With Saturday’s head-scratching loss to North Carolina, the Virginia football team fell to 4-4 on the year. Our team this year is obviously much better than last year’s edition, but the Cavaliers still have several enormous flaws which could keep them from reaching bowl eligibility.
Chief among these flaws is the inability to perform at a high level in the second half. After yesterday, the Cavaliers have scored just six second-half points combined in their last three games. On the year against ACC opponents, they average fewer than five points per game in the third and fourth quarters.
That won’t get the job done.
Virginia had to deal with awful field position Saturday thanks to a stellar performance by North Carolina’s punter, but the team still failed to perform at pivotal moments — specifically in the form of the Greyson Lambert’s costly interception.
The problem to me seems to be the team is unable to adapt to their opponents' halftime adjustments. Against Pitt, when the Panthers tried to tighten up the middle to limit Kevin Parks’ productivity, Virginia had no answer through the air. Luckily, the first half lead they built was big enough to survive the Panthers' comeback attempt.
Against Duke, the Cavaliers went just 3-for-8 on third down and again only put up a field goal in a very winnable game. This game also saw Virginia unable to pick up any momentum through the air when the Blue Devils slowed down the rushing attack.
The worst of the three, though, was absolutely against North Carolina — a team that gives up an average of 43 points per game and showed a reluctance to tackle anyone all game long. But the Cavaliers just could not score.
This is almost entirely a coaching issue. The players have performed well — indeed above expectations — and can only do so much in the face of such baffling play calls. Offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild has done a much better job as the season has progressed of varying his play-calling, but Virginia is still too conservative.
I understand the running game is the strongest aspect of the offense, and I agree that the team needs to ride Parks, because he’s having an incredible year. But not even trying to get a first down when you’re deep in your own territory is baffling and very frustrating to watch.
What’s scary to me is that I don’t really see anything changing. Virginia is a running team, and the loss of senior receiver Miles Gooch for perhaps a long time is only going to make them more reliant on Parks and company. To win at the Division I level, you have to have a varied attack, regardless of conference.
It’s going to be sad if this team doesn’t reach a bowl game, because they really do deserve it. But unfortunately, if these trends continue, they won’t get the requisite two more wins to qualify. Georgia Tech has been very impressive — destroying Pitt 56-28 this week — and I don’t think I really need to say anything about the impending trip to Tallahassee.
Miami is improving and the Hurricanes dispatched with those turkeys down south 30-6 Thursday evening. Beating Tech is the best chance we have at a win if we play the same way, and even that is not going to be enough to get into a bowl.
Fairchild and London need to figure out how to be more creative to keep opponents on their toes. I — and the rest of the press box — was literally astounded Virginia got away from attacking Carolina’s dreadful cornerbacks with jet sweeps to Darius Jennings and Smoke. Lambert was also effective through the air with 261 yards (until that interception on the screen, which was pretty terrible), so I couldn’t wrap my head around why Virginia refused to pass when it was on its own goal line.
I hope the Cavaliers get this figured out, because they have shown how good of a team they can be. But, as long as you only play half of a game, you just aren’t going to win
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