Take Two: Breaking down the GT victory, Pres. by MPF

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The Result:. Virginia came off of its open date and snapped a three-game losing streak with a 16-9 win at Georgia Tech on Thursday night. It wasn’t pretty but the victory gives the Wahoos their first ACC and road win of the year, now 1-3 in both categories, and has them 3-4 overall heading into a four-game home stand.

The Turning Point: This isn’t meant to take away from UVa’s win, but the biggest turning point in the game came when GT quarterback Jeff Sims left the game with an injury. Virginia didn’t allow Tech’s offense to score with Sims at the helm but it was pretty clear that the Jackets couldn’t really do much with their backup in, and UVa’s defense basically neutralized Tech after the injury. There’s no guarantee Georgia Tech would’ve won with Sims, but if UVa scored 16 points, Sims probably could’ve done enough to at least get the Jackets there too.

The Stat That Tells the Story: Virginia recorded eight sacks in Thursday’s win, the most the program has had in a single game since 1996.

Wahoo of the Week: There are a few candidates here, but we’ll go with linebacker Nick Jackson. The Atlanta native led the team in tackles with eight, recorded two sacks, and recovered a fumble deep in Tech territory to set up a field goal.

Offense: Virginia’s performance on Thursday night was pretty similar to the game against ODU, all the way down to the point total and the result. Against ODU, the Hoos moved the ball well but kept coming up short or turning the ball over, particularly in the red zone. In Atlanta, they again moved the ball pretty well, finishing the game with 410 yards with 255 through the air and 155 on the ground. The offensive line did a nice job in pass protection, and didn’t give up a single sack. But despite consistent ball movement, and just a pair of three-and-outs, UVa finished with 16 points.

There are a few different culprits for the lack of point output in Thursday night’s win. First, UVa left at least seven points on the table between three missed field goals, so the offense isn’t really to blame for that, though they really need to finish drives in the end zone given the troubles the team has had in the kicking game. The Hoos were also not good enough on 3rd down, going 2-for-14. And finally, the turnover issues have continued. Virginia’s offense turned the ball over three times, with two interceptions, one returned for Tech’s only touchdown, and a fumble on their first drive of the game.

There was plenty of negative, but there were some positives to take away as well, outside of the result itself. First, it seemed like the game plan was a bit more cohesive and as a result, players looked a bit more comfortable for most of the game, even though points didn’t pile up. Brennan Armstrong had what was probably his best game of the season. The senior QB threw for 255 and a touchdown and had a nice day on the ground, rushing for 91 yards on 13 attempts and another score. Armstrong seemed a bit more decisive and plays to get him out of the pocket helped him extend some plays and keep drives alive with his legs, too. Two more interceptions for him though, and while neither pick was perfect, one went through the hands of a receiver and the other was the equivalent of a punt. Unfortunately for Armstrong, the first one got returned for points. Still, it was an encouraging performance for the veteran QB who was far from perfect but similar efforts in upcoming weeks with some better turnover luck would probably be enough to give this team a chance.

Armstrong’s receivers were up-and-down again. Dontayvion Wicks took a bit of a step forward I’d say, and had an incredible individual effort on his touchdown in the second quarter. Wicks finished with four catches for 99 yards on seven targets, and although he did have one critical drop he made more of a difference in Thursday’s win. Hopefully his big play touchdown is a sign of things to come for the Louisiana native. Keytaon Thompson again was Armstrong’s top target with 10, catching a team-high seven passes for 89 yards. Lavel Davis had just one catch for 31 yards in the first quarter, and did have one really critical drop in the end zone on a would-be touchdown before UVa walked away with no points in the red zone. Grant Misch got involved too, with a few nice catches for 28 yards.

The ground game was again a struggle but wasn’t as bad as it was against Louisville. Armstrong was the team’s best weapon on the ground and, after his early fumble, Perris Jones wasn’t as involved, and in his place UVa went to freshman Xavier Brown with Mike Hollins unavailable. Brown had some flashes along with plenty of no-gain type runs, finishing with 44 yards on 12 carries.

The Cavaliers will need a more consistent running game going forward and perhaps they’ll simply lean more on Armstrong to carry the load on designed runs.

All told, the Hoos showed some signs of life on Thursday and just need to stop shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers or procedure penalties, or drops, and so on. The offense had 11 drives that finished in Tech territory. If they had just made half the mistakes that we saw on Thursday, they would’ve won this game in a walk.

Grade: C-

Defense: The Cavaliers did an outstanding job on Thursday night. Georgia Tech’s offense didn’t score a touchdown and only registered three points on the night just before halftime. For the game, they held the Jackets to just 201 yards of offense, some of which came late in the game with UVa playing soft coverage. Halfway through the fourth quarter, GT had negative yards of offense for the half. Sims left the game but after allowing a backup QB to go for 34 points at home in their last game, this effort was a big improvement.

Virginia was stingy against the run, allowing just 55 yards, and also did a great job getting after both quarterbacks. The Cavaliers had 10 TFLs and eight sacks, with Jackson, Chico Bennett, and Paul Akere finishing with two sacks each. UVa also forced a pair of turnovers, with Coen King coming up with a huge first quarter INT to keep the Jackets off the board, and Jackson’s fumble recovery in the second half.

Overall, this was simply a thoroughly dominant effort for UVa. Up and down the board, players simply made plays and didn’t give much back with penalties and missed assignments or tackles. The regular contributors like Jackson, Fentrell Cypress, and Jonas Sanker were very solid, and role players like Akere, Michael Diatta, and Stevie Bracey made an impact, too.

Whenever a defense can hold a team out of the end zone and force seven three-and-outs, it was a great day at the office regardless of who you played. Thursday’s game demonstrated how important creating havoc plays can be for the cavaliers, as they often wrecked Georgia Tech’s drives before they could get on the move.

Grade: A

Special Teams: This was again an adventure for the Hoos. Let’s start with the good. Punter Daniel Sparks has continued to impress, and despite having one blocked, he did a great job flipping the field in a low-scoring game where field position was pretty critical. Sparks had three of his five punts downed inside the GT 20 yard line. The blocked punt was a big error from the punt unit, and luckily for UVa, the defense was able to keep Tech off the board and bail them out for what could have been a disastrous error.

Speaking of major errors, Davis’ leaping penalty gave GT new life on a drive that was dead in the water in the fourth quarter. That’s a bit of an obscure penalty, but when you have someone like Davis out there in that spot, coaches have to make sure he knows what he is allowed to do and what he can’t do. Another error UVa got away with was Demick Starling’s kneel down inside his own 5-yard line on a kick return rather than fair catching the ball. It didn’t matter because the half was almost over, but imagine if he had done that on a drive in the middle of the game, or worse, at the end of the ODU game when his big return set up the winning score?

The place kicking job might be up for grabs again after a rough night for Will Bettridge. The freshman hit one field goal, but missed a 39 yarder, had a 29-yard attempt blocked, and missed a PAT. Brendan Farrell had his own struggles too, so we have no idea who will trot out there next weekend, but UVa will need to work around an unreliable kicking game that just can’t be counted on right now.

Grade: D

Coaching Staff: We’ve been critical of the staff when it has been warranted, but honestly I don’t have a lot of complaints here. The key areas of improvement remain the same but a lot of the actual performance in those areas is in the hands of the players. Guys just have to stop putting the ball on the ground, committing avoidable penalties like false starts and post-whistle shenanigans, dropping easy catches, and so on. The staff plays a role there, but ultimately they don’t go out on the field.

It felt like UVa made some changes to the offensive game plan to help out its quarterback and the scheme itself seemed to work fine. The ball kept moving, Armstrong had a clean pocket, and overall he played better. The mistakes just kept the offense from putting the game away, as well as the poor kicking effort. On defense, whatever John Rudzinski drew up seemed to work well, and the Hoos did a great job creating pressures from different looks.

There’s still plenty of work to do for the staff, but in Thursday’s win it felt like they had taken advantage of some extra time to prepare and had a good game plan that the players executed well at times and not so well at others. You can quibble about a play call here or there, but I didn’t see many major issues.

Grade: B