Home Inside the play: How did UVA botch the defense on the Notre Dame game-winning touchdown?
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Inside the play: How did UVA botch the defense on the Notre Dame game-winning touchdown?

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uva notre dameNotre Dame coach Brian Kelly was about to get some heat from the writers and others in the national sports punditry over a couple of quite questionable coaching moves in the final minutes of the ninth-ranked Irish’s game at underdog Virginia.

First was the move to accept an illegal-man-downfield penalty on a third-and-10 play on which UVA had gained a modest five yards, setting up a fourth-and-five if Kelly declines the penalty. Instead, the ‘Hoos were given a third-and-15, but more importantly, two downs to work with, and quarterback Matt Johns connected with Ryan Santoro on the next play on a 34-yard pass to the Notre Dame 1.

One play later, Albert Reid scored to give Virginia a 27-26 lead with 1:54 to go.

Notre Dame got the ball on the positive side of the field in the final minute, and took a timeout with 43 seconds to go, first and 10 at the UVA 40. Deshone Kizer, out of the timeout, completed a screen pass to C.J. Prosise that gained one yard.

The Irish still had a timeout in the bag, but elected not to use it, instead scrambling everybody into position, slowly, maddeningly slowly for Notre Dame fans.

That Kizer was able to connect with Will Fuller down the left sideline on a game-winning 39-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds left on the clock means nobody will look at two plays bordering on absolute mismanagement in the final two minutes.

Instead, we are left to wonder how Virginia yet again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The Cavs defense in 2014 handed away late leads to North Carolina and Virginia Tech, and surrendered a late drive at Duke in a tie game that turned into another loss.

The 2015 group vowed to a man to learn from the mistakes of 2014, with a lot of talk and attention paid to the mantra of finishing out games.

Here was a chance to finish out a game against the ninth-ranked team in the country, on the ropes with a backup quarterback whose previous two drives had ended in punts, and to this point in the game had completed three passes, one on a fake field goal.

Kizer went 5-for-7 for 76 yards on the final drive, and converted a fourth down on the ground.

“It happens,” said sophomore linebacker Micah Kiser, who whiffed on a chance to sack Notre Dame’s Kizer on a play in the final drive that turned into a 17-yard gain for the Irish.

“We had them right where we wanted them, but we just didn’t finish,” the linebacker Kiser said.

The game-winning drive almost didn’t get past the Notre Dame 30. After an eight-yard Kizer-to-Fuller pass on first down, Kizer misfired on a pass to Fuller on second down. Then on third down, Maurice Canady jumped the route on a pass in the right flat to Fuller, nearly intercepting the pass, bringing up fourth-and-two from the Notre Dame 28.

Remember this play; it will be important later.

Kelly called timeout, and put the ball in the hands of his backup QB.

“It was actually a read pass-run, so if he had zone coverage we were going to throw a little quick game to pick up the first down,” Kelly said of the play call. “If he had man and the numbers were favorable, we wanted to pick up the first down. We only needed three yards, so it was really just about converting in that situation. I took the timeout there, and we gave him a run-pass option play. He is a big enough kid, and even if the numbers weren’t great, we felt he could get us the two yards.”

The next play was a Kizer pass to Corey Robinson for 11 yards and another first down. Then Kizer escaped Kiser in the backfield to connect with Prosise for a 17-yard gain that pushed the ball into plus territory.

After the screen pass to Prosise, both sides of the line of scrimmage resembled a classic fire-drill scenario. Precious seconds ticked off as Kizer tried to align his troops, which would seem to work to the advantage of the defense, but the confusion on the offensive side of the ball seemed to heighten confusion on the defensive side.

It depends on who you talked to as to how the defense broke down on the final play.

“It was just a good play,” said a monosyllabic sophomore safety Quin Blanding, who tied for the team lead in tackles (8) on Saturday, but for a second straight week looked very average in the defensive backfield.

“We didn’t have the proper rush lane,” London said. “For whatever reason, probably miscommunication, the receiver got behind us. He made a great catch, and it was a great play for them.”

If you’re a UVA fan, you’re not going to like to hear Kelly explain what really happened.

It wasn’t miscommunication; the ‘Hoos got turned out by smart coaching.

“We had a double move out there,” Kelly said. “As you know, we ran a quick slant on third down previously that the corner came up and defended quite well, so we ran a double move off of that. Deshone Kizer waited for that, stepped up, and connected with Fuller.”

Look at the replay, and you see exactly that. Blanding was the safety on the left side of the defensive formation, behind Canady. Canady bit on the slant, as Blanding shaded toward the slot receiver running a post route.

Kizer pump-faked to the left, had plenty of time against a non-existent pass rush, and it was a fairly easy pass-catch from there, as Canady and Blanding struggled against themselves to try to make up ground.

On the fly, with the clock ticking toward zero, players scrambling into place, Kelly and his staff picked up on something that the UVA secondary had done from a few plays before and used it to put their players into position to win the game.

That kind of coaching ingenuity has been in short supply on the home sidelines in Scott Stadium since George Welsh and his staff last roamed them.

– Story by Chris Graham

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