Louisiana Tech 44, Virginia 38
Too many mistakes, miscues, penalties, turnovers, dropped passes, whatever. However you slice it, the Cavaliers just made too many errors in their loss to undefeated Louisiana Tech on Saturday but still almost won.
Interceptions: Michael Rocco threw three picks, one of which was returned for a touchdown. On one of them, he should never have thrown the ball because the defender was all over the receivers' route and jumped it perfectly. One was not his fault -- it bounced off the hands of Dominique Terrell, who has had his problems this year with holding on to the ball. The other was supposedly a miscommunication between Rocco and the intended receiver. It looked like Rocco threw the ball right into the gut of the Bulldog defender. That one was returned for a touchdown. I'm fine with Rocco saying he expected the receiver to be there because the offense is based on timing and a quick-strike offense. But you have to be able to at least see your receiver and you can't throw it to a defender right between their numbers.
The good: Virginia got its run game going a bit (145 yards), but not enough to control the clock and keep Louisiana Tech's potent offense off the field. Perry Jones had his best game of the season with 82 yards rushing. He also tossed a touchdown pass to Tim Smith on a play similar to last year's scoring play against Miami. It gave Virginia a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. The one against Miami was from 37 yards out and this one was from 36 yards out. Smith was wide open last year but on this one, he was covered pretty well from what I could see and Jones placed the ball in a perfect spot. When plays like that connect, you begin to think it could be your day.
Things got better from there. The defense was having pretty good success against Louisiana Tech's offense, holding it to a punt and a field goal on its first two drives. Louisiana Tech scored a touchdown after getting excellent field position after a failed onside kick attempt by the Wahoos to make it 14-10. Some fans seem to think that was the beginning of trouble for the Cavaliers. I did not mind that call. You don't want to give a great offense a short field, but we were playing well at that point, up 14-3, so I think that was an OK call. The defense had not allowed Louisiana Tech too much success to that point. You take a chance to get the ball back quickly and put them in an even bigger hole.
After the Bulldogs' first touchdown, the Virginia offense was still rolling, moving the ball almost at will with nice passes from Rocco to his receivers, who were catching the ball 10-15 yards down field and then making moves for big gains. One Rocco touchdown, perhaps the final of his career (more on that later), was to a wide open Khalek Sheperd running a wheel route, who took it the distance for a 73-yard touchdown.
On one defensive possession, after the Cavaliers made it 24-10 with a Drew Jarrett 35-yard field goal, Louisiana Tech returned the kickoff all the way down to the 3-yard line, only to have the defense turn it away four times. The crowd was pumped up and the whole team was playing well at that point. The offense, pinned deep in its own territory, began to move the ball again. Eventually, Rocco connected with Darius Jennings on a seven-yard pass to the Louisiana Tech 45 and it was 2nd-and-3 for the Cavs.
The bad and the ugly penalties: But offensive lineman Sean Cascarano got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the Cavs were instead faced with a 2nd-and-18. Rocco's next pass deflected off the hands of Terrell and was intercepted by a Bulldog defender, who returned the ball back to the Virginia 25. The Bulldogs scored on the very next play and it was 24-17. Instead of possibly driving for a touchdown to make it 31-10, it was now just a one-touchdown game. The pass from Rocco to Terrell was not too deep, but still, you never know what the play call would have been if Virginia had a 2nd-and-3 and not a 2nd-and-18. That penalty changed the complexion of the next play. But that was truly the beginning of UVa's troubles to me. From there, the Bulldogs scored 34 straight points to take a commanding 44-24 lead midway through the fourth quarter. I think penalties are almost just as much to blame as Rocco's deteriorating play throughout the game. That personal foul penalty that put the Wahoos in that 2nd-and-long situation is just one example. Virginia collected 16 penalties for 145 yards on the day. I think I saw where the record for the team is 17 penalties for 231 yards back around the time of the Frank Quayle days (1960s), who was actually honored at halftime. On the drive where Virginia made the field goal to go up 24-10, the Cavs were getting ready to face a 3rd-and-6 at the Bulldog 7. Instead, a personal foul penalty on Kevin Parks pushed the ball back to the Bulldog 22, where Virginia ran the ball on the next play and settled for a field goal. On the 3rd-and-6, maybe Virginia would have scored a touchdown, or a first down at the one-yard line. You never know. A touchdown would have made it 28-10 instead of 24-10. In the end, it might not have made a difference because if you add the four extra points to Virginia's total of 38, the final score would end up being 44-42 in favor of Louisiana Tech, but we all know you can't just add up scores like that because football is complex, and tiny changes here and there along the way don't add up in a mathematically perfect way at the end of the game. You have to factor in how things like playcalling, momentum, and just the general flow of the game change. Heck, if we had scored a touchdown on that drive, we might have won the game. It is just too hard to know for sure.
The penalty issue culminated in the most damaging of them all with two minutes left in the game. Louisiana Tech was trying to get Virginia to jump offsides on 4th-and-1, called a timeout, then brought its offense back on the field. The problem was, the Cavaliers assumed the Bulldogs were going to punt the ball. When they saw the offense on the field, they could not substitute the defense back on to the field in time and were called for 12 men on the field. I know people were getting mad at the coaching staff and London for that gaffe, but really, how often do you expect the opposing team in that situation to bring the offense back on to the field again? Not often, if ever. So I think instead of blaming London for not paying attention to details, perhaps more credit should go to the Louisiana Tech coaching staff for being clever and daring. The Bulldogs coach said after the game that they were going to go for it.
The real issue with the penalties are they show an undisciplined team. Penalties were a big problem two years ago in London's first season, a 4-8 campaign, so hopefully he can clean up the yellow laundry a little bit and set the 'Hoos on the right path. Duke is up next for the Cavs and if I remember correctly, the Blue Devils were quite chippy in last season's game, and that one was in Charlottesville. This year, the contest is in Durham, and the Blue Devils have to be smelling the postseason at 4-1. If the Cavaliers aren't careful, it could be easy for them to get bated into some more penalties Saturday.
The Sims: I have written quite a bit on the the loss to Louisiana Tech and haven't even gotten to Phillip Sims yet! Sims was great in almost leading the 'Hoos back from 20 points down. He marched UVa down the field for two touchdowns. One was a three-yard pass to Jake McGee while the other was a 24-yard pass to Adrian Gamble, the first touchdown of the freshman's career. Sims made some terrific long passes and looked the best he has yet in the offense. One pass that is sticking in my head is a bomb he threw 55 yards in the air to Jennings to get out of the shadow of Virginia's goal posts. Sims is expected to make his first start Saturday at Duke. Rocco has made just a few too many mistakes this season. He finished off last season in pretty solid fashion, but his progression from good to very good or great hasn't been there, and the bad part is he's gotten worse. On the season, Rocco has thrown six touchdowns and eight interceptions. Sims has five touchdowns and zero picks. He has thrown some errant balls and has gotten lucky, but so has Rocco. At 2-3, Virginia doesn't have a ton to lose at this point. The Cavs' time to make a push toward a bowl game is now. The next three games are all winnable -- at Duke, home vs. Maryland, and home vs. Wake Forest. If the Wahoos could somehow pull out those three wins, they would be 5-3 and would need just one win among N.C. State, Miami, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech to qualify for a bowl game. Sims should have a grasp on most of the playbook by now. The teams coming up on the schedule aren't world beaters. This would be a good time for Sims to get more comfortable in the offense. He will make some mistakes but the fanbase needs to be patient with him. Yes, he was highly touted coming in, but he is still just a redshirt sophomore who hasn't had much playing time yet. And he looked impressive against Louisiana Tech, but keep in mind that was a bad defense. So Sims will take his lumps once better defenses start preparing for him, but I think it is time to start grooming him for the future. Even if we don't make a bowl game this year, he will still be improving and getting to know the ins and outs of the playbook and that should set us up nicely for next season.
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Bears 34, Cowboys 18
Speaking of interceptions, the three that Rocco put up was nothing compared to the five Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo tallied against the Bears on Monday night in Dallas. Two of them weren't his fault, according to analysts on ESPN. I did not get to see the game but I did watch the highlights and it looks like they were right. On one, Romo called for an audible and threw what would have been about a five-yard comeback to Dez Bryant. Bryant ran a stop and go instead and the ball was picked off and returned for a touchdown. I would have to think there that Romo, who has been in this offense now for almost a decade, knew what the new route was as opposed to Bryant, who is just in his third year and has proven to be a bit of a headcase. On the other, the ball hit former Wahoo Kevin Ogletree right in the arms but bounded up in the air and was intercepted, much in the same way balls have been batted into the air by Rocco's receivers.
Romo's inconsistent play and interceptions are one thing. I bet he won't throw five interceptions in a game again this season. But the offense has more serious problems. It just hasn't looked right yet. It has had some good moments, but mostly it has had only one good half this season -- the second in the season-opening win on the road against the Giants. I can't pinpoint what the problem is entirely though there are certainly issues that fans and analysts can point out, the most obvious of which is there is no running game. DeMarco Murray is capable of being a terrific back. We've seen him do it. He ran for over 250 yards in his debut last season against the Rams. But he has been bottled up time and time again this season. I don't believe he has gotten worse. I think Dallas is suffering from one of the same problems Virginia is also suffering from: a bad offensive line. In the Cavaliers' case, the pass protection has been better than the run blocking. In the Cowboys' case, nothing has been good. Romo is a mobile quarterback and seems to always be running for his life. He gets out of bad situations and avoids sacks, which is good, but at the same time, when Romo gets on the run, he tends to take more risks. Sometimes they pay off, and sometimes they don't, like Monday night. One positive for the Cowboys is that Jason Witten might be back to full strength. He was not himself the first few weeks of the season, dropping multiple passes. He was probably affected by a spleen injury he suffered in the preseason. Against the Bears, however, Witten caught 13 passes for 112 yards and a touchdown.
Going forward, the Cowboys' schedule is absolutely brutal. Thankfully, they get a bye week coming up. And they are going to need it because in Week 6, they travel to Baltimore. That one could get ugly if Dallas doesn't improve. After that, the remaining Cowboys schedule is as follows: at Carolina, vs. New York Giants, at Atlanta, at Philadelphia, vs. Cleveland, vs. Washington, vs. Philadelphia, at Cincinnati, vs. Pittsburgh, vs. New Orleans, and at Washington. Which of those games are easy wins with the way the Cowboys are playing now? Maybe Carolina and Cleveland? New Orleans is still a dangerous team I think and will be happy to play spoiler if Dallas is needing a win to make the playoffs. As Jim Mora would say, though, "Playoffs? Playoffs? You kidding me? We're just trying to win a game. We looked like diddly poo out there!" The Cowboys need to turn this offense around first if they hope to get anywhere.
Too many mistakes, miscues, penalties, turnovers, dropped passes, whatever. However you slice it, the Cavaliers just made too many errors in their loss to undefeated Louisiana Tech on Saturday but still almost won.
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| QB Michael Rocco |
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| RB Perry Jones |
Things got better from there. The defense was having pretty good success against Louisiana Tech's offense, holding it to a punt and a field goal on its first two drives. Louisiana Tech scored a touchdown after getting excellent field position after a failed onside kick attempt by the Wahoos to make it 14-10. Some fans seem to think that was the beginning of trouble for the Cavaliers. I did not mind that call. You don't want to give a great offense a short field, but we were playing well at that point, up 14-3, so I think that was an OK call. The defense had not allowed Louisiana Tech too much success to that point. You take a chance to get the ball back quickly and put them in an even bigger hole.
After the Bulldogs' first touchdown, the Virginia offense was still rolling, moving the ball almost at will with nice passes from Rocco to his receivers, who were catching the ball 10-15 yards down field and then making moves for big gains. One Rocco touchdown, perhaps the final of his career (more on that later), was to a wide open Khalek Sheperd running a wheel route, who took it the distance for a 73-yard touchdown.
On one defensive possession, after the Cavaliers made it 24-10 with a Drew Jarrett 35-yard field goal, Louisiana Tech returned the kickoff all the way down to the 3-yard line, only to have the defense turn it away four times. The crowd was pumped up and the whole team was playing well at that point. The offense, pinned deep in its own territory, began to move the ball again. Eventually, Rocco connected with Darius Jennings on a seven-yard pass to the Louisiana Tech 45 and it was 2nd-and-3 for the Cavs.
The bad and the ugly penalties: But offensive lineman Sean Cascarano got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the Cavs were instead faced with a 2nd-and-18. Rocco's next pass deflected off the hands of Terrell and was intercepted by a Bulldog defender, who returned the ball back to the Virginia 25. The Bulldogs scored on the very next play and it was 24-17. Instead of possibly driving for a touchdown to make it 31-10, it was now just a one-touchdown game. The pass from Rocco to Terrell was not too deep, but still, you never know what the play call would have been if Virginia had a 2nd-and-3 and not a 2nd-and-18. That penalty changed the complexion of the next play. But that was truly the beginning of UVa's troubles to me. From there, the Bulldogs scored 34 straight points to take a commanding 44-24 lead midway through the fourth quarter. I think penalties are almost just as much to blame as Rocco's deteriorating play throughout the game. That personal foul penalty that put the Wahoos in that 2nd-and-long situation is just one example. Virginia collected 16 penalties for 145 yards on the day. I think I saw where the record for the team is 17 penalties for 231 yards back around the time of the Frank Quayle days (1960s), who was actually honored at halftime. On the drive where Virginia made the field goal to go up 24-10, the Cavs were getting ready to face a 3rd-and-6 at the Bulldog 7. Instead, a personal foul penalty on Kevin Parks pushed the ball back to the Bulldog 22, where Virginia ran the ball on the next play and settled for a field goal. On the 3rd-and-6, maybe Virginia would have scored a touchdown, or a first down at the one-yard line. You never know. A touchdown would have made it 28-10 instead of 24-10. In the end, it might not have made a difference because if you add the four extra points to Virginia's total of 38, the final score would end up being 44-42 in favor of Louisiana Tech, but we all know you can't just add up scores like that because football is complex, and tiny changes here and there along the way don't add up in a mathematically perfect way at the end of the game. You have to factor in how things like playcalling, momentum, and just the general flow of the game change. Heck, if we had scored a touchdown on that drive, we might have won the game. It is just too hard to know for sure.
The penalty issue culminated in the most damaging of them all with two minutes left in the game. Louisiana Tech was trying to get Virginia to jump offsides on 4th-and-1, called a timeout, then brought its offense back on the field. The problem was, the Cavaliers assumed the Bulldogs were going to punt the ball. When they saw the offense on the field, they could not substitute the defense back on to the field in time and were called for 12 men on the field. I know people were getting mad at the coaching staff and London for that gaffe, but really, how often do you expect the opposing team in that situation to bring the offense back on to the field again? Not often, if ever. So I think instead of blaming London for not paying attention to details, perhaps more credit should go to the Louisiana Tech coaching staff for being clever and daring. The Bulldogs coach said after the game that they were going to go for it.
The real issue with the penalties are they show an undisciplined team. Penalties were a big problem two years ago in London's first season, a 4-8 campaign, so hopefully he can clean up the yellow laundry a little bit and set the 'Hoos on the right path. Duke is up next for the Cavs and if I remember correctly, the Blue Devils were quite chippy in last season's game, and that one was in Charlottesville. This year, the contest is in Durham, and the Blue Devils have to be smelling the postseason at 4-1. If the Cavaliers aren't careful, it could be easy for them to get bated into some more penalties Saturday.
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| WR Adrian Gamble |
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| QB Phillip Sims |
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Bears 34, Cowboys 18
Speaking of interceptions, the three that Rocco put up was nothing compared to the five Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo tallied against the Bears on Monday night in Dallas. Two of them weren't his fault, according to analysts on ESPN. I did not get to see the game but I did watch the highlights and it looks like they were right. On one, Romo called for an audible and threw what would have been about a five-yard comeback to Dez Bryant. Bryant ran a stop and go instead and the ball was picked off and returned for a touchdown. I would have to think there that Romo, who has been in this offense now for almost a decade, knew what the new route was as opposed to Bryant, who is just in his third year and has proven to be a bit of a headcase. On the other, the ball hit former Wahoo Kevin Ogletree right in the arms but bounded up in the air and was intercepted, much in the same way balls have been batted into the air by Rocco's receivers.
Romo's inconsistent play and interceptions are one thing. I bet he won't throw five interceptions in a game again this season. But the offense has more serious problems. It just hasn't looked right yet. It has had some good moments, but mostly it has had only one good half this season -- the second in the season-opening win on the road against the Giants. I can't pinpoint what the problem is entirely though there are certainly issues that fans and analysts can point out, the most obvious of which is there is no running game. DeMarco Murray is capable of being a terrific back. We've seen him do it. He ran for over 250 yards in his debut last season against the Rams. But he has been bottled up time and time again this season. I don't believe he has gotten worse. I think Dallas is suffering from one of the same problems Virginia is also suffering from: a bad offensive line. In the Cavaliers' case, the pass protection has been better than the run blocking. In the Cowboys' case, nothing has been good. Romo is a mobile quarterback and seems to always be running for his life. He gets out of bad situations and avoids sacks, which is good, but at the same time, when Romo gets on the run, he tends to take more risks. Sometimes they pay off, and sometimes they don't, like Monday night. One positive for the Cowboys is that Jason Witten might be back to full strength. He was not himself the first few weeks of the season, dropping multiple passes. He was probably affected by a spleen injury he suffered in the preseason. Against the Bears, however, Witten caught 13 passes for 112 yards and a touchdown.
Going forward, the Cowboys' schedule is absolutely brutal. Thankfully, they get a bye week coming up. And they are going to need it because in Week 6, they travel to Baltimore. That one could get ugly if Dallas doesn't improve. After that, the remaining Cowboys schedule is as follows: at Carolina, vs. New York Giants, at Atlanta, at Philadelphia, vs. Cleveland, vs. Washington, vs. Philadelphia, at Cincinnati, vs. Pittsburgh, vs. New Orleans, and at Washington. Which of those games are easy wins with the way the Cowboys are playing now? Maybe Carolina and Cleveland? New Orleans is still a dangerous team I think and will be happy to play spoiler if Dallas is needing a win to make the playoffs. As Jim Mora would say, though, "Playoffs? Playoffs? You kidding me? We're just trying to win a game. We looked like diddly poo out there!" The Cowboys need to turn this offense around first if they hope to get anywhere.
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