With chance to go 3-0, Cavaliers squander opportunities

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Elliott’s big point of emphasis has been to win the “middle eight” of games, the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half. Somewhere, there’s a disconnect.

Virginia has simply been putrid coming out of the locker room for the second half the past two weeks. The idea is to establish momentum after halftime and carry it into the fourth quarter.

Instead, the Cavaliers offense has coughed and sputtered like an old jalopy. Magically, they overcame the poor third quarter last week in a dramatic, 31-30 comeback at Wake Forest.

Saturday night at home, with an opportunity for a 3-0 start for only the fourth time this century, Virginia laid another third-quarter egg with no fourth-quarter magic in a 27-13 loss to Maryland.

The Cavaliers squandered Red Zone opportunities like an oil sheik in Vegas in the first half but still managed to eke out a 13-7 halftime lead over the Terps, thanks to a 10-yard scrambling touchdown by quarterback Anthony Colandrea with a mere one second left on the clock.

Instead of building on that momentum in the second half, UVA was M.I.A.

Nothing worked offensively in the second half for the Cavaliers. As brilliant as Colandrea was in the comeback at Wake a week ago, he was simply awful in the second half against the Terps: 8 of 18 passing for only 58 yards, and was intercepted. The running game was just as inept, gaining only 24 yards after the break.

Beating Maryland wasn’t going to be easy, but producing a mere 82 yards of total offense in the second half made it impossible.

Colandrea, chased from the pocket more than Elliott would want, simply couldn’t move the chains in the second half (only five first downs, one via penalty) and found himself faced with third-and-longs the entire second half.

In fact, Virginia didn’t cross midfield in the second half until its final possession, its deepest penetration down to the Maryland 28 when Colandrea’s desperate fourth-and-10 scramble came up a yard short. He finished with a quarterback rating of 26.5.

“We’ve got to come out and play the best second half that we possibly could, and tonight, we didn’t do that,” Elliott said after the game. “I haven’t done a good job the past two weeks of having these guys ready coming out of the half, so I’ve got to do a better job. We weren’t able to establish anything offensively.”

Still, Elliott did get his wish of keeping contact with Maryland, down by only a possession going into the fourth quarter. UVA’s anemic offense continued to chug along over the final period while the Terps (2-1) tacked on another unanswered 10 points.

“The biggest thing is understanding that every play matters,” Elliott said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the first play of the game, the last play of the game, eight minutes left in the third quarter. Every play is a huge play.”

With Colandrea out of sync, partially due to throwing on the run and partially due to Maryland’s man-to-man pass coverage blanketing UVA’s receivers, the offense couldn’t get in rhythm. That put more pressure on Virginia’s defense, which was on the field for 22 minutes in the second half, often put in compromising positions by an ineffective offense.

Elliott said he told his quarterback after the game to “just keep swinging.”

“We’re not going to panic and have a knee-jerk reaction,” Elliott said. “We’re going to coach, because there are some good things he did, too. He made a lot of plays. He’s a competitor, and there’s nobody in that locker room that’s hurting more than him.”

While Maryland only sacked Colandrea once, Elliott was concerned with the pressure because his offensive line is still moving players around and minus left tackle McKale Boley, who is yet to suit up this season.

Still, Virginia could have owned a healthier halftime lead but struggled in the Red Zone in the first half and was haunted by a key penalty when Colandrea connected with speedster Chris Tyree, the transfer from Notre Dame, who hauled in a 65-yard touchdown pass on UVA’s first possession. The score was negated by a holding call on receiver Malachi Fields. Virginia ended up punting the ball away.

The Cavaliers turned the ball over on their next two possessions, one when Colandrea fumbled the ball after moving the ball to Maryland’s 5-yard line, then was intercepted at his own 35 on the next series.

Virginia continued to move the ball, getting a first down at the Terps’ 6, but settled for a field goal for a 3-0 lead. On its next possession, Colandrea moved the team from the UVA 11 to a first down at Maryland’s 19, but stalled again and added another field goal for a 6-0 lead.

“Any time you’re in the Red Zone, you want touchdowns,” Elliott said. “We were excited to get points because the No. 1 objective in the Red Zone is to score points, but you want a higher touchdown percentage, especially when you’re playing a good team.”

UVA, now 2-1, plays at Coastal Carolina next Saturday at 2 p.m. The Chanticleers are 3-0 after beating Temple, 28-20, on Saturday.