It’s time to break down Virginia’s 33-7 loss to No. 13 SMU on Saturday by handing out some report card grades for various players, position groups, and other categories to evaluate the Cavaliers’ performance in week 13.

We’ll save the QB debate of Colandrea vs. Muskett and Tony Elliott’s handling of that situation for another time. We’re only interested in grading Colandrea’s quarterback play on the field… which left a whole lot to be desired. We’ll give Colandrea some slack because he was frequently under duress throughout the game and didn’t turn the ball over for the first time in over a month. What we won’t give him credit for is his artificial completion percentage. He completed 18 of 27 passes (67%), but fueling that (on paper) decent stat is Colandrea’s mind-boggling refusal to throw the ball away or attempt to push the ball down the field. The offensive line is not in good shape, but at least a few of those nine sacks were instances where Colandrea ran himself into sacks instead of getting rid of the ball. The one touchdown pass to Malachi Fields late in the fourth quarter represented everything good and bad about Anthony Colandrea all wrapped up into one play, as he retreated 20+ yards to evade pressure before unleashing a beautiful throw to a target he may or may not have seen open in the back corner of the end zone for a four-yard touchdown pass that traveled more than 30 yards through the air. Unfortunately, the Cavaliers have only seen but rare glimpses of that “electrifyingly good” version of Anthony Colandrea in the last several weeks.

Tony Elliott, at least partially, threw the offensive line under the bus in his postgame press conference on Saturday, citing the team’s inability to protect the quarterback as a reason why inserting Tony Muskett into the game would not have made much of a difference. While that point is debatable, it is true that UVA’s offensive line struggled mightily against SMU, giving up nine sacks and two more quarterback hurries, 12 tackles for loss for a total of -72 yards, and blocking for a ground game that averaged just 1.7 yards per carry. You’re not going to win a lot of games like that.

Something is seriously wrong with Virginia’s passing game and the responsibility is shared among several parties. Anthony Colandrea is scrambling too quickly before going through his reads, isn’t willing to throw receivers open, and hasn’t been able to hit on deep balls since early in the season. For their part, the Cavalier receivers have struggled to gain separation, nor have they been able to turn the short throws into big plays – Chris Tyree has not been nearly as impactful as hoped and Trell Harris is severely missed as a deep threat. We’ve already discussed the offensive line, which has to encourage Colandrea to stay in the pocket by keeping that pocket intact for more than a second or two. And of course, the coaches bear responsibility for not being able to adjust the scheme to put Colandrea and his receivers in better positions to connect, especially in the middle of the field. The outcome of all of this is that an SMU defense that came into this week ranked 13th in the ACC in pass defense managed to hold Virginia to a season-low 108 passing yards.

This isn’t surprising at this point, but it doesn’t make it any less of a problem. Virginia has had games of 73, 68, 7, and 65 yards rushing this season. Not being able to win the line of scrimmage is a big part of it, but Saturday added injury to insult as the Cavaliers lost Kobe Pace and Xavier Brown to injury, leaving Noah Vaughn as the team’s leading rusher in the game. Brown will be out for the rest of the season with a broken collarbone, while Pace is questionable for next week at Virginia Tech.

Virginia averaged 2.6 yards per play. That just about sums it up.

Virginia’s best stat of the game was that SMU running back Brashard Smith, who entered the week as the ACC’s third leading rusher averaging more than 100 yards per game and more than six yards per carry, managed just 63 total rush yards and only 3.3 yards per rushing attempt. The bad news for Virginia is that SMU more than made up for that in the passing game…

The Mustangs threw for 323 yards through the air, including a series of big plays as the Cavaliers were carved up by Kevin Jennings and company. Still, UVA managed to bend, but not break until the late stages of the game, holding SMU to field goals and even coming up with a couple of turnovers to try to set up the Virginia offense with good field position.

For the second week in a row, the UVA defense played well enough to make this a competitive game, only to watch as the UVA offense continued to drop the ball. This game was 7-0 late in the first half and it was even still within reach early in the fourth quarter. John Rudzinski’s unit has been playing well for the last three weeks.

There were no catastrophic special teams miscues, but Will Bettridge missed a 41-yard field goal, Chris Tyree and Kam Courtney both tried to catch a kickoff and fumbled it (barely recovering), and the Cavaliers allowed a 48-yard punt return to Roderick Daniels Jr. Daniel Sparks had a good day punting the ball, so that’s nice.

Virginia finishes the season with a 2-4 record at home, losing those four games by a combined 71 points. The announced attendance on Saturday was 36,305, which was the second-lowest attendance of the season. It seems to be a cyclical problem of poor performances contributing to poor turnout and the resultant poor atmosphere meaning the Cavaliers essentially have zero home field advantage.

Virginia Football: Xavier Brown Out for Season With Collarbone Injury

By the Numbers: Breaking Down Virginia’s 33-7 Loss to SMU

VIDEO: Tony Elliott, UVA Football Players React to SMU Loss

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

Virginia Football Rolled By No. 13 SMU 33-7 in Home Finale

A Honduran man faces rape charges after allegedly assaulting a woman on a popular hiking trail in Herndon, Virginia, US. Police said this is the first stranger rape in the town in over a decade.
Denis Humberto Navarette Romero, 31, has been arrested and charged with intent to defile and rape, according to the Herndon police department. The victim, who did not know Romero, was attacked on the busy Washington and Old Dominion Trail when he allegedly grabbed her arm, forced her to the ground, and assaulted her, according to a New York Post report citing police.
“The woman had been walking along the trail after leaving a business in downtown Herndon when she was approached by the suspect.The suspect brazenly grabbed the victim and forced her to the ground, where he proceeded to rape her. The victim was able to fight off the suspect and run away,” said Herndon police chief Maggie DeBoard in a press conference, as quoted by local media FFX Now.
‘This is the only stranger rape we’ve had in the town in my more than 12 years as chief of police,” DeBoard added, as quoted by New York Post.
Before being arrested on rape charges, Romero, originally from Honduras, a country in Central America, was released from jail on November 14 after serving half of a 50-day sentence for indecent exposure.
Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin criticised the release of Romero, who is in the US illegally. He told The Post, “I am heartsick for this victim and outraged that local Fairfax County officials recklessly released violent illegal immigrants who should have been prosecuted and deported.”
Youngkin added, “This is a dereliction of their most basic duty to keep people safe. Prioritizing violent illegal immigrants over the safety of Fairfax residents is unacceptable,” stressing that Virginia is not a sanctuary state.

The Result: Virginia got taken behind the woodshed in their home finale, losing to SMU 33-7 on Saturday. While the Mustangs used the win to clinch a spot in the ACC Championship Game, UVa dropped their third-straight home contest, and fell to 5-6 on the season, 3-4 in ACC play.

The Turning Point: Arguably Virginia’s best drive of the game came early in the 2nd quarter, after an SMU missed field goal kept the Hoos within a touchdown. UVa initially converted a 4th and 1 at the SMU 19, but the play was called back because Virginia had 12 men in the huddle out of a timeout. Virginia settled for a field goal attempt that was missed, and SMU added another touchdown to their lead on the next drive.

The Stat That Tells the Story: Anthony Colandrea was sacked nine times on Saturday for 69 negative yards. Another game full of pressure means that Colandrea has now been sacked 19 times in UVa’s last two home games.

Wahoo of the Week: Perhaps for the final time, we’ll give it to Malachi Fields, who was UVa’s top receiver on Saturday. In what will likely be his final home game, Fields caught four passes for 42 yards, including a circus touchdown catch in the fourth quarter, UVa’s only points of the game.

Offense:

It was another brutal day for UVa’s offense. The Hoos didn’t turn the ball over, but it didn’t really matter in a game where they couldn’t get anything going. We mentioned the nine sacks, which were obviously a major issue, but a lot of those sacks came on third or fourth downs, when the drive was already in a precarious position.

UVa finished with a woeful 173 yards of offense, with 108 through the air and 65 on the ground. The big story of the week was the quarterback position, where UVa rode with Colandrea once again, in a decision that certainly didn’t pay off on Saturday. Given the issues up front and in the running game, we can’t put the loss completely at the feed to UVa’s QB, but Colandrea didn’t play well. He went 18-for-27 in the loss for those 108 yards, and a miracle touchdown late in the game that saved UVa from being shut out. The passing game couldn’t find any big plays, and struggled to do much of anything positive. Virginia’s biggest play on offense in the game was a 15 yard pass play to Fields late in the fourth quarter, which underscores the lack of chunk plays and the offense’s overall ineffectiveness.

UVa’s ground game wasn’t much to speak of, either. Colandrea would have had good rushing numbers if not for all the sack yardage. Both Kobe Pace and Xavier Brown got hurt in the game, and unfortunately for Brown, his injury will end his season. Noah Vaughn got a lot of the work in their place, and rushed 10 times for 44 yards, and had a few decent runs along the way.

A few other odds and ends: UVa was a terrible 3-for-15 on third down. And a couple of those conversions came late in the game, as the Hoos were 1-for-11 at one point in the fourth quarter. Virginia was 1-for-3 in the red zone; the missed field goal accounted for one of the two empty drives inside the 20, and the other came when Colandrea got sacked on 4th and 8 at the 18, failing to take advantage of an interception.

It was just another terrible showing for Des Kitchings’ offense. UVa was terrible in basically every way except for turnovers. The protection was bad, the receivers didn’t make plays, and sticking with Colandrea didn’t pay off. And now, there’s not a lot of hope for a turnaround going into the season finale at Virginia Tech.

Grade: F

Defense:

Despite the score, UVa’s defense held up as best they could against a good SMU offense. The Mustangs gained 434 yards on the day, and Kevin Jennings had a ton of success in the passing game, going for 323 in the win. SMU also picked up 111 on the ground, which is actually down for them vs. their typical production. Virginia’s defense simply wasn’t able to get SMU off the field much. The Mustangs went 8-for-14 on third downs, and were 6-for-6 in the red zone with four touchdowns and a pair of field goals.

Despite the lopsided result, UVa did end up +2 in turnovers. Corey Thomas picked off a pass in the third quarter, though the game was already pretty lopsided then. Later, freshman Billy Koudelka forced a fumble on a rush, and Chico Bennett recovered. That play gave UVa the ball at the SMU 27, and led to Virginia’s only score of the day. Unfortunately, while the Hoos got those two takeaways, they didn’t force enough negative plays otherwise. UVa had just one sack and four TFL’s in the losing effort.

As for individual standouts, Jam Jackson led the Hoos with nine tackles, and Jonas Sanker added seven, in his final home game. Kam Butler recorded a pair of QB hurries, as well.

The defense was far from perfect, but the offense was much more to blame for the lopsided nature of UVa’s loss on Saturday.

Grade: D

Special Teams:

Virginia’s special teams units didn’t make plays to help the team’s effort on Saturday. Virginia’s punt coverage unit had one bust, allowing a 48-yard punt return to SMU’s Roderi Daniels Other than that, Daniel Sparks did a good job, averaging 47.6 yards per punt with a long of 57 yards. There were no issues with kickoffs either, as SMU had no returns on the day.

In the kicking game, Will Bettridge made his PAT late, but missed from 41 yards out after that illegal substitution penalty that denied UVa a 4th and 1 conversion and forced the field-goal try. Virginia didn’t do much in the return game, with no kick returns and one 13-yard Ethan Davies punt return. There was one kick return snafu though, with Kam Courtney trying to catch a ball that was set to be fielded by Chris Tyree, causing a muff but ultimately UVa recovered. Still, the mistake cost UVa some field position.

Grade: D

Coaching Staff:

Virginia didn’t do the things they needed to do to have a chance on Saturday, and they were completely outclassed as a result. All eyes this week were on the quarterback position, and Tony Elliott ultimately decided to stick with Colandrea. There’s a lot that goes into these decisions, but coaches are judged on the results of their many choices. This one, clearly, didn’t work. UVa had 0 points through 55 minutes of action, and were one heave on 4th down for six away from getting shut out for the first time in seven years. It’s not all on Colandrea, but it’s malpractice not to try and do something different at some point, as what they were doing wasn’t working. The old saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So I guess you could say that what UVa did offensively this week was insane.

Elliott said on radio after the game that he didn’t see a good enough effort, and that was on him. You can only use the “that’s on me” card so many times before people start to agree, and say that it IS on you. Not to mention, UVa’s coaching staff got in the way in our turning point of the game, when they sent in the wrong personnel package for fourth down out of a timeout, leading to the illegal substitution penalty, potentially taking points off the board.

Right now it feels like UVa’s staff, particularly on offense, is comfortable to just keep doing their thing, in belief that the switch will flip and the things they do will start working. Virginia simply doesn’t have enough talent or discipline to win the way they have to, with the lack of big plays forcing the team to win through being extremely efficient play-by-play. And at this point, their plan will either be executed well enough to give UVa a chance to a signature win in Blacksburg next weekend, or they’re going to flame out again, end their season, and go into an offseason with no discernable progress for the program, and no good will from an eroding fanbase.

Grade: F