If you have had visions of old gold and royal purple relentlessly attacking you the last few nights you are not alone. Has it settled in, yet? Of course not -- three days later, everyone still has to face the same, harsh reality that seems unacceptable and make-believe. Virginia Tech has started out its 2008 football campaign 0-1, losing at the hands of the East Carolina Pirates, 27-22.

An overrated and young Tech team? Maybe. A "rebuilding" year for the program? Perhaps. But, losing to a Pirate team that has just become the first team in the 13-year history of Conference USA football to ever win back-to-back games over nationally ranked teams (the Pirates ended 2007 with a 41-38 victory over then-No. 22 Boise State in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl)? That's just plain embarrassing for a school that prides itself on football excellence.

Oh, but that's just a statistic, right? So maybe that's not why you couldn't sleep.

Maybe there's another reason -- whether you were one of the 72,169 people who were part of the largest regular season attendance for a collegiate game at Bank of America Stadium, or even if you were just one of the millions of viewers who tuned in to ESPN -- we all witnessed the same, terrifying phenomenon. The Hokies were simply outworked and out-hustled by an East Carolina team that appeared to just want it more.

"We kept making it so hard on ourselves," said Pirates' head coach Skip Holtz. "We came back at halftime and I told the team, 'We're giving it away.'"

Both teams were playing sloppy, but ECU was practically gift-wrapping the game for Tech. It committed dumb penalties, threw a backward pass that became a fumble -- resulting in a Stephan Virgil 30-yard touchdown -- and muffed a kickoff return in what seemed to be more like taking advantage of a clumsy, special-teams giant than a result of "Beamerball."

However, despite all of the aforementioned blunders, the Pirates refused to give up, and they struck gold with just enough time left.

"I don't think that we had five return yards all day on punt returns, so I was like, let's go after it," Holtz said.

Tech head coach Frank Beamer said, "It hurts to lose with a blocked kick at the end. That's not very good ... we didn't do the things at the end to win a football game."

That's very true. But what's even truer is that the Hokies didn't execute well enough in any quarter to win the game. The Hokies' passing attack or -- to better describe it -- attempted "attack," amounted to only 139 total yards.

"It's probably about what you'd expect," Beamer said, commenting on how he thought the receivers played in their first college games.

"We can't blame the game on one play. There's a lot of stuff that I could have done, the defense could have done ... other guys on offense could have done," said Tech quarterback Sean Glennon.

Glennon completed over 60 percent of his passes on the day. The problem: Two of his passes were to the other team.

"That's on me ... I have to take care of the ball," he said. "I take responsibility for that."

Glennon was part of a team that, overall, looked flat-out unprepared. East Carolina quarterback, Patrick Pinkney, could not have made it look easier as he picked the Hokie defense apart all afternoon, going 19 for 23 with one touchdown. Pinkney averaged over 11 yards per completion.

"We gave him some time to sit back there," Holtz said. "He's been throwing the ball accurately. He's elusive; he's been doing some great things to lead this team offensively."

Equally frightening were the 158 total rushing yards that the Pirates churned out with their balanced ground game, wearing the Tech defense out.

Combine that with the 211 passing yards on the day, and ECU had 369 total offensive yards, gaining an average of 5.6 yards per play.

"I think we, as a defense, have to tackle a lot better," Beamer said. "They have some good backs that run hard, but we missed a lot of tackles out there today ... a lot of tackles."

"We just didn't have the technique," defensive tackle John Graves said. "I didn't even play up to par to where our team standards are."

The lone bright spot for the Hokies was their running game, rushing for over 104 yards.

"I thought that Kenny and Darren Evans, both of them, made some pretty good runs," Beamer said.

The Hokies ran the ball nearly 60 percent of the time, despite losing starting offensive tackle, Blake DeChristopher, for the remainder of the game with a bruised leg, on the game's first possession.

"You've got to run the plays they call," said starting center, Ryan Shuman, of Bryan Stinespring's play calling. "It's the flow of the game and what they think is going to work."

Tech's sloppy play culminated with the blocked punt that proved to be the deciding factor in the final score.

"We're known for doing what they did to us," said Tech punter, Brett Bowden, regarding the game ending with a blocked punt for a touchdown.

Although, that could have been said of another crucial aspect of the game -- the Hokies' final futile drive, which ended with a turnover on downs.

This Tech team, whether it was because of inexperienced youth or a lack of leadership, just didn't have it on Saturday. Everyone knows that they had the talent; they were simply outplayed.

And whether you are a firm believer in what is known as "Beamerball," or if you attribute the team's prior success to hard-work and discipline, the principles of the lunch pail, we all can agree on one thing: This team has a lot to learn, and they better learn it fast or they will be -- as the saying goes -- "without a paddle."

• Hokies, Blue devils to duke it out; Tech tries to extend series reign
• The man under fire: Stinespring weathers public ire
• Taking a look at ACC title contenders