Take Two: Breaking down the 4OT Miami loss, Pres. by MPF

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The Result: Virginia never crossed the goal line in a frustrating 14-12 loss to Miami in four overtimes on Saturday. The loss dropped UVa to 3-5 on the season and 1-4 in ACC play with four games left to play.

The Turning Point: It’s really hard to find a turning point when so little actually happened, but Grant Misch’s drop in the end zone on 4th and Goal in the third quarter was extremely costly. A score there puts UVa up 10-3 and, frankly, the way Miami was playing that probably would’ve ended the game. Instead UVa failed to score, and eventually ended up in overtime.

The Stat That Tells the Story: UVa had eight plays inside the Miami 5-yard line on Saturday, and those eight plays went for -12 yards, with only one play going for positive yardage. UVa scored just three points on those possessions.

Wahoo of the Week: It’s Will Bettridge, who was a perfect 4-for-4 on field goals, scoring all 12 of UVa’s points. He knocked through a pair of 41-yard field goals in the overtime period, after missing a short field goal and an extra point last week at Georgia Tech.

Offense: Another week, another lifeless performance from UVa. For the second time this season, the Hoos didn’t score a touchdown. And for the third time this season, they went scoreless for an entire half. Red zone offense continued to look rough and the Cavaliers walked away with just six points on three possessions that not only got to the red zone but got inside the Miami 5-yard line. On the plus side, UVa didn’t turn the ball over!

The Wahoos finished the game with 327 yards, 208 through the air and 119 on the ground. Brennan Armstrong continued to have good moments and bad, and of those 208 yards, 151 of them came on just four plays, demonstrating the lack of consistency in the passing game. He made some nice throws but also missed a wide open touchdown on the first play of the game for the UVa offense, and missed the mark on plenty of other throws, too. Keytaon Thompson and Billy Kemp led the team with five catches each, while Dontayvion Wicks and Lavel Davis caught just one pass each.

On the ground, the offense seems to be more QB-run heavy, but it hasn’t really yielded a lot of yards. Armstrong rushed 20 times for 67 yards on Saturday, and got banged up on one run. If the offense continues to feature so many QB runs, it’s just a matter of time before Jay Woolfolk is forced into duty. UVa’s running backs didn’t have many opportunities, and didn’t do much as a result. Perris Jones had 28 yards on seven carries, and Mike Hollins had two carries for 16 yards. His 64-yard reception was a huge play in the game and nearly went the distance and then he never got another touch. Up front, UVa’s offensive line struggled with a physical Hurricanes front. UVa allowed 11 TFL’s and five sacks in a losing effort. There was also a false start on UVa’s two-point try to win the game in the third overtime, forcing UVa to attempt from the eight yard line.

The entire operation on offense is a mess. When UVa has a good play, the guys can’t keep the momentum going. When they have a negative play, they can’t overcome it. When they get in the red zone, they can’t score touchdowns. When players are open, the quarterback isn’t consistently hitting them. And when he does hit them, they drop the ball far too often. It’s been that way all season with no reprieve. And when you fail to score a touchdown, you get a failing grade.

Grade: F

Defense: For the second straight game, the D didn’t give up a touchdown. The Cavaliers gave up just a pair of field goals in regulation, and held Miami out of the end zone in the first three overtime periods before finally getting beat on the Canes’ fourth try. Still, it was another very strong effort from UVa’s defense. The Wahoos allowed 272 yards, and Miami quarterback Jake Garcia passed for just 125 yards, with only one completion longer than 15 yards. Miami had a bit more success on the ground, but still averaged just 3.9 yards per carry. The Canes went 5-for-17 on 3rd down, and outside of their two drives to end each half, the Hurricanes rarely threatened for the rest of the game.

If we must talk negatives, UVa didn’t force a turnover, which is somewhat surprising given Miami had eight of them last week against Duke. Antonio Clary did intercept a pass in the third overtime, though it doesn’t count as an official stat as it came on a two-point try. Virginia also didn’t have a lot of luck creating negative plays, or as much as the Cavaliers had in their previous game, anyway. They had just five tackles for loss, though they did record three sacks in the loss.

Virginia’s secondary did a great job defending the pass once again. The Hoos had seven pass breakups in the loss, and never really allowed Miami’s receivers to get going. Fentrell Cypress and Anthony Johnson continued to keep everything in front of them and didn’t allow any big plays. Against the run, Nick Jackson was reliably excellent as always, recording 14 tackles. Coen King chipped in with 13 of his own, too.

Overall it was another week where the defense did it job to help the team win, and John Rudzinski’s group has continued to exceed expectations. Next week, however, will be a really tough task for this group when UNC comes to town.

Grade: A

Special Teams: The Hoos played clean on special teams in Saturday’s game. We already mentioned Bettridge had his best day of the season, and the fact that he made both of his 40+ yard overtime kicks is encouraging for the freshman. Daniel Sparks put a nice highlight reel together with the offense struggling, averaging 43.5 yards per attempt on six punts. UVa didn’t have a kick return and Ethan Davies had just one punt return for two yards. That’s about it, really. Miami did have a 34-yard kick return, but nothing else to worry about from Saturday’s game. Special teams put up all the points on Saturday, and certainly didn’t prevent the team from winning.

Grade: A

Coaching Staff: We gave A’s to special teams and the defense, so I can’t fail the whole staff for Saturday’s loss. But the offensive coaching is at an F level right now. Not because I think the play calling is always terrible, or that the staff isn’t playing the right players or anything like that. But because while execution is lacking often, it doesn’t feel like the staff is doing enough to overcome that. And we aren’t seeing week-over-week improvement.

Here’s what Tony Elliott said after the game, when asked about the offense’s performance: “We just needed to make one more play than they did. And they made a play there at the end and we didn’t make a play. But it seems like that’s been the theme with us offensively, is we’re just leaving points on the field. There were several trips to the red zone. That’s why you always tell them, guys like Lavel, he’s trying hard but man find a way to keep your feet and score a touchdown. Misch, he had the ball, got on him quick, and find a way to make the touchdown. Mike, get the ball in the end zone. We knew coming into this game, and I challenged the guys offensively, the defensive line that Miami has is pretty good. They’re pretty stout. They’ve played a lot of football, they’re experienced. I knew that it was gonna be a challenge to run the football and we were going to have to do a good job to be able to protect, but there were some plays there. I think maybe the first or second play we got Wicks open, we got to make those plays. The guys continue to strain and continue to fight, I thought that overall, the team made progress. You look at two weeks ago versus Louisville, we were trying to give the game away early. Then we came back and battled through adversity. And then now we’re in a four quarter overtime game all the way down to the end. So definitely not the outcome that we wanted and the guys are going to be sick when they watch those four or five, maybe six plays that would have made a big difference in the game that we didn’t make.”

It’s easy to say that if Hollins doesn’t step out of bounds on his long play or Davis keeps his feet when he caught the ball at the Miami three, that UVa would’ve won the game. And that’s probably true. But even if both of those plays are touchdowns, that’s still only 17 points, which is still not good. And those plays put UVa at the 1-yard line and the 3-yard line, respectively. Teams should be able to find a way to get a yard or three on three (or four) tries. If you can’t muster a touchdown from even one of those opportunities, that’s not going to get it done.

There’s no reason to beat a dead horse here. Virginia’s offense has been bad in just about every way they can be this season, despite returning some very productive players who have executed at a very high level in the past. There’s not much light at the end of the tunnel for this season at least, but the coaching staff has to find a way to get this group to at least execute at a level where their defense can give them a fighting chance.

And for the defensive staff, just keep doing what you’re doing. Job well done.

Grade: C