Five Takeaways from Virginia Football's 33-7 Loss to No. 13 SMU

Matt Newton | Nov 23, 2024

Aaron Snyde

Virginia suffered yet another lopsided defeat, scoring a season-low seven points in a 33-7 loss to No. 13 SMU in the final home game of the year on Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium. Here are our five key takeaways from the game.

Virginia sticks with Anthony Colandrea, Tony Muskett remains on the sideline

Tony Elliott was asked ad nauseum this week about the quarterback situation and his answers seemed to indicate that, while Anthony Colandrea was still the starter, the gap between him and Tony Muskett was small and both players got first-team reps in practice this week, all of which seemed to imply that Colandrea would be on a shorter leash if the offense looked lifeless as it has over the last several weeks.

Based on Virginia's offensive output against SMU, not only was the leash not short, there was no leash.

Virginia averaged a dismal 2.6 yards per play, punted seven times, took nine sacks, was 3/15 on third down, and came one garbage time touchdown away from getting shut out for the first time since the 2017 season. Until the semi-miraculous touchdown pass to Malachi Fields with a little over four minutes remaining, Virginia had gone 20-consecutive drives with Anthony Colandrea at quarterback without scoring a touchdown. When asked why Muskett was never put into the game in the second half, Tony Elliott said that it wouldn't have made much of a difference given Virginia's failure to protect the quarterback. But poor pass protection seems to be only part of the problem for UVA's offense, which brings us to our second takeaway...

What's wrong with UVA's passing game?

Virginia struggled to run the ball against SMU, but that's a season-long trend and not very surprising. SMU came into the game ranked 13th in the ACC in passing defense, allowing nearly 250 passing yards per game. UVA managed just 108 passing yards against the Mustangs. While Elliott is heaping blame on the offensive line for not giving Colandrea enough time to throw, Virginia's lack of pass protection is not wholly responsible for UVA's ineffective pass offense.

Colandrea ran himself into a few of those nine sacks and once again refused to throw the ball away; in doing so, he protected his completion percentage, which was a good (on paper) 67%. Virginia's receivers struggled to get open, which has also been an issue throughout the season and in particular since the injury to Trell Harris. The UVA coaching staff also bears some responsibility for not adjusting scheme and playcalling to better position Colandrea and the receivers to find open space. The UVA offensive line needs to give a better and more sustainable pocket to encourage Colandrea to stay in there and not scramble, but the receivers have to be better at getting separation, Colandrea must be willing to throw those receivers open, and the playcalling needs to make better use of the middle of the field rather than hugging the boundaries.

The Virginia defense continues to play well enough to compete with good teams

This game was 7-0 until about five minutes left in the first half and it was still a reasonable 17-0 at halftime. The UVA defense did its job, as it did last week in South Bend, holding SMU to punts and field goals and coming up with a couple of big turnovers in the second half that should have directly resulted in points for the Cavalier offense. The Virginia offense didn't hold up their end of the bargain and the 33 points the Cavaliers allowed have less to do with defensive lapses than they do with the offense hanging the defense out to dry.

More special teams miscues

SMU dominated the game regardless of these plays, but the UVA special teams still had a few head-scratching mistakes and poorly executed plays. Kam Courtney and Chris Tyree both signaled for a fair catch and both tried to catch the ball, which ultimately fell to the ground and Tyree was fortunate to fall on it at UVA's own 11-yard line. Virginia nearly got a safety on a booming punt from Daniel Sparks that carried Roderick Daniels Jr. into his own end zone, but the Cavaliers also gave up a 48-yard punt return to Daniels as well. Will Bettridge also missed a 41-yard field goal.

It all comes down to this - The Mediocrity Bowl

This is written before Virginia Tech's game against Duke on Saturday night. But should the Hokies fall to the Blue Devils, both Virginia Tech and Virginia will arrive at next week's Commonwealth Clash at 5-6 overall, both needing to win the game in order to become bowl eligible. Virginia hasn't won at Lane Stadium since 1998, but that's what it will take for the Cavaliers to reach bowl eligibility for the first time under Tony Elliott. These lopsided losses and offensive struggles will all go away with a win in the Commonwealth Clash next week.

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