9 as a redshirt freshman in 2000. Warley is 7-of-8 inside 40 yards, and 1-of-2 outside 40 yards, with a long of 43.

Other examples of the special teams humming: Vince Fuller getting Tech's 100th blocked kick under Beamer, and Carter Warley doing a great job kicking off. With the exception of kicking one out of bounds, Warley put all of his kickoffs inside the five, including three in the end zone, and he had good height on them. Syracuse averaged just 19 yards on eight kickoff returns, returning three beyond the 20-yard line and none beyond the 30-yard line.

Apart from the drive that started at Tech's 19-yard line after Jones' fumble, Syracuse's average start for their other fifteen possessions was their own 23-yard line.

It's hard to score when you can't string together two first downs, and your average start is your own 23.

One very encouraging sign for this season is the performance of the Tech offensive line, which was again sharp this game. Syracuse was able to get a good pass rush, flushing Randall from the pocket a few times and getting two sacks of VT quarterbacks, but the Hokies did a great job run-blocking.

The blocking of the interior line was particularly impressive, mainly in the person of Jake Grove. The Hokies used to blow big holes in the middle of defenses behind Jim Pyne and Billy Conaty, and Grove showed some of that in this game, opening gaping holes for Kevin Jones to run through.

The only block I saw Grove blow all day, ironically, was on KJ's 33-yard TD run. Christian Ferrara beat Grove, penetrated into the backfield, and hit KJ. KJ bounced off of it, kicked the run outside and scored with his speed down the sideline. No harm done, Jake.

Jon Dunn continues to do well. I watched him quite a bit on the tape, and he sprung players for two of VT's TD runs. Let's take a look at those two TD's.

Syracuse historically has stacked the line on VT, particularly in the Carrier Dome, putting 8 or 9 guys "in the box" and trying to smother VT's running game. On Bryan Randall's 75-yard TD run, it burned them.

To start the play, Justin Hamilton went in motion from right to left, taking the cornerback (#29, Thomas Whitfield) with him. The ball was snapped, and Syracuse rushed eight players -- all four down linemen, all three linebackers, and a defensive back from VT's left side. VT picked up the blitz, and Randall ran the option to the right.

The key block came when Dunn cut-block SU linebacker Kelvin Smith, taking him to the ground. The resulting pileup blocked SU linebacker Rich Scanlon from Randall and generally clogged up the progress of any Syracuse players trying to pursue down the line.

Randall cut upfield into the hole created by Dunn's block and raced upfield, pausing only to cut back around the Cuse 30 yard line. Randall used the cutback to avoid Whitfield, the CB who had been taken completely out of the play by following Hamilton in motion.

That's the second time in the last two games I have seen motion by a receiver take a cornerback to the opposite side of the field, and the VT OL has then executed their blocking for a TD.

Kevin Jones was the recipient of another great block from Dunn on his 25-yard TD run with about 11 minutes to go in the third quarter. The Hokies lined up with tight end Jeff King on the right side, uncovered, and Dunn playing tackle next to him. KJ and Doug Easlick were lined up in the I-formation.

The Hokies snapped the ball, and Hamilton came from left to right to fake the end-around, a tactic that a lot of college teams are using now and that VT installed this year. Randall handed the ball off to KJ, and three key things happened:

1.) King blocked the DE to the outside, and Dunn blocked the DT down to the inside, opening a big hole off tackle.

2.) SU inside linebacker Rich Scanlon (#57) took the wrong attack angle, going into the guard gap. Fullback Doug Easlick met him in the hole and terminated him.

3.) SU's leftside cornerback, Whitfield, bought the end-around fake and went wide left to defend Hamilton.

The combination of King blocking out, Dunn blocking down, Scanlon going inside and Whitfield going outside created an enormous hole for KJ to run through. He used his speed to just run right around free safety Anthony Smith, untouched to the end zone.

A well-designed, well-blocked play, combined with defenders making mental errors or getting caught in the wrong defense, is a thing of beauty (every play is designed to be a touchdown, you know). Check out Randall's TD run and KJ's third-quarter 25-yard TD run for two examples of plays that just came together in every way.

One last note: VT does not make that play last year, because the fake end-around was not a staple of their offense. Take out the fake end-around, and Whitfield is there to meet KJ shortly after he comes through the hole.

I didn't think either QB, Randall or Vick, looked very sharp in the passing game. Randall made good decisions all day, as did Vick, but their execution was off. Randall was 6-of-14 on the day, with a number of passes thrown behind receivers or just off-target. He was the victim of two or three drops, but in fairness, one of his completions was a spectacular diving catch by reserve tight end Jared Mazzetta on a poor throw.

Randall had one great throw, a beautiful 22-yarder that hit Ernest Wilford in stride, and he had one awful throw, a third-and-goal toss where he scrambled and missed a wide-open Chris Shreve in the end zone by a mile.

Randall still ran the offense well, and in this game, a lack of sharpness in the passing game was not a disaster. As I mentioned in last week's Rutgers analysis, I think that Randall has an ON/OFF switch, and he's either throwing it with laser-like accuracy, as he did against Rutgers, or he's not sharp, like this game. But he's still ten times the QB he was last year.

As for Vick, he had his second straight 2-for-6 game, though he skipped the INTs this time. You watch Vick, and man, he's loaded with talent. He's got a really familiar burst when he takes off running.

From a passing standpoint, Vick has a great arm and nice touch, but he looks a little sloppy the last two games, and the reason why is that his mechanics aren't sharp. He's throwing off his back foot lately, plus he's not getting completely set before starting his throwing motion. That results in passes that float a little and aren't crisp, though he still throws a pretty spiral. With every game he plays, Kevin Rogers gets a little more game film to review with him and correct his technique errors. The sky's the limit with Marcus, if he works hard to tighten up his game.

Side note: In case you're wondering, Vick played two series with the starting offense before VT started to substitute O-line, receivers, and running backs. During that time, Vick handed off for a TD, went 1-for-4 for five yards, and had a pretty 17-yard run (love the way he lowered his shoulder at the end of the run).

I've seen QB signee Cory Holt, who will enroll in January, play for Hargrave Military Academy, and Holt is a little rough but has massive potential. Add verbal commitment Sean Glennon to Holt, Vick, and Randall, and the Hokies will have a sick amount of QB talent on campus next fall, some raw, some not.

Everyone likes Kevin Rogers as a QB coach, and he's a great one for developing players who are in the system, but where he also pays off is in evaluating talent during recruiting. Under the previous QB coach, the Hokies recruited a number of players who had no business donning QB jerseys for VT -- I won't name names -- but under Rogers, the raw talent that is coming in is much better from the get-go.

• Any blocks missed by the OL were spread around. One sack of Randall that I noticed was given up by Jim Miller, and Randall threw his interception when Jacob Gibson failed to pick up a blitzing Rich Scanlon, and Randall threw the pick with Scanlon hanging off him.

• Think Frank Beamer had a talk with the team about TD celebrations? Despite the number of big-play TDs in this game, the Hokies kept their cool when scoring, doing very little playing up to the crowd, and no diving or ball-hurling. I saw several instances of VT players just flipping the ball to the ref afterwards.

• Speaking of which, I'm a little surprised that Mazzetta didn't draw a flag after his great diving catch. In his excitement, he jumped up and signaled a first down, and I thought that was one of the behaviors expressly prohibited under NCAA rules. If anybody knows, let us know on the boards.

• I'm starting to love the all-maroon look. Darryl Tapp, Cols Colas, DeAngelo Hall, KJ, Jimmy Williams, and Doug Easlick look particularly cool in it.

• Another thing I love: the "Huuuuuuuuumes!" cheer when Cedric Humes runs the football. It's a new thing that really picked up steam in this game, and ESPN color analyst Andre Ware, who did a good job on the game, picked up on it and said, "They're not booing -- they're yelling Huuuuumes."

• Jake Grove handled the long-snapping duties on field goals and PATs and was flawless, from what I could tell.

One down, three to go on the 2003 Hokie Revenge Tour, with stop #2 coming up on Wednesday, October 22nd at WVU. Last time the Hokies traveled to Morgantown, they laid a 35-0 whipping on West Virginia, behind Grant Noel, Keith Burnell, Andre Davis, and a defensive touchdown from Jim Davis.

WVU returned the favor with a 21-18 ref-aided win in Lane Stadium last year, a game known for a Lee Suggs touchdown that wasn't ruled a touchdown by the refs, and for Bryan Randall's very bad decision to throw the ball into the end zone at the end of the game, resulting in a pick that finished the Hokies off.

The Hokies finally put together a dominating performance from all three phases of the game against Syracuse, and they'll see if they can take that momentum into Morgantown and push their record to 7-0.

And no, I'm not looking beyond that. I've got the 'Eers on my mind.

We'll be back with a preview early next week.

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