You totally had UVA Football pulling the upset at #18 Pitt. It’s OK to admit it now. You just didn’t want people to think you were crazy.
You absolutely had the ‘Hoos winning, put money on them, and didn’t text your friends about the final score being in the range of 47-17 Pitt, because you wouldn’t do that.
Ahem.
Two TDs in a two-minute span of the third quarter put the Cavaliers on top, and the defense came up big, holding the Panthers to 292 yards, as Virginia closed out an improbable 24-19 win on Saturday night in prime time amid a flurry of DealDash commercials on ACC Network.
Improbable, indeed.
Not the deals they’re trying to hype with the commercials.
OK, they’re improbable as well.
UVA (5-4, 3-3 ACC) had lost three straight coming in, and had the wheels come off in a 41-14 beatdown by a not good North Carolina team two weeks ago in Charlottesville.
The bye week came at a good time, allowing the offensive line to get guys back, in particular.
Two first-half interceptions, though, contributed to a 13-7 halftime deficit, though, and I was getting texts and emails from fans trying to get me to agree that Tony Elliott needed to sub in Tony Muskett for Anthony Colandrea, because that’s what fans do.
Colandrea, who was not subbed out, in spite of the protestations from the experts in the fan base, didn’t have impressive counting numbers – 16-of-24 for 143 yards through the air, 56 sack-adjusted yards rushing, while enduring six sacks – but he came up big in the third quarter.
A 29-yard gain on a QB keeper got the offense to the Pitt 24, and on the next play, Colandrea connected with Xavier Brown on a 24-yard pass, catch and run TD to put Virginia up 14-13 with 5:39 to go in the third.
Pitt backup QB Nate Yarnell was picked off by Jonas Sanker on the next play from scrimmage, and Sanker returned the INT into the red zone to set up the offense.
Kobe Pace did the heavy lifting on the next series, capping a quick scoring march with a 3-yard TD run that made it 21-13 UVA with 3:34 to go in the third.
Credit to UVA coach Tony Elliott for resisting the urge that he didn’t have to lift his starting QB.
Pitt scored on its next possession, on a 4-yard pass from Yarnell to tight end Gavin Bartholomew.
The Panthers went for two, and got an apparent conversion on the first try, on another pass from Yarnell to Bartholomew, but a holding penalty pushed the try back to the UVA 13, and a Yarnell pass into the corner of the end zone intended for wideout Raphael Williams Jr. was incomplete, keeping the score at 21-19 with 10:32 to go.
Virginia’s next possession ate 8:30 off the clock, aided in part by a controversial call on a fourth-and-short Grady Bunch run at the Pitt 24 at the six-minute mark.
The Pitt D stopped Grady Brosterhous on the tush push play, but the officials ruled the play dead because the crew was not in position at the snap, giving the UVA offense a second chance.
Brosterhous lined up in the Grady Bunch formation a second time, and handed off to Pace for a 3-yard gain that moved the chains.
The drive eventually stalled, and Will Bettridge extended the lead with a 32-yard field goal that made it 24-19 Virginia with 2:04 to go.
The Pitt offense got the ball into plus territory inside of the two-minute timeout, but a Yarnell pass over the deep middle was picked off by safety Corey Thomas, a Pittsburgh native, at the UVA 14, and the offense was able to bleed the clock after getting a first-down run.
Game Notes
A big night for the running backs: Kobe Pace had 52 yards on 12 rushes and the rushing TD, and four catches on four targets for 22 yards receiving, and Xavier Brown had 68 yards on 12 rushing attempts, and two catches on two targets for 28 yards, and the go-ahead TD.
Chris Tyree had four catches on five targets for 42 yards, including a crucial 25-yard catch on a third-and-15 that extended the clock-draining drive in the fourth quarter.
I mentioned Colandrea’s passing and rushing numbers; he also had a 27-yard catch, on a reverse on which Suderian Harrison, a wideout who passed for 2,018 yards and 26 TDs as a senior at Woodland High School (Dorcester, S.C.) in 2022, hit him in stride on a play that got the offense to the Pitt 1.
The Virginia D held the Pitt offense to 292 total yards, had two INTs, three sacks, eight tackles for loss, and limited the Panthers to 4-of-13 on third-down conversion tries.
And it was a team effort: linebacker Kam Robinson and defensive tackle Terrell Jones led the unit with six tackles each.
Jonas Sanker is your defensive MVP: with five tackles, two TFLs, an INT and a blocked field goal.
The bad news
The fans and particularly the UVA Football alums who have been telling me they want Tony Elliott to be done after the 2024 season aren’t going to get their wish.
This one was win #5, and it’s still going to be tough to get to #6, with games against #10 Notre Dame, #13 SMU and then at Virginia Tech to close things out, but we only need one now.
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Chris Graham
