Brennan Armstrong had an off-night in Virginia’s 30-28 win over Miami on Thursday, throwing for 268 yards, which sounds good, but missing on 19 of his 44 passes, and throwing an INT that led to a ‘Canes score.
What saved the ‘Hoos was the strongest effort on the ground of 2021 that saw UVA run for a season-high 181 yards on a season-best 35 attempts.
Let’s start with the good.
Renewed emphasis on the run game
Wayne Taulapapa got 11 carries, a season-high, and ran for 62 yards, another season-high. He scored a TD on the ground, and had six rushing first downs.
His Pro Football Focus game grade was 81.8. Yep, a season-best.
Mike Hollins (PFF grade: 58.7) got 10 rushing attempts, gained 38 yards on them, and also caught five passes.
The rushing attack gained 11 first downs, seven of them between the tackles.
The between the tackles running was reminiscent of 2018. Virginia had 19 runs at the A and B gaps, gaining 147 yards, with seven first downs.
Season to this point had seen averages of 12 A and B gaps runs, for 59.5 yards and 2.8 first downs.
The 2018 group, the best run game of the Mendenhall era to date, averaged 19.6 A/B gap runs, 98.9 yards and 6.0 first downs per game.
O line
Ryan Swoboda is your UVA nominee for ACC O lineman of the week. The 6’10” right tackle graded out at a season-best 86.3, per PFF, with a monster 92.2 run block grade.
The lowest grade among the regulars was the 66.3 given to Jonathan Leech on his 36 snaps splitting snaps at left tackle with Bobby Haskins (who had a 76.0 grade on his 50 snaps).
The unit graded out at 80.7 on its run blocking and 73.6 on its pass blocking.
Solid numbers.
Passing game
If we didn’t know how much impact 6’7” tight end Jelani Woods (PFF season grade: 79.0) has on the offense, we saw it last night when he was out with an injury.
Get well soon, big fella.
Armstrong graded out at 51.2, a career-low for him and, shocker, the lowest of the entire offensive group.
Armstrong was pressured on 15 pass snaps. He was 4-of-10 for 38 yards on those dropbacks.
On his 35 clean dropbacks, BA was 21-of-34 for 230 yards.
Where you could see the difference with Woods not in the mix was on where the emphasis was in terms of distance downfield.
Armstrong was just 4-of-11 for 62 yards on passes that traveled between 10 and 19 yards downfield, and 2-8 for 75 yards on passes that traveled 20+ yards downfield.
That 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) number contrasts with his 60 percent completion rate on passes of 10+ coming in.
Even the passes that connected deep – think, the 36-yard TD pass to Dontavion Wicks – were into thick coverage that you wouldn’t see with DCs having to account for Woods on a safety or linebacker probably needing help.
Billy Kemp IV had the best PFF grade (76.3) of the group with nine catches (11 targets) for 81 yards (four first downs).
Keytaon Thompson graded out at 65.1, with four catches (nine targets, one drop) for 55 yards (three first downs). KT also had 47 yards on three rushing attempts (two first downs).
Wicks (PFF grade: 63.5) had both of the 20+-yard catches (six total targets, one drop), for 75 yards and a TD.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
