UVA outgained ODU 513-324, outrushed the Monarchs 229-89, had the ball in the red zone seven (!) times, but needed a field goal on the game’s final play to escape with the 16-14 win on Saturday.
You can look at how things played out a couple of different ways: the ‘Hoos almost snatched defeat from the jaws of a what should have been a 20-point victory because they couldn’t get out of their own way, or they overcame an avalanche of physical and mental errors to pull out an improbable win.
“They found a way to win the game,” head coach Tony Elliott said, doing that “they” thing again.
It’s “we,” Coach.
You’re at Virginia now.
“We.”
Three fumbles, all in ODU territory, two inside the 10, plus a missed field goal, made this one closer than it should have been.
“We were down inside the five, inside the 10, and several times we fumbled on the two going in, and so I’m being conservative. There’s some other situations like the other turnover in midfield. You probably get three, you get 15 more yards, you get a chance to kick a field goal, and going in that direction is where (Brendan) Farrell is at his best. But I feel, being conservative, that we probably left 20 points, at least, out there,” Elliott said.
Mike Hollins fumbled at the ODU 4 in the second quarter, then Brennan Armstrong fumbled at the ODU 36 inside of a minute to go.
Virginia led 10-0 at the time; it could have easily been 20-0 or 24-0.
ODU took the second turnover to paydirt, scoring on a 29-yard TD pass from Hayden Wolff to Ali Jennings to make it 10-7 at the break.
Virginia drove to the ODU 5 on its first possession of the third quarter before a strip-sack of Armstrong ended that threat.
Two red-zone drives in the fourth quarter resulted in a short make, and a short miss, on field-goal tries by Farrell, leaving the game in the balance.
ODU converted two fourth downs on its final possession before taking the lead with 1:01 to go on an 18-yard TD pass from Wolff to Zack Kuntz.
Armstrong directed a quick six-play, 56-yard drive that left Farrell a 26-yard field-goal try that split the uprights at the final horn.
It shouldn’t have had to come to that.
“Mentally, we’ve got to fight through it,” offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said. “The turnovers are obviously a concern. We’re up to seven now in three games. That’s not good winning football, especially when we’re trying to go on the road for an ACC opponent. So, we’ve got to clean that up. When you have three turnovers, particularly down to the red end, that’s hard, that’s tough, that puts the team in a big bind out there.”
The Wednesday two-minute drill
The Wednesday practice two-minute drill, won by the offense, which started with 25 seconds on the clock and a timeout, and ended with a field goal with nine seconds left, was more important to what was going to happen on Saturday than it seemed at the time.
“We work all of the possible situations to try and prepare these guys and to see them not bat an eye with a minute and one, and one timeout, and go down and find a way to win the game. It tells you what’s inside of them,” Elliott said.
Armstrong, who finished with a pedestrian, for him, statline – 20-of-37, 284 yards, 118.5 passer rating, no TDs – referenced the two-minute drive from midweek as being helpful when the situation came up again in live game action.
“It’s huge. You practice so many drives, but you don’t really get the opportunity to do them in a game. You never really know when they’re going to arise, but it’s important to practice in game-like situations,” Armstrong said.
On the final drive, Armstrong, on first down, missed Keytaon Thompson on a short sideline route, then connected with Lavel Davis Jr. on a deep post for 30 years to get the ball in plus territory.
Going tempo, Armstrong scampered for 13 yards on a keeper, then threw a fade intended for Dontayvion Wicks incomplete, but ODU DB Tobias Harris was whistled for pass interference on the play, giving UVA a first-and-goal at the 5 with 16 seconds left.
Another fade to Wicks in the left corner was incomplete. The second-down call was for Armstrong to center the ball for the game-winning kick by Farrell, who had missed from 36 with a chance to ice the game with 3:07 to go.
Little things
In addition to the three turnovers and the missed field goal, there were eight penalties, and two fourth-down conversions on the final ODU drive that kept the Monarchs on the field ahead of the go-ahead score.
Lots of little things that almost added up to a big L.
“You look at some of the discipline issues, and we’re off the field. We got two hands to the face. It’s fourth down, and we’re off the field, and we got our best guy locked up in man coverage, and we got to pull the guy down to avoid a touchdown. Those are the things that we got to learn, how to visualize and be prepared for those moments way before you ever get to those moments,” Elliott said.
The offense: still shaky
The UVA offense gained 513 yards, had 26 first downs, was 7-of-16 on third downs, and was able to run the ball well – gaining 229 yards on the ground.
But for all the nice stats, at the end of the day, just 16 points.
Armstrong was shaky. Wicks, again, was targeted a lot – 14 times – but had only four catches on those balls.
Last week, Armstrong was 2-of-13 throwing at Wicks.
Davis had two catches, including the key 30-yarder on the final drive, but Armstrong was 2-of-6 on targets his way.
Armstrong admitted after the game to lingering doubts after the lackluster performance from the offense in the 24-3 loss at Illinois.
“I put it behind me quickly, but then today, I started thinking about it again a bit. It just made me think, when are we going to fix this, and when am I going to start figuring it out,” said Armstrong, who passed for 4,449 yards, 31 TDs and a 156.4 passer rating in 2021, but has 710 yards, two TDs and a 108.3 rating through three games in 2022.
“When we have everything clicking on all cylinders, it’s going to be exciting. Right now, that just means settling down, and stop pressing so hard. I’m focusing on trying to make plays, being a hero out there, and knowing what my role is,” Armstrong said.
If that quote about “being a hero out there” is accurate – I’m using the official postgame quotes from the UVA media-relations folks – that might be part of the problem.
A reporter asked Kitchings postgame if he was comfortable with letting Armstrong “wing it” through the air.
“I am. Brennan here, he’s trying to impress, play at a high level. And we just told him, Hey, buddy, just be open, just be Brennan. Don’t try to be anybody else. Play your ball. We will call the game. We’ll try to protect you and let you take some shots down the field early in the game,” Kitchings said.
“You know, when you do that, you may miss some shots, that’s fine. We just got to continue to build on that, but obviously we have to eliminate the turnovers,” Kitchings said.
Big day from Xavier Brown
True freshman tailback Xavier Brown was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Kentucky in 2021, but Brown figured to be well down the depth chart with veterans Mike Hollins, Perris Jones and Ronnie Walker and Miami transfer Cody Brown in the running backs room.
Xavier Brown impressed in mop-up duty in the 34-17 Week 1 win over Richmond, gaining 25 yards on four carries.
His first touch Saturday came on a first quarter run that went for 38 yards, and he finished the day with a team-best 88 yards on nine carries.
“We got a good glimpse of Xavier Brown out there,” Kitchings said. “I’m glad we had him today. He made a couple of explosive plays for us. The kid is just totally committed. He’s tough, he’s smart, he’s soaking in information. He’s got some ability, right? So, he’s got to continue to build on that with him.”
Brown credits the upperclassmen with helping him get acclimated to the game at the college level.
“I’m learning from the older guys,” Brown said. “I got Mike, Perris, Cody and Ronnie in front of me. So, I’m learning from all of them, and the coaches with all their backgrounds help me get up to speed a lot.”
Elliott, whose running backs at Clemson included two-time ACC Player of the Year, and 2021 NFL first-round draft pick, Travis Etienne, said of Brown that “what you saw is that the stage is not too bright for him as a first-year guy, and that he’s ready for the moment.”
“He’s got some areas to grow, but the way that he’s running the football, he’s putting pressure on all the other guys in the room,” Elliott said. “And as I told him in the locker room afterwards, I’m not a discriminator of age or whatever it may be. If you’re the best guy, you’re the best guy. And right now, he’s running with the most tenacity out of all the guys.”
New-look defense
The defense was the weak link last year, allowing 466.0 yards per game, getting torched for 37 points in a loss to Wake Forest, 59 in a loss to North Carolina, a ghastly 66 in a loss at BYU.
The D, by and large, saved the day for UVA on Saturday, limiting ODU to 324 yards.
The front recorded three sacks – one each by Chico Bennett Jr., Kam Butler and Aaron Faumui – and seven tackles for loss.
The secondary had six pass breakups.
ODU ended up with 89 yards on the ground on 32 tries.
QB Hayden Wolff was 23-of-37 for 235 yards and two TDs, but was largely held in check until the final ODU drive.
The final drive was what defensive coordinator John Rudzinski was focused on postgame.
“Our guys played hard. And shoot, kudos to the offense, they bailed us out, I’ll tell you that much,” Rudzinski said. “It was a hard-fought game. You would have loved in that two minutes at the end of the game to get off the field and for some of those fourth-downs situations. Some great learning moments, and it’s always nice to have learning moments when it’s a win.”
Credit where credit is due, though – through three games, the defense is giving up 349.3 yards and 18.3 points per game.
“Yeah, everybody’s just getting more and more comfortable with one another,” said Butler, a grad transfer from Miami (Ohio). “I think we’re starting to play really good team defense. You don’t get sacks unless people on the back end are covering, and you don’t have the ability to really cover guys if the quarterback just sits back and holds onto the ball.”
Short week
Next up for Virginia is Syracuse, in the Carrier Dome, on Friday night, on national TV.
Syracuse rallied for a 32-29 win over Purdue on Saturday to improve to a surprising 3-0 – surprising because the Orange had been picked last in the ACC Atlantic Division, and head coach Dino Babers was very much on the hot seat coming into the season.
He hired former UVA offensive coordinator Robert Anae and QB coach Jason Beck in the offseason to head up his offense, a move that has worked out well so far.
Syracuse is averaging 408.3 yards and 37 points per game this season.
“We’ve got the whole book,” Rudzinski said. “From what we’ve heard is that he has a system, and he trusts in the system. I know they’ve done a nice job there of scoring points. There’s a lot to work on this week, schematically, and then we’ll have to be great fundamentally to go up to someone else’s house on a short week.”
With the short week, Sunday, which would normally be an off-day for Virginia, is basically Monday.
“We’ve got to get them recovered,” Kitchings said. “Short week, but being smart during the course of the week, and we don’t overload them in practice. We got to prepare them for Syracuse, but don’t overload them so they’re fresh on Friday.”
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Chris Graham
