Virginia’s pass defense struggled mightily in the loss to Wake Forest on Saturday. Despite allowing just 16 completions, Wake quarterback Sam Hartman threw for 309 yards in the 40-23 victory. He averaged 11.4 yards per pass attempt and Wake’s receivers averaged a whopping 19.3 yards per catch. On the season, UVa has allowed 1,108 passing yards and eight touchdowns through the air.

Wake didn’t just move the ball through the air, though. The Deacs did so on many deep throws. Hartman finished with nine deep throws, completing five of them, for a total of 197 yards. That’s nearly two thirds of his yards coming on throws 20+ yards down the field. The middle of the field was again a disaster for UVa, with Hartman completing five of his six passes 20+ yards down the field between the hashes, including his 40-yard touchdown early in the game.

The deep ball issues weren’t only present in this game, though Wake exploited UVa more than other teams have. NC State’s Devin Leary completed three 20+ yard throws for 90 yards in the win over Virginia, including a touchdown pass. Short throws and yards after the catch were a bigger issue against Clemson, but Trevor Lawrence still completed two 20+ yard throws for 56 yards and a touchdown in that game.

And really, the problems with the secondary, and the defense overall, started last year.

For comparison, we broke down how UVa fared in its first eight games last year (thru Louisville), the last six (UNC thru Florida), and then the first four so far in 2020, in several key areas:

Note: Pressure rate only calculated against starting quarterbacks, garbage time stats were excluded

First Eight Games of 2019

Opponents: Pitt, W&M, FSU, ODU, ND, Miami, Louisville

PPG Allowed: 20.5

Sacks Per Game: 4.0

Pressure Rate: 44% of dropbacks

Passing Yards Allowed: 169.2 ypg

20+ Yard Throws Allowed: 7/29, 204 yards, 1 TD

Big Pass Plays per Game: 0.9 completions, 25.5 yards and, 0.13 TDs on 20+ yard throws

Virginia’s defense fired on all cylinders at the beginning of last season. The secondary played well, aided by a great pass rush. UVa was at or near the top nationally in sacks for the first half of the season and allowed little time for quarterbacks to make clean throws.

As a result, the Wahoos weren't beaten, or even tested, over the top very much. Opposing quarterbacks only threw 3.6 deep balls per game in the first eight contests of 2018, and completed less than one per game. UVa didn’t give up a touchdown on a throw over 20 yards downfield until the second half of their blowout win over Duke.

Last Six Games of 2019

Opponents: UNC, GT, Liberty, VT, Clemson, UF

PPG Allowed: 35.7

Sacks Per Game: 2.3

Pressure Rate: 36% of dropbacks

Passing Yards Allowed: 319.8 ypg

20+ Yard Throws Allowed: 18/35, 718 yards, 8 TD

Big Pass Plays Per Game: 3.0 completions, 119.7 yards and 1.3 TDs on 20+ yard throws

The pass defense, and the entire unit really, fell off starting with the game in Chapel Hill. Virginia won that one in a shootout and had to follow the same path to victory against Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech later in this stretch. Opponents doubled their number of deep throws per game and started converting them more than three times more often.

UVa allowed just one deep ball to go for six in the first eight games but allowed eight in the final six, starting with three in the win at UNC. The secondary was ravaged with injuries but UVa’s front seven also took a step back in productivity. It is no coincidence that the number of deep ball attempts and completions increased as the pressure and sack rates dropped off. The Hoos did a great job bringing pressure in the win over Virginia Tech with six sacks, but didn’t have nearly as much success getting home in other games. They failed to register a sack against a below average Georgia Tech offense and only created pressure on 9 of 33 drop backs against UNC.

First Four Games of 2020

Opponents: Duke, Clemson, NC State, Wake Forest

PPG Allowed: 34.8

Sacks Per Game: 2.5

Pressure Rate: 32% of dropbacks

Passing Yards Allowed: 277.0 ypg

20+ Yard Throws Allowed: 12/29, 410 yards, 3 TD

Big Pass Plays per Game: 3.7 completions, 102.5 yards and 0.8 TDs on 20+ yard throws

As you can see, the Cavaliers picked up where they left off. After a solid effort against Duke with lots of pressure and turnovers, the pass defense has had a rough go of it. Note that these “big play” numbers don’t even count all of the yards after the catch damage Travis Etienne and his Clemson teammates did against UVa in Death Valley, just deep throws. As Virginia’s pass defense has struggled, the pass rush, or lack thereof, has been a big catalyst: UVa’s pressure rate has dropped 12 percent from the first half of last season and the performance against Duke inflates even this low number.

The Cavaliers created pressure on 46 percent of Duke’s dropbacks and have created a 27 percent pressure rate in their three games since. UVa isn’t getting burned as much by the big play as at the end of last season, but outside of Lawrence the quarterbacks the Virginia has faced aren’t quite as good as the ones at the end of last year.

The bad news? D’Eriq King and Sam Howell are next on the docket.

This week's we're going to take a look at the success Wake Forest had throwing deep against UVa and what caused those breakdowns in coverage.

Our first play is the first touchdown of the game, coming less than two minutes into the contest. Wake had a 1st and 10 after a penalty, with two receivers split left, one right, and a tight end off the right side of the line. Hartman fakes quickly to the running back on the play, which freezes the defenders momentarily.

The play design has the tight end running out to the flat while the outside receiver cuts inside of him, which can work as a pick play if the Cavaliers are running tight man coverage. They aren’t, however, as De’Vante Cross comes on a corner blitz, and UVa plays what appears to be a zone though the defenders are quickly in what looks like single coverage matchups with the receivers. Nick Jackson floats out to cover the tight end on the outside, Zane Zandier comes up to the line of scrimmage, and Joey Blount is left to handle the outside receiver, A.T. Perry. Perry runs what looks like an in-breaking route but cuts it up field, beating Blount’s attempt to jam him a few yards downfield.

From there, he just outruns Blount to the football with no other defenders there to help out and Hartman delivers an accurate ball for a touchdown.

The Verdict: When a defense blitzes a cornerback and it doesn’t have an impact on the play, it can be big trouble. Wake’s running back makes a nice block on Cross and Hartman is able to easily move out of the pocket and make the downfield throw. He sees that he has his speedy receiver in single coverage with nobody left over the top to help out and makes the right throw. UVa’s pressure isn’t terrible, but Hartman has way too much time given the exotic blitz. Blount just got beat on this route, plain and simple. Credit to Hartman and Perry for executing the play perfectly.

One of the staples of Wake’s offense is the delayed mesh play, where the quarterback and running back walk up towards the line of scrimmage post-snap, holding the handoff a bit longer to scan the defense and either let the running back keep it or step back and potentially throw downfield.

On this play, Hartman sees coverage that he likes and decides to keep the ball. Wake receiver Jaquarri Roberson is in the slot and runs a simple “go” route, straight down the field. Noah Taylor, lined up over him, comes back down towards the ball at the snap, seemingly by design to stop the run. With two receivers right, the cornerback is assigned the outside receiver, leaving Brenton Nelson, playing safety, to take Roberson. You can see Nelson slide his feet, trying to stay in front of Roberson, waiting for a break in the route. But he seems to realize too late that Roberson is off to the races and he simply gets beat to another well-thrown ball. Credit to him for running down Roberson and making the tackle, however.

The Verdict: Run fakes cost UVa dearly a few times during this game and this seemed to be one of them. Virginia’s first and second level defenders are preoccupied with the delayed mesh, with Taylor crashing down to towards the ball and allowing Roberson to run behind him unimpeded. This could be a schematic choice, however, with players instructed to hold tight on run plays until the quarterback is clearly going to throw. But even a slight jam on Roberson at or near the line of scrimmage probably prevents him from running so freely into open space for a big play. And again, Nelson is just a step slow here, and without help, gets beat.