Halloween isn’t here yet, but that doesn’t really matter for the Virginia football team. The whole month of October has been plenty scary for the Hoos after all. Georgia Tech added to the frightening results with a 35-25 victory in Charlottesville on Saturday.
The Cavaliers lost all four of their games in October to fall to 2-6 and the brink of another losing season.
“It hurts. Everyone hates losing and when you’re just so used to winning all the time coming from high school, being in a slump for yet another year, it’s just something you’ve got to deal with,” UVa defensive end Eli Harold said. “You’ve just got to be resilient and you’ve just got to bounce back.”
After being tied with Ball State and leading Duke and Maryland at halftime during this five-game losing streak, Virginia was poised to put itself ahead of Georgia Tech at intermission too. A GT pass interference penalty put the ball on the 2-yard line, but the Cavaliers couldn’t get the ball in the end zone on two running plays to Kevin Parks. UVa used its final timeout of the half after the first running play so when Parks came up short on the second called hand-off with 6 seconds to go in the half, it left the Hoos without points and without any time on the clock.
The Yellow Jackets took a 14-10 lead into the locker room as a result and UVa was never able to overtake the visitors the rest of the way.
“We got down there and obviously we could have kicked the field goal, but this team is 2-5 [coming into the game]. We are trying to score a touchdown. We did a great job moving the ball down there and we wanted a touchdown,” Cavalier coach Mike London said. “We can talk about play selection, but what we tried was a jumbo package play and we tried to show them something different and capitalize on that, but we didn’t.”
“I take that one on myself. It was a short yardage situation and you have to plug it in. The opportunity was there and I have to get it in no matter what,” Parks said.
That was just one of many missed opportunities on the day for Virginia. Neither the offense nor the defense could capitalize on any momentum in the game either.
On defense, for example, the Cavaliers came up with five turnovers. Anthony Harris posted two interceptions (including the one that set up the final drive of the first half), while Harold, Max Valles, and Brandon Phelps each logged fumble recoveries. The Hoos scored no points after those take-aways, though. The UVa offense drove into the red zone six times, but came up with just three touchdowns on the day overall.
On the flipside, when the offense did get the job done and produced some points to keep UVa in the game, the defense couldn’t follow it up with a stop. The Cavs put together a 12-play touchdown drive that bridged the third and fourth quarters for example and that made the score 21-17 in GT’s favor. Just five plays later, Tech’s Robert Godhigh broke outside en route to a 65-yard touchdown run to make it a two-score game again. Later in the fourth quarter, UVa rattled off another 12-play touchdown drive that ended with a Darius Jennings touchdown catch from 12 yards out. Khalek Shepherd added a two-point conversion catch as Virginia closed to 28-25 on the scoreboard. The defense gave up a 38-yard pass play and eventually a 29-yard touchdown run on the ensuing drive, however, and that closed the door on any comeback hopes.
London said it is hard to reflect on the game with “those missed opportunities” and another loss on the schedule.
“Obviously, it is disappointing to lose the game. It is very disappointing to have had five turnovers and not be able to capitalize and score on some of those opportunities. Some of the players had career days, but you would rather have the W. There were some good things that happened out there, but not enough good things that allowed us to win,” London said. “We have a lot of work to do for this football team. We are trying to win games. That is the goal and that is the challenge.”
Indeed, several players posted career days on offense. UVa quarterback David Watford threw for a career-high 376 passing yards on a career-high 43 completions; he logged a career-high 61 pass attempts too. Those numbers eclipsed Matt Schaub’s program record for completions and attempts in a game (he had 41 completions on 58 attempts in 2002 against GT).
Two receivers had career days on the other end of those passes. Senior Tim Smith recorded career highs with 10 catches and 151 receiving yards, while Jennings registered a career-high with 13 receptions. Jennings finished with 119 yards and 2 TDs.
Still when Georgia Tech piled up 507 yards of offense and three touchdowns of 20-plus yards despite its five turnovers and a lopsided time of possession (34:44 to 25:16 in UVa’s favor), those aerial numbers weren’t enough to snap the Hoos’ losing streak.
“The final score is always important. As an athlete, as a football player and as a competitor, you just want to win. We definitely think about the wins and losses,” Jennings said. “It is great that were able to improve in the passing game today, but it still wasn’t enough. It doesn’t matter what our stats are if we have a loss on the board at the end of the day.”
