UCLA 28, Virginia 20
Where to begin? That was one of the weirder Virginia football games I've watched. The Cavaliers can always keep it interesting for us fans. UVa actually played pretty well against the No. 7 preseason team in the country and maybe even better than the score indicated, but I still feel trepidation about the season.
What I liked
There was surprisingly a lot. Overrated or not -- we will see -- Virginia held up really well against the No. 7 team in the country, UCLA. Virginia lost both of its games against top-10 teams last year -- Oregon and Clemson -- by 49 points so losing by eight is really good I'd say. Virginia's defense was awesome. The Bruins managed all of seven offensive points. Middle linebacker Henry Coley recorded 14 tackles, 2.5 for
loss, and two sacks, one more than he did all of last year. He also forced a fumble but more on that later. Quin Blanding held up pretty well in his first college game at safety. He had nine tackles and went toe-to-toe with Bruins QB Brett Hundley and tried to tackle him. Hundley made it across the goal line but not without a fight. And Hundley is a big guy. There aren't many players in the country who probably would have made that stop one-on-one, much less a true freshman. Anthony Harris of course played a great game with 10 tackles and a pass breakup. He didn't have any interceptions, though. My prediction for the year is he won't match his eight from a year ago but he will still get his fair share. Linebacker Daquan Romero had eight tackles, three for loss, a sack, and a forced fumble. Linebacker Max Valles had six tackles, one for loss, and two sacks. Defensive end Eli Harold finished with five tackles, 1.5 for loss, and zero sacks, but was seemingly flying all over the place and disrupting things in the backfield. That guy has a motor. Sometimes he, and Valles, need to slow down in order to make the tackle for loss or sack. Otherwise, they go running past the offense.
I also liked the wide receivers. They were aggressive and I don't remember any bad drops where the player
definitely should have caught the ball -- not even from Darius Jennings, who is notorious for that. He caught a touchdown and had three catches for 39 yards. Hello, Andre Levrone. The redshirt freshman made the catch of the day on the touchdown pass before halftime to make it 21-10. He looked good throughout the game and finished with three catches for 75 yards. Canaan Severin had five receptions for 55 yards. True freshman Doni Dowling tallied five catches for 25 yards and Miles Gooch caught three balls for 20 yards.
Matt Johns -- and yes, Greyson Lambert -- both did some good things at QB. Lambert was criticized for not throwing for more than 10 yards much but if you go back and watch the game, there were a couple. He was pretty accurate -- completed his first seven passes -- and only made one really bad throw, on the second pick six for UCLA. Johns, it goes without saying what he did well. The redshirt sophomore, mostly unknown before Saturday, was a revelation. He came in near
the end of the second quarter and threw two nice long balls, one to Severin and one to Levrone for the touchdown. He moved well in the pocket and was more mobile -- perhaps even fast -- than Lambert. He had a nine yard rush right before the TD pass to Levrone.
Coach Mike London also seemed more engaged in the game than he was in some games last season. Maybe I am remembering the end of the year when all hope was lost, but it just seemed like he had a blank stare a lot last year. He seemed like he was communicating with his players and coaches more Saturday and seemed more fully involved. Maybe he is learning how to become a better game day coach.
What I didn't like
In general, I don't like QB rotations and UVa has another one, a third in four years. London said at his news conference Monday that he won't say whether Johns or Lambert will start, but that both will see time against Richmond. That being said, thus far, both QBs are looking more effective than the Michael Rocco-David Watford combo of 2011 or the Michael Rocco-Phillip Sims duo of 2012. It is very early still. One or both QBs could still end up making lots of mistakes. They both looked good, Johns moreso than Lambert, Saturday. The second pick six was an awful throw from Lambert but his first pick six was a tipped pass and those things happen.
The other turnover that ended up being a touchdown was on a catch by Kyle Dockins, his only of the day. He made the catch but then fumbled on his way down and a UCLA defender scooped up the ball and ran for a TD. What made that turnover and TD more painful was that the Cavs were only down 7-3 and were driving with Lambert under center at that point. Dockins was tackled on UCLA's 25-yard line. He holds on to the ball and maybe we are instead talking about how UVa scores and takes a 10-7 lead at that point.
The run blocking and run playcalling was not good. I should have said this in the section before this but the pass blocking was good. Virginia gave up no sacks. Impressive. The running game, though, managed just 120 yards. Kevin Parks, because of his individual effort and ability, ripped off a couple nice runs but still
ended up with just 55 yards. Taquan Mizzell had just 31. Mizzell also ended up with six catches, but they went for just 15 yards as we failed once again to get him out into open space. We need to keep trying to get him the ball and see what he can do. As for the playcalling, do we have any other running plays in the playbook besides line up in the shotgun and either run a dive right or a dive left? I actually wish we would run some when the QB is under center. Or pitch it. Something different. It seems like we have two running plays.
In general, the playcalling was still really conservative. Offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild is going to have to take more chances and/or get more creative if the staff is to survive this season. We don't necessarily know why Lambert was throwing the ball short a lot. A rumor floating on the Sabre message board was that his shoulder was hurt. That was not confirmed by London, though. Maybe they wanted Lambert to throw short early to get into a rhythm. Maybe Johns just decided to go for it and sling it once he got in there, seeing as how things couldn't get much worse. At that point, it was 21-3 Bruins and every touchdown had been defensive. Despite the criticism, Lambert was still pretty accurate and then when Johns came in, we saw what he could do. Point is, both seem to be better than Watford. If Fairchild isn't going to get more diverse in the running game, then maybe he should start calling more pass plays. If the QBs continue to be accurate, that will help the run game be more successful.
In summary
Virginia's offense outscored UCLA's offense 20-7. Unfortunately, that isn't how football works, though, and UCLA, with some nice defensive playmaking ability and some luck, won the game, 28-20. There is a lot to be happy about. Virginia competed and threatened to take the lead a couple different times. If Virginia can play that well on defense, and offense, it will win more than four games I believe (provided there are no fluky defensive TDs). There are still so many questions about the season, however. Will the QB rotation mess up the season? Will it divide the locker room? Will the defense continue to play like it did vs. UCLA? Remember, it played well against BYU in game one last year, too, but the team ended up 2-10 as the defense was worn down game after game by a bad offense. Was Lambert truly hurt and did it affect the game plan or his confidence? Can Johns keep up his play or will it be a flash in the pan? Can the run game diversify? Will the offensive line continue to overachieve in pass protection? Maybe we will get some answers Saturday playing Richmond but I suspect there will still be plenty of questions. If UVa loses to Richmond, there will be tons of questions but the end result of the season might already be known. If UVa wins, so what, you beat an FCS team. Questions would still linger headed into the team's ACC opener with Louisville on Sept. 13.
Where to begin? That was one of the weirder Virginia football games I've watched. The Cavaliers can always keep it interesting for us fans. UVa actually played pretty well against the No. 7 preseason team in the country and maybe even better than the score indicated, but I still feel trepidation about the season.
What I liked
There was surprisingly a lot. Overrated or not -- we will see -- Virginia held up really well against the No. 7 team in the country, UCLA. Virginia lost both of its games against top-10 teams last year -- Oregon and Clemson -- by 49 points so losing by eight is really good I'd say. Virginia's defense was awesome. The Bruins managed all of seven offensive points. Middle linebacker Henry Coley recorded 14 tackles, 2.5 for
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| LB Henry Coley |
I also liked the wide receivers. They were aggressive and I don't remember any bad drops where the player
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| WR Andre Levrone |
Matt Johns -- and yes, Greyson Lambert -- both did some good things at QB. Lambert was criticized for not throwing for more than 10 yards much but if you go back and watch the game, there were a couple. He was pretty accurate -- completed his first seven passes -- and only made one really bad throw, on the second pick six for UCLA. Johns, it goes without saying what he did well. The redshirt sophomore, mostly unknown before Saturday, was a revelation. He came in near
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| QB Matt Johns |
Coach Mike London also seemed more engaged in the game than he was in some games last season. Maybe I am remembering the end of the year when all hope was lost, but it just seemed like he had a blank stare a lot last year. He seemed like he was communicating with his players and coaches more Saturday and seemed more fully involved. Maybe he is learning how to become a better game day coach.
What I didn't like
In general, I don't like QB rotations and UVa has another one, a third in four years. London said at his news conference Monday that he won't say whether Johns or Lambert will start, but that both will see time against Richmond. That being said, thus far, both QBs are looking more effective than the Michael Rocco-David Watford combo of 2011 or the Michael Rocco-Phillip Sims duo of 2012. It is very early still. One or both QBs could still end up making lots of mistakes. They both looked good, Johns moreso than Lambert, Saturday. The second pick six was an awful throw from Lambert but his first pick six was a tipped pass and those things happen.
The other turnover that ended up being a touchdown was on a catch by Kyle Dockins, his only of the day. He made the catch but then fumbled on his way down and a UCLA defender scooped up the ball and ran for a TD. What made that turnover and TD more painful was that the Cavs were only down 7-3 and were driving with Lambert under center at that point. Dockins was tackled on UCLA's 25-yard line. He holds on to the ball and maybe we are instead talking about how UVa scores and takes a 10-7 lead at that point.
The run blocking and run playcalling was not good. I should have said this in the section before this but the pass blocking was good. Virginia gave up no sacks. Impressive. The running game, though, managed just 120 yards. Kevin Parks, because of his individual effort and ability, ripped off a couple nice runs but still
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| RB Taquan Mizzell |
In general, the playcalling was still really conservative. Offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild is going to have to take more chances and/or get more creative if the staff is to survive this season. We don't necessarily know why Lambert was throwing the ball short a lot. A rumor floating on the Sabre message board was that his shoulder was hurt. That was not confirmed by London, though. Maybe they wanted Lambert to throw short early to get into a rhythm. Maybe Johns just decided to go for it and sling it once he got in there, seeing as how things couldn't get much worse. At that point, it was 21-3 Bruins and every touchdown had been defensive. Despite the criticism, Lambert was still pretty accurate and then when Johns came in, we saw what he could do. Point is, both seem to be better than Watford. If Fairchild isn't going to get more diverse in the running game, then maybe he should start calling more pass plays. If the QBs continue to be accurate, that will help the run game be more successful.
In summary
Virginia's offense outscored UCLA's offense 20-7. Unfortunately, that isn't how football works, though, and UCLA, with some nice defensive playmaking ability and some luck, won the game, 28-20. There is a lot to be happy about. Virginia competed and threatened to take the lead a couple different times. If Virginia can play that well on defense, and offense, it will win more than four games I believe (provided there are no fluky defensive TDs). There are still so many questions about the season, however. Will the QB rotation mess up the season? Will it divide the locker room? Will the defense continue to play like it did vs. UCLA? Remember, it played well against BYU in game one last year, too, but the team ended up 2-10 as the defense was worn down game after game by a bad offense. Was Lambert truly hurt and did it affect the game plan or his confidence? Can Johns keep up his play or will it be a flash in the pan? Can the run game diversify? Will the offensive line continue to overachieve in pass protection? Maybe we will get some answers Saturday playing Richmond but I suspect there will still be plenty of questions. If UVa loses to Richmond, there will be tons of questions but the end result of the season might already be known. If UVa wins, so what, you beat an FCS team. Questions would still linger headed into the team's ACC opener with Louisville on Sept. 13.
I think UCLA was the biggest reason for the lack of UVa's run game. They were really fast. Virginia tried some outside runs but the Bruins' linebackers had just too much speed. To me, Virginia had to give some dedication to the run game just to make sure UCLA respected it. I did not have much of a problem with it. What I am still not clear on is why Lambert was ever replaced. The only reason I can think of is that Tom O'Brien did not think Lambert was taking advantage of the opportunities we had to go up the field. He could have truly seen that we had huge mismatches going deep. But he was very poised and disciplined in the pocket. I really don't want to hold a pick against him given that it was his first game ever as a starter and it was against one of the best defenses in the country.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. UCLA's D was good. The run game will be better against weaker teams, even if the run plays stay the same. And yes, I think it would be kinda bad to not ever put the guy back in you deemed the No. 1 QB from the spring til the beginning of the UCLA game. Hopefully the Richmond game provides a platform for both QBs to show their stuff again.
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