Film Room: Breaking down Armstrong's huge afternoon

In Saturday’s win over Illinois, UVa QB Brennan Armstrong had the strongest passing day of his career to date. The junior signal caller completed 27 of 36 pass attempts, racking up 405 yards through the air with five touchdowns in a 42-14 walk over Illinois.

Armstrong’s season is off to an impressive start with 744 yards, seven TDs, and just one interception, with a 71.6 percent completion rate.

He is red hot heading into a pivotal early season clash at No. 21 North Carolina this weekend, in a game that should tell everyone a lot about how good the Cavaliers are after two easy wins.

In today’s Film Room, we take a look at how Armstrong picked apart the Illinois defense from start to finish and drew a good amount of national attention and praise for his efforts.

Robert Anae’s UVa offenses have been built around success in the short passing game along with having a quarterback who can make plays with their legs. Armstrong excelled in both of those areas last year but Virginia’s offense has been much more aggressive through the air in their first two games of this season.

Statistically, Armstrong was both efficient and explosive through the air. He dropped back to pass 39 times, threw 36 and connected on 27 of those throws. Armstrong averaged 11.3 yards per attempt and over 15 yards per completion.

He threw the ball 19 times 10+ yards on Saturday, with 11 throws of 20 yards or more. On throws between 10 and 20 yards, Armstrong was a perfect 8-for-8 for 159 yards.

On deep balls, Armstrong was 5-for-11, for 162 yards with a pair of touchdowns and one interception, a turnover that was frankly bad luck for the UVa QB. PFF College gave Armstrong a “Big Throw Rate,” defined as throws down the field with “excellent ball location,” of 10.3 percent in Saturday’s win. These would be considered impressive throws for NFL quarterbacks, and Armstrong certainly had a few of those against the Illini.

He spread the ball around quite a bit but destroyed the Illinois defense between the hashes. On throws down the middle of the field, Armstrong finished the game 20-for-26 for 290 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

Another remarkable factor in his performance was the play of the offensive line in front of him. Armstrong was kept clean all day, and Illinois finished the game without a sack. He had a clean pocket on 35 of his 39 passing drop backs and went 25-for-34 on those plays. Illinois got pressure home on just four plays, and Armstrong still completed passes on half of those. The Illini didn’t blitz much, probably because when they did Armstrong made them pay. They recorded nine blitzes on the day according to the PFF data and Armstrong was a perfect 9-for-9 for 111 yards and a pair of touchdowns on those plays. UVa also burned Illinois with play action, going 7-for-10 for 144 yards and two scores.

To be honest, it would be much harder to find a way that Armstrong didn’t give Illinois’ defense fits in Saturday’s blowout win.

First Quarter

31-yard pass to Jelani Woods: The Virginia tight end was the talk of spring practice and fall camp. And on Saturday, after being limited in the season opener due to leg cramps, Woods had his coming-out party in the very first minute of the game.

On this, that very first look from scrimmage, Armstrong finds Woods for a big gain. This is a nice play design from Anae, flooding the left side of the field with Billy Kemp in motion. The quick out route by Kemp draws defenders away from the middle of the field, opening up space for Woods to catch and run.

32-yard TD pass to Woods: Two plays later, Armstrong found Woods again for six.

This play is a great example of UVa using its past tendencies and having multiple dangerous ball carriers in the backfield against a defense. The Illini linebackers were drawn towards the line of scrimmage by a ball fake to an in-motion Keytaon Thompson, and Woods was able to sneak in behind.

Armstrong delivers a great ball here and the physical tight end was too much for any would-be tacklers.

39-yard pass to Ra’Shaun Henry: This is the play where it became very apparent that Armstrong was feeling it early in the game. Again, UVa uses pre-snap motion and a ball fake as a diversion, and again, the offensive line gives Armstrong a clean pocket.

Armstrong notices Henry in single coverage and once the senior receiver gets good position from his inward break, Armstrong delivers another high-quality throw for a big gain.

23-yard pass to Thompson: This next throw is another great example of UVa’s schemes creating headaches for the defense. Mike Hollins runs a flare route out of the backfield, freezing the linebackers. Thompson does a great job slowing down his route, almost as if he’s blocking for a screen, and then darts behind the linebacker into open space. Armstrong is patient and delivers another quality pass to the right man for another big gain.

Second Quarter

21-yard completion to Thompson: This completion is a byproduct of time created by good blocking. Armstrong is able to go through his progressions before settling on Thompson breaking across the middle of the field.

Thompson has certainly grown as a receiver, which also deserves some recognition here. Not only is he receiving more targets, he’s also finding ways to get open on plays like these that aren’t exactly designed to go his way. Thompson is tied with Kemp for the team lead in receptions through two games, with 10.

18-yard completion to Woods: Later in the quarter, Armstrong connects with Woods again.

On this play, Woods finds a very small spot in between two defenders and Armstrong fires a perfect strike for a completion. It’s clear at this point that Armstrong puts a lot of faith in Woods to win on plays like this one. He, like Tony Poljan before him, is a big, physical target that did a great job winning routes and out-physicaling defenders for the football.

It’s a great football play from Woods, but the throw is once again impressive from Armstrong.

Third Quarter

13-yard pass to Woods: Armstrong picked up where he left off after halftime, once again hitting Woods across the middle. This play was very similar to the last one to the new Cavalier tight end, who finished the game with five receptions for 122 yards and a score. Woods simply beat his coverage one-on-one and broke inside, making the throw relatively easy for Armstrong.

2-yard TD pass to Kemp: After using motion as a diversion several times, UVa finally throws the ball to Kemp coming out of the backfield. This is a well-designed play once again, with lead blockers in front.

Simply put, UVa trusted its player to win in space against Illinois’ defenders, and Kemp did just that. Nice block too by Wayne Taulapapa, leading the way for this score.

28-yard pass to Henry: Those “Big Time Throws” we were talking about earlier? Well, this is certainly one of them.

The first thing to notice here is the clean pocket created by UVa’s offensive line, which collectively did a great job in pass protection last weekend.

Next, notice how Armstrong decides to go to Henry’s back shoulder, which is the best ball-placement spot for this route and coverage. Henry gets away with a little bit of a push-off at the catch but this is still a really well-thrown ball from the UVa quarterback.

35-yard pass to Wicks: Here is another really solid deep ball from Armstrong, and Wicks’ only catch that didn’t end up in the end zone. Another clean pocket for Armstrong and another one-on-one win for Wicks down the field.

This ball is really well thrown and the only complaint is that if it was thrown a yard or two inside, Wicks might walk in for another score here. Still, this is a big-time throw for the southpaw.

Fourth Quarter

28-yard pass to Woods: With UVa looking to salt the game away in the fourth quarter, Armstrong delivers again to Woods. This is an example of one of those rare blitz attempts from the Illini, and as they did all day this one comes up short. Woods muscles past his defender at the snap and outraces him into space. Armstrong puts great touch on the throw and the Wahoos pick up 28 yards.

3-yard TD pass to Taulapapa: Armstrong’s final pass of the day, fittingly, was a touchdown.

His fifth of the day went to Taulapapa out of the backfield, on a bit of an unusual under-center look. Armstrong actually received some pressure here but got enough mustard on the ball to allow Taulapapa to haul it in and walk into the end zone.

This is a short throw, but the degree of difficulty is a bit tougher than it may have seemed live. Armstrong had to get enough on the throw to ensure the chasing defender couldn’t step in front of it but also made sure not to sail it over his running back’s head.

Armstrong will get the praise, but it was a collective effort that made Saturday’s passing performance against Illinois possible. After some wacky plays in the opener against William & Mary, Anae went right after a weak Illinois pass defense and took UVa’s attack vertical. The offensive line did a fantastic job giving Armstrong time to throw and his wide receivers kept winning against both single- and zone-coverage looks. Woods and Wicks look like breakout stars, and Henry, Thompson, and Kemp provide plenty of help around the line of scrimmage and deep down the field.

Even though he had plenty of help, and the fortune of playing an overmatched opponent, Armstrong was a delight to watch on Saturday. He made every throw look easy and seemed to have confidence in every decision he made. Even his incomplete throws, particularly in the first half, seemed catchable or were in a good spot.

Simply put: It was the best he has looked throwing the ball as Virginia’s starting quarterback.

Armstrong has passed his first two tests of the season with flying colors, but things are about to get tougher. If the junior quarterback can put up a performance like this one on a weekly basis, the Wahoos are going to score a lot of points and win a lot of games.

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