The value of having a sixth-year QB, like Virginia has with Chandler Morris, isn’t just when it comes to throwing the ball.
Case in point: the third-and-2 play from the UVA 22, 2:38 to go, third quarter, ‘Hoos leading Duke, 24-3.
With apologies here, at the outset, to people who break down plays for a living.
I’m very much an amateur at this, but the play here stuck in my mind last night when I was trying to get some sleep.
ICYMI
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Setting the scene: the Virginia defense had just gotten a stop on a fourth-and-goal to keep the game at three scores.
The goal for the offense: bleed some clock.
Get a first down here, and you can just about run out the third-quarter clock, anyway.
That would cement momentum.
Video: J’Mari Taylor 78-yard TD run
J’Mari Taylor goes 78 YARDS TO THE HOUSE 🏡
That’s the 11th-longest rush in school history 💯
HOOS ARE ROLLIN’ 🤜🤛
📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/5BAxhMJPdt
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) November 15, 2025
The screenshot shows the formation – trips to the left, with an overload offensive line.
That’s tight end Sage Ennis as the left tackle.
Which could have signaled to the Duke defense there that this one was going to be a run, because he was covered up by the outside receiver.
Could be max-protect pass there, too, for a crossing route for tight end John Rogers, lined up in the slot, to get a short pass at the sticks.
Duke looks to be in man on the trips, with a single-high safety.
You can’t see this in the video – I searched high and wide for video of the play that shows things from the moment the offense gets into alignment, but no go – but Morris reads the defense, and makes an adjustment in the call.
My best guess: it was always going to be a run play to the right, because you only needed two yards to move the chains.
The overload with the O line to the left and trips to the left creates running lanes for tailback J’Mari Taylor to get two yards.
But the defensive alignment here screams: big play.
A basic handoff allows the defensive end to focus on Taylor, use outside leverage to force him back inside, and allow pursuers to make the tackle.
It’s still probably first down Virginia, but it’s not what it would become.
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Morris checks into an option play, which forces the D end to decide on the fly – take away the QB on the keeper, or take away the pitch?
You should always take away the pitch here, but it’s a split-millisecond decision, and the guy made the wrong one.
Keep in mind: a pitch puts Morris, who was a game-time decision this week from concussion protocol, and has been playing the season with an extremely bum left shoulder, very much in harm’s way.
Morris makes the pitch, the safety overruns the play, thinking Taylor is going boundary, and Taylor cuts back inside – and with no one else on the back side, because the DBs were in man up top, and the mike linebacker was blitzing the A gap, it’s a sprint.
Seventy-eight yards, touchdown, 31-3.
Taylor gets the love, and nobody thinks anything about Morris here – but he made the play happen.
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Chris Graham
