Heroic Comeback Spoiled by Foolish Penalties, Virginia Falls to NC State 24-21

UVA continues to find new and increasingly painful ways to lose games and now sits at 0-4 for the first time since 1982

Virginia continues to find new and increasingly painful ways to lose games. 

In their previous two losses, it became clear that the Cavaliers had a problem with finishing games. An 11-point fourth quarter lead vanished against JMU and UVA was outscored 21-0 in the final period at Maryland last week. 

When NC State scored a long touchdown to increase its lead to eight points, this game looked to be a continuation of that trend. Instead, Virginia scored a touchdown and then executed a borderline miraculous two-point conversion to tie the game with 36 seconds remaining. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, that proved to be enough time for a few more fatal mental errors that ended up costing them the game. 

An unsportsmanlike penalty on Anthony Colandrea for removing his helmet following the two-point conversion set up a long kick return, giving NC State a golden opportunity to get into field goal range. UVA made matters worse by committing a personal foul on the initial field goal attempt and then Brayden Narveson converted from 33 yards out as time expired and NC State handed Virginia an uniquely painful 24-21 loss on Friday night at Scott Stadium, sending the Cavaliers to an 0-4 start to the season for the first time since 1982, George Welsh's first season at UVA. 

The key storylines coming into Friday's ACC opener were centered around each team's quarterbacks. NC State's Brennan Armstrong was facing his former team and returning to the stadium where he broke most of UVA's all-time quarterback records in his five years as a member of the Virginia football program. Meanwhile, UVA was and is in the midst of a quarterback debacle, with true freshman Anthony Colandrea ultimately making his third-consecutive start over the injured - but also possibly replaced - starter Tony Muskett. 

But for all of the talk of each team's quarterbacks leading up to the game, the first quarter was dominated by the defenses with neither team managing to points on the board in the first 15 minutes. Towards the end of the first quarter, Virginia went for it on 4th and inches near midfield and didn't convert, as Colandrea took the snap in shotgun and handed the ball to Mike Hollins, who was tackled short of the line to gain. That play would end up having immense ripple effects, with the Cavaliers not having the confidence to go for it on 4th down later in the game and, more immediately, the Wolfpack taking advantage of the plus field position to break the scoreless tie. Brennan Armstrong connected with KC Concepcion in the back left corner of the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown to give NC State a 7-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter. 

The Cavaliers quickly answered with a scoring drive of their own, sparked by Colandrea hitting Malik Washington in stride on the right sideline for a 42-yard gain. A few plays later, UVA was facing a 3rd and goal from the 8-yard line and Colandrea made yet another fantastic improvised play as he scrambled around the pocket before firing a pass to Washington in the back of the end zone. Colandrea and Washington made for a dynamic duo, with Washington setting career-highs across the board with 10 receptions, 170 yards, and two touchdowns. 

Neither team scored on their next two drives and Armstrong thew an interception to Micah Gaffney, UVA's first interception as a team this season. But on the next possession, Armstrong shook off the pick and led his team down the field, finding Concepcion for 30 yards and then 14 yards, eventually leading to a 1-yard rushing score for Delbert Mimms III to give NC State a 14-7 lead at halftime. 

Virginia's defense, which was hampered by injuries to several key players, played very well to keep UVA in the game. The Cavaliers were particularly good at pressuring Armstrong on third down, holding the Wolfpack to six conversions on 14 attempts. NC State went three-and-out on its first two possessions of the second half, giving UVA a chance to catch up. 

Colandrea led the Cavaliers into NC State territory on back-to-back drives in the third quarter, but both drives sputtered and ended in field goals. On the first, Colandrea threw a short screen pass to Washington, who made a man miss and streaked 59 yards down the sideline to give UVA 1st and goal from the 4-yard line. Virginia's struggles in short yardage situations continued, though, and Tony Elliott elected to kick a short field goal when faced with 4th and goal from the 3. 

On UVA's next drive, Colandrea hit Malachi Fields for a 29-yard gain down inside the NC State 30, but a few plays later, Virginia was faced with 4th and 1. The field goal unit was late getting on the field, so Elliott had to call a timeout, and Will Bettridge's 36-yard kick hit the left upright but went through to make it 14-13. 

Settling for field goals instead of touchdowns cost Virginia right away, as NC State immediately scored a touchdown on a 48-yard strike from Armstrong to Concepcion to push the lead to 21-13. Like Colandrea and Washington, Armstrong and Concepcion were prolific in the passing game with Concepcion recording six receptions for 116 yards and two touchdowns. 

Then came the fateful fourth quarter. For most of the period, it seemed Virginia's inability to execute late in games would continue. After throwing three interceptions in the fourth quarter at Maryland last week, Colandrea threw two more on back-to-back possessions to start the fourth quarter against NC State. The first wasn't exactly his fault, as he scrambled and tried to find Fields on a deep ball and NC State's secondary made an incredible play, as Sean Brown tipped the ball up in the air and Bishop Fitzgerald made a diving catch for the interception. The second pick was the epitome of a freshman mistake. Colandrea had driven the Cavaliers to the NC State 26-yard line in just three plays, but he tried to go for it all on 1st down and threw an ill-advised pass that never had a chance of reaching its intended target and was easily intercepted by Aydan White

Still, Virginia's defense gave the offense one more chance by forcing another NC State three-and-out. UVA got the ball back with 3:29 remaining still trailing by eight points. For anyone looking for optimism despite the 0-4 start, look no further than this offensive possession. Virginia put together a gutsy drive with the game on the line. Colandrea ran for 11 yards, passed to Fields for 19 yards, and hit Washington for 10 yards to get into the red zone. But after Hollins was brought down for no gain, Virginia was faced with another 4th and 1. This time, Colandrea rolled to his right and found Washington for a 12-yard completion, giving the Cavaliers 1st and goal from the 4 with less than a minute to go. Two plays later, Washington ran a hitch route and Colandrea found him for the 3-yard touchdown. 

That made the score 21-19 with 36 seconds left and it would all come down to the two-point conversion. But that play became much more difficult as Ty Furnish was assessed an unsportsmanlike penalty for an altercation with a NC State defensive lineman well after the play was over. Now needing to score from the 17-yard line, UVA's play expectedly fell apart and Colandrea scrambled around before eventually heaving up a desperate pass across his body. 

He couldn't have thrown it any better. 

The ball went to where only Malachi Fields good get it, and that he did. Fields came down with the catch and the game was tied. 

Colandrea was hit as he threw and landed on his back, slightly dislodging his helmet halfway off his head. Colandrea pushed the helmet all the way off his head to see where the pass went, and upon seeing that Fields had caught it, Colandrea got up and celebrated with his helmet still on the grass. That was enough for the refs to give Colandrea an unsportsmanlike penalty to be assessed on the ensuing kickoff. 

"When I fell back, my helmet came up and it was already off, so I kind of like lifted it off - something I shouldn't have done," Colandrea said after the game. "I should've just put my helmet back on."

Virginia kicked off from the 20-yard line and Julian Gray broke off a 35-yard return across midfield. Brennan Armstrong did the rest, rushing twice for eight yards and giving his kicker Brayden Narveson a chance at a 48-yard field goal. With some rainy and wet conditions, that would have been a tough kick to make. But UVA linebacker James Jackson had no intention of letting Narveson get that chance. Jackson leapt over the long-snapper and got a hand on the kick, which landed well short of the goal post. Flags flew immediately and Jackson was penalized for the obvious leaping infraction. That's a personal foul which carries a 15-yard penalty. That moved the ball up to the 15-yard line and Narveson easily knocked through the 33-yarder with no time on the clock to win the game. 

"We're in the final moments of the game, that’s when we got to be at our sharpest," Tony Elliott said after the game. "And we just didn't have the discipline down the stretch to win the football game.”

Virginia committed three boneheaded 15-yard penalties in the final 36 seconds of regulation and those penalties spoiled what could have been an epic comeback had the Cavaliers gone on to win in overtime. 

Instead, UVA falls to 0-4 for the first time in 41 years. 

Virginia will once again search for its first victory of the season next Saturday against Boston College in Chestnut Hill. 

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