Virginia Tech had the game in its hands late Saturday in Berkeley, then watched it slip away the same way it has been slipping for two straight weeks: on a kick.
The Hokies grabbed a 20-19 lead with 1:15 left, but Cal answered with a 75-yard march for the winning touchdown and escaped with a 25-20 win. Virginia Tech, which opened as a 10.5-point favorite, fell to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the ACC.
This one stung because it came against a Cal team missing quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and running back Adam Mohammed. It stung even more because the numbers were almost perfectly even.
Cal finished with 403 total yards. Tech had 401.
And yet the Hokies are left replaying the same painful sequence from the last two losses, both of them tied to John Love’s right leg.
Love, who had made all six of his field-goal attempts before last week’s loss to Pitt, missed three straight after that game. Against Pitt, his 36-yard attempt at the buzzer went wide left. In Berkeley, he missed from 55 yards in the first quarter and again from 39 yards early in the fourth with Tech leading 14-13, both times drifting wide left.
The second miss was the one that changed everything. Virginia Tech had fourth-and-1 at the Cal 17 and kept the offense on the field before a false start pushed the Hokies back five yards. Love came on, missed, and Cal responded with a 78-yard drive to move in front for the first time.
That sequence left Tech needing a touchdown on its final snap from the Cal 7 with three seconds left. It never got the chance to turn one of those missed kicks into a game-winning field goal.
Love is a fifth-year kicker with a career long of 60 yards, and he’s earned patience. Still, Tech’s last two losses have both come down to his kicks.
Cal’s offense barely moved early, then found a groove that Tech couldn’t break. The Golden Bears had just 27 yards on their first 13 plays, but they piled up 376 on their next 56. Backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau filled in for Sagapolutele and went 29-of-43 for 321 yards and a touchdown without an interception against a defense that had been allowing 187 passing yards per game.
The fourth quarter was where Cal took control. Through three periods, the Bears were 3-for-11 on third down.
In the fourth, they went 5-for-5. Tech sacked Brousseau on Cal’s third play of the game and never got to him again.
The winning drive also featured the kind of penalties that can hand a team a finish. Kaleb Spencer was flagged for roughing the passer, then Cam Chadwick Jr. was called for pass interference on the next snap.
That gave Cal 30 free yards. Ian Strong followed with a 31-yard catch to the Tech 2, and Ashten Emory finished it with a direct snap into the end zone.
For Virginia Tech, the defensive letdown was hard to square with its season-long profile. The Hokies came in ranked 23rd nationally in total defense, then gave up 403 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdown drives to a backup quarterback.
Ethan Grunkemeyer did his part in the final quarter and beyond. He was 9-of-11 for 139 yards in the fourth, led a go-ahead touchdown drive that took 2:45, and then guided Tech from its own 40 to the Cal 7 in the last 15 seconds. He finished 21-of-31 for 288 yards and did not turn it over, a sharp rebound after he had a hand in all four Tech giveaways against Pitt.
But the offense still left too much on the table. Virginia Tech was shut out in the third quarter, went 4-for-11 on third down, and scored on just two of four red-zone trips.
Grunkemeyer was sacked three times, and two more sacks disappeared because of penalties. The 20 points were a season low for an offense that had been averaging 41.2.
Cal was sloppy, too. The Golden Bears drew 10 penalties for 99 yards, and two facemask calls helped set up 25 yards on Tech’s second touchdown drive.
The bigger picture is ugly for Virginia Tech: two straight losses by a combined seven points, both ending with the Hokies inside the opponent’s 20 as time expired. Georgia Tech comes to Lane Stadium on Oct. 17, then Tech heads to Clemson a week later. Eight days after being one kick from 5-0, the Hokies are 4-2 and under .500 in the ACC.
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