Virginia’s offense finally hit its stride Saturday against Brigham Young, putting up 519 yards on a school record of 102 offensive plays. The Cavaliers held the ball for more than 41 minutes and put up 30 points for just the sixth time in the past three years.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.
A major part of the Cavaliers’ problem was failure to execute deep in Cougar territory, resulting in junior placekicker Ian Frye seeing the field more often than Cavalier fans would have liked. Still, all in all Virginia posted a strong performance against a stingy BYU team on its first road trip of the season.
But a question still lingers: When will we see a complete game from the Cavaliers?
Despite dominant defensive performances against UCLA and Louisville, the offense didn’t show up in an impressive fashion — Virginia turned the ball over six times in those two games.
Then we have the offensive explosions — relatively speaking — against BYU and Richmond, where the Cavaliers put up a combined 78 points. In those games, though, the defense didn’t perform to its expectations, giving up 422 yards to the Spiders and 332 to BYU.
Two weeks ago, I said the Cavalier defense has the potential to carry Virginia to the postseason. I absolutely stand by that prediction. The front seven is scary and as freshman safety Quin Blanding continues to develop, the secondary will increasingly terrorize opposing quarterbacks.
But the bend-but-don’t-break tactic Virginia seems to live by will not work as it gets deeper into conference play, facing the likes of Duke and No. 1 Florida State. The Cougars showed us that yesterday.
When the Virginia defense is at its best, I’ll take it in a goal line stand against anyone in the ACC. Disappointingly, we don’t always get its best. This is perhaps the result of short offensive drives giving the unit little time to rest, or it could be something intangible. Regardless, it’s one of the biggest puzzles the Virginia coaching staff must solve.
On the other side of the ball, the Cavaliers face a similar challenge. Virginia’s opening drive Saturday probably the offense's best performance since I’ve been at the University. Offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild stretched the field, mixed up his play calling, and let his athletes make plays. It was wonderful to watch.
As the game wore on, Virginia fell back into the predictable dink-and-dump scheme that has characterized its offense in recent years. The Cavaliers were able to move the ball, but a resistance to pass or run anywhere but up the middle on early downs consistently put Greyson Lambert in third-and-long situations that more often than not resulted in field goals and stalled drives.
Speaking of Lambert, he currently has a completion percentage of 64.9 and has thrown just four interceptions. Hopefully the fourth-quarter injury he suffered Saturday wasn’t serious and he will be able to return against Kent State. If not, though, Matt Johns has been an impressive replacement and I like the vertical threat he presents to opposing defenses.
The past several weeks have also seen the emergence of Miles Gooch as the Cavaliers’ primary receiving threat. The 6-foot-3-inch senior has been consistent on third down. He currently ranks third on the team with 163 receiving yards and is steadily climbing. Coupled with Darius Jennings and Canaan Severin, the Cavaliers have the potential to possess a legitimate aerial attack.
With these emerging weapons, Fairchild and the rest of the coaching staff must not overly rely on the team’s senior leader Kevin Parks in offensive series. This strategy has made the Cavaliers unnecessarily one-dimensional. If they are to succeed, it has to change.
Changing up the play calls keeps defenses on their toes and forces them to play honestly and cover the entire field. I believe the coaching staff took a step in the right direction Saturday, especially on Johns’ final drive.
We’ve seen flashes this season of a team that can perform at a very high level and compete with nationally-ranked competition. If the Cavaliers can figure out how to deliver the offense from Saturday onto the same field as the defense that opened the season, they will make noise in the ACC this season.
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