Virginia’s Defense Rides To The Rescue Against Stubborn ODU

By Jerry Ratcliffe

On a night when Virginia’s offense coughed and sputtered like an old jalopy, the Cavaliers depended on a tenacious defense to get the job done in a stirring 28-17 comeback over visiting Old Dominion.

UVA spotted the Monarchs of Conference USA a 17-0 lead before the nation’s No. 21 team unleashed its defense for a hair-chested, second-half stretch. The stout Cavalier defense bottled up mobile ODU quarterback Stone Smartt and held the Monarchs to a mere 46 yards total offense after the break as Virginia pulled off its biggest comeback since trailing North Carolina 21-0 at halftime in 2002.

“We pulled off the comeback, which is way better than the alternative,” said UVA coach Bronco Mendenhall, whose team bolted to its first 4-0 start since 2004. “Defensively, we adjusted faster mindset-wise and production-wise than we did offensively.”

Mendenhall may have been pleased that his team remained unbeaten as it heads to Notre Dame (a 23-17 loser to Georgia late Saturday night), but it wasn’t difficult to detect that the coach was less than satisfied with how his team performed.

A hungry Old Dominion team showed up with intentions to spring an upset (it was a 27-point underdog), just like it did last season when the Monarchs stunned Virginia Tech. For the longest, agonizing while to UVA fans, it appeared that ODU had the Cavaliers on the ropes.

Trailing 17-7 at the half, Virginia got back into the game on ODU’s first possession after the break when a blitzing Charles Snowden forced Smartt into a bad decision, a pass picked off by linebacker Zane Zandier, who returned it 22 yards for a touchdown that cut the deficit to 17-14, a play that Mendenhall said turned the game around.

While UVA’s defense stiffened, smothering ODU’s ground game and harrassing Smartt with relentless blitzing tactics, the Cavaliers’ offense appeared stalled out in the garage.

We’re talking into the fourth quarter, the situation was looking dire for Virginia, particularly after a Brian Delaney 37-yard field goal attempt was deflected at the line of scrimmage and sailed through the air like a wounded duck, missing the target and leaving the game in doubt.

The Cavaliers’ biggest break of the game came on a call by ODU coach Bobby Wilder that will likely be highly scrutinized for weeks to come. On the ensuing ODU possession, Wilder decided to go for it on fourth-and-one at his own 29.

Huge mistake against a chest-pounding Virginia defense that had slammed the door shut on the Monarchs the entire second half. Smartt got the call on a keeper but was smothered by UVA free safety Joey Blount.

Two plays later, after a 22-yard hookup from QB Bryce Perkins to tight end Tanner Cowley, followed by a seven-yard burst by running back Wayne Taulapapa up the gut, the Cavaliers were in the end zone and in the lead for the first time, 21-17 with 10:16 to play.

On its next series, Virginia essentially iced the game on back-to-back passes from Perkins to wide receiver Joe Reed. The first was a pass interference call on ODU’s Geronda Hall for a first down at the 25, followed by a dart to Reed in the end zone, 28-17, at the 7:33 mark.

“Head coaches have to make some tough decisions,” Mendenhall said about the call.  “Coach Wilder and their team came to win.

“On the other end, we had a scenario when they replayed the spot and moved it back a little bit, but we were intending to go for it on fourth down — almost the exact circumstance on the other side. You do your best as a head coach to make those choices to go for it, and they did. I’m not sure how many times they went for it on fourth down today, maybe two or three, but they went for that one, didn’t get it and that helped us.”

ODU in fact went for it on fourth down five times in the game, converted three. While many will question Wilder’s decision to roll the dice from his own 29 at a critical juncture of the game, no one will question his desire to win in a game that his team was a prohibitive underdog.

“We told the team coming into this, being four-touchdown underdogs, that we were going for it,” Wilder said about his decision. “We came here to win and that is how we tried to play today.

“In the first half we go for it fourth-and-one. A great call by our offense. We hit Geiger for a 47-yard touchdown to put us up 17-0. If we punt it there, it would have put us up 10-0. We were aggressive and then up 17-14 with 10 minutes to go, we had fourth and less than a yard. I talked to Coach Scott about the call. We were going to jet sweep motion, which was causing them to widen the perimater and run the quarterback, and their deep tackle made a heck of a play.”

Virginia defensive coordinators Nick Howell and Kelly Poppinga blitzed the living daylights out of ODU, particularly in the second half in an attempt to make something happen. Four of the six sacks on Smartt came during the second half as he was under constant duress and the Monarchs were panicking on offense.

“Blitz. A lot of blitz,” Wilder said afterward. “[Virginia’s] defensive coordinator is outstanding, and they dialed up some really good zone fires. They put us in a lot of one-on-ones, and we just couldn’t handle it enough. There were times we handled it and then we didn’t get open. You got Bryce Hall back there and some really good defensive players.”

The Cavaliers’ defensive aggression came after Old Dominion had stacked up 224 yards total offense against the nation’s No. 16 defensive team by halftime.

Meanwhile, UVA’s offense staggered out of the gate and never really got it going until the fourth quarter, after Wilder’s fourth down gamble.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the game for Mendenhall was an offense that didn’t get untracked until the end.

“We thought that we would be able to move the ball consistently,” Mendenhall said when asked if in film study game planning, he believed it would be a challenge to run against ODU’s defense (Virginia finished with 69 yards rushing on 29 attempts).

“We thought we would have similar offensive output as what we had in weeks one (30 points at Pitt), two (52 vs. William & Mary), and three (31 against Florida State),” Mendenhall added. “That’s what we thought would happen — and it didn’t, to Old Dominion’s credit.”

Mendenhall said that the Monarchs defeated blocks and made tackles, covered UVA’s receivers tight.

“They made it hard to move the ball,” the coach said. “As much as I would like to say it was only us and our performance, I was impressed, and I told Coach [Wilder] that after the game.”

Now the challenge for unbeaten Virginia is to rediscover its offense in preparation leading up to its first-ever trip to South Bend to face the Irish.

Perkins, who appeared banged up on two plays late in the game, was reportedly okay after the game, but was held out of post-game interviews.

The Virginia quarterback was 15 of 24 for 175 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 35 net yards and another score, his lowest yardage output of the season.

“We contained Perkins better than Pitt did, better than Florida State did,” Wilder said. “We just didn’t make enough plays to win the game.”

Virginia’s defense did. That probably won’t be enough in South Bend. At some point, the Cavaliers’ offense is going to have to rejoin the party.