Take Two: Revisiting the keys and grading the win over W&M

The Result: Virginia rolled to a season-opening 43-0 win over William & Mary on Saturday night. The win was UVa’s first shutout win since beating South Carolina 28-0 in the 2018 Belk Bowl and its first home shutout win since a 49-0 rout of VMI in 2013.

The Turning Point: Late in the second quarter, the Hoos led 10-0 and the Tribe put together their best drive of the game. But W&M picked up a 15-yard penalty after their 3rd-down play, leading to a missed field goal. UVa capitalized, driving 75 yards in nine plays, capped by a Ra’Shaun Henry 5-yard TD grab in the back of the end zone. The score put Virginia up 17-0 just before half and all but ended the game.

The Stat That Tells the Story: UVa out-gained William & Mary 545-183 in Saturday’s win, and out-gained the Tribe 339-89 through the air. These discrepancies underscore the vast gap between the two teams in UVa’s season opener.

Wahoo of the Week: It’s Brennan Armstrong, who had a relatively quiet yet strong statistical performance. The junior QB threw for 339 yards and a pair of touchdowns while rushing for two more scores, despite finishing the game with zero rushing yards. Armstrong is the first college QB to throw for 300+ yards with two passing TDs and two rushing TDs in a season opener since...Keytaon Thompson did it at Mississippi State in 2018.

24+ Points?: YES (43)

+1 Turnover Margin?: NO (EVEN)

+5 Average Starting Field Position?: YES (+7)

1) Take care of the football

Virginia did the job in this regard. The Cavaliers didn’t turn the ball over in Saturday’s win, which helped them preserve their shutout. The offense did fail on 4th down twice, which is a different type of turnover. But the Wahoos played clean throughout the game, despite an uneven start.

Grade: A-

2) Get after the QB

The pass rush wasn’t really on display in Saturday’s win but it’s fair to say UVa likely played a very vanilla scheme. William & Mary started a true freshman backup quarterback and Virginia’s coaches seemed happy to play the Tribe straight up and not get too aggressive. As a result, the Hoos finished with just one sack, though they did record seven tackles for loss. We will have a better evaluation of UVa’s pass rush after they play another game or two, when they really pull out all the stops.

Grade: C

Offense: Saturday’s game was one of the more strange games I’ve seen from Robert Anae from a play calling standpoint. While the defense didn’t really seem to be too aggressive, the offense seemed to be trying out plays they drew up in the dirt, at least early in the game. And for a while, it wasn’t really working. UVa’s first four drives resulted in just one score, a field goal that was set up by a long punt return. UVa picked up 68 yards on those first four possessions, with no 1st downs on three of them. Virginia got backup QBs Jacob Rodriguez and Ira Armstead involved early, and used all sorts of alignments, to varying degrees of effectiveness.

Once UVa played the Tribe more traditionally, things started to fall into place. We already mentioned Armstrong’s performance, and the junior signal caller had a solid day through the air despite a few passes that were off the mark, including a couple potential touchdown throws deep. Virginia seems to have a good amount of depth and talent at both wide receiver, where Dontayvion Wicks, Ra’Shaun Henry, and Demick Starling all had big moments. Jelani Woods departed early with an injury, so we’ll have to wait and see what he brings to the offense. UVa didn’t use the running backs much until the second half, but Wayne Taulapapa, Devin Darrington, Ronnie Walker, and Mike Hollins all factored in at some point. The offensive line had a solid game, despite losing out in a few short-yardage situations early in the game. The Wahoos kept the game penalty free as well for the most part, with just two flags on the day.

We will reserve judgement on what the offense was doing schematically until we see another game from this group. It’s very possible that Anae was simply trying things out in a game they were likely to win, and it will be interesting to see if plays like the ones they ran for Rodriguez will stick, or if they were just misdirection or experimentation.

Grade: B

Defense: UVa pitched a shutout on Saturday, and frankly, that’s probably what the Wahoos should have done given the circumstances. William & Mary started the game without its starting QB or RB and had to go with a freshman in his first collegiate game under center. The Tribe didn’t seem interested in taking many chances with their young quarterback, and for most of the day looked like a team that just wanted to get out of Charlottesville healthy.

Still, it was a solid effort from UVa’s defense, as it forced eight W&M punts on 12 drives. The D also recorded a safety, though they didn’t have a turnover on the day. We’ve already mentioned the lack of a pass rush but the secondary played a solid game against an overmatched Tribe team. Nick Jackson picked up where he left off last year, recording 12 tackles in the win. Noah Taylor had a strong game as well, recording 1.5 tackles for loss.

As expected, UVa rolled out in a 3-3-5 look on Saturday, which looks to be their primary defense for the season. One of the bigger surprises came when UVa started Fentrell Cypress and Anthony Johnson at corner, with Nick Grant playing more in a safety role. Johnson was expected to play a big role but Cypress’ inclusion was a bit of a surprise.

We’ll have a much better sense of where UVa’s defense is next week when they play a more competent Power 5 opponent, but for this week, job well done for the Cavaliers in a shutout win.

Grade: A

Special Teams: UVa was solid on Saturday in a winning effort. The Cavaliers broke in a new kicker and punter, and both looked good in the blowout victory. Justin Duenkel made field goals of 25 and 39 yards, along with going perfect on extra points. He did have one kickoff that went out of bounds in the second half but other than that, it was a promising debut for the new starting kicker. Florida transfer Jacob Finn looks to have a big leg at punter and averaged 45 yards per punt on two attempts.

Virginia’s return game looked strong, despite having a kickoff return touchdown called back for a penalty. Hollins took that kick to the house to start the second half after bobbling the catch, and Billy Kemp had a big punt return early in the game. Kemp finished the game with 67 punt return yards, helping the Hoos win the field position battle.

Finally, UVa recorded a blocked field goal, with Grant coming off the edge to keep the Tribe off the scoreboard in the third quarter.

Virginia’s special teams unit certainly helped put the Cavaliers over the top on Saturday, and had a strong 2021 season debut.

Grade: A-

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