Take Two: Breaking down UVa's disappointing loss to the Dukes

The Result:. After an hour and 12 minute weather delay, JMU stormed back from a two-score deficit to neat the Hoos 36-35 at Scott Stadium. The comeback ruined UVa’s home opener, played in front of the biggest home crowd since the 2019 win over Florida State (56,508). The loss dropped Virginia to 0-2, its worst start since 2016.

The Turning Point: Blame it on the rain, I guess. It’s not the best excuse, but the game did seem to flip on the weather delay. JMU took over when the game restarted, marched down for a touchdown, got a stop, and marched down for the winning score with less than a minute to go. Prior to that, UVa had outscored the Dukes 35-10 after a 14-0 JMU start.

The Stat That Tells the Story: UVa’s defense gave up 11 big plays on Saturday (rushes of 10+ and passes of 15+ yards), with five of them coming during JMU’s pair of eight-play, 80-yard scoring drives in the fourth quarter.

Wahoo of the Week: It has to be Anthony Colandrea, who played a great game in his first career start in place of the injured Tony Muskett. Colandrea was 11-for-12 at halftime and finished the game with 377 yards and two touchdowns and a QB rating of 216.4. We’d also like to acknowledge Mike Hollins here, who scored a pair of TDs on what was an extremely emotional opener on UVa Strong Day.

Offense: Vegas had UVa as a touchdown underdog going into Saturday’s game, and set the over/under for total points in the game set at around 40 points. The Hoos almost beat that number by themselves and still lost.

They had their best offensive output of the Tony Elliott era despite playing with a backup quarterback. The Cavaliers had a bit of a slow start but finished with 395 total yards and 35 points, the most in a game under this staff.

The offense as a group did a few things far better than they typically have, mostly centered around the passing game. In addition to his yardage and TDs, Colandrea was an efficient 20-of-26 on the day. The UVa passing offense hit a lot of big plays, with seven total explosive pass plays including three of 60 yards or more. All three were either touchdowns or led to touchdowns.

We can’t overstate how impressive Colandrea was on Saturday, especially given the circumstances. He seems to have a good understanding of the offense, plays confident football, and delivered some really high-level throws. He had the one interception on a wheel route to Malik Washington where he missed the safety rotating over, which was a bit costly, but Colandrea and his receivers carried the team on Saturday regardless.

UVa’ also went 3-for-3 in the red zone with three touchdowns, which was a great sign. That’s an area that the team struggled with a year ago, and while it’s a small sample size perhaps with a mix of different running backs and receiver options the Cavaliers can do a better job finishing drives this year.

The running game didn’t really get going in the open field but did do a good job finishing drives in the red zone, with three short rushing touchdowns, two from Hollins and one from Kobe Pace. Still, UVa rushed for just 43 yards if you remove the sack yards lost, at 1.4 yards per carry. That’s not going to get it done against anyone, and despite the fact that JMU is a quality opponent, UVa shouldn’t be physically overmatched by a program in its second year in the FBS. The running game showed promise in the second half of the Tennessee game, so we may not yet know if they simply won’t be able to run the ball this year or if JMU just did a great job selling out to stop the run, which in part led to all of the big plays in the passing game.

The offensive line was up-and-down again on Saturday. We mentioned the issues in the run game, which was a major issue, but Colandrea was also able to hit some deep shots because his pass protection held up pretty well on those plays. UVa allowed four sacks on Saturday, including a costly one on the final drive of the game. The coaching staff needs to find five guys who can protect their quarterback and give them a chance, especially if the run blocking is going to be suspect, too.

UVa could also use some work on 3rd downs, though the Wahoos were better on Saturday than they were last week. The went 4-for-13 on 3rd down (30. percent), and had an average distance to go over 9.4, versus 6.7 yards for JMU. UVa went 2-of-6 on 3rd and longs, and missed its final five conversion attempts of the game.

Finally, penalties held the offense back at times, too. UVa had four for 30 yards against the Dukes after having just one penalty for five yards against Tenenese. The Hoos were called for holding three times, with one declined; the two accepted belonged to guard Brian Stevens, who was the offensive player of the week last week.

There were some negative things to clean up, and plenty of work to do before the next game, but the offense turned in a very good performance on Saturday given the circumstances. Whenever the offense scores 35 points on its own, the team should win the game. And even if there are areas that didn’t produce a lot of success, when a team gets to 35 points, it’s hard to give them a grade below the A line.

Grade: A-

Defense: Last week, we gave UVa’s defense a pass for the 49 points allowed to a very talented Tennessee team. This week, not so much.

Right off the bat, it’s worth mentioning that the defense was without starters Josh Ahern and Lex Long, both of whom were out due to concussion protocols. Still, the defense continues to lack negative plays to get off the field, and as a result, JMU’s offense was able to move the ball relatively easily throughout the day.

Madison finished the game with the exact same number of yards that UVa had, 395. The Dukes threw for 228 and ran for 167, controlling the line of scrimmage in the process. UVa’s defense forced six TFL’s after having just one last week, which is an improvement, but those were all short losses, totaling 12 negative yards. JMU, on the other hand, created 50 negative yards on 10 TFLs. UVa finished the game with just one sack and have just two through two games.

The defense also has yet to force a turnover in two contests. The offense has played very clean football from a turnover perspective, with just one giveaway, and the defense has not been able to create game-changing plays to help them out. As a result of the lack of pressure and takeaways, opposing quarterbacks are able to sit in the pocket and hit open receivers for easy completions. JMU didn’t have many completions on Saturday that were contested plays where its guy just made a play; instead the Dukes had players open because the coverage on the back end couldn’t hold up, given the lack of pressure created.

UVa got gashed on the ground too, allowing the Dukes to average 4.9 yards per carry. Late in the game after the weather delay, JMU rushed for 63 yards and a walk-in touchdown along their comeback. That’s two weeks in a row now where UVa’s front, supposedly the strength of the team, got beat up front and allowed yards far too easily to opponents. They’ve faced two quality teams, yes, but eventually that strength needs to shine through.

The red zone defense wasn’t very good, either. They allowed JMU to score on all of its red zone trips (not counting the kneel down at the end of the game), with three touchdowns and one field goal allowed. Kudos to the defense for getting both two-point conversion stops, but the Dukes had way too much success near the goal line on Saturday.

The defense could be described as risk-averse and bend-but-don’t-break, but it keeps breaking once it’s bent. Tennessee scored seven touchdowns on seven red-zone trips last week. This week, JMU scored three on four trips, and put up points on all trips. To make matters worse, two of those scores were breakdowns by the defense, with a trick play not covered correctly on the game’s opening drive and a missed assignment leading to a wide-open man for the game-winning touchdown pass.

So this season, UVa’s red zone defense, which could be the difference between winning and losing considering how they don’t get off the field with turnovers or sacks, has allowed 10 touchdowns and a field goal, or 72 of a possible 77 points, to opponents inside the 20.

If UVa is going to accomplish anything of note this season, the defense has to play a lot better and fast. Perhaps that’s playing different players, or getting a bit more aggressive with blitzes to help a struggling secondary, but changes have to be made.

DC John Rudzinski got a lot of credit that he and his staff deserved for turning the defense around last season, and now his job will be to figure out how to make this group successful after a similar blueprint to the one from 2022 hasn’t really worked at all. The defense did have a nice stretch in the game from the end of the first half into the second half, where it allowed just 67 yards on seven drives, and forced punts, got a 4th-down stop, and took the game into halftime on one drive. Perhaps the coaching staff can find a way to capture whatever went right in that sequence and get back to that in the weeks to come.

We have to give them a bad grade for Saturday because they didn’t really help the team’s effort at all, just as the offense didn’t help the defense much last year and received the same consideration. They couldn’t force a turnover, didn’t really get after the quarterback, didn’t get a fourth-quarter stop when they needed one, and got hit with three 15-yard penalties in the fourth quarter. They didn’t start the game well, giving up an opening-drive score, and didn’t finish well, surrendering a two-score lead in the fourth quarter. .

There were issues with tackling, coverage, and assignments, and it all has to improve big time, going forward.

Grade: D-

Special Teams: Welp.

Special teams allowed a touchdown on a blocked punt in a game that UVa lost by one point. That blocked punt was a catastrophe for the unit on the field, with way too many white jerseys getting to Daniel Sparks. Enough in fact that one player was able to block the punt while a few of his teammates got to fight over which one recovered the ball for a touchdown. On review, it seems that UVa didn’t adjust to an overloaded block play from the Dukes, which was well designed and worked relatively easily.

Other than that, there weren’t many issues to discuss. Sparks averaged a whopping 46.8 yards per punt including a nice 69-yard bomb that went into the end zone for a touchback. There was one missed opportunity right before the weather delay, when UVa could have pinned JMU deep in its own territory, but the ball got into the end zone for a touchback. Ethan Davies fielded a pair of punts, though he did muff one and recover it, to avoid another crisis. UVa had just one kick return attempt, an 18 yarder by Washington on a short kick.

UVa’s return units struggled against Tennessee but did a better job bottling up James Madison. The Dukes had two kick returns of 14 yards each, and 26 return yards on three punts.

Kicker Will Bettridge was a perfect five-for-five on PATs and didn’t attempt a field goal.

So at best, the special teams units got out of the way and did their jobs. At worst, they allowed points to the opponent in what proved to be a coin flip of a game. UVa’s special teams continue to be not-so special since this coaching staff arrived last year. And if special teams have a net negative point total for the day, they failed.

Grade: F

Coaching Staff: This was a difficult grade to hand out in a lot of games last season, because one side of the ball played well and the other side didn’t. We have the same dilemma again today, with a role reversal where the offense exceeded expectations, the defense was underwhelming, and special teams gave up a touchdown.

We’ll start with the positive. UVa’s offense put together an impressive performance against a JMU defense that is likely pretty good. The offensive staff, particularly Taylor Lamb and Des Kitchings, deserve credit for getting Colandrea ready for his first career start in just his second career game, and putting him in a position to be successful. They figured out a way to create plays down the field, played to their quarterback’s strengths, and inspired a bit of faith that the offense could be headed in the right direction.

And now, for the not-so-good. The defense’s issues have been discussed, and it’s disappointing that UVa allowed JMU QB Jordan McCloud, a transfer on his third school after pretty mediocre results at the first two stops, to look so comfortable in the pocket. The coaching issues here are that there were so many missed tackles and assignments, something that didn’t seem to happen a lot last year when the defense exceeded expectations. It seems that UVa is missing cornerbacks Anthony Johnson and Fentrell Cypress, along with linebacker Nick Jackson, quite a bit this season. The defense didn’t really bring it on Saturday and it was costly.

Special teams continue to be a problem, and it seems like there are different issues week to week. This time the blocked punt was a massive error, but last week they couldn’t cover in the return game, and missed a short field goal. What will it be this week at Maryland?

After playing such a clean game from a penalty perspective last week, UVa finished with 80 penalty yards on eight flags. The offensive penalties were brutal and killed off some drives and the defense’s errors all came down the stretch, including a pass interference call on an incomplete pass on 3rd and 5, which allowed the Dukes to get a big fourth-quarter score.

It seemed that the game really flipped on the weather delay, and one wonders what would have happened if the game hadn’t been stopped. UVa had an 11-point lead and a lot of momentum, and JMU coach Curt Cignetti admitted after the game that his team was pretty tired and used the break to make some changes and rest up before coming out and winning the game. UVa seemingly did the opposite, coming out flat and almost looked like a team prepared to give up points.

It’s hard to put that totally on the coaching staff, and it’s worth remembering that UVa was a touchdown underdog and lost a toss-up game. The problem is that the Hoos were a touchdown underdog in the first place, but that’s a larger issue that we can’t tackle in a game recap.

UVa played with a lot of emotion on Saturday and didn’t quite play clean enough to win. Too many penalties, not enough plays on defense, critical penalties on offense, and a special teams gaff. UVa will need to play a cleaner game next week at Maryland with such a small margin for error.

Grade: C-