After upsetting then-No. 12 Georgia Tech, Virginia football coach Mike London emphasized avoiding a letdown against N.C. State Saturday. He repeatedly warned his team of the dangers of falling flat, but the offense nevertheless turned in 60 minutes of generally sluggish, sloppy play and, with the help of a few seconds of defensive breakdowns, doomed the Cavaliers (4-3, 1-2 ACC) to a 28-14 loss.
The Wolfpack (4-3, 1-2 ACC) "played hungry, they played inspired," London said. "We didn't play well enough, hungry enough, inspired enough to affect the game as it was played out."
Defensive coordinator Jim Reid agreed Saturday "wasn't the Georgia Tech atmosphere," but he also said last week's win took more than just a psychological toll on the team. The Cavaliers spent their bye week focused so exclusively on defending the triple option that they sacrificed some precision in their previously strong pass coverage.
"You got to make a decision during your off week: Do you work to try to get more detailed in some of the stuff that you're doing well or do you try to defend the triple option?" Reid said. "You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. We made our decision to [focus on the triple option], but it was a little bit more difficult to get to what we did well before."
Virginia's rust against the pass showed early as redshirt junior quarterback Mike Glennon's 16-yard completion placed N.C. State on the Cavaliers' 37-yard line. Virginia's coverage fell apart near the goal line, but the team survived scoring scares as Wolfpack receivers dropped two of Glennon's passes and senior cornerback Chase Minnifield blocked N.C. State's 41-yard field goal attempt.
Virginia's offense struck first when sophomore quarterback Michael Rocco rolled out to the right and threw across his body to find freshman tailback Clifton Richardson in the middle of the end zone. The Wolfpack responded with a 10-play, 70-yard touchdown march, however, capped by Glennon's five-yard pass to open redshirt freshman halfback Tony Creecy.
In keeping with this season's two-quarterback rotation, sophomore David Watford replaced Rocco under center for the Cavaliers' next possession. Watford did little to vindicate the decision, however, when he misread N.C. State's cover two defense and found N.C. State sophomore cornerback David Amerson sitting on a shallow route.
Five seconds later, N.C. State capitalized on the turnover. During the first play of the drive, redshirt freshman wide receiver Bryan Underwood burned Virginia freshman cornerback Demetrious Nicholson for an uncontested 33-yard touchdown catch.
"Coming out of the triple option week we lost a lot of detail, because that's all we did for two weeks," Reid said. "You say to yourself after the game, maybe we shouldn't spend two solid weeks on the triple option. But you know what, we don't win [against Georgia Tech] if we don't."
Virginia's defense tightened up during the second half and consistently held N.C. State deep its own territory. The offense failed to exploit the resulting good field position, however, and the two teams traded punts for the majority of the third quarter. Rocco started the game 7-of-9 passing, but after Watford replaced him for a series during the second quarter, Rocco did not complete another pass.
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