 |
|
Robert Randolph clinched a dramatic UVa win with a field goal as time expired. |
Mike London couldn’t bring himself to watch.
After the improbable drama that unfolded in the preceding 25 minutes, who can blame him? The Cavaliers had watched a 20-point lead wither away, somehow pulled themselves together in time to force a tie, and now stared a 23-yard chip-shot field goal in the face with just two seconds to play. So no, it wasn’t the easiest way to get there, but the circuitous route to get London’s first road win as Virginia head coach set off a Bloomington celebration for the Hoos. Even if London didn’t see Robert Randolph’s kick perfectly split the uprights to deliver the 34-31 win.
“We were down eight and the guys started talking about, ‘we’re going to come back and win this game.’ They started talking about, ‘when we score, we’re going to go for two.’ That kind of talk – you could look cross-eyed at someone – but I think that you start to build a level of confidence in what’s going on in the moment and we spoke it and it happened,” London said. “We have to start finding ways to win games. To grind out big wins by a lot, by a little, last second, whatever it is. This team just needs to win games and tonight was a good win for us.”
While London averted his eyes to avoid the field goal attempt, Randolph’s kick proved to be the simplest part of Virginia’s unlikely turnaround. After all, the Cavalier kicker now has made all 8 of his attempts on the season and there wasn’t a glitch to be found on the game-winning try; long snapper Matt Fortin placed the ball right in the waiting hands of holder Jacob Hodges and Randolph put the attempt down the middle for the victory.
Everything in the five minutes or so before that? Not nearly as simple. Not even close.
The Hoosiers (0-2) had surged ahead 31-23 thanks to 21 points off of turnovers as UVa’s LoVante Battle inadvertently touched an IU punt, Perry Jones fumbled on a basic read option carry, and Michael Rocco tossed an interception into a crowd of red jerseys. Those three touchdowns, including a 55-yard fumble return for touchdown by Lawrence Barnett, came as part of a furious Indiana rally that produced 28 unanswered points to erase a commanding 23-3 Virginia lead.
At that stage, nothing pointed toward a methodical 15-play, 77-yard touchdown drive to tie the game. Yet, that’s exactly what the Cavaliers (2-0) produced. They used a steady diet of runs from Jones and Clifton Richardson (4 carries, 41 yards) to eat up most of the yardage, including a fourth down conversion on a slithering 3-yard run from Jones. The drive featured a catch and pass interference flag for Matt Snyder – both on the heels of a ball that Snyder dropped while wide open along the sidelines – to get the ball inside the 5-yard line. Jones, who finished with 78 yards rushing and 85 yards receiving, capped things off with a 3-yard TD run to pull the score to 31-29. UVa then came through with the 2-point conversion when Rocco (15-29 passing, 191 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT) patiently found tight end Paul Freedman for the tying points with only 1:36 remaining in the game; it was the third pass caught by a tight end on the night.
“Sometimes that’s what happens in a football game, the gamut and the emotions swing back and forth and I thought we came out flat a little bit and maybe they wanted it more. It was their first home game,” London said. “We talked that there are good things that are going to happen and bad things are going to happen. It’s about how we respond to the negative things that happen, and you can point to this for future reference, that as long as you continue trying to forge ahead and make things positive happen for you, you can come out on top.”
Yet, even that confident drive to tie didn’t draw as big of a ‘did that just happen?’ response as the defensive play that set up the Hoos’ winning score.
 |
|
Virginia’s Cam Johnson stole the ball from IU’s quarterback to set up the Hoos’ game-winning field goal. |
That’s because senior defensive end Cam Johnson created a play that’s already etched into the pantheon of all-time Virginia moments. Indiana faced a 3rd-and-5 inside at its own 23-yard line when the Cavaliers sent a blitz off the right side of the defense. That allowed Johnson to spring free for a run at Hoosier quarterback Edward Wright-Baker. Johnson hit the QB, ripped down with his left arm as part of the sack, and the ball popped into his hand as he spun through the tackle for the forced fumble and recovery all in one motion.
That incredible play gave Virginia possession at the IU 14-yard line with approximately one minute to go. Three short runs later, Randolph trotted onto the field, London hid his eyes, and the Hoos left with a three-point win that’s sure to be talked about for years to come.
“I know they tried to throw the ball and there was an incomplete [pass]. We were going to use a bunch of timeouts, but we didn’t have to use any timeouts at that point. That came in and helped us toward the end. We weren’t quite sure on what their mindset was on that whether to take in into overtime because you’re at home. But the fact that we could save some timeouts; there was one incomplete pass, one pass was caught on our sideline and the guy got out of bounds,” London said. “It allowed us to make that big sack because there was no time gone, And if they did punt the ball, there was still a minute left on the clock. We felt good about that having timeouts making them punt.”
Of course, the Cavaliers could have avoided the nail-biting conclusion. They built a 23-3 lead during a 10-minute period that spanned the halves as the turnover bug bit Indiana. Kevin Parks (11 carries, 37 yards, 2 TDs) had just capped off a long drive to give the visitors the 13-3 lead in the final moments of the second quarter when the Hoosiers’ Shane Wynne fumbled on the ensuing kickoff. UVa’s Jake McGee forced the fumble, while Dom Joseph recovered to set up the Hoos for three bonus points and a 16-3 lead at intermission.
On the first play of the second half, Virginia’s Rijo Walker added to the flurry when he leaped to make a falling one-handed interception at the Indiana 38. The Cavaliers capitalized with a short touchdown drive as Parks again carried the ball into the end zone for the 23-3 advantage.
From there, a pair of 180-degree momentum swings produced the unexpectedly close and dramatic end.
