Virginia Postgame

[LongforDodd]

After having the 3 and out on the first drive the UVA offense scored on every possession except for the end of the first half when they ran out of time and the 3 and out in the early 4th Quarter. Defense forced 2 punts the

 

[wesgt123]

Now this is something I can agree with you on.

I’m sick of seeing Swilling get toasted and both safeties constantly be in the wrong spot in coverage.

Might as well put the young guys in and let them play.

Swilling has been disappointing and his attitude seems poor. And his play matches it.

Really our whole secondary is frustrating. Every play uva had someone open and NOBODY around for at least 3 yards. It was insane to see how open we let them get over and over.

 

[Oakland]

That was one of the games we had to win. The bowl hopes are starting to dim now. Our DBs seem lost and are not physical.

 

[GT_B]

Swilling has been disappointing and his attitude seems poor. And his play matches it.

Really our whole secondary is frustrating. Every play uva had someone open and NOBODY around for at least 3 yards. It was insane to see how open we let them get over and over.

It’s because we have too many guys who are natural LBs playing safety. We don’t have near the speed we need for coverage on the back end. Swilling is decent in short/intermediate coverages, when he can try to jump routes, but when he has to run with someone on a go route or a deep ball he gets burned because he doesn’t have enough speed. He is usually outrun by a good 3-4 yards by the time the ball gets there.

We have way too many breakdowns in zone coverage week after week. I really question our coaching for the S/CB/LB on zone coverages, because there is always someone out of position or guys running wide open. I don’t understand why we keep trying to run 3 man rush and drop 8 into zone when they still complete every pass with ease. I’d rather us bring 5-6 guys every play and play man coverage with a safety over the top. At least make them earn it.

Also, Tackling was extremely poor tonight. Lots of bad angles taken and tons of arm tackling and just trying to throw shoulders at people and not wrapping up. Painful to watch 99 drag 3-4 of our guys every play and watch people just try and throw a shoulder at him and fall down after.

 

[bke1984]

Swilling has been disappointing and his attitude seems poor. And his play matches it.

Really our whole secondary is frustrating. Every play uva had someone open and NOBODY around for at least 3 yards. It was insane to see how open we let them get over and over.

Often while rushing three

 

[bke1984]

The only issue I had with the offense was Sims INT when we had been running it down their throats. Yes it was threw Sims that made a bad decision and threw the pic but AGAIN Run the ****ing ball.

WE WERE GASHING THEM. It’s our strength and Sims picks have been the weakness. Run the ****ing ball.

Someone tell me our average yard per rush this game. Higher than 3.3? I’m guessing yes.

Sims needs to be graded on the INT that was negated by the penalty too. Bad throw, lucky call. He also threw 3-4 other passes that would have been picked off by a halfway decent defense. He’s got great upside, but his tendencies to turnovers will continue to limit our ability to succeed.

 

[Sheboygan]

That was one of the games we had to win. The bowl hopes are starting to dim now. Our DBs seem lost and are not physical.

Honestly, my bowl hopes dimmed after the NIU loss. Win that one and 2 of 3 between UM, VT and BC and we could have been bowling. I am afraid Thacker is in
over his head. Should be replaced after this year, IMO.

 

[Sheboygan]

Sims needs to be graded on the INT that was negated by the penalty too. Bad throw, lucky call. He also threw 3-4 other passes that would have been picked off by a halfway decent defense. He’s got great upside, but his tendencies to turnovers will continue to limit our ability to succeed.

If we had any sort of defense , we would be PRAISING his improvement after this game. Can he get better ? Sure !! But last time I looked FB is a team game.

 

[Jmonty71]

I will say this. The score was closer than I thought it would be. Either our offense found something that works, we had a good night or UVA has a terrible D. Take aways are all on the defensive side. I said this many times. We are forcing the 3-4 on a team that simply does not have the personnel for said 3-4. We need a big gap controlling NG. can't say we have that. We need speedy OLBs to perform blitzes. Can't say we have that either. I am not a fan of the 3-4, but I played in a 4-3 team too. I think a 3-4 can be good, if you have the right parts. We are not there.

 

[Sheboygan]

Yes, that will ultimately be what take him out. His attempt to forge the beginning of a legacy by riding on the back of his QB and RB, is not a bad concept in general. Problem is he’s standing by watching them being not properly utilized and failing to correct mistakes, is tolerating players that repeatedly perform poorly eating up all the minutes, etc. I was hoping he’d grow out of it in year 3 because he’s a fairly decent recruiter, but it’s really hard to project what’s going on into long term success down the road. I’m not sure we’ll ever amass the depth of talent to overcome weak coaching.

IMO, CGC's minimal HC experience is hurting the pace of improvement. His 1st year was a throwaway, last year was difficult for everybody, but in many ways , this team
stills seems disjointed and not dialed in many times. I still feel he has not learned the right balance between praise and criticism of his team and that approach trickles down to his entire staff. He's learning, but will he be given enough time to "get it" ?

 

[wvGT11]

In general, I think everyone is just tired of losing.
The offense has improved no doubt, just tired of the sloppiness of Sims at times though.

The defense on the other hand, not sure if we're improving or just not there yet. Either way we need that fixed.
I hope Collins can separate his friendship from these coaches and do the right thing

Seems like Coach Collins is going the Ted Lasso approach?

 

[smokey_wasp]

What picture am I painting? That Jeff has serious turnover problems and we won’t have a chance at being legitimately good until he figures it out? We don’t have a good enough defense for him to turn the ball over like he does

You said it right there, though. Our defense is giving a young QB zero margin for error. He threw one bad pick, but he didn't give them a short field or anything. UVA promptly went 80 yards with ease.

They have a great offense, but we didn't even make them work for their yards. Our offense is making strides, but can't be expected to play perfect and score every drive

 

[Northeast Stinger]

We had two weeks to prepare for Virginia and that seemed to help us offensively.

What I liked: We did not give up and fought until the end.

What I did not like: This team can’t seem to develop any momentum. Each week feels like we are starting over and learning from scratch. It seems this will be another year in which we cannot win two in a row.

 

[Madison Grant]

240 yards rushing to UVA, a team that doesn't even attempt to have a running game. Somebody on the defensive staff needs to lose their job.

 

[4shotB]

We had two weeks to prepare for Virginia and that seemed to help us offensively.

What I liked: We did not give up and fought until the end.

What I did not like: This team can’t seem to develop any momentum. Each week feels like we are starting over and learning from scratch. It seems this will be another year in which we cannot win two in a row.

Other things I liked - we did not shoot ourselves in the foot offensively with the silly false starts. Yes, there was a hold (or two) but that happens to everyone. The OL looked more cohesive. No silly timeouts or general confusion getting plays in. General organization and game management looked better (of course it was after a bye week) to my untrained eye. Outside of Pitt, we are looking competitive throughout 4 quarters with the UNC's and Uva's of the world. Yes, these are not top tier teams but you have to crawl before you walk. The process is slow but I do see overall improvement at a steady albeit slower than we all would wish for pace. Of course the weakneses are obvious and glaring and have been mentioned throughout this thread.

 

[stech81]

After sleeping I still hate our defense , I hate this is only 3 year if anything our defense is getting worse not sure how you can but they have but I guess they can't go down hill from here. Still don't understand after a few plays one defensive coach didn't tell them if 99 get the ball tackle him low

 

[4shotB]

240 yards rushing to UVA, a team that doesn't even attempt to have a running game. Somebody on the defensive staff needs to lose their job.

their 99 was extremely difficult for us to tackle. I wonder why people don't attempt to tackle low and wrap up anymore.? that seems to be the obvious solution to a 6'4" ballcarrier.

 

[UgaBlows]

This team is a year or two away from being VERY good. You guys can crap on our team if you want, but I see a lot of good things happening. I see things that need to be fixed, and I see things that will fix themselves with a little maturation. Although we lost, and that's a gut shot, I think we're going to be really good. It's not like Armstrong hasn't trashed 4 other teams this year. You guys act like they had some yahoo out there.

What drove me insane was that he ran on us for 99 yards! And that we could not figure our how to stop #99, that guy freaking killed us.

 

[Gtswifty81]

I agree with a few posts that I’m not sure we have the personnel to play 3-down lineman. I expected UVA to dominate our secondary because UVA has a great pass attack, but the tackling and run defense was a disappointment. UVA ran for 240 yards. I also wish we’d play more aggressively on D, as it seemed we dropped 8 back in coverage and still got torched. Most good QBs will pick apart soft zones without pressure from the DL.

The first drive of the second half is where we missed out on a big opportunity. We made great plays on first and second down and then dropped 8 to allow a 3rd and 16 conversion. I feel like that set the tone for the defense in the second half.

 

[Madison Grant]

their 99 was extremely difficult for us to tackle. I wonder why people don't attempt to tackle low and wrap up anymore.? that seems to be the obvious solution to a 6'4" ballcarrier.

We acted like we were trying to pick his pocket instead of tackle him.