"It's stupid to nit-pick wins," defensive end Brennan Schmidt said after yesterday's game.
Not so fast, my friend.
If the Virginia Cavaliers are to be anything better than a 7-5 team this year, Al Groh and Co. better pick nits about Saturday night's game for the next two weeks. Because it was a case of nits not seen since third grade lice checks.
Every year, the Cavaliers' three biggest weaknesses seem to be the same: punters, receivers and the secondary. Last night, two of those three units actually played all right, though I use that term loosely against a team coming off a 1-10 campaign. The secondary gave up a pitiful 33 completions on 50 attempts. Greg Jennings alone had 156 yards receiving. If Calvin Johnson wasn't busy beating Auburn, I imagined him sitting in Atlanta giggling and licking his lips. Western Michigan was so effective in the air against Virginia that they controlled the ball for 35 minutes while only averaging 2.3 yards per rush.
Marques Hagans had two dumb picks. Tons of defenders missed tackles. Even Groh seemed to be a little off his rocker when, on a late fourth-and-two, instead of kicking a field goal to make it 27-16, the Cavaliers went for it, failed, and before you knew it, the score was 24-19.
Luckily -- and its easy to forget this -- Western Michigan is a really bad team. No matter how many mistakes the Cavaliers made, the Broncos couldn't score an offensive touchdown.
So what did we learn about Virginia Saturday night?
We learned freshman newcomer Cedric Peerman might be someone to take another look at, especially if Wali Lundy is seriously hurt. Without Peerman, it's highly doubtful Virginia would have had its game-sealing 12-play, 69-yard drive. It's also highly doubtful Michael Johnson will ever find his niche in Charlottesville.
We learned the offense even showed some downfield spark. Welcome back, Ottawa "The Longest Yard" Anderson, who went for 109 yards on three catches. Last year, an incident at Sterling Place resulted in Anderson being charged with assault and, subsequently, dismissed from the team and University.
We learned that this team is absolutely hurting without Ahmad Brooks and Lundy, clearly the two most important players on either side of the ball for Virginia, excluding Hagans. Brooks would not have missed a lot of those tackles, and his talent to make plays around the line of scrimmage would probably have reduced the preposterous passing game we saw. As for Lundy, the numbers the committee of backs put up don't tell the real story. There were too many fumbles (three), and none of those players is the receiver Lundy is. Peerman might have had a nice game when it counted, but Lundy has been battle-tested for three years, and according to his online bio "holds the modern-day school record of 41 career touchdowns." The Cavaliers need him back almost as much as they need Brooks.
But perhaps the greatest lesson we learned yesterday was the one given to us on our television screens. Oklahoma, ranked No. 7 and national runner-up, lost to unranked TCU. Auburn, ranked No. 16 and coming off a 13-0 season, lost at home to unranked Georgia Tech (who Virginia will play in Charlottesville later this year). Texas A&M, ranked No. 17, lost to unranked Clemson in Death Valley. No. 3 Tennessee squeaked by UAB by a touchdown. All four of those teams are better than Western Michigan, and all four of those ranked teams are better than Virginia. To put things in perspective, that's why they play the games.
Virginia has a bye this week, and it's rare that a week-two bye is probably what the doctor ordered. Hopefully, Brooks and Lundy can heal up and go to Syracuse and play. After two weeks of film and intense practice, maybe the sluggishness and sloppiness we saw against Western Michigan will disappear. More importantly, maybe a glance around the national scoreboard will remind the Cavaliers that you can't overlook any opponent in sports, ever.
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