North Carolina, in the first quarter, broke a five-yard pass in the flat for a 59-yard TD and a 13-yard slant for a 75-yard TD, and with those two plays, those two results, the Tar Heels had the UVA D where it wanted it.
Those two plays softened up the defensive scheme, clearing the way for a devastating ground game that would go on to pile up 394 yards in the 59-39 UNC win.
The deep dive into the Pro Football Focus rendering of the game is brutal.
Pass defense
Sam Howell had nice numbers: 14-of-21, 307 yards, five TDs, one INT.
He only completed four passes that traveled more than 10 yards through the air to put up those numbers.
Brennan Armstrong, for comparison, on his way to a UVA school record 554 yards, had 16 completions of 10+ yards.
Howell was 6-of-6 for 55 yards on passes at or behind the line of scrimmage, 4-of-6 for 92 yards on passes of 0-9 yards, 2-of-2 for 86 yards on passes of 10-19 yards, and 2-of-7 for 74 yards on passes of 20+ yards.
The five-yard hitch that turned into a 59-yard TD was credited to Noah Taylor.
The 75-yard pitch-and-catch went on the ledger of Anthony Johnson.
Joey Blount got tagged for five UNC receptions on five targets for 104 yards.
PFF had Howell under pressure on just seven of his 27 dropbacks. On those seven snaps, he was 0-of-2 with an INT. On the 20 dropbacks with a clean pocket, he was 14-of-19 for 307 yards and five TDs.
Virginia blitzed on six dropbacks. Howell was 3-of-5 for 18 yards and the aforementioned INT.
On the 21 non-blitz dropbacks, Howell was 11-of-16 for 289 yards.
Run defense
Carolina, mentioned above, had 392 yards on the ground – 197 of those, slightly more than half, were after contact.
Ty Chandler, who had 198 yards rushing, had 130 yards after contact.
Howell, the QB, had 36 yards after contact.
The soft spots: the A gaps and left guard.
Carolina ran 13 times into the A gaps for 125 yards, and six times at left guard for 90 yards.
There were 10 runs around the ends for 76 yards.
Six QB scrambles accounted for 57 yards.
Overview
Pro Football Focus had Virginia with an astounding 20 missed tackles on the night. For comparison, UNC had nine.
Blount had a bad night here as well: leading the D with five missed tackles before injuring his collarbone in the second half.
Antonio Clary had four missed tackles, Nick Jackson three.
PFF gave the D an overall grade of 38.5. Its numbers only go back to 2014. This was the lowest grade of the PFF era for a UVA defense.
Even the 62-17 loss to Clemson in the 2019 ACC Championship Game graded out at 46.9.
This was a historically awful output, obviously.
The D line and ‘backers didn’t get pressure and didn’t control gaps.
The secondary couldn’t cover guys and missed too many tackles.
Back to the drawing board.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
