By the Numbers: Breaking Down Virginia's Loss to Louisville

Matt Newton | Oct 13, 2024

Amber Searls-Imagn Images

Virginia and Louisville played yet another close matchup and the Cardinals once again came out on top, handing the Cavaliers their first conference loss of the season, 24-20 on Saturday evening at Scott Stadium.

Of the 11 times these two teams have met since the Cards joined the ACC in 2014, seven of those games have been decided by one score. Unfortunately for UVA, Louisville has more commonly come out on top in those games and now leads the all-time series with Virginia, which dates back to 1988, 8-5 and has won each of the last three meetings.

UVA Football: Five Takeaways From Virginia's 24-20 Loss to Louisville

Louisville scored the game-winning touchdown on the first play after the two-minute timeout, marking the first time UVA's opponent has scored in the fourth quarter since the Coastal Carolina game in week 4, a span of 37 minutes and 10 seconds without surrendering a fourth-quarter point for the Cavalier defense. Virginia is outscoring its opponents 45-27 in the fourth quarter through the first six games of the season.

Louisville won the game despite scoring 24 points, which matched a season-low for the Cardinals, who came into the week averaging 38.6 points per game, 21st-most in all of college football. Louisville also boasted the nation's 13th-ranked passing offense at 303.4 passing yards per game, but the Cavaliers held the Cardinals to a season-low 231 yards through the air on Saturday.

Virginia erased a double-digit deficit to take the lead for the third time this season. The Cavaliers also did so against Wake Forest and Boston College, erasing 14-point deficits to win those games.

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

Virginia	Stat	Louisville
449	Total Offense	408
148	Rushing Offense	177
4.1	Yards Per Rush	5.7
3-1	Passing Offense	231
59	Completion %	58
11.1	Yards Per Completion	12.8
3/4	Red Zone Attempts	4/6
13	Red Zone Points	24
8/19	3rd Downs	3/10
1/3	4th Downs	0/1
34:44	Possession Time	25:16
7-51	Penalties-Yards	8-53
0	Turnovers	1
2	Sacks By	3
6	Tackles For Loss	9
6	Big Plays (20+ Yards)	5

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

Senior wide receiver Malachi Fields had nine receptions on 17 targets for 129 receiving yards. That marked the third time this season Fields has had over 100 receiving yards in a game after having zero 100-yard games in his career coming into the year. Fields went over 1,500 receiving yards for his career (1,582) and has a streak of 21-straight games with at least one reception.

Graduate tight end Tyler Neville set a career-high with seven receptions and finished with 64 receiving yards, just four short of his season-high of 68 yards against Wake Forest.

Anthony Colandrea fell just five rushing yards short of his career-high, which he also set against Louisville last season. He had 84 rushing yards and completed 26 of 45 passes for 279 yards and a touchdown. Those 279 passing yards were his third-most on the season and he has passed for 200+ yards four times this season and 11 times in his career.

Xavier Brown caught his first-career touchdown pass, a 46-yard catch and run in the fourth quarter that gave the Cavaliers the lead. It was the longest reception of Brown's career and Virginia's fourth-longest play from scrimmage so far in 2024.

Grady Brosterhous scored his fourth rushing touchdown of the season. He leads the Cavaliers in that category with four rushing scores on just nine attempts.

Since returning from an injury that held him out of the Maryland game, Kam Robinson has recorded at least seven tackles in every game, has a sack in each of the last two games, and now leads Virginia with three sacks on the season. Robinson also had a career-high two tackles for loss against Louisville.

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