Virginia 45, Kent State 13
Virginia followed a similar pattern as in other victories in crushing Kent State on Saturday at Scott Stadium. The Cavaliers used five turnovers by the Golden Flashes to jump start themselves and eventually pull away for the win.
First, Maurice Canady intercepted a pass and took it the distance for a touchdown, tying the game at 7. Then Brandon Phelps picked off a pass. Finally, Virginia got its third interception on one of the biggest plays of the game. The Golden Flashes were driving on the defense down 14-10 trying to take a lead headed into halftime. Kent State QB Colin Reardon passed to the end zone and CB Demetrious Nicholson, back after a turf toe injury in which he missed major time last year and four games this year, fought the Kent State WR for the ball and was eventually rewarded the interception. I thought
the receiver caught the ball but after watching the replay, it was a very close call. Virginia was fortunate to get the turnover in that situation. Kent State would have received a major confidence boost to go into the locker room with the lead. The second half could have played out differently had Kent State grabbed the lead right before halftime. Nicholson played pretty well in his first game back, but sometimes needs to turn his head when the ball is arriving, a problem a lot of our defensive backs have.
In the second half, Virginia got two more turnovers when Kwontie Moore threw Reardon for a loss, he lost the ball, and LB Daquan Romero came up with the recovery. Later, Romero got the strip sack and DreQuan Hoskey picked up the fumble.
It was a good thing Virginia got those turnovers, especially the Canady and Nicholson picks, because the team as a whole had a lethargic start to the game and didn't look interested in the opponent. That pair made a potentially really ugly situation look not quite as bad at halftime. Meanwhile, Kent State came out and scored a touchdown on its second possession and stopped Virginia with two straight three-and-outs on defense to start the game. I said before the game that Virginia's attitude would have to be right for this game to go as expected. Canady said during the week prior to the game that it should be a blowout if the players' heads are right. Clearly, something was off in the first half. Getting ready and getting hyped for a bad Kent State team is different than getting hyped for UCLA, Louisville, BYU, and even a Richmond team where in-state players probably knew several Spiders from their high school days, not to mention the UVa connections of Michael Rocco and Michael Strauss.
Mike London said in his post game news conference that the senior leadership spoke up at the half. It showed, because the team played much better in the second half and outscored the Golden Flashes 31-3 in the final 30 minutes of the contest. Those kinds of slow starts will not work in most ACC games so hopefully Virginia got that out of its system with this game. This was the first game all year where UVa fans had terrible flashbacks to last season's poor play. The difference this year is the seniors got the team turned around. Hopefully, though, especially when turnovers aren't as plentiful, slow starts will not be a problem going forward because Virginia should be fired up for every ACC game. Every team from here on out on the schedule was either better than Virginia last year despite not facing the Wahoos, or directly beat down the 'Hoos, since they were 0-8 in the conference in 2013. Motivation should not be a problem. It is good to know, though, that there are players on the team this season that aren't afraid to kick some butts around if the team is looking lackadaisical on the field.
Matt Johns played OK, completing 17 of 28 passes for 227 yards and a pair of TDs, but he also threw two picks, shutting down any conversation of him taking over for Greyson Lambert. Should Lambert be healthy this week, he will start against Pittsburgh.
Virginia followed a similar pattern as in other victories in crushing Kent State on Saturday at Scott Stadium. The Cavaliers used five turnovers by the Golden Flashes to jump start themselves and eventually pull away for the win.
First, Maurice Canady intercepted a pass and took it the distance for a touchdown, tying the game at 7. Then Brandon Phelps picked off a pass. Finally, Virginia got its third interception on one of the biggest plays of the game. The Golden Flashes were driving on the defense down 14-10 trying to take a lead headed into halftime. Kent State QB Colin Reardon passed to the end zone and CB Demetrious Nicholson, back after a turf toe injury in which he missed major time last year and four games this year, fought the Kent State WR for the ball and was eventually rewarded the interception. I thought
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| CB Demetrious Nicholson |
In the second half, Virginia got two more turnovers when Kwontie Moore threw Reardon for a loss, he lost the ball, and LB Daquan Romero came up with the recovery. Later, Romero got the strip sack and DreQuan Hoskey picked up the fumble.
It was a good thing Virginia got those turnovers, especially the Canady and Nicholson picks, because the team as a whole had a lethargic start to the game and didn't look interested in the opponent. That pair made a potentially really ugly situation look not quite as bad at halftime. Meanwhile, Kent State came out and scored a touchdown on its second possession and stopped Virginia with two straight three-and-outs on defense to start the game. I said before the game that Virginia's attitude would have to be right for this game to go as expected. Canady said during the week prior to the game that it should be a blowout if the players' heads are right. Clearly, something was off in the first half. Getting ready and getting hyped for a bad Kent State team is different than getting hyped for UCLA, Louisville, BYU, and even a Richmond team where in-state players probably knew several Spiders from their high school days, not to mention the UVa connections of Michael Rocco and Michael Strauss.
Mike London said in his post game news conference that the senior leadership spoke up at the half. It showed, because the team played much better in the second half and outscored the Golden Flashes 31-3 in the final 30 minutes of the contest. Those kinds of slow starts will not work in most ACC games so hopefully Virginia got that out of its system with this game. This was the first game all year where UVa fans had terrible flashbacks to last season's poor play. The difference this year is the seniors got the team turned around. Hopefully, though, especially when turnovers aren't as plentiful, slow starts will not be a problem going forward because Virginia should be fired up for every ACC game. Every team from here on out on the schedule was either better than Virginia last year despite not facing the Wahoos, or directly beat down the 'Hoos, since they were 0-8 in the conference in 2013. Motivation should not be a problem. It is good to know, though, that there are players on the team this season that aren't afraid to kick some butts around if the team is looking lackadaisical on the field.
Matt Johns played OK, completing 17 of 28 passes for 227 yards and a pair of TDs, but he also threw two picks, shutting down any conversation of him taking over for Greyson Lambert. Should Lambert be healthy this week, he will start against Pittsburgh.
Next week against Pitt is the type of game we should win if we're truly improved this year. They only beat us 14-3, and I'd like to think this offense could put up more points on them.
ReplyDeleteAnd we have a few more possible openings in the sked. Duke didn't look great in losing to Miami, UNC got waxed by ECU (though ECU is a good team in its own right), and Georgia Tech doesn't always have great motivation when they play us (though it is at Bobby Dodd). We still have a few paths to six wins, but none of them are easy. We probably need to be at six by the time the FSU game rolls around, cause I don't see us beating FSU, Miami, or VT. I'm not giving up just yet.
This weekend is a HUGE game against a beatable opponent. Pitt is very physical though with a great running game. If we can make it tough sledding on them, we win with a an average game on offense. If we win this game, lots more on the schedule look winnable. If we don't, they don't (esp. if we can't beat a Pitt team that just lost 21-10 to Akron at home). Miami is winnable. Not afraid of that game yet. We play them well, especially at home. We have their number sometimes like Duke has ours. I thought Duke was the favorite in the division and was surprised they played so poorly at Miami. Now I think GT is the favorite but they always seem to trip up somewhere.
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