Virginia Offense Continues Low-Scoring Trend In Pittsburgh Loss

Virginia fell to 5-3 on the season.
Kurt Benkert threw two touchdown passes, but UVA didn’t score any other points. ~ Photo Courtesy Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Media Relations

During preseason practice in August, offensive coordinator Robert Anae likened the work being done with the Virginia football program to building with Legos. His point was that it’s a block by block process to build from the foundation up to a house.

Fair enough. Bronco Mendenhall and company didn’t take over a program in good health with just one bowl game since 2008.

Can the Hoos at least move on from the oversized Mega Bloks basics to Classic Legos at this point on offense, though? That side of the ball continues to hamper UVA’s chances at winning games, winning seasons, and a winning program. It’s a trend that Anae inherited, but has yet to correct with any consistency.

Saturday’s 31-14 loss at Pittsburgh became the latest game to highlight that fact. It’s the second straight outing with 14 points or fewer and the ninth time in the last 13 games against FBS competition that the offense produced 20 points or fewer. In the ACC contests to date in the Mendenhall era, the team has scored 20 points or fewer in eight of the 12 games. UVA is 1-7 in those games.

Last season, Virginia averaged 22.5 points per game and that ranked 115th nationally among 128 FBS teams. The top half of the country averaged 29.2 points or better. This season, UVA entered the Pitt game averaging 26.1 points per game and that tied for 81st nationally out 130 FBS teams. The top half of the country entered Saturday averaging 28.3 points or better. Saturday’s 14 points against the Panthers dropped the season average to 24.6.

This is not unfamiliar territory. As stated above, these coaches inherited the trend that has spanned back to the start of the decline of the Virginia football program.

The Cavaliers stopped winning consistently and stopped earning consistent bowl appearances starting with the missed postseason of 2006. Not surprisingly, perhaps, 2004 is the last time the program averaged 30 points or better for a season and 2004 and 2005 are the last two times where the program averaged 26 or better in back-to-back seasons. Keep in mind that 26 points per game only gets you to the middle of the national rankings for average scoring since 2008.

  • 2004: 30.2 (n/a)
  • 2005: 26.7 (n/a)
  • 2006: 15.1 (n/a)
  • 2007: 24.4 (n/a)
  • 2008: 16.1 (115th/119)
  • 2009: 19.3 (105th-T/120)
  • 2010: 25.3 (75th-T/120) (two FCS games on the schedule)
  • 2011: 23.2 (86th/120)
  • 2012: 22.8 (95th/124)
  • 2013: 19.8 (110th/125)
  • 2014: 25.8 (88th/128)
  • 2015: 25.8 (88th/128)
  • 2016: 22.5 (115th/128)
  • 2017: 24.6 (n/a) (through eight games)

So again, 2017 merely fits a trend. If scoring offense is the illness, myriad symptoms can be found when watching Virginia this season. The run game is inconsistent and averaging 3.6 yards per carry. Other than Jordan Ellis, UVA doesn’t have other players getting heavy chances at carries.

The passing game can’t consistently beat defenses in the middle intermediate areas or over the top so the horizontal attack outside the hashes is all that seems to work. That’s led to 6.1 yards per passing attempt. The last two weeks, passes have been dropped and quarterbacks have been intercepted. At times, the pass protection isn’t good enough for receivers to get open or for quarterback Kurt Benkert to find them. At others, the offense goes to max protection sets to help but still can’t connect on passes. Benkert’s completion percentage is dropping and his accuracy has tailed off as well.

Even when things go well and the offense drives into opponent territory, it doesn’t produce points. That’s different than Anae’s first season when the Hoos’ 71.79% touchdown percentage in the red zone ranked 16th nationally; that came on limited attempts since UVA’s 39 red zone attempts tied for 103rd. This season, Virginia’s touchdown percentage in the red zone sat at 58.33% entering the Pittsburgh game (73rd) on 24 attempts (tied 87th).

That number got worse after the loss to the Panthers, dropping to 57% after the offense scored two touchdowns on four red zone trips. In fact, the offense failing to capitalize on opportunities was one of the biggest contributions to the loss. The Cavaliers reached Pitt’s side of the field six times without coming away with points, which included three possessions that started on that side of the 50-yard line.

All of that leads to questions about game plans and play calls as fans search for the cure. Ultimately, the offense is not living up to what Mendenhall likes. He said prior to the start of last season that “as a defensive coach, I like offenses that stress the opponent either by tempo of play, by adjustments required, by personnel matchups that are necessary.”

None of those things are happening consistently. UVA has backed off the high tempo offense first installed with this staff. Defenses don’t appear to have to account for many wrinkles or variations beyond formation window dressing. The Hoos aren’t consistently creating or winning personnel matchups in these low-scoring outputs.

The coaches believe a combination of things contribute to the struggles and point to the current state of development for the program. That brings everything back to those Legos. The famous toy was invented by Denmmark carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen and the name Lego translates to “play well” from Danish. No matter how you stack it, the Virginia offense certainly isn’t doing that.

1 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Just when you think it has finally been fixed, the offense has become way too predictable, again; and when they do try to go over the top, they are generally unable to connect. After that, they do not have another play to get them to first down. Beyond that, receivers are not looking the ball into their hands, and are turning before they control the ball. The effects are contagious. And why keep trying to run the ball up the middle when you have been stopped all game?

Comments are closed.