The UVA offense put up 400+ yards against a Power 5 opponent for the first time in the Tony Elliott era in Thursday’s 16-9 win at Georgia Tech.
You’re waiting for the but …
But the ‘Hoos still scored just 16 points.
“I wish offensively we would find a way to get out of our own way at times and just go finish drives as opposed to allowing penalties or drops to stop drives,” Elliott said after the win.
Officially, there were only three dropped passes – one each for Keytaon Thompson, Dontayvion Wicks and Lavel Davis.
But the nature of those drops, wow.
Thompson tipped a first-quarter pass into the air that was picked off by Georgia Tech safety LaMiles Brooks, who returned the carom 37 yards for what turned out to be the only TD of the night for the Yellow Jackets.
The Davis drop, on a pass from Armstrong, rolling left, who found him open in the back of the end zone, kept four points off the board, which would be crucial late, keeping the game at one score to the end.
“This game could have been solid in the end of the third quarter, and it wasn’t, because of our offense not putting the ball in and putting points on the board,” said QB Brennan Armstrong, who was 20-of-35 passing for 255 yards, one TD, two INTs and a 116.3 pass-efficiency rating.
O line: Solid
The offensive line, a work-in-progress all season long, did a fair job Thursday night, keeping the pocket clean on 26 of Armstrong’s 39 dropbacks, and clearing the way for a run game that put up 155 yards on 38 rushing attempts.
Notably, Georgia Tech didn’t record a single sack.
The tackles, Jonathan Leech (Pro Football Focus grade: 66.9, 0 QB pressures) and Logan Taylor (PFF grade: 66.2, 1 QB pressure) had the best nights.
Leech played 59 of Virginia’s 76 offensive snaps. Freshman McKale Boley (PFF grade: 58.2, 2 QB pressures) was in for the other 17 at right tackle.
Ty Furnish (PFF grade: 53.6, 2 QB pressure) and Jestus Johnson (PFF grade: 46.5, 0 QB pressures) split time at center (Furnish, who started, got 49 snaps, Johnson 27).
Noah Josey (PFF grade: 56.9, 0 QB pressures) started at left guard and got 43 snaps there (and four at right guard). John Paul Flores (PFF grade: 55.4, 0 QB pressures) got the other 33 snaps at left guard.
Derek Devine (PFF grade: 56.7, 3 QB pressures) went 72 snaps at right guard.
Deep dive into the passing game
Armstrong is still struggling on downfield throws, a strength of his in his record-setting 2021 season.
Thursday night, he was just 4-of-13 for 134 yards on throws that traveled 10+ yards through the air.
For the season, BA is 35-of-101 (34.7%) for 859 yards (8.5 yards/att), four TDs and eight INTs on balls that go 10+ yards.
Last season’s numbers: 131-of-236 (55.5%) for 2,790 yards (11.8 yards/att), 19 TDs and eight INTs.
The drops by the wideouts have also been concerning. Thompson and Wicks each have nine drops this season; last season, KT had seven, Wicks five, and those were full-season numbers.
Thompson has nine drops on 70 targets; his seven last season came on 112 targets.
Wicks has nine drops on 67 targets; his five last season came on 93 targets.
Davis’s drops were also a problem for him in his freshman season in 2020.
This season, Davis has five drops on 38 targets; in 2020, he had five drops on 42 targets.
Which all puts the year that Hasise Dubois put up in 2019 (zero drops on 102 targets) in perspective.
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Chris Graham
