UVA gained 425 yards total offense in its 31-21 win over North Carolina on Oct. 20, the best output of the season since putting up 552 yards in the win over Ohio U. in Week 3.
You wanted to think the offense was back on track.
Then you saw the offense limp home to 249 total yards in the 23-13 loss to Pitt last week.
And despite the scoreboard showing Virginia with 45 in the win over Liberty, it wasn’t so much the offense that was responsible for all of those points.
You look at the second half, and UVA scored 21 points on drives, if you can call them drives, encompassing a total of 49 yards.
Joe Reed returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown to open the second half. The inexplicable decision of Liberty coach Turner Gill to go for a fourth down at his own 14 created a short-field score that pushed the margin to two scores.
The third scoring drive was eight plays, 35 yards after an interception.
For the game, the ‘Hoos had 389 yards of total offense, against a Liberty defense that gave up 777 yards to UMass, which you weren’t aware had a football team until you just read that, in a triple-OT loss last week.
This after the anemic output against a Pitt defense that had given up 619 yards and 45 points in a win over Duke a week earlier.
It’s hard to argue with what you see in terms of numbers if it’s not Liberty. Virginia averaged a respectable 6.4 yards per play, gained 221 yards on the ground, was 5-of-9 on third-down conversions, scored all six times it had the ball in the red zone.
Just feels like there was more that could have been done out there on Saturday.
Column by Chris Graham
Support AFP
Share
Contributors
