Game MVP: Will Bettridge?
I doubt that I’m the only person who had been giving Will Bettridge hell, and I doubt that I was the only person among the just under a million* on hand for the game in Scott Stadium last night who assumed he would miss that 39-yard kick needed to send the game to a second OT.
* The announced attendance was 50,107. Five years from now, just under a million will have told people they were there.
Bettridge was putrid last week, missing one chip shot, barely clearing the crossbar on another, and his miss from 47 in the NC State game in Week 2 was a significant factor in the 35-31 Virginia loss.
Bettridge doesn’t make that kick last night, the heroics in the second OT don’t happen.
Hats off, kid who I’ve been reading the riot act to.
Runner-up: Drake Metcalf
Brady Wilson, the starting center with a 78.7 Pro Football Focus grade, was out with a high ankle sprain from last week’s 48-20 win over Stanford.
Drake Metcalf, after 234 snaps this season at right guard, finished out the last 20 snaps at center in Wilson’s absence last week.
Metcalf got the start at center last night, went all 86 snaps, and had a largely clean sheet – one QB pressure allowed on 43 pass dropbacks, a 62.7 run blocking grade on 43 run snaps, and one penalty, a false start that was more an issue of Chandler Morris, the QB, changing the play late in the play clock.
Defensive stars
Strong safety Devin Neal had a unit-best 12 tackles and 79.0 PFF grade.
Linebacker Kam Robinson, in his second game back from a preseason broken collarbone, had 10 tackles and three QB pressures.
Edge rusher Mitchell Melton had a team-leading five QB pressures and a team-leading six run-game tackles.
Cornerback Ja’Son Prevard had the two highlight plays – the INT in the first quarter on a corner blitz in which he batted a Tommy Castellanos first-and-goal pass into the air, then plucked it out of the air for the pick; and then the INT on the game’s final play, a fourth-and-12 pass from the UVA 27 on which Castellanos, under pressure from a blitz, underthrew wideout Squirrel White.
Passing game
Morris accounted for five TDs – two through the air, three on the ground, all on good reads on scrambles.
Through the air, Morris was Jekyll-and-Hyde – 26-of-35 for 229 yards and the two TDs, but also three INTs.
Morris was 0-of-5 on deep balls, 4-of-6 on balls that traveled 10 to 19 yards through the air (for 71 yards), and 22-of-23 for 158 yards on passes at the line of scrimmage and under 10 yards through the air.
Just one drop – by tight end Dakota Twitty (five catches/seven targets, 29 yards).
Nine different guys recorded a reception, which seems like a lot – suggests to me that Morris is good at not locking in on one guy.
Run game
Another 200-yard-plus day – 221 yards, sack-adjusted.
I mentioned Morris scoring three times on the ground. J’Mari Taylor, the feature back, had 99 yards on 27 attempts, with a 26-yard TD in the final minute of the first half, which sent the teams into the break tied at 21-21.
Backup Xavier Brown had 60 yards on eight attempts, and a nice catch on a wheel route that went 15 yards for a second-half TD.
There was a bit of imposition of will to the attack – Virginia gained 122 yards on 30 attempts between the tackles.
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Chris Graham
