Heels Steal Win From Hoos

 

Virginia coach Mike London seemed to have a touch of anger in his voice after Saturday’s 28-27 loss to North Carolina at Scott Stadium.

Losing to one of your school’s chief rivals can stir such emotions, especially when your team had ample opportunities to win again. For the fourth time and fourth loss this season, the Cavaliers outgained their opponent statistically (443-374) only to come up short on the scoreboard. Saturday’s defeat pushed London’s record to 0-5 against the rivals in baby blue.

“Every loss eats at me. I want to win football games,” London said. “What is disappointing is the way this game unfolded, with a team that has shown progress and execution. Today we were not good enough. I did not do a good enough job coaching. Coaches didn’t do a good enough job coaching their players. And the result is a loss. Now we have to regroup and get ready for Georgia Tech.”

The outcome turned on a series of critical plays in the second half.

Virginia starting quarterback Greyson Lambert threw two crucial interceptions. The first came on third-and-eight from UNC’s 10-yard line in the third quarter. With the Hoos looking for points, Lambert tried to squeeze the ball into a tight space and it ricocheted into Des Lawrence’s hands for the INT.

Still, the Hoos held a 27-21 lead and had rolled five minutes off the clock with nine plays when disaster struck again. Lambert tried to lob a screen pass in to Kevin Parks (25 carries, 111 yards, one touchdown; four receptions, 19 yards, one touchdown) on second-and-13, but Carolina tackle Nazair Jones snared the ball from the air. He returned the interception 20 yards to set up his team’s offense at the Virginia 38-yard line with 6:09 to play.

Lambert finished 20-40 passing for 261 yards and two touchdowns, but he had just 40 yards and the two interceptions after the half on 11 attempts. Darius Jennings led the receivers with three catches for 82 yards, while Canaan Severin grabbed two receptions for 55 yards and one touchdown.

“I tried to look off the defender before I threw it and I saw the lineman there. I probably should have thrown the ball in the dirt or maybe tried to maneuver around in a different way,” Lambert said. “Ultimately, I didn’t get it there, and that’s my fault.”

After the second interception, Virginia’s defense, which had been fairly stout outside of some big scoring plays in the first half, had an opportunity to rise to the occasion again. The D had stopped five drives inside the 40-yard line previously in the game (two missed field goals, two punts, and a fourth down stop), but it couldn’t make two important third down plays with the game on the line.

After gaining zero yards on the first two plays of the drive, North Carolina converted on third-and-10 from the 38-yard line when quarterback Marquise Williams hit Ryan Switzer for 27 yards on an out pattern. The Cavaliers pushed the Tar Heels to third-and-15 at the 16-yard line thanks to a sack by Eli Harold (six tackles, 1.5 sacks), but the visitors answered. Back-up quarterback Mitch Trubisky, in the game for one play since Williams lost his helmet on the sack, found T.J. Thorpe wide open up the seam for touchdown that led to a 28-27 lead. On the play, Virginia safety Quin Blanding, corner Maurice Canady, and linebacker Daquan Romero mixed up their coverage with Canady and Romero both moving deep with the vertical route and no one taking Thorpe underneath.

“It was just a miscommunication between myself, the linebacker, and the cornerback,” Blanding said. “That’s pretty much the bottom line of it.”

“It’s a route that we practice and practice and practice and practice. It was not anything that we have not seen before, but we did not have guys in position to make the play,” London said. “And that is what’s disappointing. You practice those things to put yourself in position to make plays and be there, to do the things necessary to win football games, and in that moment it did not happen..”

“To be honest, I wasn’t thinking too much. I saw his helmet come off and just knew I had to be ready. It was such short notice that I didn’t have time to think about it,” Trubisky said. “I just went in, got the play, and executed it and it turned out in our favor. I’m really proud of our guys up front.”

Two more mistakes finally put the Wahoos away after the Tar Heels took the lead. First, UNC executed a surprise onsides kick on the ensuing kickoff. Receiver Mack Hollins, who caught two touchdown passes of 57 and 63 yards in the first half, recovered the ball to give the possession back to Carolina.

“We were talking about it o the sideline. We saw the look all game and we were just looking for the right time to run it and we executed it in practice every time, so the coaches were confident in it,” Heel kicker Nick Weiler said. “We had the look and we knew we had to make a game-changing play on special teams so we used that at the time.”

After Virginia’s defense allowed two first downs, it finally got North Carolina to fourth down-and-2 at the 21-yard line with 1:17 to go. After trying to draw an offsides penalty and calling a timeout, the Tar Heels came back to the field with their field goal unit. Before the snap, however, Virginia got penalized for a defensive substitution penalty with 12 men on the field.

UNC ran out the clock after that miscue as both teams’ records moved to 4-4 and 2-2 in the ACC.

“Obviously this was a disappointing loss. We coached poorly at the end and played poorly. We did not recognize things that we should have,” London said. “It is disappointing to have an opportunity to win a game down the stretch and to have all the miscues that occurred. North Carolina did what they needed to do to win the game, so congratulations to them. But we beat ourselves today and played poorly in the last few minutes of the game.”

Final Stats