Virginia trailed BYU 28-7 early in the second quarter, rallied to lead 42-38 at the half, 49-45 after three, then things fell apart, and worse, Brennan Armstrong might be lost for the season.
It’s obviously too early to tell on that last point, but Armstrong left in the fourth quarter of the 66-49 loss – Tony Bennett wouldn’t be happy giving up 66, so you know that Bronco Mendenhall won’t be – after landing on the ball trying to convert a third-and-short, ahead of throwing a backbreaking INT.
BYU (7-2) mauled the overmatched UVA defense for 734 yards, 385 on the ground, 266 from tailback Tyler Allgeier, who scored five TDs, including the two in the fourth quarter that put this one away.
Somehow, the D has pitched two shutouts, against, sure, Duke and William & Mary, but it also held Illinois, which has wins over Nebraska and Penn State, to 14 earlier in the year.
And also gave up 59 and 699 yards to North Carolina, and then the 66 and 734 tonight in Provo.
The scheme … sucks. No other word for it. It just … sucks.
It’s apparent that the staff has come to the conclusion that putting five or six guys in the box and giving receivers 7-10 yards off the line of scrimmage is a better alternative to having the DBs beat deep, even if that means the DBs have to make tackles when the ball is caught, without having the capability, and it also means that tailbacks routinely get to third level before contact, exposing those same DBs who can’t seem to tackle receivers to having to tackle bigger, thicker guys running downhill.
The game plan defensively seems to be: we know the other guys are going to score, let’s just hope it takes longer, maybe they’ll fumble, a ball might get popped up in the air and one of our guys will come down with it, maybe they’ll only get three instead of seven, maybe the kick will doink off the goalpost.
There was a doink, in the second quarter, and two punts.
And nine touchdowns, two field goals and two end of halves.
Effectively, three stops on 14 drives – one of those stops being the aforementioned doinked 33-yard field goal.
That’s how you lose despite your offense scoring 42 points and gaining 448 yards in the first half.
Any semblance of defense, and Armstrong, who broke the school single-season passing mark in the second half, doesn’t need to be scrambling for a first down on a third-and-3 near midfield, down 10 in the fourth quarter, basically in desperation mode with 13 minutes left to go, knowing the defense would not get another stop.
Armstrong would later tell his teammates on his way to the locker room that he was sorry, he should have taken a knee, instead of fighting for the first down.
He would say that after throwing an INT, his second of the game, on the next play, visibly wincing after throwing the ball.
Virginia (6-3, 4-2 ACC) has a bye week before hosting Notre Dame on Nov. 13. We can hope that the injury to BA looked worse than it ends up being, but if it is a broken rib, it’s under his throwing shoulder, and that might be tough for him to be able to play with, considering.
At the least, Armstrong, who ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns Saturday night, after going for 99 yards and two TDs on the ground in last week’s win over Georgia Tech, would almost certainly be a non-factor in the ground game in terms of game planning, a blow for a UVA offense that has gone for 200+ on the ground in back-to-back weeks.
All of this after, earlier in the day, Pitt opened the door for the ‘Hoos in the Coastal Division race, laying an egg in a 38-34 loss at home to Miami, guaranteeing that Virginia will go to Pitt on Nov. 20 with its division title destiny in its hands.
It’s hard to imagine a team that just gave up 734 yards and 66 points having a shot at a Power 5 conference championship, but that is where things stand in the here and now.
Unfortunately, you can’t go to the waiver wire to pick up reinforcements on the D line, there’s no trade deadline to get help at DB.
Maybe defensive coordinator Nick Howell uses the bye week to ditch the 3-3-5 in favor of the 3-4 to at least make an effort to take away the easy yards in the ground game.
The UVA D is giving up 219.1 rushing yards per outing. There are seven FBS teams among the 130 that are worse, which is hard to believe.
Just as it’s hard to believe that your offense can gain 588 yards and score 49 points, and you can still lose by three scores.
If Howell comes out against Notre Dame with a soft 3-3-5, and the guess here is that he will, it’s the definition of insanity, trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Notre Dame, Pitt, Virginia Tech – none of them are William & Mary, Illinois or Duke.
Gunslingers eventually run out of bullets. That may have happened tonight for UVA out west.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
