The Result:. Virginia finally got a win on Saturday, rallying from 10 down to handle William & Mary 27-13 at Scott Stadium. The victory snapped an eight-game losing streak dating back to last season, and improved the team’s record to 1-5 on the season (0-2 in ACC play) heading into its open date. The win over the Tribe also guarantees the Wahoos won’t have their first winless season since 1960 (0-10).

The Turning Point: The sequence late in the first half was a major swing in UVa’s favor. After the Cavaliers tied the game at 13, they got the ball back after the punt with 1:35 left. Instead of putting together a drive, they went three-and-out quickly and shanked the subsequent punt. Yet, the Tribe fumbled at the 21-yard line and UVa took advantage, going 79 yards on six plays in 48 seconds to take a halftime lead on a 26-yard TD pass from Tony Muskett to Malachi Fields. Rather than trailing at half, assuming William & Mary would’ve tacked on at least three points, UVa forced a takeaway and took a touchdown lead into the break and never lost the advantage.

The Stat That Tells the Story: The Hoos had 16 big plays in the game (passes of 15+ and rushes of 10+) to W&M’s seven, none of which came on pass plays. UVa scored two of its touchdowns on big pass plays, the aforementioned one from 26 yards and the other from 27.

Wahoo of the Week: There were several candidates for this one, but we’ll go with Muskett, who might have had a few plays he’d like to have back but also accounted for all three of UVa’s touchdowns, two through the air and one on the ground. He threw for 232 yards and rushed for 42 when removing sack yard losses.

Offense: It was far from a perfect game, but the offense did enough to handle an FCS opponent on Saturday. Virginia went for 453 yards, with 232 through the air and 221 on the ground. Tony Elliott said postgame that he challenged the backs to have a better ground game than the Tribe, who came in averaging 300+ rushing yards. UVa averaged 6.4 yards per play and 13.6 yards per completion in the win, hitting some big plays down the field that helped win the game.

Muskett was solid in the victory, outside of a few plays. His fumble in the first half created a big swing, as UVa was driving to take the lead down 6-3, and instead ended up down 13-3 after the recovery and return. He also had the red zone INT which was a bit of a risky throw into traffic, and one that took potential points off the board with the Hoos looking to go up multiple scores. Still, Muskett did plenty of good things, despite facing a good amount of pressure. His top two receivers, Fields and Malik Washington, continue to impress. Washington is quietly having one of the best receiver seasons in all of college football, and despite UVa’s 1-5 record he probably deserves more attention than he’s received.

The ground game had a few bad plays but was solid overall. UVa rushed for 4.9 yards per carry on 45 attempts, and both Perris Jones and Kobe Pace went over 80 yards on the ground. Jones had the first 100+ yard rushing day since he went for 104 against Richmond last year, breaking a 14-game streak.

There were several areas that held UVa’s offense back a bit, and ones that will need improvement going forward against better competition.

UVa lost the turnover battle 2-1, with Muskett accounting for both takeaways. The Wahoos have averaged two turnovers per game over their last five contests, and oddly all but one of them (Muskett’s fumble on Saturday) came after halftime. The offensive line continued to struggle in pass protection, giving up four sacks to an FCS defense that barely had to bring extra players to get pressure. And finally, UVa wasn’t great on 3rd downs or in the red zone, going 6-for-15 on 3rd and 2-for-4 inside the 20, with 10 total points. Granted, the last red zone trip was running out the clock at the end, but they still had an empty trip with Muskett’s interception and had to settle for a field goal on a first-half possession.

I’m not sure if Saturday’s effort would have been enough against other teams they’ve played this year, especially considering the fact that the Wahoos haven’t been able to run the ball like they did on Saturday against FBS competition. Still, the offense got to 27 points and moved the ball consistently throughout the game, and that was enough against the Tribe.

Grade: C+

Defense: The defense had a solid outing and held the Tribe in check for most of the day. Going into the game it was pretty clear that William & Mary was one dimensional and wouldn’t have a lot of success through the air, and that held true in this game. Virginia allowed just 72 yards passing on 18 attempts, and did a nice job covering up a couple of trick plays that the Tribe tried. W&M’s ground game had some success early and a bit late on some quarterback scrambles, but UVa held them in check, allowing just 147 yards and 3.8 yards per carry.

William & Mary had two decent drives in the first quarter but UVa was able to hold them to field goals on both, which proved helpful in the effort. The only touchdown allowed on the day came on a four-play drive from the 4-yard line, after the Muskett fumble was returned. W&M threatened just one more time, getting to the 8, but was stood up on a 4th and 2 rush attempt. UVa forced another red zone stop on William & Mary’s final drive, forcing a turnover on downs at the 20 up two scores, that basically ended the game.

Virginia was -1 in turnovers for the day, but did force one on the Hollis Mathis fumble late in the first half. After having no takeaways on defense in the first three games of the season, the Hoos now have six turnovers forced in their last three contests.

While they are forcing more takeaways, they still aren’t getting pressure: The defense went without a sack for the second straight week, which is borderline embarrassing against an FCS opponent that trailed for the entire second half. UVa has just five sacks on the year and only has multiple sacks in two contests (a pair versus NC State). The D did force six TFLs, but forced just nine lost yards on those, versus 45 on six TFLs for their opponent. Just as the offensive line has to do a better job protecting the QB and eliminating pressures, UVa’s defense, albeit a banged up one, has to find a way to get more pressures.

As for individual top performers, freshman linebacker Kam Robinson led the Hoos in tackles for the second time in three weeks, this time with 12 (five solo). He has continued to accelerate his development and he certainly has a bright future. James Jackson, Jonas Sanker, and Coen King combined for 24 more stops, and King was credited with a TFL and the force fumble, which was recovered by Tayvonn Kyle. Ben Smiley returned to action after being in the concussion protocol for a few weeks, and while he had just two tackles, he was certainly a disruptive presence.

The defense did a nice job protecting its end zone against the Tribe, only allowing one score on a drive that barely crossed the plane on four plays from 4 yards out. There is still room to grow and hopefully the defense can use the bye to get healthier before UNC, but overall the Hoos did a decent job against a Tribe ground attack that has been productive this season.

Grade: B+

Special Teams: It was a dubious start for the units on Saturday, with an error made on the opening kickoff, as up-man Josh Rawlings fair caught a kick caught by Washington, forcing the Hoos to take their opening drive from the catch point, their own 15-yard line. William & Mary continued to test UVa’s return group with short kickoffs, including one aimed at an offensive lineman, but UVa didn’t make any more errors on those returns. Suderian Harrison returned three punts for a total of 10 yards, with one bad return that went backwards, and one decent eight-yard return.

Will Bettridge was perfect once again, hitting his three PATs and going 2-for-2 on field goals with another make that was wiped out by a Tribe penalty late in the game. He hit from 37 and 45, the latter of which was the second-longest make of his career, and longest of the season.

The most bizarre special teams issue on Saturday was the poor punting of Daniel Sparks, which is certainly an outlier performance for an All-ACC caliber specialist. He had two punts for 37 yards total; one went for 32 which is short for him and the other for just five, setting up the Tribe to potentially take the lead before half. It’s unclear whether that ball was tipped, shanked, or hit a helmet, but regardless it was extremely out of character for one of UVa’s most consistent players. We’ll chalk that one up as an outlier performance for now, and we’ll bet that he’ll be back on track in the next game.

Special teams had the rocky start on the first play of the game with a mental error, and had the bad punt late in the first half, but had a quiet game overall. Sparks only had to punt twice and UVa only fielded four kicks in the game, so there wasn’t a ton for them to do. For a special teams group that has had some issues, a quiet game is quite alright for the time being.

Grade: C

Coaching Staff: UVa won the game, and in this section, we don’t have a lot of complaints about the coaching effort. Frankly, there were several situations throughout the game that I feel the staff handled well. They went for it on 4th down in situations that they’ve punted away in the past, and against an FCS opponent perhaps the decision to be aggressive was a bit easier. It was also smart to use Grady Brosterhaus on the “tush push” sneak play on 4th and short, given his size and Muskett’s health status. Maybe it looks like a terrible decision if it doesn’t work out, but that play is probably more likely to work than any other UVa could call in that scenario.

I also thought the decision to play Brosterhaus on the one play Muskett had to sit out was a good decision made quickly. The staff was ready to put Anthony Colandrea in the game, but when Muskett came out of the injury tent and was ready to go back in, the staff realized they’d be burning Colandrea’s redshirt for just one play if he trotted out there. It helps too that Brosterhaus had just been in the game a few plays earlier, and was ready to get back out there. Last year we criticized how the staff handled Jay Woolfolk’s redshirt situation, playing him sparingly as a decoy and then having to protect his redshirt season late in the year because of it, when they could’ve benched Brennan Armstrong for him against Pitt, for example. Perhaps there was a lesson learned from that situation.

Another good coaching moment was the decision to get aggressive and go for points from their own 21 with less than a minute to play, and it paid off. The situation on the touchdown was well managed, too, with the staff knowing they didn’t have a timeout and just 11 seconds to go, so any play ending in bounds would end the half. They decided to take a shot to the end zone and if it failed, they would kick a field goal, but for the second week in a row, Fields came down with a touchdown in the final seconds of the half.

The staff also made some decisions with the offensive line early in the game, after not liking what they were seeing from the starting five. We’ll see if those changes stick in the weeks to come or if they revert back to their initial group, but regardless, it was good to see them try to do something different after some blocking issues early in the game.

UVa also cut down on penalties this week, which helped the team keep a handle this game. The Hoos cut penalties down from 11 last week to five for 41 yards this week, with only one foul in the second half. That could have been a very costly mistake though, as the holding call (McKale Boley) in the third quarter wiped out a touchdown, and Muskett threw an interception on the next play.

There are certainly plenty of things for the staff to clean up and improve on in the second half of the season after the bye. And perhaps the organization looked a bit cleaner on Saturday because William & Mary didn’t really threaten too much after taking an early lead. Regardless, a win is a win, and this staff certainly needed one to go their way.

Grade: B+