The Result: Virginia stormed back to beat Boston College 24-14 on Saturday afternoon, erasing a 14-point deficit and scoring 18 points in the fourth quarter for a critical home victory. The win moves UVa to 4-1 on the season and 2-0 in ACC play, the first time UVa held either of those records since the 2019 season.

The Turning Point: UVa had already gathered momentum by this point, but the most-critical moment in the game came on Chico Bennett’s interception at the line of scrimmage, with 11:11 remaining, and the Eagles hanging on to a 14-9 lead. Two plays after that interception, UVa’s offense found the end zone for the first and only time, and four minutes later, the Hoos were up two scores after a defensive score.

The Stat That Tells the Story: This one is pretty straightforward: UVa won the turnover battle 3-0, with all three takeaways coming in the fourth quarter. 15 of UVa’s 24 points were scored off of those takeaways.

Wahoo of the Week: It was a tough call this week, but we’ll go with Jonas Sanker, who recorded six tackles, including four solo, but also had the 40-yard fumble recovery touchdown that gave the Hoos a two-score lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. Sanker’s score was UVa’s first fumble recovery touchdown since Eli Hanback did it against Virginia Tech in 2019.

Offense: It became pretty obvious an hour or so before kickoff that UVa’s offense might be in for some struggles. The Hoos were already playing against a good BC defense, but to make matters worse, they had to do it without two starting receivers, Trell Harris and Chris Tyree. Suderian Harrison missed the game, as well. In the first half, BC focused on taking away Malachi Fields, and it led to some struggles in the passing game, and a bunch of punts.

Eventually though, UVa made some adjustments and were able to put together some drives. After punting on their first three drives of the game, Virginia didn’t have to punt again. They scored field goals on two consecutive drives and then had a turnover on downs at the BC 2, then a field goal, a touchdown, a missed field goal and a kneel down to end the game.

Virginia’s offense ended up out-gaining the Eagles after a slow start, 339-319. Anthony Colandrea didn’t have his best game, but was competent and moved the chains after the slow start. Colandrea finished 15-of-26 on the day for 179 yards and one passing touchdowns, and importantly, no turnovers. With all of the aforementioned receiver injuries, UVa got solid performances from the pass catchers asked to step up. JR Wilson made his season debut with four catches and 44 yards; Dre Greene moved into the starting lineup and caught four for 25, and caught a two-point conversion attempt in the fourth quarter. Tyler Neville had just two catches, but both were critical, going for 36 yards and two first downs. Fields was a target for the BC defense but still had the big 28-yard touchdown catch and led the Hoos in receiving yards with 63. He also threw a pass on a trick play for 29 yards.

Virginia did try to get the ground game going, and had mixed results. Virginia carried 37 times for 126 yards, led by a sneaky-good game from Kobe Pace, who finished with 83 yards on 19 carries. Xavier Brown got just five carries, but averaged 4.4 a pop. Like the rest of the offense, the ground game wasn’t great early, but were pretty efficient down the stretch when it mattered most.

Virginia’s offensive line deserves a lot of credit for the win. They did a decent job run blocking, and a great job pass protecting, given the circumstances. Boston College defensive end Donovan Ezeiraku entered the weekend leading the nation in sacks, and though he did get one on the day, he didn’t really wreak havoc and Colandrea stayed upright.

Third downs and red zone efficiency has been a struggle for UVa throughout the season. On Saturday, UVa’s third-down performance was okay, going 7-for-16. UVa started 0-for-3 on third downs, UVa had a stretch of four straight conversions and five of six into the second half; their final two failed attempts on third down were in clock-killing scenarios, including a kneel down, so you could say UVa was about 50% on the day. The red zone was the big problem in this one. UVa technically went 3-for-5 in the red zone, with the kneel down at the end counting against them statistically. But those three scores were all field goals, and then UVa failed on 4th and Goal from the BC 2 in the 3rd quarter, down six points. That failed 4th down play was the only time UVa got inside the 5 yard line in the game, and only two of their possessions got inside the 10. Perhaps the injuries to key players in the passing game held UVa back in the red area, but there’s obviously more work to be done here, particularly running the football near the goal line.

It was far from a great day for the offense, who scored just one touchdown in the win. Settling for field goals in the red zone certainly held the offense back, but they moved the ball pretty well over the final three quarters despite some key injuries, and didn’t turn the ball over. A win is a win, though, so we can’t be terribly harsh on the group given the circumstances.

Grade: C

Defense: UVa’s defense won this game for the Hoos-simple as that. BC’s first drive of the day was pretty ominous. The Eagles gained yards on all eight plays and capped the drive with a seven-yard passing touchdown. BC would eventually make it 14-0 on a scoring drive early in the second quarter, and coupled with the offense’s early struggles, it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for the Hoos.

Ultimately it was a long day for BC’s offense, because UVa’s defense shut them down over the final 43:08 of game time. BC’s final eight drives went like this: Punt, Punt, Punt, INT, Fumble, Turnover on Downs, INT. After going for 158 yards on their two early scoring drive, with a three-and-out sandwiched in between, BC ran 38 plays for 141 yards. BC only crossed midfield on one drive, punting from the UVa 38 yard line late in the 2nd quarter.

Here’s a stat that really tells the story. BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who has been quite good this season, started the game on fire, going 11-for-11 for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Pretty efficient. After that though? Castellanos was 11-for-19 for 116 yards and two interceptions. He only completed one pass longer than 14 yards after BC went up 14-0, and UVa kept him contained in the pocket, allowing just nine rush yards on eight attempts, when removing sack yards.

Virginia’s defense did the things that we needed to see more of. They created three takeaways down the stretch, and turned one of them into a touchdown themselves, on Sanker’s return. They bottled up BC’s potent run game, allowing just 79 rush yards, and 2.2 yards per carry. BC’s play calling wasn’t patient when the ground game didn’t produce and that probably played into UVa’s hands. Virginia had more sacks than BC’s formidable front had, with three total, recorded by Kam Robinson, James Jackson and Kam Butler.

UVa did a good job up front, and after a rough start, the pass defense played better. Starting corner Kempton Shine had to come out of the game with an injury, and was replaced by fellow transfer Kendren Smith. The former Penn Quaker ended up making a bunch of plays, with five tackles including a TFL, one pass break-up and the game-sealing interception in the fourth quarter. Hopefully Shine will be good to go moving forward, but it was nice to see success from one of Virginia’s depth options in the secondary.

If you turned Saturday’s game on midway through the second quarter and watched the rest of the game, you would’ve seen one of the best defensive efforts from Virginia in recent memory. The group took the ball away three times, had three sacks, got a bunch of stops late, and didn’t record a single penalty in the win. A job well done for John Rudzinski’s group, and on a day where the offense needed some help, the defense picked them up.

Grade: A

Special Teams: Virginia’s special teams weren’t perfect on Saturday, but there were no critical mistakes that proved costly. Daniel Sparks had a kickoff out of bounds in the second quarter, which has been a trend throughout the season. All of his other kickoffs were good though, which is another trend we’ve seen, after he kicks one out of bounds. Sparks is in a bit of a tough spot, as kickoffs aren’t exactly his forte, but hopefully he’ll avoid those kickoffs out of bounds going forward. Sparks had a good day punting the ball, but wasn’t called upon after the first three drives for the UVa offense ended in punts.

Will Bettridge hit his only PAT try, and was 3-for-4 on field goals, hitting from 35, 33 and 27 and missing a would-be career long from 47 late in the game. Bettridge provided all of the scoring for most of the game, and his three makes, particularly the one to close the first half, helped keep UVa in the contest.

There wasn’t much to report in the return game. Ethan Davies had one punt return for 13 yards, playing in place of Antonio Clary. BC kicked the ball off short and UVa had trouble fielding the first one, but cleaned it up on the subsequent attempt. UVa’s kick return unit didn’t get much work down the stretch because the Eagles couldn’t score any points, so I’m sure the returners appreciated the rest.

Overall special teams were mostly fine with a play or two that could have been better. Not much to complain about.

Grade: A

Coaching Staff: For the second time this season, UVa has rallied from two scores down to win against an ACC opponent. Nobody wants to spot an opponent a two-score lead, but the determination to keep going is admirable, and has shown up this season. This staff is now 3-0 at UVa coming off a bye week; all three wins came against ACC opponents. Virginia sits at 4-1 and 2-0 in ACC play, and already have more wins than they had last year, and have matched their ACC win total. Picked 16th in the ACC, UVa probably already has as many wins, or perhaps more, than many expected.

Kudos to the defensive staff for making adjustments in game and bottling up BC’s offense. The Eagles don’t have the best offense the Hoos will play this year, but they’re certainly a competent group with Castellanos healthy. UVa took away the run game and Castellanos wasn’t able to beat them through the air, and it felt like he was uncomfortable with what he was seeing as the game progressed.

The offensive staff was in a bit of a tough spot in this one, given the injury situation at receiver, which might have caused them to get a little cute with the play calling early. It’s worth noting, too, that BC has one of the best defenses UVa will play this season, and UVa is far from the only team that will struggle to score touchdowns against them this year. UVa is just the second BC opponent to score 21+ this year; the other is #9 Missouri (27 points).

Any decisions that could be quibbled with can be canceled out by the result itself. Going for it on 4th and Goal from the 2 felt like the right call, down by 8 late in the 3rd quarter, it felt like that was a golden opportunity to tie the game. The play didn’t work though, and as stated above, the red zone offense is going to continue to be a focus going forward. UVa did get a little conservative on their drive up 24-14, forcing the long field goal attempt after three run plays. It didn’t end up costing them, though, and up two scores it’s more acceptable to be conservative in those situations than it would be up a field goal, say.

Maybe it’s the players, maybe it’s a credit to the staff, but UVa has continued to battle back this season and on Saturday, turned what felt like a sure loss into a double-digit win. UVa was close in a lot of games last year, and this season, they’ve had two games where they’ve thoroughly outplayed a conference opponent down the stretch and came out on top. The schedule doesn’t provide much cover going forward, but the team certainly has to believe they can pull out close games now after having such an issue with that a year ago.

Grade: A-