Dominate the running game and time of possession. Take advantage of opponent turnovers. Hit a big touchdown play in the passing game.
If that was the pregame description of Saturday’s game, most people would have pegged Georgia Tech as the winner. Instead, Virginia flipped the script on the Yellow Jackets and claimed a 27-21 victory in a Halloween contest at Scott Stadium. The Hoos improved to 3-5 and 2-2 in the ACC with the win.
“There are a lot of elated guys in that locker room,” UVa coach Mike London said. “It’s great when you can play a close game against a tough opponent and come out on the winning end. We did some good things out there today, but we also did things that didn’t work to our advantage. Again, we found a way to win a tight game in the end. I’m happy for the players in that locker room that went through that because it shows that you can overcome things and not have that ‘here we go again’ mentality.”
The Cavaliers did have to survive some tense moments in the final two minutes as they held off GT’s final rally. The Yellow Jackets scored a touchdown with 1:41 remaining, recovered the ensuing onside kick, and had the ball at UVa’s 34-yard line. Virginia had lived that ‘here we go again’ horror movie before this season when Notre Dame scored on a two-minute drill drive with 12 seconds to go to steal a win.
This time, however, the Hoos held on third and fourth down to celebrate their second straight home victory. The last one at Scott Stadium, a triple overtime triumph against Syracuse, had a tense ending too. London said he wanted to project confidence from the sidelines after the onside kick.
“It’s always important to show a level of calm and composure,” London said. “Everybody knows I’m a very energetic and passionate guy but sometimes I can do better in times like that. That’s one thing I wanted to show. I wanted to project a level of confidence and calmness and the guys responded with their play toward the end of the game.”
Before the drama of the final two minutes, Virginia had scored 17 unanswered points to overcome a halftime deficit and build a 27-14 lead.
The Hoos posted a field goal that cut Tech’s lead to 14-13 on their first drive of the second half. Georgia Tech’s Justin Thomas fumbled on the first play of the next drive and UVa took advantage of the opportunity. Canaan Severin provided the big scoring play when he broke open in the middle of the field and took Matt Johns’ pass for a 30-yard touchdown. Severin finished with 4 catches for 55 yards. Johns completed 17 of 28 passes for 175 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.
The defense held again on the Yellow Jackets’ next possession and UVa ate up the final 6:23 of the quarter as part of a touchdown drive that eventually reached 8:08 in time of possession. The 13-play, 91-yard drive ended in the fourth quarter when Albert Reid cut back a running play and rumbled 24 yards to the end zone. That TD at the 13:15 mark gave the hosts a 27-14 edge.
The Cavaliers had a similar touchdown drive in the first quarter that covered 75 yards through 10 plays and 5:03 time of possession. That one featured a 21-yard run by Taquan Mizzell and ended with a 4-yard run from Daniel Hamm.
In the end, those two touchdown drives were symbolic of the day as a whole. Virginia held a 36:43 to 23:17 advantage in time of possession thanks to its best running day of the season. The Hoos posted 233 yards rushing on 42 carries, an average of 5.5 yards per carry. That’s the highest rushing total since last September’s 254-yard day against Kent State. It was a balanced effort. Mizzell had 14 carries for 75 yards, while Hamm and Reid added 42 and 32 yards respectively. Olamide Zaccheaus ripped off 68 yards on just 4 carries.
“It’s a softening process,” UVa center Jackson Matteo said. “It may not break on the first, second, third drive but they’re eventually going to break. We have a good group of guys and we keep pounding away and we’re confident in what we can do.”
“That’s what we are capable of doing,” Johns said. “That’s our potential. When you reach your potential, it’s a special thing. All three of our running backs played so well today and I am so proud of those guys. The credit goes to the offensive line. They deserve it. They played their tails off and it was a lot of fun to play with them today.”
On the other side of the coin, Virginia shut down Georgia Tech’s option and held the option attack to its second lowest rushing total of the year. The Yellow Jackets entered the game averaging 283.4 rushing yards per game and 5.6 yards per carry. Against the Hoos, the visitors managed just 144 yards rushing at 4.4 yards per carry. GT took an early 7-3 lead on a 49-yard run by Clinton Lynch, but gained 95 yards on its other 32 carries (2.97 yards per carry).
“We didn’t have the ball a whole lot, and that was our own fault,” Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said. “When you fumble the first drive away, and then you fumble the second drive away in the second half, and they were consuming seven and eight minutes when they get the ball, there’s not a lot of turns. I thought that when we ran the option, Clinton [Lynch] hit one big play on the pitch, but there weren’t a lot of big plays. Some of it was misreads, some of it was the blocking.”
The Cavaliers shut down the attack by smothering the dive play and then getting great penetration from the rest of the defense on the edges. Tech’s Marcus Marshall, the B back for the dive, ended up with 7 carries for 18 yards. Thomas led his team in carries with 10, but he managed just 18 yards.
Safety Quin Blanding flew all around the field to notch 15 tackles and Micah Kiser, playing outside linebacker for the majority of this game instead of his usual spot in the middle, added 8 tackles as well. Fumble recoveries by Wilfred Wahee and Kelvin Rainey led to 10 points off turnovers, the team’s season high.
“Definitely, the guys did inside did a great job today stopping that dive,” UVa senior Mike Moore said. “That’s one of the biggest things and we’d been working on it all week, just making sure everybody did their assignments. It was assignment football this week. Guys inside had the dive, guys outside had the quarterback, and the other guys outside had the pitch. Just make sure everybody did their job and make sure everybody trusted everybody.”
