Instant Takeaways From Virginia Tech's 21-14 Win Over Boston College

Jeffrey Overton Jr. took a handoff with 5:10 left in a tie game and went 76 yards, virtually untouched, for the touchdown that sent Virginia Tech home a winner.

The Hokies escaped Boston College 21-14 on Saturday at Alumni Stadium, rallying from a 14-6 fourth-quarter deficit in heavy rain and The win moves Tech to 4-0 and 1-0 in the ACC.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

1. The weather was the ultimate equalizer

A week after throwing for 314 yards and three touchdowns at Maryland, Ethan Grunkemeyer spent Saturday fighting the wind. He finished 22-of-35 for 147 yards, and his longest completion went for 16. Boston College's Mason McKenzie wasn't much better at 11-of-23 for 111yards.

With nothing working downfield, the first half turned into a punting contest. Each team had 117 total yards at the break. Neither reached the red zone, and the only points came on John Love's 45-yard field goal with 16 seconds left before halftime. Boston College punted nine times on the day.

That kind of game shrinks the gap between two teams, because one play can swing it. Que'Sean Brown's 50-yard punt return set up Love's 22-yard field goal in the third quarter. Later in the quarter, a Marcellous Hawkins fumble gave the Eagles the ball at the Tech 22, and the Hokies needed a three-and-out, keyed by a Cortez Harris sack, to keep them off the board.

2. Jeffrey Overton Jr. had the best game of his college career

Through three quarters, Overton had a quiet 69 yards on 16 carries. Then he took over. He ran nine times for 140 yards in the fourth quarter and finished with 209 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries. His previous career high came in the season opener, when he topped 100 yards on nine carries against VMI.

It didn't start smoothly. Overton dropped a screen pass on Tech's tying drive that might've gone the distance, then punched in the 2-point conversion that knotted the game at 14. On the Hokies' next possession, he broke the 76-yarder.

When Tech got the ball back at its own 21 with a seven-point lead, it handed the ball to Overton and dared Boston College to stop him. The Eagles burned all three timeouts. It didn't matter. Overton's 19-yard run after the two-minute warning ended it.

Overton opened the season behind Hawkins on the depth chart, less than two years removed from a torn ACL that wiped out most of his freshman year. After Saturday, the lead-back job looks like his.

3. The Hokies had no answers for Mason McKenzie's legs

Boston College's running backs combined for 13 yards on 11 carries. It didn't matter, because McKenzie did the running himself.

The Eagles' quarterback ran 26 times for 138 yards and both of Boston College's touchdowns, and that total includes three sacks for 31 yards. Take those away and he averaged 7.3 yards per carry. Between his legs and his arm, McKenzie accounted for 249 of Boston College's 261 total yards.

His biggest moment came in the third quarter. McKenzie went down grabbing his right shoulder and missed one snap, then returned on third-and-4 and kept it for 45 yards. He scored from the 5 on the next play to give Boston College its first lead, 7-6, and added a read-option touchdown early in the fourth.

Tech's defense had its moments. Harris finished with two sacks, and Aycen Stevens and Jaquez White each got a hand on McKenzie passes in the fourth quarter. But when the Eagles needed yards, McKenzie kept escaping. Even the play that got Kaleb Spencer ejected for targeting started with McKenzie slipping a sack.

Virginia Tech will take on the undefeated Pitt Panthers on Friday, Oct. 2, at 7:00 p.m. ET. Coverage for the game will be on ESPN.

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