After a sluggish start, the Virginia football team’s offense got into gear with 10:59 left in the second quarter and proceeded to score five touchdowns and a field goal over its final seven chartable drives. With the defense pitching a shutout on the other side of the ball, the Hoos took care of business against William & Mary on Saturday by a 43-0 score.

Overview

Offense: 95.1 (A)

• Highlights: All four offensive operations scored over 98.6% on first down passing; all four operations scored over 95.75 on third down conversion offense; all four operations scored 100% on total first down offense; the offensive line and running backs led in red zone offense.
• Not so bright: The biggest blight on the offensive side was that only four of Virginia’s 11 chartable drives were clean (41%) – see below for explanation.

In The Sabre’s preseason roundtable for the “50 Thoughts” series, I was given the question: “what phases of the starting QB’s game are the staff working on hardest?” I said, “I see the staff’s next developmental phases for Brennan Armstrong to be on the cerebral side in terms of reading defenses and becoming a more sophisticated decision maker at quarterback.” I think we saw this Saturday. He displayed more patience and allowed plays to develop and receivers to get more pattern depth instead of abandoning the pocket. I added that hopefully this would lead to more explosive plays, and it did Saturday as the Hoos posted 24 10-yard plus plays. We also saw some vertical shots and I expect that part of the offense to emerge as well. More on the passing offense is below in the “One More Thing” segment.

We saw good things from the offensive line, running backs, and wide receivers. The second and third level blocking from the line looked much better in the second half. Clearly, there is some talent and crisp pass route runners in Virginia’s offense. It’s going to be fun to watch what this unit can do. The backs averaged 7.3 yards per carry and I was ecstatic to see the backs get four passing targets, all caught for a 5-yard per catch average.

Defense: 97.03 (A+)

• Highlights: All three defensive operations graded out over 98.2% on first down passing; all three units posted grades over 90.63 for red zone defense; all three operations scored 100% on total first down defense; all three defensive units graded out at 95% or higher on overall pass defense.
• Not so bright: Defenders did miss seven tackles.

Virginia’s defense came ready to play from the time the players got on the bus, shutting down W&M for five consecutive three-and-outs before you had time to get to the front of the beer line (OK – maybe that’s not a high standard to reach). By the end of the evening, six of the Tribe’s 11 charted drives ended with three-and-outs or less.

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