Take Two: Breaking down another disappointing UVa loss

The Result:. Virginia suffered another heartbreaking loss on Friday night, this time dropping a 24-21 contest to NC State at home on a game-winning field goal as time expired. The Cavaliers rallied to tie the game in the final minute only to see the Wolfpack finish off the game on a penalty-aided final drive. The loss dropped the Hoos to 0-4 on the season, their worst start since 1982, and 0-1 in ACC play.

The Turning Point: It has to be the final-minute sequence, where the Cavaliers tied the game and then saw the deadlock slip away. UVa converted a near-miracle 2-point conversion from the 17-yard line, only to get called for unsportsmanlike contact when Anthony Colandrea took his helmet off post-play. That forced UVa to kick off from deeper in their own territory, and when Matt Ganyard’s kick was taken short at the 20-yard line, NC State had room for a return. The Pack got to the UVa 30, where their first game-winning kick failed, but James Jackson was called for leaping over the center, allowing a retry from a much closer 33-yard distance. That kick was good, so in a matter or 36 seconds of game time UVa gave up 30 yards of penalties and a long kick, effectively losing the game in the process.

The Stat That Tells the Story: Many of the stats were actually in UVa’s favor on Friday, but the Wahoos did lose the turnover battle. Colandrea threw a pair of interceptions in Wolfpack territory, which proved costly in a close game.

Wahoo of the Week: For the second straight week, it’s receiver Malik Washington. The Northwestern transfer has been a revelation for the offense so far this season and on Friday he had his best game yet, with 170 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 10 receptions.

Offense: UVa showed more signs of promise on Friday night but didn’t accomplish enough to win the game. The Cavaliers out-gained NC State 384-319 in the loss, throwing for 271 yards and running for 113 more. They finished 4-for-4 in the red zone, but scored just 21 points, having to settle for a pair of short field goal attempts after being bottled up in State territory. They averaged more than 15 yards per completion, and saw good performances from Washington and Malachi Fields once again.

Colandrea again showed promise and some gives the team hope for the future, but he also showed where he has to improve in the many games he has ahead of him. He finished 18-for-30 passing for 271 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also completed a 2-point conversion to tie the game in the final minute. The freshman signal caller has shown an ability to improvise with his legs, too, and he led UVa in rushing with 43 yards. Colandrea also threw a pair of picks, one on a deep ball that was simply underthrown a bit, and a second pick down the field that was a forced and late throw that was easily picked. He also had the unfortunate unsportsmanlike conduct call after the conversion that helped State win it. Still, without his contributions, particularly his ability to improvise and find guys down field, who knows where this offense would be. There’s plenty of room to grow but Colandrea remains a fun watch that will give UVa a shot.

The biggest areas where UVa fell short on Friday, and can be improved going forward, is in finishing red zone trips with touchdowns, converting 3rd downs, and winning in short-yardage situations. UVa failed on a 4th down try in the first quarter at midfield and that miss contributed to more conservative 4th-down decisions later in the game, according to Tony Elliott. The offensive line hasn’t been as big a liability in the last few weeks as in the opener or through most of last season. But UVa has thin margins, so winning on 3rd and 1 or 3rd and Goal from the 2-yard line will decide games.

It was a more competent effort from the offense against NC State than it had at Maryland and the Wolfpack have a solid defense. But ultimately, 21 points probably isn’t going to be enough to win a lot of games for this team, so they’ll need to find ways to increase that output, and turn their improved chain-moving skills into more points.

Grade: C+

Defense: The Cavaliers had their best outing of the season in the loss to NC State. For the second year in a row, John Rudznski’s defensive scheme did a good job bottling up a Robert Anae offense for the most part and forced a number of critical stops.

State finished the game with 319 yards, just 180 through the air and 139 on the ground. Brennan Armstrong’s return was the big storyline, and it was going to be a challenge to defend a dual-threat quarterback, given what we’d seen from the defense so far this season. But Armstrong finished just 15-for-30 passing for 180 yards, with 64 rushing yards on 15 attempts. UVa’s defense also finally forced a turnover, with Micah Gaffney picking off Armstrong in the second quarter. That interception was UVa’s first turnover forced on defense since the win over Georgia Tech in October 2022.

After some rough second halves this season, the defense allowed just one touchdown in the final two quarters. The Hoos also forced four three-and-outs, and allowed just one drive of 70+ yards. UVa didn’t force a lot of negative plays, but one turnover plus two sacks and five TFL’s is a decent effort.

The defense’s biggest problems on the evening were freshman receiver KC Conception, who went for 116 yards and a pair of touchdowns on six catches, and an inability to get stops in the red zone. State went 3-for-3 in the red zone, if we count the last-second field goal, but UVa allowed 14 points on two true red-zone opportunities for the Wolfpack. On the season, UVa has allowed 18 scores on 19 red-zone trips to opponents, and 16 of those scores were touchdowns. The only stop wasn’t really a stop, but rather JMU taking a knee to wrap up its win. The other two red zone trips that didn’t reach the end zone were a JMU field goal from the 20-yard line (a drive that didn’t reach the red zone until the previous play), and NC State’s winning FG on Friday. So that’s an area where UVa’s defense needs to bow up and get stops.

Still, this was a much better effort for the D. They’ve also leaned into playing some younger players, either through injury or opportunity, and perhaps that will pay dividends as the season moves along, and into the future. Freshman linebacker Kam Robinson led the defense in tackles with 11 in his first career start. UVa also received solid contributions from Bryce Carter, Trey McDonald, Dre Walker, and others. It’s too early to say whether the defense is turning the corner to be more competitive, but they did enough to give UVa’s offense a chance to go win the game in the fourth quarter.

Grade: B

Special Teams: Well, they didn’t give up a touchdown on Friday, so that’s improvement! There were, however, a couple of costly issues late. We can’t blame the unit too much for the long kick return at the end, as that often happens when a team has to kick off from further back because of a penalty. Ultimately, Ganyard’s kickoff was handled at the 17 and returned 35 yards to the UVa 48. They certainly could have done a better job, but contain can be an issue on shorter kickoffs; the same goes for when a team has to do a quick kick after a safety. Jackson’s leaping penalty was a bigger issue, though, as it literally turned a missed field goal and overtime into a made field goal and a loss. More on that in our next section.

Other than those plays late, it was a relatively routine special teams game for UVa. Will Bettridge made his two field-goal attempts and his PAT. Daniel Sparks averaged 40.6 yards per punt on five tries, with one inside the 20. Washington had a 23-yard kick return, and Ethan Davies returned a pair of punts for 10 yards. UVa almost created a game-changing play right out of the gate, with Ganyard kicking short and NC State allowing it to hit the ground before recovering it, in what was a live-ball situation. The Hoos also picked up a penalty on a punt return, which forced them to start at their own 34 rather than their own 44, in the fourth quarter.

Special teams still has work to do. Things were looking up until the final minute of the game, when a long kick return and a rough penalty helped seal the win for NC State.

Grade: D+

Coaching Staff: This is a frustrating time for the entire program, but particularly for the coaching staff. I’m sure they felt the team would improve this season, as the expectations and culture further take root, with a roster that has more of “their guys” on it. And in some ways, UVa has looked better than it did a year ago. But it just hasn’t shown up in the win column. If this team had improved dramatically, the Wahoos would probably already have two wins.

I think it’s fair to say that they outplayed NC State on Friday night, if you just look at the entire game. There were areas where the Pack had the advantage, in turnovers, for example, but the defense did a better job getting State off the field than UVa did, and Virginia’s offense moved the ball better. The big issues for Virginia were losing the turnover battle, and that the Wolfpack did a better job of finishing, while UVa imploded in the final minute of the game after tying it.

Let’s talk about the penalties. Up to the final minute, UVa had actually done a pretty good job playing a clean game. In the first 59.5 minutes, UVa was called for two false starts, one offside call on the defense, and the aforementioned holding call on a punt return. So that’s just 25 yards of penalties, which is a very good effort for a game. But then UVa was hit with 45 yards of penalties in the final minute, and none of them were truly football plays gone wrong, like a bang-bang targeting or pass interference call would have been.

Ty Furnish’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty is 100 percent on him. He knows the rules and he got caught up in the moment. It happens, but you just can’t do what he did and I’m not putting that one on the coaching staff. The other two were calls that don’t happen often; unsportsmanlike for taking a helmet off/taunting, and Jackson’s leaping penalty. Maybe someone will ask Elliott in is weekly press conference Tuesday how much time they spend on going over these rules with the team, because you have to wonder on those two calls if the players knew they would be penalties or not. That’s particularly true of the leaping call, something that is certainly called in games but also not always. And to that point, it’s likely that not every player is well versed in that rule if it isn’t drilled into them by the coaching staff.

All of this to say that there is plenty of blame to go around for Friday’s debacle. The players involved have to take ownership of their mistakes, as they were the ones who actually made them. And the coaching staff has to find a way to help his team grow up a bit and not throw games away late.

UVa has struggled to finish games this season and had some close losses last year, too. Heading into Friday’s game, the Cavaliers had been outscored in the fourth quarter 47-3 over the first three contests. Obviously, that included a 12-0 collapse against JMU to lose that game. On Friday, they didn’t fold, and actually won the quarter 8-3, rallying back late after two turnovers killed off potential scoring chances. But then the team decided their work was done at the 59:24 mark and let NC State take the win back to Raleigh.

This coaching staff needs to find a way to help this team finish games better, as they’ve been in three games heading into the 4th quarter, and lost all of them.

The only other area to discuss here is the philosophical push/pull that is being aggressive versus playing it safe. Elliott has often opted for the latter, but early in this game, he decided to go for it on 4th and short. UVa got stuffed, and after that, the staff decided to take the points in the red zone. Ultimately, field goals in the red zone proved to not be enough in this game. There was also an odd sequence in the second quarter after UVa tied the game, where the Wahoos got conservative and went run-run-run-punt on a drive that started with 10:57 left in the quarter, and then on their next drive, went run-swing pass-run-punt. State ultimately took the lead on the next drive before halftime. With Colandrea and the makeup of this offense, it seems like putting the ball in the air is the best way to move the ball and score points. And given UVa’s record, what do they have to lose at this point by being more aggressive? And perhaps that will inspire some confidence in the players.

UVa is 0-4 through four games for the first time in 41 years, which is obviously not a good look for the staff. The Cavaliers haven’t done enough against a tough schedule to break through but they have eight more chances to do so. The first four opponents are 14-2 on the season, with the only losses coming to Notre Dame and Florida. The good news is that their next two games before the bye week are the most winnable on paper: a 1-3 Boston College team that just got pummeled by Louisville, and FCS William & Mary. The bad news is that after the bye, four of UVa’s next five opponents are 4-0 (UNC, Miami, Louisville, and Duke). The other is a much-improved Georgia Tech team that just went to Wake Forest and won. Then, of course, they finish with the Commonwealth Cup against a Virginia Tech team that looks beatable.

All told, it’s going to be an uphill climb for this coaching staff but sometimes the only way out is through.

Grade: C