The Virginia offense put up 590 yards and 48 points, the D recorded five sacks and held Stanford to 35 net rushing yards, to highlight Saturday’s 48-20 win.
Tony Elliott and Co. still have some big things to work on and fix ahead of Friday’s huge game with #8 Florida State.
The secondary, for starters, was toast – Stanford grad senior QB Ben Gulbranson was 20-of-29 for 286 yards and two TDs, and a 174.6 passer rating, and the bulk of that came on intermediate and deep stuff.
ICYMI
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Our guys made Gulbranson look like John Elway out there, when he’s decidedly not – for the season, Gulbranson’s passer rating is 114.2, which ranks 112th nationally among the 128 qualified QBs.
Second, the red zone offense – yes, the box score will tell you, 6-of-7 on scoring opportunities in the red zone, but two of the six were short field goals, a third was a missed short field goal, and one of the four that ended in a TD was in garbage time.
Red-zone inefficiency was the biggest factor in the 35-31 loss at NC State in Week 2.
Not going to beat FSU kicking field goals in the red zone.
Third, the guy who kicks the field goals, Will Bettridge – missed one chippie, barely cleared the crossbar on a second one.
You’re not able to bring in kickers to audition mid-semester the way NFL teams can bring in guys off the street mid-season.
To our detriment.
#1: Toast
The corners had major issues – Donavon Platt (4-of-5, 100 yards, 158.3 NFL passer rating against) was burned for a 68-yard TD; Jordan Robinson (3-of-3, 48 yards, 118.8 NFL); Emmanuel Karnley (5-of-7, 47 yards, 89.6 NFL).
The slot guys and safeties, with one exception, were fine – the exception was Ethan Minter (2-of-3, 64 yards, 109.7 NFL), who was burned for a 60-yarder in the first quarter.
That’s 14 of the 20 completions on 18 of the 29 attempts, for 259 of the 286 yards.
Fixing this has to be priority #1.
#2: Red zone
The UVA offense ranks fourth nationally in yards per game (564.5), 12th in rushing (251.5 yards/g), and 11th in scoring (45.5 points/g).
But the red zone offense is just 90th in scoring percentage (80.8 percent), and 93rd in TD percentage (57.7 percent).
Virginia left 18 points off the board with failures on three red-zone opportunities in the four-point loss at State two weeks ago – kicking one field goal, turning the ball over on downs at the State 8, and throwing an INT into the end zone with a minute to go.
That game shouldn’t have been close at the end, much less a four-point loss.
Leaving 15 points off the board isn’t an issue in a 48-20 win; can’t do that against a Top 10 team and expect to emerge unscathed.
#3: The kicker
Will Bettridge was a coveted recruit in the Class of 2022 – with offers from the likes of Michigan, LSU and Georgia Tech.
Four years in, he still hasn’t made a kick longer than 47 yards, and he’s just 11-of-17 from 40-49 – that low number of attempts, 17, over four years being telling in and of itself.
Bettridge is a major failure of the coaching staff in terms of development.
In the Week 4 win, he missed from (gulp) 25, was good from 28, then barely cleared the crossbar from 26.
I just wrote above about how you don’t want to have to settle for field goals, but when the situation dictates itself, you need to be able to trust that you can get at least three.
I don’t know how Elliott trusts Bettridge to tie or win a game in the final two minutes with even what should be a chippie, much less anything from 40 out.
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Chris Graham
