The Virginia Cavaliers played a football game on Saturday afternoon against the tenth-ranked Clemson Tigers. For a brief moment in time, the ‘Hoos looked like they came to play. Then things went downhill quickly.
As much as we’d all like to erase the past three-and-a-half hours from our memories, here are five takeaways from Virginia’s 48-31 loss in Death Valley.
Following a Clemson field goal to get the scoring started, the ‘Hoos responded with ten unanswered points to take a seven-point lead early in the second quarter over the tenth-ranked Tigers.
The offense moved the football with ease on a pair of scoring drives, Kam Robinson came up with a huge interception, and things were fun. Unfortunately, Virginia was forced to play the remaining 42 minutes of the game, which were significantly less enjoyable.
Clemson went on to score on seven of their next nine possessions (excluding a kneel-down to end the first half), while Virginia managed just 97 total yards through the middle third of the game until a garbage-time 44-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Fields and a pair of late Tony Muskett-led touchdown drives (for the old backdoor cover).
Virginia entered Clemson as 21-point underdogs, meaning the ‘Hoos would not only have to play near-perfect football to pull an upset, but also had to be prepared to pull out all the stops. Yet, Tony Elliott and company’s game plan didn’t seem to reflect the quality of Virginia’s opponent.
After three straight runs up the middle on Virginia’s opening three-and-out, the ‘Hoos mounted what would end up being their lengthiest drive of the afternoon on their second possession.
But, after getting inside Clemson’s five yard-line, Elliott elected to send out the field goal unit on fourth-and-two. In the end, it didn’t matter much, but field goals were never going to get the job done against the Tigers. It just didn’t seem like the ‘Hoos were ready to take the chances necessary to pulling off a top-ten upset.
Virginia entered Saturday with a 4-2 record (that easily could’ve been 5-1), something that was deservedly being celebrated by success-starved Wahoo fans. But a trip to Clemson is always a cruel reminder of how drastic the difference is between a program fighting for bowl eligibility and a program that expects to hear its named called by the College Football Playoff selection committee in December.
Tony Elliott seems to have the ‘Hoos on the come up, but Saturday’s visit to Death Valley showed just how tall a mountain this program has yet to climb.
You can look at just about any stat in the box score and immediately tell what happened in this one, but third down really told the story.
Clemson out-gained UVA 539-346 overall, outscored the ‘Hoos 45-21 over the final 42 minutes, and dominated the ‘Hoos on the ground (194 rushing yards) and through the air (345 passing yards, 9.3 yards per pass). But Virginia’s inability to get off the field when they had the chance was what set the stage for the complete beatdown.
The Tigers converted on 9-of-15 third downs (and 2-of-2 fourth-down tries), while the ‘Hoos managed to keep their drives alive on just 4-of-12 third-down attempts. You could just about sum up the afternoon in one play late in the third quarter. After finally getting a third-down stop, the ‘Hoos defense got caught ball-watching as Clemson ripped a 40-yard touchdown pass to Olsen Patt-Henry on fourth-and-one.
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