Five Takeaways from Virginia Football's 35-14 Loss to Notre Dame

Matt Newton | Nov 17, 2024

MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A disastrous first half with ball security doomed Virginia (5-5) to a 35-14 loss on the road at No. 8 Notre Dame (9-1) on Saturday evening at Notre Dame Stadium. Here are five key takeaways from the Cavaliers' defeat to the Fighting Irish.

Turnovers and other costly mistakes

In another universe, Virginia's admirable efforts on the defensive side of the ball (which we'll touch on later) resulted in this being a somewhat competitive ball game for at least a little while. But instead, we live in this universe, where the Cavaliers never gave themselves a chance due to a myriad of turnovers and other miscues. Chris Tyree muffed the opening kickoff, leading to Notre Dame's first touchdown, and the rest of the Irish's 28 first-half points came off of UVA turnovers as well. Notre Dame scored touchdowns immediately following a Kobe Pace fumble and two of Anthony Colandrea's three interceptions in the first half. Ethan Davies nearly muffed a punt and Kam Robinson delivered a late hit on the quarterback when the UVA defense nearly got off the field only allowing a field goal on Notre Dame's first possession. Virginia needed everything to go right in order to have a chance in this one, but the Cavaliers shot themselves in the foot early and often and took themselves out of the game.

Anthony Colandrea's interceptions pile up

Earlier this season, Anthony Colandrea had a stretch of four games in which he threw six touchdown passes and zero interceptions, seemingly putting his past issues with ball security behind him. Since then, however, Colandrea has thrown multiple interceptions in each of his last three games, totaling seven interceptions to just one one touchdown pass in that stretch. The second pick, which was deflected away from Xavier Brown, was almost a great play by Colandrea and we don't put that one totally on him. But the other two interceptions were totally the fault of Colandrea, who telegraphed his pass and threw into tight coverage for easy picks by the Notre Dame defense. Colandrea needed to protect the football and have sharp accuracy in order to lead the Cavaliers to a win on Saturday. He did neither.

Good defense wasted

Of the four touchdowns the Fighting Irish scored in the first half, only one of those drives started on Notre Dame's side of the 50-yard line. Thanks to UVA's offensive turnovers, the Irish had touchdown drives of 25, 2, and 32 yards in the first half to seize control of the game and the UVA defense cannot be assigned the blame for those points being scored. In the first half, Virginia held Notre Dame to 0/5 on third downs and forced the Irish to go three-and-out five times, including on four-consecutive drives. Yes, Notre Dame got loose for a few big plays, including a 76-yard touchdown run by Jeremiyah Love in the third quarter that was the lone touchdown of the second game for the Irish, but the UVA defense played well enough for this to be a closer game had the Cavalier offense been able to match that level of play.

Virginia was not competitive at the line of scrimmage

In contrast to UVA's upset win at Pittsburgh last week in which the Cavaliers were able to contend with the Panthers at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, Notre Dame had a significant advantage in the trenches and leaned on that advantage throughout the game. Riley Leonard had plenty of time to throw and the Irish rushed for 234 yards (6.2 yards per carry) even with all of the three-and-outs in the first half. And while Virginia gave up only two sacks on the day, a vast improvement over the 16 combined sacks the Cavaliers gave up in their previous two games, UVA was limited to short passes and struggled to establish its ground game.

Is it time to revisit Virginia's quarterback situation?

On a fundamental level, a backup quarterback playing well in garbage time (usually against an opponent's backups and third stringers) does not on its own constitute a convincing argument that the backup quarterback deserves consideration for the starting job. With that said, Tony Muskett has been nothing short of excellent in his recent relief appearances for Anthony Colandrea and, though he did not light it up in the passing game, Muskett was responsible for scoring Virginia's only points on Saturday, rushing for a pair of touchdowns to make the final score look a little more respectable (and cover the spread, if you care about that sort of thing). Muskett's 38-yard completion to Malachi Fields was probably UVA's best offensive play of the game.

But if the Cavaliers are actually going to reconsider their quarterback situation heading into the final two weeks of the season, it will mostly be because of the turnover-prone and otherwise subpar quarterback play Anthony Colandrea has delivered over the last few weeks. We're not necessarily straight up advocating for Colandrea to be benched in favor of Tony Muskett, but Virginia needs to win one more game to reach bowl eligibility, and all options need to be considered to make that happen.