The Result: Virginia held a touchdown lead in the second quarter, but ultimately didn’t have enough in the tank to hang with #10 Clemson, losing 48-31 on the road Saturday. The loss drops the Hoos to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in ACC play heading into a pivotal game with North Carolina before their final off week of the season.

The Turning Point: Clemson tied the game 10-10 in the second quarter after UVa briefly led, and Virginia got the ball back with 7:38 left in the first half. Anthony Colandrea hit Chris Tyree for what would’ve been a first down at the UVa 35, but the play got called back for holding, and ended up being 2nd and 18. On that play, Colandrea couldn’t handle the snap, and fell on the ball for a six-yard loss. UVa ended up punting, and Clemson got the ball and went down and scored, taking a 17-10 lead into the half. It was all Tigers from there.

The Stat That Tells the Story: Clemson was 9-for-15 on 3rd downs and 2-for-2 on 4th downs, negating some quality play from UVa on 1st and 2nd down at times. UVa’s defense could be described as bend, but don’t break, and against a team as good as Clemson, it can be difficult to get off the field on 3rd and long, when you otherwise would against less-talented teams.

Wahoo of the Week: We’re going with Kam Robinson, who recorded eight tackles including seven solo stops, and had the interception in the first quarter that allowed UVa to take a 10-3 lead a few plays later.

Offense:

It was always going to be an uphill climb for the Hoos against Clemson, and on Saturday, the offense wasn’t able to do all the things they’d typically want to. UVa had just 128 yards of offense at the half, and ended up with decent totals, but some of that was 4th quarter heroics when the game was all but over. Virginia finished the game with 346 yards of offense, with 278 through the air and 68 on the ground.

The lack of rushing yards speaks to how the Tigers won the line of scrimmage. Clemson bottled up the run pretty well, holding UVa to 2.3 yards per carry. They also got after Colandrea plenty, creating four sacks and six TFLs in the win. UVa was just 5-for-13 on third down, and had finished 3-for-3 in the red zone with two touchdowns and one field goal, though one of those touchdowns came from Tony Muskett late the game, against some backup defenders.

Colandrea was under pressure for a lot of the game on Saturday, but had a competent performance on the day nonetheless. Colandrea certainly has a few throws he’d want back, but he made some good throws and had a pair of touchdown passes in the win. For the fourth game in a row, Colandrea didn’t throw an interception; he did have a fumble under duress, the first turnover for the Hoos since the loss to Maryland on September 14th.

Malachi Fields was held in check for most of the day, but did come up with a 45-yard touchdown grab in the fourth quarter. Trell Harris was out again, so UVa leaned on other guys, including Chris Tyree, who returned from injury with a team-high four catches for 23 yards. Dak Twitty, Ethan Davies and Sackett Wood all caught unlikely touchdowns in the win, too. On the ground, former Clemson Tiger Kobe Pace had a pretty quiet day, with 35 yards on 10 totes. He did have a two-point conversion catch late in the game, however. Xavier Brown had a few nice runs, but finished with just 32 yards on five carries.

Overall, this game went about as expected for the offense. It’s disappointing to lose, but Clemson has talent that UVa shouldn’t see in any other game this year; Virginia still got to 30+ points with three fourth quarter scores, but it wasn’t enough in a game where they had to be nearly perfect to have a legitimate chance to win.

Grade: C

Defense:

Like the offense, UVa’s defense was up against it on Saturday. Clemson has a good quarterback behind a physical offensive line, and skill players all over the field. In Saturday’s loss UVa got to see that talent up close. Clemson racked up 539 yards of offense, and went from down 10-3 to up 38-10 in 26 minutes of game time. Clemson’s pass game was efficient and eventually started hitting big plays, ending the day with 394 yards through the air. The ground game was working too, and finished with 194 yards, on 5.1 yards per rush.

Virginia did finish even in turnovers because of Robinson’s interception, a big play that kept the Hoos in the game into the second half, but didn’t prove to be enough. After the pick, Clemson went TD, TD, Punt, Halftime, TD, TD, TD, Field Goal. Clemson had 234 pass yards on 9 big plays (15+ yards), including a pair of their touchdowns. We mentioned the success the Tigers had on third and fourth down; many of those plays were backbreakers after UVa’s defense held for a play or two, but couldn’t get enough pressure to get off the field. Credit to Clemson QB Cade Klubnik, who played well after the pick, and made a few third-down-conversions happen by fighting off pressure and extending plays. One bright spot for UVa was in the red zone. They weren’t perfect there, but did hold Clemson to a pair of field goals on red zone trips, including one on Clemson’s first drive of the game.

UVa was without starting linebacker James Jackson, and Trey McDonald played in his place. McDonald got exposed on a couple of plays, but still had a solid day and led the team in tackles with 11. Robinson was UVa’s best defender on the day, with eight tackles and the INT; he’s one player that is certainly talented enough to hang with competition like Virginia saw on Saturday. Jonas Sanker was solid as always with eights tops, and Corey Thomas recorded seven tackles of his own.

There isn’t a ton more to say. UVa was second best on the day in all phases, as pretty much everyone expected going into the contest. How the defense rallies against a UNC team that has struggled of late will be much more critical to how their season turns out than what happened in Death Valley on Saturday.

Grade: C-

Special Teams:

It didn’t lead to a win, but UVa’s special teams were quite competent on Saturday. Daniel Sparks did a good job punting the ball, averaging 45.3 yards per kick, and his coverage units were good, too. Sparks also had a couple decent onside kick attempts, though Clemson ended up recovering both anyway. Sparks also kept all kickoffs in bounds and one short kick gave Clemson some trouble after a bobbled catch. Will Bettridge made his lone field goal attempt from in close, and was perfect on PATs. UVa didn’t have any punt returns, and their lone disappointment on special teams all day was a 17-yard kick return from Noah Vaughn that should have been fair caught. Still, given the talent on the other side of the ball, UVa not making a major special-teams blunder would’ve been inconceivable a year ago, and speaks to some progress that has taken place.

Grade: A

Coaching Staff:

Virginia was a big underdog on Saturday, and unlike last year’s shock win at UNC, the Hoos weren’t able to pull it off this weekend. It’s hard to evaluate coaching in a game like this, but there wasn’t a ton to argue with on Saturday. There were a few play calls on offense that backfired; some of that might be wrong call at the wrong time, some might just be getting out-executed by a better opponent. UVa did have to settle for three on their first red zone trip, which was frustrating. They rallied with a red zone touchdown pass on the next drive, however. Because the game was in hand by midway through the third quarter, there weren’t a lot of high-leverage situations down the stretch where decision making can be questioned.

UVa did have some rough penalties on Saturday, and Ben Smiley got ejected late, but of the two teams, UVa was the cleaner, with three less flags and 36 less penalty yards than their counterparts. A lot was made of Tony Elliott’s return to Clemson and matchup with protege Dabo Swinney, but ultimately this game was decided by the players on the field, not schemes.

Grade: C