They say football is a game of inches. They couldn't have been more right Saturday.
With Virginia trailing 14-10 against Boston College with only 26 seconds left in the game, senior quarterback Jameel Sewell took the snap from the shotgun on 4th and 1 from the Eagles' 12-yard line, momentarily scanned the field and then plunged forward, stopping just short of the first down. Boston College took over on downs and sealed its victory as the Cavaliers lost not only their fourth straight game but their bowl eligibility as well.
"I thought I had it," a visibly distraught Sewell said. "Looks may be deceiving."
It was a fitting conclusion to a game in which the two teams were separated by only five yards of total offense. Boston College (7-3, 4-2 ACC) posted 303 yards, while Virginia (3-7, 2-4 ACC) put up 298, passing the 200-yard mark for the first time since its 20-9 victory Oct. 17 against Maryland.
Virginia's final drive began at its own 21-yard line with 2:12 remaining in the fourth quarter. Running an effective no-huddle offense with no timeouts to spare, Sewell completed six of 10 passes to four different receivers. After completing two passes to junior receiver Dontrelle Inman and senior receiver Vic Hall, Sewell quickly advanced the ball to midfield with a 12-yard run. A few plays later on a critical third down, he found senior tailback Rashawn Jackson, who caught the ball past the first-down marker and broke several tackles to reach the Boston College 32-yard line. Two more passes to Jackson positioned the Cavaliers for their final play, which coach Al Groh suggested was intended to be a pass. When asked what the play call was if it wasn't a run, Groh joked, "It wasn't a drop-kick."
Sewell said he checked his receivers, made his reads and thought he could gain the two yards needed to keep Virginia's hopes of a winning season alive.
"It hurts, man," Sewell said. "It hurts a lot."
Virginia's 67-yard two-minute drill marked the most yards it had gained on a single drive since it totaled 68 yards against Indiana on Oct. 10. Coincidentally, that game was the team's last win, and had Sewell managed to secure one more yard to reach the 68-yard total, Virginia would have continued its late-game drive and could have again found itself in the win column.
"It's crunch time - the guys were really excited to be able to go and win the game in that fashion," Sewell said of the drive. "Everybody tried to make a play regardless of what it [was] - making a block down field, catching a ball that was at their feet, or whatever it [was] ... excited about being that guy to be able to step up, helping us win."
That Sewell could even play may have surprised many fans, considering he had only practiced one day during the past two weeks because of a shoulder injury and only found out he would start Wednesday night, when junior quarterback Marc Verica began to show symptoms of a concussion.
Seven minutes and 36 seconds before Virginia's drive, Boston College freshman quarterback Dave Shinskie was positioned in a situation similar to that of Sewell's final play. Facing 4th and goal from the Virginia one-yard line, Shinskie kept the ball and dove into the 22-man pile. After a few seconds of deliberation, the officials ruled the play a touchdown.
"That's their play in that situation," Groh said. "The guy needed 12 inches, he got 13."
The official ruling was also marked by uncertainty.
"I didn't really know - I was at the bottom of the pile just trying to crawl and grab legs, things like that," senior defensive end Nate Collins said. "Just waiting for the crowd reaction, and it was kind of a mixed reaction, so I didn't really know 'till I got up and looked at the replay."
For the Eagles, it was not the only bold play-call of the drive. After Virginia senior cornerback Chris Cook's 58-yard interception return for a touchdown and sophomore Robert Randolph's 38-yard field goal in the third quarter, Boston College trailed 10-7. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Eagles began a seven-minute-long drive that resulted in a score. Fueled by sophomore running back Montel Harris' 35 yards rushing and two consecutive completions from Shinskie that followed a difficult 1st-and-25 situation, the Eagles held the ball at the Virginia 27-yard line on 4th and 1. Instead of attempting a 44-yard field goal that would tie the game, coach Frank Spaziani elected to put the game's fate in the hands of Harris, who had already accumulated 127 yards rushing. Harris gained the necessary yardage and more, advancing the ball to the 24.
A few plays later, Shinskie took a shot to the end zone and Cook was flagged for a pass-interference penalty that set up 1st and goal for the Eagles. It was the third such penalty called on the Cavaliers and the second that occurred on a pass-attempt to the end zone. Groh, however, questioned the call after the game.
"There's no such thing as face-guarding in college football," Groh said.
Penalty or not, Virginia failed to capitalize on various opportunities during the game, and these shortcomings perhaps also contributed to the narrow loss. About five minutes into the third quarter, Hall hauled in an Eagle punt at the Virginia 38-yard line, danced away from a couple defenders to the right and cut back to the left, running in wide-open space to the end zone. The touchdown was called back, however, because of an illegal block in the back, which Groh said was incidental to the return.
The Cavaliers also squandered additional special teams points in the first quarter, when Randolph missed a 47-yard attempt.
"We left 10 special team points out there that we could have had, and clearly that would have been the difference in the game," Groh said. "With those points, they get forgotten, and those are the points that change scoreboards"
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