Tire Bowl Analysis: Cavaliers Ride Big Plays to Win

For the second straight season, the Virginia Cavaliers finished the football season on a high note, as a 23-16 win
over Pittsburgh Panthers on Saturday gave Al Groh’s team a second consecutive Continental Tire Bowl win. After coming
up with tremendous wins over Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech to finish the regular season schedule, the Cavaliers came up
with a big win in Charlotte once again.

“It was a big momentum builder going into the offseason,” tight end Heath Miller said after the game.
“We want to win the ACC championship, and a win like this gets us going in the right direction for next season. We
were very excited to come up with a win like this after we were able to win the first one last year.”

This year’s Continental Tire Bowl victory came in a much different fashion, however, with the Cavaliers coming up
with an important win despite losing in several key statistical categories. In last year’s win over West Virginia, the
Cavaliers dominated from the beginning of the second quarter onward. The statistics, as well as the final score, were a
blowout over the Mountaineers.

This season, Virginia had to rely on a clutch defense and big plays to pull out a win over a strong Pittsburgh team
that was one win away from a BCS bowl game.

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