Virginia Football Falls to Louisville 24-20 for First ACC Loss

Matt Newton | Oct 12, 2024

Oct 12, 2024; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Virginia Cavaliers wide receiver Malachi Fields (8) carries the ball as Louisville Cardinals defensive back M.J. Griffin (26) defends during the second half at Scott Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

Virginia (4-2, 2-1 ACC) was handed its first ACC loss of the 2024 season, suffering a 24-20 defeat to Louisville (4-2, 2-1 ACC) on Saturday evening at Scott Stadium. Although the Cavaliers outgained the Cardinals 449-408, was much better on third downs, and dominated time of possession, failure to execute in the red zone ultimately doomed UVA to its third-straight loss in the series with Louisville.

Virginia received the opening kick and immediately threw the first punch, an 11-play 75-yard drive that included runs of 18 and 13 yards for Anthony Colandrea, a 19-yard completion to Tyler Neville, and then a Grady Brosterhous QB sneak on 4th and goal from the one-yard line. Louisville answered with its own long drive inside the UVA red zone, but Kam Robinson made a great backfield ankle tackle on Isaac Brown to force a turnover on downs

The Cavaliers didn't do much on their next two drives and then Louisville drove down the field with ease to get on the board. Tyler Shough completed a 21-yard pass to Caullin Lacy and then Isaac Brown got loose for runs of 12 and 23 yards, before sprinting to the end zone untouched for a seven-yard score to tie the game.

Virginia responded to the Louisville scoring drive by putting together an impressive series of its own, leaning heavily on its run game to drive the length of the field. Colandrea scrambled a few times and UVA also got a couple of nice runs from Kobe Pace. A 13-yard completion from Colandrea to Fields moved the chains on 3rd and 13 and Virginia got the ball inside the Louisville five-yard line. But on fourth and 3, rather than taking the lead with a chip shot field goal, the Cavaliers opted to go for it and Colandrea's fourth-down pass to Kam Courtney fell incomplete, ending an 18-play, 72-yard drive that took eight minutes and 33 seconds off the clock, but amounted to zero points. Inevitably, that ended up costing Virginia at the conclusion of the game.

Neither team did anything offensively for the remainder of the second quarter and the game went to halftime tied 7-7. The team stats at halftime were pretty even across the board, except for time of possession, as the Cavaliers possessed the ball for nearly 20 of the 30 minutes in the first half.

Louisville opened the second half with a good drive, but UVA's defense made a stand and the Cardinals settled for a 31-yard field goal from Brock Travelstead. This season, Virginia had so far avoided the sort of catastrophic special teams miscues that had plagued them all last year, but the Cavaliers suffered an untimely relapse as Daniel Sparks tried a rugby-style punt that hit a player just a few yards in front of him and ricocheted backwards to the UVA 14-yard line. The Cardinals needed just one play to cash in on what was essentially a blocked punt, as Isaac Brown ran in for a 14-yard score.

Virginia answered with back-to-back scoring drives, but neither were punctuated with touchdowns as UVA's red zone woes continued. Instead, Will Bettridge converted field goals of 31 and 23 yards to make it 17-13 heading to the fourth quarter.

Louisville missed a 41-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, giving the ball back to the Cavaliers, who capitalized with a big play. Colandrea handled a blitz well and threw a short pass to Xavier Brown, who broke a tackle and sprinted down the right sideline for a 46-yard touchdown, giving Virginia a 20-17 lead with 10 minutes to go.

The Cardinals seemed to be well on their way to a response, but true freshman safety Ethan Minter put an end to Louisville's drive with an incredible leaping interception near the Virginia goal line.

That proved to only temporarily stave off the Cardinals, who got the ball back and drove down the field, setting up an easy pitch and catch from Shough to Jamari Johnson in the back of the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown.

Virginia had plenty of time to answer and managed to pick up a couple of first downs on throws to Kam Courtney and Andre Green Jr., but then three-consecutive passes targeted for Malachi Fields fell incomplete and Colandrea's fourth down pass to Tyler Neville was broken up as well.

UVA still had three timeouts, which allowed for a slim chance at another scoring drive in the final minute, but Louisville was able to pick up a first down and end the game.

Anthony Colandrea completed 26 of his 45 passes for 279 yards and a touchdown. Much of those passing yards went to Malachi Fields, who had nine receptions for 129 yards. Tyler Neville hauled in seven passes for 64 yards and Kam Courtney added five catches for 42 yards.

Tyler Shough went 18/31 for 231 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Louisville's offense was powered by Isaac Brown, who racked up 146 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.

Up next, Virginia hits the road for a tough challenge at Clemson next Saturday at 12pm in Clemson, South Carolina.

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