Virginia 40, Georgia Tech 36
It's difficult to pick a time when the win Saturday looked the unlikeliest.
Was it before the game, when Virginia came in having lost its past two games by a combined score of 72-24, and the opponent, Georgia Tech, was 4-3 but had nearly beaten undefeated Miami and also coasted past Pittsburgh 35-17, the team UVa just lost to 31-14?
Was it in the first half, when the Cavaliers dropped pass after pass and, in a driving rainstorm, offensive coordinator Robert Anae refused to concede that passing and catching was difficult and maybe the offense should run the ball more?
Was it at the beginning of the second half, when, after 35 seconds, the score went from Georgia Tech up 14-13 to Tech up 28-13?
Was it when Georgia Tech scored to go up 36-33 with 3:10 left after Virginia had fought its way all the way back to take a small lead? Or was it after that, when Virginia marched right down the field and scored to go back up, and many UVa fans probably thought, "Crap, we scored too quickly"?
Was it when Georgia Tech converted a fourth-and-16 on a long pass to the Virginia 32 to keep its final drive alive, a play that surely had every Wahoo thinking, "Oh no," a play where the wideout barely (maybe) got a toe down inbounds before his left foot was out of bounds?
But the Cavaliers refused to give in, refused to let another gut-punch of a loss similar to Notre Dame 2015 and Louisville 2016 happen, refused to be denied a sixth win. The resolve that was missing the past two weeks that was evident in close wins over UNC and Duke returned.
And after Chris Peace relentlessly chased TaQuon Marshall to the sideline one last time on the second fourth down of Tech's final drive and the pass fell incomplete, Peace laid on the ground in exhausted joy. The 'Hoos could finally say they were bowl eligible for the first time since 2011.
After looking listless in losses to Boston College and Pittsburgh, coach Bronco Mendenhall acknowledged the team was tight from the pressure of trying to get to a bowl. Instead of avoiding the topic, he said something had to change, so the team talked about the possibility all week. The 'Hoos embraced the challenge. And right from the start of the game, even though some of the execution wasn't crisp, you could see that the players were energetic and enthusiastic, something that had been missing from the two recent losses.
That passion and fortitude was necessary in a game that kept throwing the Cavs curveballs. The rain made Virginia's preferred style of offense tough to conduct. There were several dropped passes. UVa
hit on some big plays in the first half but twice only came away with field goals.
Kick returner Joe Reed had a big runback to open the game, getting all the way down to the Georgia Tech 34. UVa was only able to get three points. Then, after Georgia Tech made it 14-6, Reed finally broke through for a return touchdown. Reed, just a sophomore, had been close on so many returns since the beginning of last season, and I knew it was just a matter of time before he broke one all the way. And it of course came at a terrific time when the 'Hoos really needed a boost.
Virginia was in need of another boost 35 seconds into the second half. Reed's burst had made it 14-13, a score that stuck going to halftime. But very quickly in the second half, Georgia Tech struck with a long TD run by Marshall and then a pick-6 by Bruce Jordan-Swilling. I'd be lying if I said at this point my thought wasn't, "So, just in case you thought UVa had a chance in this game, boom." The team was back in dire straits.
But in surprising fashion, Virginia came back. Just a few minutes later, by the 10:05 mark of the third quarter, the game was tied again. As a Virginia football fan, it can still be a little jolting to see the team fight, but it is quickly becoming commonplace, as the team has been faced with difficulties in most games this season, and, especially in the wins, the players don't give up. But offensive linemen Brandon Pertile admitted this week, "The last two weeks [against BC and Pitt], if that would've happened, the outcome probably wouldn't have been the same. This week, we were like, 'We're going to go out there, we're going to fly around and play ball, and we're going to win.'" The refocused attitude was evident this week, and the players knew they had their heads in the game.
Even as Virginia was playing well to get back in the game and eventually take the lead, there were still roadblocks. Anae is still way too pass heavy in his playcalling for me. Jordan Ellis is picking up 4.2 yards per carry this year. He should have been relied more in the first half when the conditions were deteriorating. And there were a couple of specific instances in the second half where I thought the team should've ran the ball. One came when it was 28-28, and Virginia had just completed a 20-yard pass to Doni Dowling to the Georgia Tech 23, and then followed that up with an 8-yard run by Ellis on first down. On the next play, a ball hit Dowling right in the hands. Had he caught it, it would've been a first down and maybe a touchdown. But to me, Ellis had just reached the red zone with a physical run, and it was second-and-2, so give him the ball again. Perhaps my outlook would've been different had it been a nice day where the receivers weren't dropping lots of passes. UVa ended up settling for a field goal on the drive. The second instance came when Virginia was up 31-28 and Ellis had just picked up 7 yards to the Virginia 39. On the next play, UVa completed a swing pass to Joe Reed for no gain. The third-down pass was incomplete. When you are up 31-28 in bad weather and your running back just got you 7 yards and hasn't had a ton of carries all day, so he should be fresh, feed him. I have a feeling, though, that as long as Anae is at Virginia, this will be a constant issue I have with the offense. The scheme leans on the pass, and that's how it is just going to be probably.
Amazingly, as if the football gods smiled down on the Cavaliers, everything went right on Virginia's final scoring drive. Anae looked like a genius, Kurt Benkert was accurate, the line protected him (it gave up zero sacks on the day), and the receivers held on to the passes. The result was a five-play, 64-yard drive that took all of 1:48 and ended with Benkert finding Andre Levrone for their second TD hookup of the day on a 27-yard pass.
"It was beautiful," Benkert said of the last drive. "It was a lot of fun to be a part of. Just a lot of guys looking you in the eyes and knowing that you're ready to go and vice versa. Just truly believing that we could pull it off, because we've been on the opposite end of that way too many times since I've been here."
But like I alluded to earlier, there was still plenty of time left on the clock. The defense had to come through as it did in the victories over Duke and UNC. And it did, but just like those wins, Georgia Tech crossed midfield before the defense bowed up. On the last drive, the Cavaliers gave up a 15-yard run to TaQuon Marshall and a 35-yard pass to Ricky Jeuene, but also sacked Marshall twice, held him to zero yards on a run, and forced four incompletions. Peace's final pursuit of Marshall on Tech's final play typified the effort expended by the defense all evening. Peace, a linebacker, ended up with seven tackles, two for losses, and two sacks. Defensive end Andrew Brown finished with eight tackles, 1.5 for losses, and half a sack. Cornerback Juan Thornhill picked up half a sack on the final drive and tallied three pass breakups. Defensive lineman Eli Hanback had 10 tackles, one for loss, and one sack. Linebacker Jordan Mack recorded 13 tackles, two for losses, and a sack. Safeties Quin Blanding and Brenton Nelson had one interception each. And of course, linebacker Micah Kiser led the team with 18 tackles.
Punter Lester Coleman was specifically pointed out by Mendenhall in the postgame news conference for his contribution as well. He averaged 46 yards on his eight punts with a long of 63 and dropped four inside the 20. His biggest was the one that led to a safety when Tech muffed a snap, and Marshall recovered it in the end zone.
Let's also point out kicker A.J. Meija. He made all three of his field goals -- from 36, 23, and 33 yards -- all of which proved to be important, and is now 8 of 10 on the year, a big improvement over what Virginia had at kicker last year. He's also made all of his extra points this season. But did anyone see the last one he made Saturday? It hit the one upright, bounced all the way across and hit the opposite upright, and went through. It was obviously a big extra point because it put UVa up four instead of three. It was just that kind of day for the Wahoos. Fortune smiled down on players that have put in a ton of work to improve, and the results are showing.
"The guys in the class of 2013, we came here expecting to win early. We didn't get it done. It was five long, hard years to finally get to a bowl game," Kiser said. "You got to live in the moment. That's what Coach Mendenhall was preaching all week. You can't be outcome-driven. Don't think about outcome, because then you start to play with fear, and you're scared of things. We were just playing in the moment. We were down 15, we could have easily quit, but we came back."
It's difficult to pick a time when the win Saturday looked the unlikeliest.
Was it before the game, when Virginia came in having lost its past two games by a combined score of 72-24, and the opponent, Georgia Tech, was 4-3 but had nearly beaten undefeated Miami and also coasted past Pittsburgh 35-17, the team UVa just lost to 31-14?
Was it in the first half, when the Cavaliers dropped pass after pass and, in a driving rainstorm, offensive coordinator Robert Anae refused to concede that passing and catching was difficult and maybe the offense should run the ball more?
Was it at the beginning of the second half, when, after 35 seconds, the score went from Georgia Tech up 14-13 to Tech up 28-13?
Was it when Georgia Tech scored to go up 36-33 with 3:10 left after Virginia had fought its way all the way back to take a small lead? Or was it after that, when Virginia marched right down the field and scored to go back up, and many UVa fans probably thought, "Crap, we scored too quickly"?
Was it when Georgia Tech converted a fourth-and-16 on a long pass to the Virginia 32 to keep its final drive alive, a play that surely had every Wahoo thinking, "Oh no," a play where the wideout barely (maybe) got a toe down inbounds before his left foot was out of bounds?
But the Cavaliers refused to give in, refused to let another gut-punch of a loss similar to Notre Dame 2015 and Louisville 2016 happen, refused to be denied a sixth win. The resolve that was missing the past two weeks that was evident in close wins over UNC and Duke returned.
And after Chris Peace relentlessly chased TaQuon Marshall to the sideline one last time on the second fourth down of Tech's final drive and the pass fell incomplete, Peace laid on the ground in exhausted joy. The 'Hoos could finally say they were bowl eligible for the first time since 2011.
After looking listless in losses to Boston College and Pittsburgh, coach Bronco Mendenhall acknowledged the team was tight from the pressure of trying to get to a bowl. Instead of avoiding the topic, he said something had to change, so the team talked about the possibility all week. The 'Hoos embraced the challenge. And right from the start of the game, even though some of the execution wasn't crisp, you could see that the players were energetic and enthusiastic, something that had been missing from the two recent losses.
That passion and fortitude was necessary in a game that kept throwing the Cavs curveballs. The rain made Virginia's preferred style of offense tough to conduct. There were several dropped passes. UVa
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| Virginia players and Bronco Mendenhall (center) start to celebrate at the end of the game. |
Kick returner Joe Reed had a big runback to open the game, getting all the way down to the Georgia Tech 34. UVa was only able to get three points. Then, after Georgia Tech made it 14-6, Reed finally broke through for a return touchdown. Reed, just a sophomore, had been close on so many returns since the beginning of last season, and I knew it was just a matter of time before he broke one all the way. And it of course came at a terrific time when the 'Hoos really needed a boost.
Virginia was in need of another boost 35 seconds into the second half. Reed's burst had made it 14-13, a score that stuck going to halftime. But very quickly in the second half, Georgia Tech struck with a long TD run by Marshall and then a pick-6 by Bruce Jordan-Swilling. I'd be lying if I said at this point my thought wasn't, "So, just in case you thought UVa had a chance in this game, boom." The team was back in dire straits.
But in surprising fashion, Virginia came back. Just a few minutes later, by the 10:05 mark of the third quarter, the game was tied again. As a Virginia football fan, it can still be a little jolting to see the team fight, but it is quickly becoming commonplace, as the team has been faced with difficulties in most games this season, and, especially in the wins, the players don't give up. But offensive linemen Brandon Pertile admitted this week, "The last two weeks [against BC and Pitt], if that would've happened, the outcome probably wouldn't have been the same. This week, we were like, 'We're going to go out there, we're going to fly around and play ball, and we're going to win.'" The refocused attitude was evident this week, and the players knew they had their heads in the game.
Even as Virginia was playing well to get back in the game and eventually take the lead, there were still roadblocks. Anae is still way too pass heavy in his playcalling for me. Jordan Ellis is picking up 4.2 yards per carry this year. He should have been relied more in the first half when the conditions were deteriorating. And there were a couple of specific instances in the second half where I thought the team should've ran the ball. One came when it was 28-28, and Virginia had just completed a 20-yard pass to Doni Dowling to the Georgia Tech 23, and then followed that up with an 8-yard run by Ellis on first down. On the next play, a ball hit Dowling right in the hands. Had he caught it, it would've been a first down and maybe a touchdown. But to me, Ellis had just reached the red zone with a physical run, and it was second-and-2, so give him the ball again. Perhaps my outlook would've been different had it been a nice day where the receivers weren't dropping lots of passes. UVa ended up settling for a field goal on the drive. The second instance came when Virginia was up 31-28 and Ellis had just picked up 7 yards to the Virginia 39. On the next play, UVa completed a swing pass to Joe Reed for no gain. The third-down pass was incomplete. When you are up 31-28 in bad weather and your running back just got you 7 yards and hasn't had a ton of carries all day, so he should be fresh, feed him. I have a feeling, though, that as long as Anae is at Virginia, this will be a constant issue I have with the offense. The scheme leans on the pass, and that's how it is just going to be probably.
Amazingly, as if the football gods smiled down on the Cavaliers, everything went right on Virginia's final scoring drive. Anae looked like a genius, Kurt Benkert was accurate, the line protected him (it gave up zero sacks on the day), and the receivers held on to the passes. The result was a five-play, 64-yard drive that took all of 1:48 and ended with Benkert finding Andre Levrone for their second TD hookup of the day on a 27-yard pass.
"It was beautiful," Benkert said of the last drive. "It was a lot of fun to be a part of. Just a lot of guys looking you in the eyes and knowing that you're ready to go and vice versa. Just truly believing that we could pull it off, because we've been on the opposite end of that way too many times since I've been here."
But like I alluded to earlier, there was still plenty of time left on the clock. The defense had to come through as it did in the victories over Duke and UNC. And it did, but just like those wins, Georgia Tech crossed midfield before the defense bowed up. On the last drive, the Cavaliers gave up a 15-yard run to TaQuon Marshall and a 35-yard pass to Ricky Jeuene, but also sacked Marshall twice, held him to zero yards on a run, and forced four incompletions. Peace's final pursuit of Marshall on Tech's final play typified the effort expended by the defense all evening. Peace, a linebacker, ended up with seven tackles, two for losses, and two sacks. Defensive end Andrew Brown finished with eight tackles, 1.5 for losses, and half a sack. Cornerback Juan Thornhill picked up half a sack on the final drive and tallied three pass breakups. Defensive lineman Eli Hanback had 10 tackles, one for loss, and one sack. Linebacker Jordan Mack recorded 13 tackles, two for losses, and a sack. Safeties Quin Blanding and Brenton Nelson had one interception each. And of course, linebacker Micah Kiser led the team with 18 tackles.
Punter Lester Coleman was specifically pointed out by Mendenhall in the postgame news conference for his contribution as well. He averaged 46 yards on his eight punts with a long of 63 and dropped four inside the 20. His biggest was the one that led to a safety when Tech muffed a snap, and Marshall recovered it in the end zone.
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| Senior LB Micah Kiser (53) and junior LB Jordan Mack were a couple of the Cavaliers on defense who came up big. |
Let's also point out kicker A.J. Meija. He made all three of his field goals -- from 36, 23, and 33 yards -- all of which proved to be important, and is now 8 of 10 on the year, a big improvement over what Virginia had at kicker last year. He's also made all of his extra points this season. But did anyone see the last one he made Saturday? It hit the one upright, bounced all the way across and hit the opposite upright, and went through. It was obviously a big extra point because it put UVa up four instead of three. It was just that kind of day for the Wahoos. Fortune smiled down on players that have put in a ton of work to improve, and the results are showing.
"The guys in the class of 2013, we came here expecting to win early. We didn't get it done. It was five long, hard years to finally get to a bowl game," Kiser said. "You got to live in the moment. That's what Coach Mendenhall was preaching all week. You can't be outcome-driven. Don't think about outcome, because then you start to play with fear, and you're scared of things. We were just playing in the moment. We were down 15, we could have easily quit, but we came back."
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