Cavaliers come up big in clutch moments at Louisville

The Wahoos can’t keep winning like this.

Can they?

For the first time in a decade, Virginia has won consecutive ACC games away from Scott Stadium. Both of those victories have ended with the home team missing field goals as time expired that would have changed the outcome. The most recent, Saturday’s 34-33 win that gave UVa the program’s first-ever win at Louisville, required one of the biggest fourth-quarter rallies in ACC history.

“We did prepare starting on Monday for this game to be the equivalent of a 15 round fight with the referee holding both hands and right at the end, someone's hand is going up,” coach Bronco Mendenhall said following the UVa program’s first-ever win in the Derby City. “And sure enough, that's exactly how it came out.”

Mendenhall’s team was reeling after giving up 20 unanswered points to start the second half on Saturday. The Cardinals gave UVa their best shot, hitting the Hoos with big plays on offense and forcing a pair of Brennan Armstrong interceptions defensively. With about 16 minutes to play, Louisville had a 30-13 lead and, at least in the collective opinion of UVa fans on social media and message boards, seats were starting to warm in the coordinators’ offices at the McCue Center back in Charlottesville.

But the Hoos rewrote the postgame narrative by outscoring Louisville 21-3 in the final quarter. After his second pick, Armstrong finished the game by going 15-of-23 for 203 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Wahoos converted four of their final seven third downs. On the drive that set up the go-ahead touchdown pass to Grant Misch, Armstrong followed a pair of failed third down attempts by connecting with Keytaon Thompson for rally-saving fourth down conversions.

Armstrong finished the game 40-for-60 (both career highs) for 487 yards and three touchdowns, plus the two picks. The redshirt junior has now thrown for 400 yards in four of UVa’s last five games; entering the season, there had only been three 400-yard passing games in program history. Thompson (132 yards), Billy Kemp (64 yards) and Ra’Shaun Henry (179 yards) each finished with nine catches.

“That's the great thing about Brennan,” said Misch, “is he's always going, he's always attacking.”

The defense limited the Cardinals to field goals on both Louisville possessions after those Armstrong turnovers—despite both drives starting inside the UVa 30—then posted a pair of key three-and-outs to help through fuel on the rally. Darrius Bratton kept the comeback alive by chasing down Hassan Hall, preventing a back-breaking touchdown with less than four minutes left. Again, the Cardinals had to settle for a field goal.

“Every point matters,” said UVa linebacker Nick Jackson. “As you can see every point matters. That was big.”

As James Turner’s potential game-winning 49-yard field goal sailed wide left, Virginia was again the team left standing on Saturday. It was the first time since winning three straight ACC road games down the regular-season stretch in 2011 that the Hoos had won two in a row away from home. The win improved the Cavaliers to 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the conference; they’re one of three teams in the Coastal Division with a pair of ACC wins.

“I know what it's like to be on the other side and I know the margin for error,” Mendenhall said, “and just grateful that we played well enough and had one more play go our way.”

But the win doesn’t disguise the fact that some familiar flaws were still evident on Saturday. With Louisville’s 20 unanswered points, Virginia has been outscored a combined 76-44 in the third quarter this season. In ACC play, opponents have outscored the Hoos 69-28 in the third. All six of Armstrong’s interceptions on the season have come after halftime, with four coming in the third quarter.

Despite playing the entire first half either with a lead or tied—and playing most of the game without leading receiver Dontayvion Wicks who left the game on UVa’s opening position after a big hit that was somehow not ruled targeting—the offense again leaned heavily on the passing game. Including a pair of sacks that cost the offense nine yards, UVa ran the ball 12 times for just 8 yards in the first half. By the end of the third quarter, as the Hoos fell into their 17-point hole, the pass-run ratio ballooned to 40-18 (including four sacks that go down as run plays).

The offense was also responsible for five of Virginia’s seven penalties, including two on the final go-ahead touchdown drive that the Wahoos were able to overcome.

On defense, big plays continued to plague UVa. Louisville’s first play from scrimmage was a 92-yard touchdown pass from Malik Cunningham to Tyler Harrell. The Cardinals first moved in front in the third quarter on a 52-yard TD run by Hall. Hall also gained 53 yards on his fourth-quarter run before he was run down by Bratton.

The Hoos have given up at least one 40-yard pass and one 50-yard run in each of their four ACC games. Louisville finished with six plays of at least 20 yards. The Wahoos have surrendered 28 20-yard plays in ACC play (an even four per game), including eight of at least 50 and three of 75 or more. The Cardinals’ 503 total yards and 233 on the ground were both the most surrendered by the Hoos since the loss at North Carolina in Week 3.

Where Mendenhall saw improvement on Saturday was in those so-called ‘critical moments.’ Louisville finished just 3-of-13 on third down, the defense’s best performance in conference play. One of those third down stops was Coen King’s forced fumble and recovery in the second quarter, UVa’s first takeaway since Fentrell Cypress’s interception in the second quarter at UNC. Three more came in the fourth quarter, as the defense was trying to get the ball back to Armstrong and the offense.

“I hate to say it's all that matters, but it really matters,” Mendenhall said of those key stops, “and that's how you have success, and they're there to be credited for that because they've been working their guts out of the past couple of weeks.”

But just like after last week’s emotional 30-28 win at Miami, Mendenhall weren’t worried about what went wrong in Louisville in the aftermath of the victory. It’s just the second time in the last 10 seasons that the Hoos have won multiple ACC road games; the other was two years ago, when they won the program’s first Coastal Division title.

This weekend, they host a 3-3 Duke team that’s still winless in the ACC after two conference games. Since the start of the 2018 season, Virginia is 12-3 at Scott Stadium against ACC opponents; overall, the Hoos have won six in a row against the Blue Devils.

“Now we’re just learning we can win anywhere,” Jackson said. “We’ve proven over the years that we’re dominant at Scott, and I think now we’re proving to ourselves that we can win anywhere. That’s how you take over a league and that’s how you take over the Coastal.”

JOIN CAVSCORNER TODAY!

If you are not already a member of CavsCorner, come join us and see what all of the buzz is about.

Click HERE to subscribe and get all of the latest news and join hundreds of other UVa fans in talking about Cavalier football, basketball, and recruiting. You won't be disappointed!