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Jameel Sewell led the Hoos on a fourth quarter drive to win the game against NCSU. |
For two and a half quarters, it wasn’t Jameel Sewell ‘s best day throwing the football. The receivers dropped a pass or two; he made a few misreads and inaccurate throws. He was struggling to lead the offense on a sustained scoring drive. When it mattered most, however, Sewell couldn’t have been better against N.C. State.
The Virginia freshman completed 4 of his final 5 passes, including three straight in the last five minutes when he led the Hoos on a game-winning drive. Jason Snelling capped the touchdown march with two bruising runs, including a 17-yard touchdown that gave the Cavaliers a 14-7 win against the Wolfpack.
“There had been quite a few series there where things were really tough for Jameel. The reads were coming slow, and the passes weren’t on target,” UVa coach Al Groh said. “If you want to be a competitively tough-minded team, your quarterback has to be tough minded. And that means they have to come back from some circumstances where things aren’t going their way and step up when the moment’s there. He did an excellent job of that.”
Boy, did he. The final drive was a thing of veteran beauty – never mind that this was just the sixth start in Sewell’s career.
First, the young QB avoids a sack on first down that likely would have moved the ball too deep into Virginia territory to aggressively attack the defense (More on this in “The Turning Point” article later). That was Sewell’s only incompletion of the drive and just his second missed pass of the quarter – the other came with more than 10 minutes to play.
“It speaks on how far I’ve come. It’s just a confidence thing. They’re going to have the confidence to put the ball in my hands and let me try to make things happen when we need to,” Sewell said.
From there, he had the touch of a bomb squad diffuser – calm and feathery approach, but confident delivery. First, a bullet on the left side of the field to Fontel Mines , who added several yards after the catch for a 13-yard gain and first down. Next, a seeing-eye pass to Kevin Ogletree on a slant pattern to the right side for 13 more yards and another Cavalier first down.
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Jason Snelling celebrates the winning touchdown. |
Then, Sewell keeps the ball on designed runs on two of the next three plays to help the Hoos move into NCSU territory. Finally, the quarterback’s last pass of the day becomes a nine-yard laser to Tom Santi on the left side. Two Snelling runs later, the Cavs are leading again and a 14-7 win is moments away.
“We knew what was at stake and we were very focused at the end. The run previous to the touchdown I felt like I should have scored,” Snelling said. “So, I was pretty determined to get in the second time. I saw the crease when they blitzed and I hit it and we were able to score.”
Sewell’s afternoon adds to his growing list of freshman records at UVa. Sewell ranks first on freshman lists in passing touchdowns (5), completions (93), completion percentage (58.3%), pass attempts (161), passing yards (934), and total offense (1,099 yards). But sometimes, it’s not the numbers that tell the story. So did Sewell say anything special in the huddle on the last drive?
“That’s a lot of it. You can pump your linemen up sometimes and sometimes you can’t. They’ve just got that faith in me that once I tell them ‘We’re going to do this, we’re going to make it happen’ and that’s what usually happens, the line gets the call, gets up to the line, makes it happen, and executes,” Sewell said of his huddle demeanor. “I was straight forward. We have to score. First thing, we’ve got to get this first first down basically and then we’ve got to score.”
Score they did and the 14-7 lead was enough when Tony Franklin’s seal-the-deal interception thwarted N.C. State’s last hopes. That was a fitting end, considering how well the defense played throughout the day. Other than two drives (a missed field goal in the first half and the Wolfpack’s only scoring drive late), the Cavalier defense was exceptional.
In the end, the Hoos allowed 290 yards of offense, including an eye-opening 70 yards of rushing. They held NCSU to just 2.4 yards per carry and the Pack’s dynamic duo of Andre Brown and Toney Baker combined for 76 yards on the ground – Brown had the longest run of the day, a 13-yard gain in the first quarter.
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Tony Franklin and teammates celebrate his INT and the win. |
That defensive performance combined with a good day on special teams to keep the visitors off balance and in an uphill field position battle. Twice, the Hoos pinned punts inside the 20; the hosts held State return man Darrell Blackman to 4.6 yards per punt return and to just one returnable kickoff, which he brought back 23 yards.
Virginia, meanwhile, posted a net kickoff return average of 44.0 yards on three kicks and Cedric Peerman had a 53-yard return to open the second half, the longest of the season and the longest of his career. Plus, Mike Brown averaged 8 yards per punt return.
In other words, the Cavaliers controlled field position thanks to special teams and shutdown run defense.
“It was a defensive game. They had 170 yards with four minutes left in the game,” N.C. State coach Chuck Amato said. “It went back and forth. It became a field-position game, and people just don’t like that. … It was one of those fighting, slapping, and getting after each other [games]. There were two pretty good defensive teams out there whacking each other around.”
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