For the fifth straight game, the Virginia football team gave up a score on its opponent’s opening drive.
In every one of these games before their contest at Wake Forest Saturday, the Cavaliers managed to recover to take a win or send the contest to overtime. Against the Demon Deacons (6-3, 4-2 ACC), however, Virginia (5-5, 3-3 ACC) started flat and stayed that way for the entire first half, only emerging from its stupor in the second half to close a 25-point halftime margin to a 28-17 final score.
“This case was a game where we came out flat, and it was flat for quite some time,” senior linebacker Clint Sintim said. “We just can’t keep giving teams the opportunity to get up on us so early in the game and then try to fight back in it.”
Virginia’s early 28-3 deficit was facilitated by three first-half turnovers — including a 53-yard interception return for a touchdown after junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree could not hang on to a pass over the middle — and seven first-half penalties for 43 yards.
The most costly mistake, however, occurred in the second quarter. With Wake facing a 3rd-and-15 from its own 42 yard-line, junior quarterback Riley Skinner let loose a long bomb in the direction of freshman wide receiver Devon Brown. Senior safety Byron Glaspy appeared to be in good position to make a play by the ball but he got turned around and fell as the ball sailed over his head, hitting Brown in stride for a 58-yard touchdown.
“I don’t know if it was the wind or I just misjudged it, but it seemed like the ball just carried further than I anticipated,” Glaspy said. “It just seemed like it was being pushed more than I thought.”
This is the second straight week that Glaspy has fallen on a deep touchdown pass; the safety fell against Miami last week on the 26-yard touchdown pass that ultimately sent the game to overtime.
Despite the devastating first half, the Virginia defense shut down Wake Forest in the second half and the offense appeared to wake up, as well; sophomore quarterback Marc Verica led back-to-back touchdown drives to start the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 11.
When the Cavaliers got the ball back with 6:36 remaining and the score still 28-17, there appeared to be hope. Virginia, however, was forced to punt after Verica was sacked for a 12-yard loss in its own territory.
The Cavaliers had one last gasp as they looked to make it a one-score game with 2:40 remaining, but Verica threw his third interception of the game to Wake Forest senior linebacker Stanley Arnoux to end Virginia’s chances of completing a comeback as compelling as the one it made the last time the team was in Winston-Salem, N.C. in 2002, when it rallied from 17 points down to take a 38-34 victory.
Verica ended with 279 yards passing compared to Skinner’s 130, but it was Skinner’s lack of turnovers compared to Verica’s three picks that told the more accurate story.
“If we don’t fall down on a long play and we don’t turn the ball over, who knows where it goes,” Virginia coach Al Groh said.
The Cavaliers blew another chance to put the ball in the end zone early in the second half. After Verica hit Ogletree beyond the secondary for a 43-yard completion 1 yard short of the end zone, Virginia faced a seemingly automatic touchdown with 1st-and-goal at the 1-yard line. After senior running back Cedric Peerman was stuffed on the first and second downs, however, Verica faked the handoff to Peerman and kept it himself for a 4-yard loss on third down. Groh said Verica had the option to hand to Peerman, which, Groh noted, was the option he should have taken.
“That’s easy to say from the sideline,” Groh added. “I didn’t have to be out there making the decision under pressure.”
Then, on 4th-and-6, Virginia elected to try for the end zone. Verica, however, only managed a completion to Peerman, who was tackled immediately following the catch for a 3-yard loss and a turnover on downs.
“You’re down 25 points — so now you’re down 28-6 [if you kick a field goal],” Groh said. “Maybe it looks a little better in the newspaper, but that’s not what we’re playing for.”
Adding to the turnover total for the second straight week was Peerman, whose fumble in the first quarter was his second in two weeks; before last week’s game against Miami he had not surrendered a fumble to the opposing team in his entire career.
Peerman “hasn’t carried it differently for three years,” Groh said. “Until I see other evidence, I’m going to assume that he was headed the right way.”
With the turnovers, the defensive mishaps and the final outcome, Groh commented on the comparison between Saturday’s contest and the only other game his team played in North Carolina this year, a 3-31 loss to Duke Sept. 27.
“We’ve come down to North Carolina twice and turned the ball over 10 times in two games,” Groh said. “That’s why we’re going home unhappy.”
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