By the Numbers: Breaking Down Virginia's Loss to North Carolina

Matt Newton | Oct 27, 2024

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Virginia football suffered their third straight defeat, this time in lopsided fashion as North Carolina routed UVA 41-14 on Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium. UNC successfully avenged last year's upset victory by the Cavaliers over the then-No. 10 ranked Tar Heels and improved to 66-59-4 in the all-time series with UVA, which dates back to 1892.

The 27-point margin of victory for the Tar Heels is the largest they have had against Virginia since beating UVA 45-14 in 2013. North Carolina recorded ten sacks against Virginia, the most UNC has had in a single game since the year 2000.

See the chart below for a breakdown of the stats from Virginia's loss to North Carolina:

Virginia	Stat	North Carolina
288	Total Offense	428
7	Rushing Offense	135
0.2	Yards Per Rush	3.4
281	Passing Offense	293
59%	Completion %	61%
11.7	Yards Per Completion	15.4
2/3	Red Zone Attempts	4/4
6	Red Zone Points	20
6/16	3rd Downs	7/14
1/3	4th Downs	1/2
28:23	Possession Time	31:37
5-45	Penalties-Yards	5-45
2	Turnovers	0
0	Sacks	10
4	Tackles for a Loss	12
2	Big Plays (20+ Yards)	6

Here are some key individual stats from Virginia vs. North Carolina along with some more notes:

Malachi Fields finished with three receptions and 48 receiving yards, his 23rd game in a row with at least one catch. With 1,695 career receiving yards, Fields is 12th on Virginia's all-time receiving list and is eight yards shy of passing Heath Miller.

Tyler Neville had four receptions for 32 yards, allowing him to surpass the 1,000-yard career receiving mark with 1,013 career receiving yards, 317 of which have come at Virginia.

Anthony Colandrea completed 16 of 28 passes (57%) for 156 yards, but had zero touchdowns and two interceptions, breaking a streak of four consecutive games without throwing a pick. He had thrown 146 passes in a row without an interception until throwing a pick on the first drive of the third quarter.

Tony Muskett threw a 68-yard touchdown pass to JR Wilson in the fourth quarter. That was Wilson's first-career touchdown and UVA's longest pass play of the season as well as the team's longest pass play since Kobe Pace caught a 75-yard touchdown against James Madison in the second game of the 2023 season.

Anthony Britton led Virginia with 10 total tackles, setting a career-high in that category. Jonas Sanker was second on the team with seven tackles, six of which were solo stops, and he is now up to 154 career tackles.

Will Bettridge converted field goals of 30 and 27 yards, giving him 184 career points, which is four shy of catching up to Bill Dudley for the 15th spot on the all-time scoring list at Virginia.

Daniel Sparks booted a 60-yard punt in the second quarter, his 14th career punt of at least 60 yards. 12 of those punts have come at Virginia, putting Sparks past Russ Henderson for most 60+ yard punts as a Cavalier all-time.

Up next, Virginia has a bye next week before heading on the road in week 11 to take on No. 19 Pitt on Saturday, November 9th at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh. The kickoff time and TV designation have yet to be announced for Virginia at Pittsburgh on November 9th.

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