Elliott explains thinking on game’s final play call

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia executed its two-minute drill perfectly on Saturday with the game on the line at NC State, until its last play.

The Cavaliers had marched from their own 19 with 2:12 to play, to the Wolfpack 12 with well over a minute to go, a timeout in their pocket, when disaster struck. Sixth-year veteran quarterback Chandler Morris made a bad decision, forcing a pass on first down from the 12 that was intercepted in the end zone with 1:02 remaining.

A stand-up guy, Morris owned his mistake, noting that he should have simply thrown the ball out of the end zone with three downs remaining. Certainly it must have been tempting when he saw speedy tailback J’Mari Taylor guarded by a defensive end, a clear mismatch. But State’s Cian Slone made a good play on the ball, picked off the pass and the Wahoos were done, losing 35-31.

Yes, Virginia had a receiver open, cutting across the field, but Morris didn’t see him and didn’t want to throw it across his body, anyway. Up until that interception, Morris was 5 for 6 passing on that drive for 69 yards and four first downs, damn near perfect.

Wahoo fans were understandably upset with the final play call and what seemed like a rush to get into the end zone, rather than to use more of the clock, possibly a timeout, or other methods to stop the clock, i.e. an incompletion or an out-of-bounds play, even possibly a first down at the 2.

Why go for it all on first down at the 12 with over a minute to play?

Tony Elliott said Tuesday that Virginia was actually trying to “bleed the clock,” despite what fans perceived.

“We had a guy coming open, right? And we didn’t want to score too fast, but at the same time, you want to score in that situation,” Elliott said. “I think it just came down to Chandler saw it, saw a back matched up on the defensive end and needed to put the ball over the top, and moving to his right, just left it a little bit inside.”

While Morris said he didn’t see the tight end open, Elliott said it’s a no-no to attempt that pass.

“You always tell the quarterback, roll right, throw left, sit bench,” Elliott said. “That’s kind of the old proverb there that you don’t want to throw back across their body.”

The coach explained that at that point, he believed the offensive staff was trying to bleed the clock with one timeout left.

“We were trying to also give ourselves an opportunity. We had three or four plays, just in case, because we’re going for a touchdown. If you’re playing for a field goal, you manage the situation completely differently. Going for a touchdown, you want to play with a tempo to give yourself multiple opportunities.

“We only had one timeout, so it’s not like we can stop the clock, therefore, if a ball is caught in bounds, that’s a different situation. It was more just a function of Chandler wanting that one back.”

Elliott also said they considered in their time management, the possibility of an injury. If a player goes down after the ball is spotted, a team can be charged a timeout and a 10-second runoff. If a team incurs a penalty while the clock is running, there can be a 10-second runoff and then you have to burn your remaining timeout.

While critics questioned going with a risk-reward pass play to the corner of the end zone on first down, Elliott said that if “we had to do it all over again, probably the same play call. We’d just be a little more careful with the ball and maybe throw it out of bounds as opposed to forcing the ball down the field.”

Still, it seems Virginia could have made a less risky play call on first down and still had time with about a minute remaining and a timeout, to set up for the potential winning touchdown rather than going for it all on first down.