UVA, after a week of self-inflicted adversity – precipitated by a couple of ugly scenes on the sidelines caughg on the TV cameras involving first-year head coach Tony Elliott, who then doubled down, defending his right to be frustrated – somehow overcame all of that and played well, for most of the first quarter.
The Cavaliers got a 47-yard field goal from freshman Will Bettridge and a 40-yard TD pass from Brennan Armstrong to Dontayvion Wicks on their first two possessions, and just like that, it was 10-0 good guys.
Elliott, being the Elliott that we have come to know to this point, attributed the fast start to his odd focus on whether guys run out for warmups or not.
“I felt last week at Duke we didn’t come out with the right energy. I felt like the guys came out with really good energy, they had good focus, they had a great pregame warm up and boom, we got off to a fast start,” Elliott said.
OK, whatever it was, hey, fast start.
The offense was clicking, the defense got stops.
And then, flash, it all came crashing down.
Armstrong fumbled on a 10-yard QB draw that briefly got the ‘Hoos into the red zone, on the verge of maybe going up three scores, and in an instant, the wheels came off.
Virginia, at that moment, had a 149-9 edge in total offense. The rest of the way, Louisville outgained UVA 464-170, and outscored the Cavaliers 34-7, on the way to a 34-17 win.
“The guys are struggling to handle success when they have success, and then when adversity hits, we’re all looking around, and we just don’t have guys right now that are stepping forward and saying, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be the guy that’s gonna make the play,’” Elliott said.
“They wait on Brennan, and unfortunately, when they wait on Brennan, it is forcing Brennan to be in a tough predicament to make a play. And then he tries to, and his buddies don’t help him out,” Elliott said.
That’s one way to look at it, the sorta, kinda, positive spin on things, if there can be a positive spin on this 2-4 start.
What Elliott has to say there contains a kernel of the truth – that his players can’t seem to stand prosperity, and don’t know what to do when they find adversity.
That much was obvious Saturday when his guys folded up their tent after the fumble by Armstrong when they were up 10-0 and dominating the line of scrimmage.
That’s the only way you can describe what happened to turn what you saw out of the Cavaliers in the first quarter, perhaps the team’s best quarter of football all season, and then what you saw in the next three.
“If something happens, momentum changes, we’ve got to be ready,” said safety Antonio Clary, who had eight tackles and an INT in the defeat. “I think we left some plays out there as a defensive unit that could have changed the momentum of the game by guys just doing their job, being in the right fit. Just making the plays that you’re supposed to make. But I wouldn’t say it was surprising. That’s just the game of football. Things happen. Momentum changes. We’ve just got to be prepared for that.”
“Yeah, definitely not the position we thought we’d be in at all, but there’s nothing else you can do other than wake up the next day and keep working. So that’s the team mindset of the group. That’s all we can do,” said linebacker Josh Ahern, who had a quiet game – three tackles.
The defensive front got just three pressures – no sacks – on lead-footed Louisville QB Brock Domann, who was making his first career start, in place of Malik Cunningham, who didn’t make the trip to Charlottesville with the team because he is in concussion protocol after taking a big hit in last week’s 34-33 loss at Boston College.
Domann threw an INT on his first pass of the game, and was just 8-of-20 passing for 124 yards and two INTs in the first half.
He did have a 44-yard TD run on a fourth-and-one play when he faked a handoff, drawing the entirety of the UVA defense to the fake, then taking off, if you can say that – Domann is about as fleet afoot as your average offensive tackle – for the end zone, to the surprise and utter horror of the defense, which was busy celebrating what it thought was a fourth-down stop.
Domann would then go 9-for-10 for 151 yards and a TD through the air in the second half, finishing the day with 275 yards through the air.
Armstrong finished with 313 yards through the air, but Virginia could only manage six net yards rushing, and the O line allowed six sacks.
“Adversity hits, and things happen,” Armstrong said. “We never bounce back with a good drive once something happens. We aren’t working together to get it done, and we’re stalling out on the little things. There are definitely some things I could’ve done better.”
The coming week is a bye week for the ‘Hoos, whose next game is Thursday, Oct. 20, at Georgia Tech, a 23-20 winner over Duke on Saturday, the second win in a row for the Yellow Jackets since the decision was made early last week to fire head coach Geoff Collins after a 1-3 start, and a 10-28 record in three-plus seasons.
A bye week could be good, to give the players and staff time to put attention to the many things that need to be fixed.
It could also be not so good, because it will provide free time that could allow all the bad things to fester.
“We need some guys back to get back healthy, get over these injuries, and just really need to lock in on our details and the small things,” said cornerback Anthony Johnson, who had an INT and three pass breakups Saturday.
“Just really come together and buy in. Like I said once earlier, we need to find our heart and just figure out what it is that we need to do collectively as a team to turn this thing around,” Johnson said.
Ahern is also trying to take the bye week as something to build from.
“The guys were frustrated. No doubt, we were definitely frustrated. We lost the game. That is nothing to be excited about,” Ahern said of the mood in the locker room after the loss. “Like I said, we have to live with it, think about it over the weekend, and get back on Monday to make the corrections and keep pressing forward.”