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Jameel Sewell threw for a career-high 312 yards against Southern Mississippi. |
Several positive things can be said about Virginia’s performance Saturday against Southern Mississippi. The offense finally showed productivity in the passing game. Some young receivers proved themselves as legitimate downfield threats. The offensive line gave quarterback Jameel Sewell more time to even look down the field.
Despite the Cavaliers’ fight on the road, however, the facts remain. The Golden Eagles scored 20 unanswered points to win 37-34, and Virginia is 0-3 for the first time in coach Al Groh’s tenure.
In the first half, Sewell and the Cavaliers displayed the deep-pass capability that they had shown late in a blowout loss to TCU a week ago. Sewell had two touchdown passes in the first half – the first went down the sideline to freshman Tim Smith for 69 yards on the Cavs’ second drive, and another went to Kris Burd for 29 yards. Virginia also orchestrated a more deliberate touchdown drive, which included an iffy roughing the kicker penalty on a Robert Randolph 39-yard field goal attempt that fell short. Nevertheless, with Sewell heating up in the first half, the Cavs appeared poised for a big win on the road in the early going.
“Obviously the quarterback had a real good game and he’s finding his stride. I’m very pleased with what Jameel did, both in his performance and the competitiveness that he showed,” Groh said. “He showed his teammates that they can jump on his back and he’s going to try to carry them. He made some good throws and the receivers made some good catches.”
The Cavalier defense also gave aid to the offense, forcing two fumbles in the first half, both of which led to field goals. The Golden Eagles did manage a TD drive with a combination of runs from Damion Fletcher and seam passes from quarterback Austin Davis, though, and took advantage of a Sewell interception deep in Virginia territory to tack on a field goal. All told, Virginia led 27-10 at halftime, and appeared to be in control of the game.
The home team’s comeback started on the opening kickoff of the second half, although it was more due to misfortune for Virginia; after Dom Joseph forced a fumble on the return just past the 30-yard line, the ball bounced into the hands of Southern Mississippi’s Jamie Collins, who sprinted 33 yards to the Cavalier 31. The two-headed attack of Fletcher and Davis took advantage of the field position, as a two-yard touchdown pass on 3rd-and-1 by Davis cut the deficit to 10.
Virginia, though, responded with yet another explosive drive. Sewell led Virginia to the one-yard line, firing two 25-plus yard completions to freshman receiver Javaris Brown , and capped the drive with a trot into the end zone to again push the lead to 17.
Again, though, the Cavs’ largest lead of the night was short-lived, and at that point the struggling version of Virginia showed up on all three units – offense, defense, and special teams. Southern Mississippi’s Freddie Parham took the ensuing kickoff out of the end zone and went nearly untouched 103 yards the other way for a touchdown.
“Clearly that was a big momentum changer. I saw it coming. We didn’t fit on the blocks properly at a number of spots,” Groh said. “Special teams, every play it’s a jamboree. You can make a tackle on the 15-yard line and get creased on the next one. We fit on them very well early on. On that one, we had a number of players who did not fit properly on that one.”
The performance of the Cavalier offense the rest of the way, meanwhile, was reminiscent of a week ago against TCU. Following Virginia’s final touchdown with 6:57 remaining in the third quarter, the Cavs had 57 yards of offense and Sewell was sacked three times. With good field position following an interception by Corey Mosley early in the fourth quarter, Virginia did make it to the Southern Mississippi 32 yard-line, but Groh elected to keep his offense on the field on 4th-and-7, and Sewell’s pass fell incomplete.
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Al Groh’s team dropped to 0-3 for the first time in his tenure. |
“We’re not going to punt the ball from the 32 then everyone would ask ‘Why did you punt the ball from the 32?’ It was a little bit beyond the effective range of our field goal kicker so that was one of the easier decisions,” Groh said.
As Virginia could not keep its defense off the field, the Golden Eagle offense began to dominate the line of scrimmage. In the fourth quarter alone, Fletcher rushed for 49 yards on six carries, while fellow tailback Tory Harrison gained a remarkable 84 yards on two carries. With big rushes from both Fletcher and Harrison, the Golden Eagles found the end zone at the beginning of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to three, and took their final 37-34 lead on a 57-yard touchdown burst from Harrison with 7:53 remaining. Fletcher ended with 132 yards on 26 carries, while Harrison had 101 yards on three carries.
The Cavaliers’ best-looking offensive drive of the second half was their last, when Sewell led the offense from the Virginia 4-yard line to the Eagles’ 41. After being sacked on second down for a loss of 10 yards, though, two incomplete passes sealed the game for Southern Miss with 1:19 remaining.
Ron Prince’s special teams unit also did not help matters. Southern Mississippi averaged 40.7 yards per kick return on seven tries, against 18.4 yards per return for Virginia. On punts, the Golden Eagles returned three for 37 yards; a 22-yard return by Tracey Lampley set up Southern Mississippi’s touchdown drive that brought it to within three. On Virginia’s side, Chase Minnifield returned two punts for three yards.
Though every unit was culpable for the blown 17-point lead, each unit also made more positive plays than the Hoos had shown in any previous game. Offensively, in particular, Virginia’s production was unseen to this point; Sewell threw for 312 yards and two touchdowns, Burd hauled in six receptions for 79 yards, and true freshman tailback Dominique Wallace rushed for 35 yards on 10 carries. It is these facts that had Groh encouraged at game’s end.
“We made a lot of progress today. I’m really proud of the fight the players showed and the unity they showed in sticking together and continuing to grind away. We’re going down a different track now than we were previously. We made a lot of progress in a lot of ways,” Groh said. “In the long run, we didn’t do quite enough. The other team did a little bit more than we did. I’m very encouraged and very positive of all the efforts of the players today.”
