Virginia offense has 2 big problems: Red Zone & third downs

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Elliott isn’t happy with a couple of glaring aspects of his offense, and realizes that if the Cavaliers’ desire for more than a 3-win season is to come to fruition, then those shortcomings need to be fixed immediately.

Virginia’s Red Zone offense has been less-than impressive, and was a factor in the Cavaliers’ 27-13 home loss to Maryland last Saturday night. Even worse is UVA’s inefficiency on third down, also a factor in the defeat.

The Virginia offense is 71st in the nation out of 133 FBS teams in Red Zone offense. With 12 trips to the Red Zone in three games, UVA has scored 10 times, but half of those scores are field goals (four rushing touchdowns, one passing TD).

Against Maryland, the Cavaliers had four opportunities in the Red Zone and scored only one TD, settling for field goals twice.

“We’ve got to evaluate it, and there are a couple of things from a play-calling standpoint that we’ve addressed and said we’ve got to do better, just from a big-picture understanding of the concept, and maybe it’s one that we need to get rid of,” Elliott said this week. “We’re having those discussions as a staff and evaluating it.

“But the object is to score every time you’re down there, and right now we’re not hitting our percentage of touchdowns, which impacts games. You go down there twice and you come away with 14 points as opposed to six, it’s a little bit different. It changes the dynamics of the game potentially.”

For instance, last Saturday night, UVA had a first down at the Maryland 6-yard line, advanced the ball to the 2, then quarterback Anthony Colandrea threw two straight incompletions (was pressured on one) and had to settle for a field goal.

Later in the first half, UVA was first-and-10 at the Terps’ 19. The Cavaliers ran the ball twice for seven yards, setting up a third-and-three at the 12, but again, Maryland put pressure on Colandrea, who threw the ball away. Field goal.

Just before the half, Colandrea spotted tight end Tyler Neville open and hooked up for a 40-yard catch-and-run to the Maryland 9. Colandrea ended up scrambling for a touchdown with only one second left on the clock for a 13-7 Virginia lead.

Elliott has to wonder what might have happened if UVA had scored touchdowns on those other two drives rather than field goals. The Cavaliers could have been up 21-7 at the half, had momentum, and received the second-half kickoff.

Several Wahoo fans questioned the Red Zone play-calling on Twitter during and following the game. Apparently, Elliott had some questions about some of those decisions as well.

Virginia, now a 3.5-point favorite over Coastal Carolina this Saturday (Conway, S.C., 2 p.m., ESPN+), can’t afford to fritter away scoring opportunities against a Coastal team that is averaging 41 points per game (UVA is averaging 26 points per game).

Scoring more points means that the Cavaliers are going to have to get the most out of more possessions. Presently, UVA ranks No. 130 (almost the bottom) in third-down conversion percentage.

In 40 third-down scenarios, UVA has converted only 9 of those into first downs in three games, an unimpressive .225 percentage.

Saturday’s loss to Maryland was an example of how third downs were a lost cause, when Virginia managed to turn only 3 out of 15 third downs into first downs. That’s enough to make any coach go bananas.

Here’s how it went against the Terps:

-Third-and-11, Colandrea threw the ball away

-Third-and-10, intercepted

-Third-and-4, incomplete pass to Malachi Fields

-Third-and-13, incomplete pass to Fields

-Third-and-8, incomplete pass to Fields

-Third-and-2, Jack Griese runs for 5 yards and a first down

-Third-and-10, incompletion, throw away

“When we’re efficient on first down and second down and we get it to third-and-short, third-and-medium, much higher percentage of conversion as opposed to when you’re sitting back there at third-and-7 to 10,” Elliott said. “You’re not going to convert at a high rate in third-and-7 to 10.

“We’ve identified what the factors are, now we have to just go to work to improve those.”

Turnover margin has also become a problem once again for the Cavaliers, who are tied at No. 124 in the nation in that category.

Virginia has gained only two turnovers in three games (two fumble recoveries) and has committed seven turnovers (two lost fumbles and five interceptions), a negative-5 in turnover margin.

That is yet another area the coaches must clean up before Saturday against an undefeated Coastal Carolina team.