Virginia shows unbelievable perseverance in comeback at Louisville

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Virginia 34, Louisville 33

Was it over when leading receiver Dontayvion Wicks left the game after a viscous hit to his head on Virginia’s first drive?

Was it over when Brennan Armstrong threw two third-quarter interceptions that Louisville turned into a pair of field goals?

How about when UVa found itself down 30-13 going into the fourth quarter?

OK, what about when Cardinals RB Hassan Hall broke through the line and saw nothing but green in front of him with just over three minutes remaining and Louisville up 30-27?

Well then, surely it was over when Virginia faced two fourth downs on its final drive?

Ah I see, it was over when the Cavaliers defense gave up 44 yards in 20 seconds on Louisville’s last drive, right?

Photo: Virginia wideout Keytaon Thompson looks for room to run as Louisville's Qwynnterrio Cole bears down. (Associated Press/Timothy D. Easley)

OK, OK, but it was definitely over when Louisville lined up for a 49-yard game-winning field goal, correct? Virginia was due for some bad karma on field goals, so it had to be over there.

The answer to all these questions was, apparently, a resounding NO.

The Wahoos defeated the Cardinals with an improbable fourth-quarter comeback Saturday, their second ACC road win in as many games. Armstrong found tight end Grant Misch wide open in the left corner of the end zone with 22 seconds remaining. He was the fourth option on the play.
“I always think: Why would you quit? Why would you quit anything?” Armstrong said following Virginia’s 21-point fourth quarter. “You do all this work to go out and perform, and sometimes you don’t perform well, but why would you quit? It just doesn’t add up in my head.”

Virginia racked up 522 yards of offense, keyed by the performance and, more importantly, relentless attitude of Armstrong. He completed 40 of 60 passes for 487 yards, three touchdowns, and two picks. He now possesses the top two spots for single-game passing yards in school history (554 at UNC this year being No. 1).

“[Armstrong’s] just the guy if it’s a neighborhood game, whatever side he’s on, you want to be on that team because you think you’re going to win just because he thinks he’s going to win no matter what the circumstances are,” Bronco Mendenhall said.
Time and time again, Virginia’s players had the opportunity to fold and didn’t. It was evident on social media that many fans — myself included — had quit on the game when Louisville (3-3, 1-2 ACC) went up 30-13. But the ‘Hoos (4-2, 2-2) refused to give in and refused to be denied.

“I don’t know if I have the appropriate thoughts or words, but I’m grateful and thankful to be the coach at UVa,” Mendenhall said after his team won in miraculous fashion for the second straight week. “I’m thankful that our players allow me to coach and that they try hard and that it matters to them. Thirty to thirteen was where we were, and credit Louisville and coach [Scott] Satterfield and their staff — it was a remarkable turn of events by them in the third quarter and they took over the game, but to Brennan’s credit and our team’s credit, they just kept chipping, climbing, and fighting and coming back, and they’re really resilient.”

Overcoming obstacles

There were so many events that transpired that could’ve caused the players to say, you know what? I’m good for this week. Let’s try again next week at home versus Duke. But they didn’t. I think a great way to look at the resilience of this team and recap this victory is to look at how it responded to each of the adversities listed above.

Wicks goes down: With their receiving leader taken out early, the Cavaliers didn’t blink or lose momentum on their opening drive. On the next play, Armstrong found Billy Kemp IV with a short completion, and he broke a tackle and ran into the end zone. In Wicks’ absence, the trio of Kemp, Ra’Shaun Henry, and Keytaon Thompson had incredible games. Thompson recorded 10 catches for 149 yards. On Virginia’s winning drive, Thompson caught both fourth-down receptions and totaled four catches for 68 yards. Henry had nine receptions for 179 yards. Kemp tallied eight catches for 47 yards.
“I hate using the word ‘never,’ but there’s no one that I see that makes so many plays in so many ways at critical times [as Thompson], and he’s got a broken hand — it’s hard to catch with a broken hand,” Mendenhall said. “Billy is similar, just the volume of plays they’re making, and Ra’Shaun and his emergence with Dantayvion going down. Jelani [Woods] is in and out, so it’s just the entire collective program. Keytaon just seems to be there when you need him. When your heart is stopping and you’re holding your breath and your stress is building, he’s catching another one.”

Mendenhall didn’t have an update on Wicks in his Monday news conference.

Armstrong throws two third-quarter picks: While these interceptions Armstrong has been throwing are concerning — two in each of 12 ACC games in his career — it’s obvious we have to take the good with the bad right now. Armstrong has played amazingly well for most of the season, and he’s had a really nice ability to shake off his mistakes. I don’t think this rally happens with last year’s version of Armstrong. Also, big props to the much-maligned defense. After these picks, Louisville started both drives inside Virginia’s 30-yard line. On both occasions, the defense allowed no first downs, and the Cards had to settle for field goals.

Virginia falls behind 30-13 going into the fourth quarter: Given the way modern college football is played, this margin was not insurmountable. But with the way the third quarter went, it just felt that way. The ‘Hoos started the fourth quarter at midfield. On their first play, Armstrong found Kemp on third-and-10 for 15 yards. With just under 13 minutes left, Virginia scored on a 5-yard rush by Thompson to make it 30-20. UVa cut into the lead further and made it 30-27 with 7:51 left when Armstrong found Woods for a 3-yard TD. Woods had a big size advantage on the play but showed excellent hands nevertheless, with Kei’Trel Clark swiping at the ball as Woods held onto it.

Virginia’s postgame notes do not mention where this comeback ranks in school history. But the only obvious one that comes to mind that was larger was when Virginia defeated Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, 36-32, in 1998. UVa was down 22 in that one, but that was the halftime deficit, not the fourth-quarter deficit. On Saturday, the Cavaliers scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, the second time this year they’ve scored 21 points in a quarter (North Carolina – second quarter).

ACC Network put up a graphic showing that conference teams are 2-531 in the past 15 seasons when trailing by 17 points in the fourth quarter. Other than Saturday, N.C. State topped Maryland 56-41 in 2011 after trailing 41-21 at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Hall breaks through the line, heading for the end zone and back-breaking TD … until Darrius Bratton comes flying from across the field to trip him up at the 27-yard line. Louisville had to settle for a field goal, keeping Virginia within one score. Mendenhall said it was the play of the game, and Bratton was rewarded by breaking the rock. That chasedown brought back memories of former Virginia cornerback Bryce Hall running down Miami RB Travis Homer during a 2018 game in Charlottesville. That was also interpreted as a game-saving tackle because Virginia won 16-13.

“[Bratton] didn’t have a significant role tonight, in terms of number of plays, but there couldn’t have been a bigger play made, and his effort and fortitude and commitment to our team,” Mendenhall said. “That play to me, I’m not going to forget as a coach. In fact, I might only remember a couple plays from that whole game, and that was the one I remember most.”
UVa faces two fourth downs on final drive: First was fourth-and-6 at the Cavaliers’ 29-yard line and second was fourth-and-8 at the Louisville 35. Armstrong found Thompson for completions both times. The second was a mini-redemption story for Thompson, who had jumped offsides on the previous play when it was fourth-and-3. Right as the flag was thrown, it looked like a positive play was developing, with Armstrong finding Woods for what could have been a long gain. No one was around him, but that could’ve been because the Cardinals had heard the whistle. Either way, as a fan, I was thinking, OK, no way are we going to convert a second fourth down that was just made more difficult. But the players persevered. Thompson dropped a touchdown at Miami that opened the door for the Hurricanes to possibly win, but the “football player” came through in the clutch at Louisville.

Louisville travels 44 yards in 20 seconds to set up game-winning field goal: Having watched this defense, we all knew the game wasn’t over when Armstrong found Misch in the back corner of the end zone. Twenty-two seconds left — too much time. I was very hopeful and did think we were going to win, but it was not a slam dunk. Louisville had two timeouts and actually only used one on the last drive. Before the drive started, I said aloud that the Cardinals only needed about 45 yards to set up a reasonable field goal, and they could do that in two or three plays. Anytime we are going to have to rely on our defense to close out a game this year, we will be holding our breath. Simple as that.

But I do want to give some kudos to the defense. As I mentioned, it held Louisville to field goals after Armstrong’s INTs, Bratton had the tackle of Hall, and also, Virginia stuffed Hall twice on second-and-1 and third-and-1 with Louisville up 30-27 midway through the fourth quarter. Nick Jackson and Jahmeer Carter, with plenty of help, made big tackles on those plays. Another game-changing play came from Coen King in the second quarter. Louisville was driving deep into Virginia territory down 13-10 when King made an excellent hit on WR Josh Johnson, popping the ball free. King also recovered the fumble. Virginia has not been good at generating turnovers. Since it is giving up a lot of yards, more turnovers could provide the unit with a boost.
“[The defense is] getting better each game, and the idea is capacity and consistency,” Mendenhall said. “The first half, you saw the very first play of the game, Louisville did a really nice job throwing and catching [on the 92-yard TD to Tyler Harrell] and then from there, really nothing in the first half, but in the second half … there were some other plays, but down the stretch, enough plays and enough consistency, more positive plays longer than what we’ve been doing and two-minute defense. … I thought they were outstanding in the critical moment. The difference between this game and let’s say the Wake Forest game, was the critical moment stops, and the rest of it was about the same.”

Louisville sets up game-winning field goal: Cardinals kicker James Turner was 4 for 5 coming into the game with a long of 46 yards. In 2020, he went 13 for 15 with a long of 50 yards and was named honorable mention all-ACC. On Saturday, he badly missed both the 45-yarder in the first half and the game-ending 49-yarder. Those were tough attempts, but had you asked me before the game, I would have thought he’d make at least one. I wasn’t too surprised when he yanked the last one, though. It just felt a touch too far, and his confidence was probably down after the first miss. Still, he missed as many field goals in one game as he did all of last season.

Looking forward

This was just an incredible never-say-die effort from the Cavaliers.

It took a while, but the offense got going when its back was against the wall. The defense was shaky as could be again, giving up 503 yards, but it did make a few plays that mattered. And despite not recording any sacks, it largely kept Malik Cunningham from picking up yards on the ground, and he only passed for 270 yards.

The Cavaliers won consecutive road games for the first time since 2017 (Boise State and North Carolina). Now Virginia heads home for back-to-back winnable games against Duke and Georgia Tech. The Cavaliers could easily be 2-4 or 3-3 rather than 4-2. This old adage perfectly encapsulates the Wahoos’ past two victories: Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Has luck been involved? Yes, though I’d say it was more involved in the Miami win than the Louisville win. But they’ve made just enough plays to be in this position — we’re not going to apologize for two wins, no matter how they are attained — and now they have to build on this momentum going into the second half of the regular season. They have a nice opportunity to lock up bowl eligibility before the final tough four-game stretch.

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