BLACKSBURG, Va. -- When Marshall coach Mark Snyder sits down with his team to watch the film of Saturday's game, no one will have trouble establishing a theme to the movie.

From a defensive standpoint, this game film will be a horror flick after big plays dominated the theme of Virginia Tech's 52-10 victory at Lane Stadium.

In terms of big plays, the Thundering Herd did not have enough and Virginia Tech had way too many.

Out of 72 total offensive plays, the Hokies had 21 plays of 10 yards or more.

"Any defense's nightmare," Marshall linebacker Kellen Harris said.

In the first half alone, Virginia Tech had 13 plays of 10 yards or more -- five of them by running back Ryan Williams.

Each time the Hokies had a big play, they hurried to the line and did not allow the Herd to regain its composure.

On one drive, it resulted in four straight plays of 10 yards or more. On another scoring drive, it resulted in two consecutive plays of 43 and 28 yards to go into the end zone.

"That's good coaching," Snyder said.

The defensive disarray resulted in Snyder taking his linebackers to the side and talking to them to find out the problem, or problems in this Saturday's case.

"Missed assignments on the defense, not getting in the right spot, missed tackles," Marshall linebacker Mario Harvey said. "I think Virginia Tech is a good team hands down, but throughout the game, I thought we beat ourselves by how we played and came into the game today."

Whatever the problem was, it didn't get resolved at any point.

Well into the fourth quarter, Virginia Tech continued to rip off chunks of yardage. While Williams did most of the first-half damage, he was a spectator for much of the second half and finished with 164 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries.

His backup, David Wilson, came in and did not miss a beat, rushing for 165 yards on 12 carries with most coming in the second half.

Williams, Wilson and quarterback Tyrod Taylor each had runs of 46 yards or more and as a team, the Hokies rushed for 444 yards.

Harris said despite the lopsided score, the answers to fixing the issues are simple.

"We didn't help ourselves at all. There's a lot of things that we could've fixed out there," Harris said. "Even with that score, it's simple stuff that we really need to work on in order to get better."

On the other side of the ball, Marshall got a 61-yard touchdown run from Darius Marshall, who finished with 109 yards in his first appearance of the season.

However, the run came with the Hokies leading 21-0 and already well in control.

The defensive struggles were compounded early in the game by offensive miscues as Marshall had several opportunities to break big plays early and take momentum from the homestanding Hokies, but Marshall came up empty at each chance.

On Marshall's second drive, a 21-yard pass play to tight end Lee Smith was negated by an illegal formation penalty and quarterback Brian Anderson later missed Chuck Walker, who had come across the field and slipped in behind the Virginia Tech defense after Anderson had rolled to his right.

"Every time it seemed like we'd get a little momentum, the hanky would come out," Snyder said referring to the eight penalties Marshall had for 54 yards.

Even after the Herd got an interception in the end zone from DeQuan Bembry to keep things scoreless, the Herd went three-and-out and was forced to bring its defense back onto the field.

The next play was Williams' first touchdown run - a 57-yard jaunt into the end zone. It started a run of six possessions in which Virginia Tech reached the end zone five times.

"It's tough on the defense because you get off the ball and get on the sidelines thinking that you get a breather, and they call for a punt," Harvey said. "You just have to suck it up, put your hat on and go back to work."

The Herd returns to action Saturday at Joan C. Edwards Stadium against Bowling Green -- a team that dropped 52 points on Marshall the last time the teams met.

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