Take Two: Breaking down the Louisville loss, Pres. by MPF

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The Result: Virginia dropped a third straight ACC game on Saturday, falling to Louisville 34-17 at home. The defeat drops the Hoos to 2-4 on the season and 0-3 in ACC play heading into a much-needed bye week.

The Turning Point: Up 10-0 in the first quarter, Brennan Armstrong fumbled at the Louisville 18 on what would’ve been a 1st and 10 for the Cavaliers in the red zone. If UVa had finished that drive with another touchdown, a 17-0 lead may have been too much for Louisville to overcome. Instead, they kept the game at 10-0 for a bit longer until they ultimately took the lead for good just before halftime.

The Stat That Tells the Story: UVa rushed for six yards Saturday. (That sentence had one word for each hard-earned yard.)

Wahoo of the Week: It’s Anthony Johnson, who played well against his former team, finishing the game with five tackles, three pass break-ups and an interception.

Offense: The Cavaliers have had a difficult time with bad starts throughout the season but they scored early against Louisville. They got out to a two-score lead through two drives but then got outscored 34-7 the rest of the way. They demonstrated a lot of the problems they’ve faced throughout the first half of the season, and showed again why they are 2-4 and 0-4 against Power-5 competition. Virginia finished the game with 319 total yards and put up just 13 in the second quarter. We already mentioned the issues in the run game, which produced almost nothing on Saturday, and while the passing game had some moments, it wasn’t enough.

Turnovers continue to be a problem. UVa gave the ball away three times on Saturday, leading to 10 Louisville points. Once again, 3rd downs were difficult for the Cavaliers to manage, as they went just 3-for-12 on the day. They also had an empty red zone trip and failed to convert two of their three 4th-down tries, including a disastrous 4th and 1 play that ended up in an 11-yard loss.

In the passing game, Armstrong had some nice moments but is still struggling to be consistent and take care of the football.Three turnovers from the quarterback is just not going to cut it for this team, with the small margin for error that they currently have. Keytaon Thompson continues to be the most consistent weapon on offense, and it was nice to see Dontayvion Wicks get back into the end zone. But the passing game simply hasn’t been good enough for UVa to win games, once all the turnovers, dropped, inaccurate throws, and route issues are accounted for.

I said a lot last week about where the offense is and what they need to do better to turn things around. But what’s left to say at this point? This just isn’t a good offense. Maybe the bye week will give the staff and players an opportunity to hit the reset button because there are still talented players on this team that are capable of more. But we’re halfway through the season.

If the offense was inconsistent with some good games and bad, it would be about finding a way to be more consistent. But with six games to go, the offense hasn’t really shown much of a pulse at all. It feels like this is just who they are, and we’ll see if they show us something else. But I’m not holding my breath.

Grade: D

Defense: Virginia was given a bit of a gift with Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham out for Saturday’s game. The defense wasn’t able to take advantage of the situation, however. UVa held Louisville off the scoreboard for a while, but ultimately gave up far more than they should have to a backup quarterback playing on the road. The Cards finished the game with 473 yards of offense, more than six yards per play. Backup quarterback Brock Domann accounted for 275 passing yards and 71 yards on the ground, making up for Cunningham’s absence. They were a solid 8-for-15 on 3rd down, 4-for-4 in the red zone and scored on six of their final nine drives in the win.

Louisville was also down it starting running back, yet the offense still recorded 198 rush yards on 46 attempts against the Cavaliers. Virginia’s defense did force a pair of turnovers in the loss, with Johnson and Antonio Clary snagging interceptions, but ultimately the Hoos gave up just too much to have a good chance to win, given where the offense is right now. The defense didn’t have a single sack or even a tackle for loss, and the two turnovers simply weren’t enough negative plays forced in the losing effort.

Overall, the defense seems to be improved from where they were a year ago but the last two weeks show that they probably aren’t going to be as good as what we saw against Syracuse or Illinois on a weekly basis.

The back half of UVa’s schedule has quite a few capable offenses, or at least groups with talent, so the tests will get larger. The difference between what’s happening on defense versus the offense’s struggle is the starting point and preseason expectations. The defense was always going to be a work-in-progress, and the reasonable ask is for modest improvement and good buy-in for the first season in the scheme. The defense wasn’t good enough on Saturday, but perhaps they can get back on track after the bye.

Grade: D

Special Teams: Not a whole lot to speak about here. I do want to highlight Will Bettridge making a 47-yard field goal, obviously a new career long for the freshman in his second-career FG. Perhaps making a kick from that far out will inspire more confidence in the kicking game going forward. Daniel Sparks again had a nice punt average at 44.2 yards, and there wasn’t much to speak of in the return game. Special teams didn’t really seem to get in the way of this one.

Grade: B

Coaching Staff:: It’s a bye week for the team, but the coaching staff will probably need to put in more work this week than any other. It’s their one chance to take a few days to reset and try to set things right. What Tony Elliott said on Saturday after the loss is right, this isn’t last year. For better or worse, UVa has moved on. The offense we saw last year isn’t coming back, so it’s time to create a new one that works. The culture is changed, so it’s time to get players on board, or there will be departures and further upheaval in the offseason. And while there’s been a lot of talk about setting a culture and doing things right off the field, and that’s certainly important, fans are ready to see some improvement between the lines on Saturdays.

This weekend, it was more of the same. The fast start was an improvement but when adversity hit, the team wilted. The offense couldn’t find ways to keep putting the ball in the end zone after scoring early. The defense had some good moments too, but gave up a lot of points and yards to a backup, on their home field. Virginia again had a lot of negative plays with three turnovers as well as eight penalties for 66 yards.

The team just needs to play more clean and the coaches need to figure out what needs to be done to make that happen. Or this season is heading to a much worse place than anyone could have guessed a month or two ago.

Grade: D