Take Two: Breaking down the win over ODU- Pres. by MPF

The Result: Virginia escaped with a 16-14 win over Old Dominion Saturday, winning on a walk-off field goal from Brendan Farrell on the game’s final play. With the win, the Hoos move to 2-1 on the season as they prepare for a run of seven straight ACC contests.

The Turning Point: There were a lot of bad turning points in this game for the Cavaliers but since they won we have to go with something from the final drive. The biggest momentum swing perhaps came when Demick Starling took the kickoff out of the end zone on UVa’s final drive. Down 14-13, Starling returned the kick to the 37-yard line, giving his team solid field position to get the go-ahead score.

The Stat That Tells the Story: UVa’s offense reached the red zone seven times on Saturday, but had three empty trips and settled for field goals on three more, meaning they walked away with just 16 points on seven drives that made it inside the ODU 20.

Wahoo of the Week: How about freshman running back Xavier Brown? The Kentucky native saw a bit of playing time in the first two games but had a breakout performance against the Monarchs. Brown rushed nine times for 88 yards, averaging just under 10 yards per carry, and also finished with one catch for just a 1-yard gain. Hopefully this performance is a sign of things to come for UVa’s young running back who suddenly may end up as their lead back.

Offense: This may be the most difficult performance we’ve ever had to assign a grade to from a UVa offense or defense. The Hoos had a woeful performance against Illinois and while they scored just 16 points in Saturday’s win—which looks rough on the surface—they showed a lot of improvement from last week.

Let’s start with the good. UVa finished Saturday’s game with 513 yards. They were again balanced, throwing for 284 and running for 229, averaging 6.3 yards per play. The ground game was far from perfect but averaged 5.1 yards per rush and accounted for several critical conversions to extend drives. UVa was much better on 3rd down after a terrible showing in Champaign, as the Wahoos went 7-for-16 against the Monarchs. They also did a nice job with time of possession, holding the ball for 33:32 in Saturday’s win. Keytaon Thompson had a nice game at receiver, catching nine passes for 118 yards, and in addition to Brown’s effort, Perris Jones had 56 yards on 11 carries as well. And while they weren’t perfect, they were solid.

Now, for the not-so-good. UVa fumbled the ball three times on Saturday, losing all of them. Two of those fumbles were in the red zone, one from Mike Hollins and one from Brennan Armstrong on a hit while throwing. Armstrong had another fumble while trying to extend a run around midfield, too. Hollins has had fumbling problems throughout his career and Saturday’s drop coupled with Brown’s breakout performance could mean that we see less of the Louisiana native, but time will tell. Armstrong seemed very frustrated with his mistakes postgame, and although he did some nice things during the win, including throwing for 284 yards, throwing no interceptions and leading the game-winning drive, it’s clear that he still has some work to do to get comfortable in this scheme.

We already mentioned the red zone issues, which were partly brought on by the lost fumbles. There was also a critical sack on a 1st and goal that basically killed that drive, and a few costly penalties and drops along the way as well.

So, while UVa moved the ball well and showed a lot more diversity in the play calling, the result is still a mere 16 points. Luckily that was enough to win the game, but the execution certainly needs to improve going forward.

I want to show recognition of the improvement from Illinois, but the execution component still needs work. Fumbles are somewhat but not totally avoidable, and losing all three of them to ODU is bad luck to a degree. It was nice to see the Hoos move the ball, but they still have work to do.

Grade: C-

Defense: For the most part, this group won Saturday’s game. Old Dominion’s offense is far from good but outside of their two scoring drives at the end of each half, an area where UVa can certainly improve, the Monarchs barely threatened at all. ODU finished with 324 yards on the day, with 144 of those coming on the two scoring drives. Outside of that, ODU had just one drive over 50 yards, their first drive of the game which ended with a turnover on downs. UVa only forced a pair of three and outs but ODU ran six plays or less on eight of their 11 drives.

Virginia’s defense allowed just 89 yards on 32 carries, giving up 2.8 yards per carry. The front looked solid, forcing seven tackles for loss and three sacks on the day. The Cavalier defense again did not force a turnover, as they did in the opener against Richmond. ODU threw for 235 yards on 37 attempts, averaging 10.2 yards per target. We still have a lot to learn about how good UVa’s pass defense can be, given that their three opponents have not exactly been elite passing units. We’ll find out a lot more about where this defense is in regards to allowing big plays in the passing game on Friday night.

As far as individual standouts, safety Lex Long again led the team in tackles with nine, and had a pair of pass break-ups and a tackle for loss. Long, along with Jonas Sanker, who had seven tackles of his own, appear to be breakout candidates in the secondary. Coen King returned to action this week, and finished with five tackles. Veterans Anthony Johnson and Nick Jackson had eight tackles each, and combined for three pass break-ups. Up front, Aaron Faumui had a nice performance, finishing with five tackles and two TFLs, with a sack. Chico Bennett and Kam Butler also recorded sacks on the day.

The two up-tempo drives from ODU that resulted in points show that UVa has some room to grow. However, the defense’s biggest issue on Saturday seemed to be untimely penalties. UVa gifted ODU a 1st down early in the fourth quarter when Ben Smiley was called for an illegal hands to the face penalty on a 3rd and 14 pass that went incomplete. ODU didn’t score on that drive, but the Monarchs did gain 10 more yards before punting. And on the drive to take the lead, UVa basically ended the game on a 4th and long play, with Hayden Wollf sailing a throw out of bounds, but Johnson essentially tackled his receiver on a throw he had no chance to catch, which extended the drive and led to a lead change.

Overall the defense did a lot of good things, and certainly looked like they were much better than the ODU offense. The defense has shown a lot of improvement in the first three games, but the rubber is going to meet the road now, with a bunch of ACC games coming up, and much more competent offenses waiting in the wings.

Grade: B+

Special Teams: UVa’s special teams groups were much better than they were at Illinois. Daniel Sparks didn’t have a great day punting the football, averaging just 37 yards per punt, but he did put two of them inside the 20. Jackson recovered a fumble on special teams when a punt hit an ODU player and was covered up by the Hoos. With Billy Kemp out with an illness, Ethan Davies did a nice job filling in for him on punt return duties, and if nothing else, he took good care of the football. We mentioned Starling’s return earlier, another special teams play that helped flip the game. Farrell made the game-winning field goal which is great, but he also missed another short kick (36 yards) while making the other three, all 30 yards or shorter, and his PAT. Perhaps making such an important kick will give Farrell confidence going forward, and in fairness to him, on the miss he did get iced by his own team when a couple players didn’t come out on field goal duties.

Not a perfect day for special teams by any means, but they made a few plays to win the game late, and forced the only turnover of the day from the Monarchs.

Grade: B

Coaching Staff: Tony Elliott and his coaching staff took a lot of heat for the 24-3 loss at Illinois, which is to be expected. And the Hoos were a play or two late away from losing this game, despite some improvement. Still, from what we’ve seen, it looks like UVa’s issues on Saturday were far more related to execution than scheme or preparation. During fall camp this staff spent a lot of time on ball security, and the Cavaliers went out and put the ball on the ground three times, losing all of them. Those fumbles, along with some untimely penalties, were the most costly plays for UVa in the win, keeping the game tighter than it needed to be. The coaches can’t go out on the field and take care of the football or play smart, but now their job will be to clean those things up or make personnel changes if they aren’t able to find another solution.

The offensive play calling was in focus after a rough outing at Illinois, and on an initial watch, the scheme looked a bit more cohesive on Saturday. The staff certainly made some adjustments, getting more running plays on the edge, using Armstrong more creatively in the running game, getting some horizontal plays to Thompson and others, and moving the pocket on some play-action throws. We’ll see if this offense is a few bad turnovers away from a breakout performance, or if the offense is still a long way away from a big game.

On defense, John Rudzinski should continue to get credit for what his unit has looked like so far this season. As we mentioned before, it’s not like the defense has faced a murderer’s row of opponents, but they haven’t had the missed assignment and tackling issues that we saw last year that have led to big plays. Through three games, UVa is 18th nationally in plays allowed of 30 yards or more, allowing one per game. Last year, UVa allowed 35 such plays, or three per game, and ranked 115th nationally in that category. We’ll see on Friday if that trend can continue or if the defense gets a bit of a reality check against a good offense.

Overall, this was a better effort from the coaching staff, and it’s clear that the offense left a lot of points on the table with errors proving costly.

Grade: B

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