Cavaliers overcome early and late stumbles to swat Yellow Jackets for fourth straight victory

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Virginia 48, Georgia Tech 40

When Joey Blount knocked down Georgia Tech’s desperate heave to the end zone Saturday at Scott Stadium, Virginia officially defeated the Yellow Jackets, winning its fourth straight game to become bowl eligible for the fifth time in six seasons under Bronco Mendenhall.

The game appeared to be unofficially over well before that and should have been. Even on that final play, the ball came a little too close to deflecting off Blount’s hand and into the arms of Kyric McGowan for a touchdown. Tech (3-4, 2-3 ACC) would’ve still needed a 2-point conversion to push Virginia (6-2, 4-2) to overtime. Still, not the ending players and fans were looking for.

“I didn’t hear anyone even talk about being bowl eligible for five times in six years,” Mendenhall said at his Monday news conference. “I remember my second year, the fans rushed the field when we got our sixth win. Yeah, it’s gratifying [to have high expectations]. I have high standards for them. I think it’s the greatest gift I can give. There’s great research on that, and so many times when things get difficult, it’s to lower expectations and to be sympathetic and empathetic, and I actually believe the opposite is you keep asking for more, and that helps people and gives them an occasion to rise to.”

For a large portion of the middle of the game, Virginia was rocking. From the Cavaliers’ first scoring drive through their last, they outscored the Yellow Jackets 48-14. But most of the first quarter and the last part of the fourth quarter left a lot to be desired, when Tech outscored UVa 26-0.

Photo: Brennan Armstrong celebrates a touchdown with tight end Grant Misch (85). (Virginia Athletics)

There was a lot of good, mostly on the offensive side of the ball of course.

Brennan Armstrong completed 29 of his 43 passes for 396 yards and four touchdowns. He ran for another 99 yards and two scores, showing his best burst in several games and his usual rugged toughness. He had the longest rush of the year for Virginia at 45 yards in the second quarter. Armstrong has further elevated himself into the not-receiving-enough-attention-for-the-Heisman discussion. He does seem to be slowly creeping onto the national radar — this past week, he was named to the Manning Award watch list.
“[Offensive coordinator] Robert Anae and [quarterbacks coach] Jason Beck have done a masterful job with this offense and with quarterback development, and so when you mention ‘all this work,’ this is six years’ worth of work,” Mendenhall said. “Brennan is just the next, and yeah, he’s worked really hard, but this is now the third quarterback in a row, and there’s a strong string of quarterback development prior to us arriving here, so I’m really lucky with what Robert and Jason are doing, and our players are lucky, and Brennan is — yeah, he’s doing an amazing job. I don’t think there’s a better quarterback in our league, and I can’t speak to the country because I don’t see everybody play, but man, I’m impressed with him.”

Armstrong now has 3,220 yards passing on the season, the second-highest single-season total in school history behind Bryce Perkins’ 3,538 in 2019, so it’s conceivable Armstrong could pass Perkins’ total — already — next weekend.

After Virginia fell behind 13-0, Armstrong conducted a nine-play, 75-yard drive over 3:35, ending with a quick screen pass to Billy Kemp IV for the score. The ever-steady Kemp had eight catches for 50 yards.
The UVa defense stiffened a bit on the next drive, allowing only a field goal. Armstrong drew the ‘Hoos closer at 16-14 with a pass to the corner of the end zone that Dontayvion Wicks jumped up and snagged over two defenders. It was reminiscent of Hasise Dubois’ TD catch over a Florida defender in the Orange Bowl. Wicks continues to amaze with his mature, spectacular play. He finished with six catches for 168 yards, adding a second touchdown on the Wahoos’ next drive when he caught a short pass, deked one defender, and sped his way down the sideline for a 77-yard TD, giving UVa its first lead of the game, 21-16.
Virginia was able to surge ahead on Wicks’ sprint thanks to Blount making one of the few good defensive plays the Cavaliers put on tape. Tech was putting together another nice drive down to the 28-yard line, but QB Jeff Sims made a poor decision and a poor pass, and Blount stepped in front for the interception. He had actually intercepted a similarly thrown Sims pass near the goal line on Tech’s second drive, but that pick was wiped out because of a roughing-the-passer penalty on Noah Taylor.
UVa’s next two TDs came on Armstrong rushes in the third quarter before he capped off the Wahoos’ scoring with a beautifully thrown 20-yard TD pass to Ra’Shaun Henry, which ended a nine-play, 96-yard drive that lasted more than five minutes. That throw was up there with Armstrong’s best of the night. The other superb pass I want to mention came on Virginia’s first drive of the second half. Virginia faced third-and-16, and Armstrong somehow fit in a pass to Keytaon Thompson in the middle of the field between a slew of defenders. Thompson also saved Armstrong from a possible interception later when he caught a pass with one hand in front of a defender.
Thompson didn’t register a TD, but he continued to be Virginia’s offensive workhorse. The Louisiana native caught nine passes for 89 yards and added seven rushes for 65 yards. With the exception of one drive on which Devin Darrington got a lot of work, Thompson seemed to take on the responsibilities as UVa’s second tailback. Thompson’s ability to somehow slither through the grasp of multiple defenders and find his way through a defense continues to amaze me. He takes a pounding as well but is relentless.

Thompson got to break the rock for his efforts, and it was his birthday.
Wayne Taulapapa had some nice runs, finishing with 54 yards on eight carries. I think Taulapapa and Darrington (22 yards on three attempts) have looked pretty good running the ball. I’d be in favor of giving them a few more touches if it meant Thompson could take less punishment. But I know that suggestion would fall on deaf ears.

At the end of the evening, Virginia had piled up 636 yards, sixth most in program history and its most since tallying 643 versus Duke in 2010. We are talking about one of the best offenses in the country, not just the ACC. The ‘Hoos rank fourth in total offense nationally at 539.9 yards per game, about 20 yards per game behind No. 1 Ohio State. They rank 16th in points per game with 37.7.

Good thing the offense is prolific because the defense is … sheesh. It gave up 570 yards to the Jackets on several chunk plays. Sims finished with 300 yards passing and three TDs plus 65 yards rushing. Jahmyr Gibbs recorded 132 yards rushing and a TD on just 13 carries. The score came on a 71-yard run. Jordan Mason piled up 58 yards rushing on just eight attempts.

Elliott Brown had the defense’s lone sack, and Jahmeer Carter finished with 1.5 tackles for losses. Blount and Nick Grant paced the unit with eight tackles each. We tell both sides of the story here at Hoos Place, so we have to give the dirty details of the D since we provided you the offense’s prettier numbers. The defense ranks 105th in the country, giving up 432.8 yards per game, and it sits 73rd in points per game allowed at 26.4, actually a pretty good number, one that has been skewed by two shutouts.

Other than the defense, another obvious concern was Virginia letting Georgia Tech recover not one but two onside kicks successfully. Armstrong’s final TD pass to Henry occurred with 3:50 left and made the score 48-27. With 22 seconds left, Georgia Tech made it 48-40 and then recovered the second onside kick. On both occasions, Antonio Clary watched the ball bounce by when he had a chance to pounce on it. The second time, he was chewed out by Kemp.

“I’m responsible for all of that, everything that happens on the field, and man, Georgia Tech did a really nice job of executing, and the way they aligned, our alignment didn’t match,” Mendenhall said Monday. “We got out-leveraged, and we have assignments that are really clear, and a little bit of miscommunication that happened by the same two players back-to-back, and that’s all coaching, which is me. I have to make it clearer, get them aligned more effectively, but really players play as they’re prepared, so we just haven’t put enough emphasis as to how many onside kicks will you defend, and we’ve basically practiced it probably in relation to how many we’ll defend, and that showed. So I need to put more emphasis on it.”

One positive early special teams play that factored into the final result was Taylor blocking Georgia Tech’s second extra point. Unfortunately, Taylor, who has been banged up often, had to exit the game later and never returned. (Mandy Alonso also went out in the first half and did not return.) But Taylor’s block caused the Yellow Jackets to go for 2 in the third quarter to make it 27-24 after a TD. Virginia was not ready on the 2-point play and called timeout, even though the announcers noted that the play clock had almost run down to zero. It is on the coaches there to realize the situation and understand the Jackets were maybe going to go for 2 and have the defense ready.

Interestingly, Tech also went for 2 after its final TD to make it 48-42 rather than settle for the extra point to make it 48-41. The attempt was unsuccessful. Had the Jackets gotten that 2-point conversion, a TD and an extra point on that final drive would’ve won it. Given the unlikely probability of completing the comeback in general, one can see the reasoning behind simply going for the win. At worst, with the failure of the 2-point play, (which happened), it’s 48-40, and then Tech has to make a 2-point conversion after the final theoretical TD to tie it. Luckily, the rally never got that far.

A concerning moment also occurred at the end of the first half. Virginia started a drive at its own 18 with 44 seconds remaining. Taulapapa had a nice run up to the UVa 42 with 11 seconds left, clearly putting the team in position to possibly set up a field goal, given the way Armstrong was slinging it. But for whatever reason, Mendenhall waited until 6 seconds showed on the clock to call timeout. Armstrong looked livid that a timeout wasn’t called sooner. The coaches need to be on top of clock management in that situation.

I love Armstrong’s fiery attitude, which he displayed after another play as well, in the second half. Taulapapa had a run inside the 10-yard line, and the pile was slowly moving forward, but the referees blew the play dead. Armstrong was visibly upset then, too, because he must have felt like the whistle came too early.

Looking ahead

So it’s pretty remarkable that this team has reached bowl eligibility before November, considering just about a month ago, it was coming off consecutive 20-point losses. The team’s ability to find ways to win over Miami and Louisville and then get on a roll and take care of business the past two weeks has been impressive. But as Mendenhall said, the players are not satisfied and were not talking about being bowl eligible. They were upset that the game got close at the end. Expectations have risen for fans, too. There’s definitely been some grumbling from them as well. I think, collectively, there’s a feeling out there that there’s more this team can accomplish.

The toughest stretch of the season lies ahead next, starting with Mendenhall’s emotional return to BYU. After that, the players get a well-deserved bye week before hosting Notre Dame in what will obviously be a big game. And then the ‘Hoos finish up by diving back into ACC play at Pittsburgh and by hosting Virginia Tech. The team has improved and put itself in position to have a special season. These next three weeks I see as nice opportunities to learn more and hopefully sharpen up some areas against good teams, in addition to getting a week to rest and recover. Those big tests and the week of rejuvenation will hopefully serve the players well once Pitt rolls around.

The team has an excellent offense and a pretty awful defense. It is what it is at this point — don’t think it is something we should really concern ourselves with too much at this point. With bowl eligibility already taken care of, time to buckle up and just see the ride the players and coaches take us on in November. The opportunity for a special season is there, but improvement likely needs to be made to make this a year that could down in the Virginia record book as one of its best. And it would be nice if another ACC team could beat Pitt, which would give the ‘Hoos a real shot at winning the Coastal. But nevertheless, it should be an entertaining final month, and just like with the basketball team, we shouldn’t just take the winning for granted, no matter how it might look at times.

“What I know right now is wins are hard to get, and to not stop, pause and celebrate every one that you get and earn and celebrate appropriately would be a giant mistake,” Mendenhall said. “I appreciate my team and how hard they work, and sometimes, it’s not perfect.”

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