Brennan Armstrong described himself as feeling empty as he stood with Virginia quarterbacks coach Jason Beck on the sideline waiting for Miami’s game-winning field goal attempt.
The final play was completely out of the UVa quarterback’s hands. With the Wahoos leading by two, the 33-yard kick from freshman kicker Andres Borregales would decide the game. There were three possible outcomes, Armstrong rationalized, and while the most likely finish was a walk-off winner for the Hurricanes, the kick could always either miss the mark or get blocked by the Hoos.
“I’m either gonna go crazy on two of those or I’m not gonna go crazy on one of those,” a relieved Armstrong told reporters in the aftermath of UVa’s 30-28 victory Thursday night at Hard Rock Stadium. “We got one of them. It was a great feeling.”
“Seeing the ball go up and hit the post, it was crazy,” said defensive lineman Mandy Alonso, who was part of the special teams unit on the field attempting to block the kick. “It was honestly surreal for me.”
As the clock expired and the kick doinked off the left upright, Armstrong and his teammates stormed from the UVa sideline to celebrate. The Hoos had escaped Miami with a 30-28 victory. It snapped the program’s five-game losing streak in ACC games on the road, as well as a string of five straight losses against the Hurricanes at Hard Rock.
But more importantly for a UVa team that had been reeling after back-to-back 20-point losses to open ACC play, Thursday’s emotional victory was a much-needed win.
“Back-to-back losses, it eats at a team mentally,” Alonso admitted. “Getting back into the win column, it’s gonna put everyone trending in the right direction, knowing that these hard practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, that they paid off. Coach puts us through hell because it pays off come Saturdays. Or Thursdays, for this case.”
“Oh, yeah. We needed it big time,” agreed Armstrong. “We needed to get back on track if we want to win the Coastal. And I’m happy that we did.”
Through the course of Thursday’s game, the Hoos showed both the positives that helped them get off to a 2-0 start to the season and the negatives that had plagued them against North Carolina and Wake Forest. They played the first 124:15 of the season without trailing, a span that ended early in the first quarter in Chapel Hill. Over those two losses, the Wahoos led for just 2:16 of game time. They spent almost the entire Wake Forest loss playing from behind.
On Thursday, they again never trailed. The offense went 80 yards on 11 plays on its second possession of the game to take an early touchdown lead, then the defense padded that early lead when Alonso blew up a Miami run out of the Canes’ end zone for a safety. On each of Miami’s first three touchdown drives—one in the second quarter and two in the third—the Wahoos responded with points on their ensuing possessions.
Aided by a defense that forced three 3-and-outs before halftime, UVa ran 47 plays and had the ball for 19:35 through the first two quarters, both first-half highs this season. Virginia outgained Miami 245-94 in the first half.
Virginia finished the night with 181 yards and two touchdowns and averaged 5.2 yards per carry on the ground. That rushing total was more than what the Wahoos ran for in the UNC and Wake games combined. Wayne Taulapapa, Mike Hollins and Keytaon Thompson each had a run of at least 25 yards; entering the game, UVa had two runs of 25-plus yards as a team on the season.
But the Hoos were never able to put the game out of reach offensively. UVa had a the ball and a 12-point lead in the third quarter until an interception on a check-down by Armstrong that set Miami up at the Virginia 18-yard-line. The Hurricanes scored three plays later.
Armstrong also overshot open receivers a few times throughout the game. Dontayvion Wicks had some space in the end zone on a third down overthrow early in the third quarter. At the Miami 14-yard-line early in the fourth quarter, Thompson dropped a pass in the end zone on first down and then on third down, Armstrong couldn’t connect Ra’Shaun Henry in the back corner of the end zone on the far side of the field. The Hoos had to settle for field goals on both series.
The quarterback bluntly assessed his performance afterward by saying, “I played like crap tonight.” Armstrong finished with 268 yards passing, ending his run of three straight games with 400 yards and marking the first time he failed to break the 300-yard mark. He completed 56.8 percent of his passes, 10 points below his season percentage entering the game.
Thursday was also the first time Armstrong failed to throw for multiple scores this season. His lone touchdown through the air was the wild play of the year candidate from Wicks in the third quarter.
“I have a lot to improve,” Armstrong said. “A win’s a win, we’re happy about it but we’ve got a lot to work on.”
Defensively, the Hoos had been “working their guts out” in practice, as coach Bronco Mendenhall described it, after giving up a combined 1,172 total yards and 96 points the previous two games. Take away the three fourth-quarter possessions when Wake had the game in hand last Friday, and the Deacs and UNC had combined to score on 12 straight possessions and convert two-thirds of their third down conversions against the UVa defense.
Five of Miami’s seven possessions in the first half on Friday night ended with punts. The two exceptions were Alonso’s safety and a second-quarter touchdown drive. The Hurricanes failed to pick up a first down on three of those seven possessions. They didn’t convert on a third down until Tyler Van Dyke found Mike Harley for a 16-yard touchdown on the possession set up by Armstrong’s pick in the third quarter.
After recording a total of one sack in those two losses, the defense finished with four on Friday night. In front of more than two dozen family members and friends in his native Miami, Alonso had the first two-sack game of his career. UVa’s eight tackles for loss were a season high.
“Definitely trending in the right direction that we want to see,” said Alonso, who was chosen to break the rock in his hometown. “We still have a lot to fix, just like in our assignments and where our gaps are, but just playing hard and having the mindset right that our culture is founded on, it was inspiring to see some guys play out there.”
But as the second half wore on, some familiar issues began to resurface. When Cam’Ron Harris ripped off a 57-yard score right up the middle of the defense, it marked the third straight game that UVa had give up a run of 50-plus yards. Xavier Restrepo was wide open downfield after splitting Virginia’s safeties on a 45-yard pass play, the fourth pass play of 40-plus yards allowed by the Hoos in the last three games. Three plays later, Van Dyke got away from the pass rush and went 24 yards down the sideline for Miami’s fourth touchdown.
After gaining just 135 yards and score 14 points on their first 11 possessions, Miami racked up 14 points (plus the missed field goal at the end) and 241 total yards on their final three drives. Virginia's last tackle for a loss, a Noah Taylor sack, came with almost 13 minutes left to play. UVa was outgained 278-204 in the second half.
Swept up in the emotions of his team’s last-second escape, Mendenhall wasn’t his typical analytical self when talking with reporters via video conference right after Thursday’s victory. He wasn’t worried about how the Hoos had allowed Miami to get back into the game in the second half; he was simply relieved to be leaving with a win.
“This is just exactly where our team is,” he said. “We had chances to put it away on offense, chances to put it away on defense. But this is where we are and that's what we did. And that's exactly the result we got, which is an ACC win on the road in a much needed time for this program and this team.”
“I think most games are a mixed bag,” the head coach continued, “and you might be encouraged or disappointed in something. I’m not allowing myself to be discouraged about anything right now.”
With two other head-to-head Coastal Division games on Saturday’s schedule—Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech and Duke at North Carolina, with the Panthers and Blue Devils both opening conference play on the road—the standings will likely be further tightened after this weekend.
Thursday’s win allowed Virginia to keep pace in the Coastal, and after three games in 12 days they’ll have a semi-extended break to heal up (UVa was without three starters—tight end Jelani Woods, safety De’Vante Cross and defensive end Adeeb Atariwa—at Miami) and get back to work. The goal, Armstrong said, is to try to build more momentum next weekend when the Wahoos visit Louisville.
“I’m just excited,” the quarterback said. “We’ve got a lot to work on but I’m excited."
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