Nothing was easy about the Virginia's trip to Louisville, but good teams find a way to win when the cards are against you.
This was the first test for the now-No. 24 ranked UVA team after its dramatic double overtime upset of then-No. 8 Florida State last Friday night. The Cavaliers entered as 6.5-point underdogs against an undefeated Louisville team playing on its home field. On the first drive of the game, Virginia saw tight end Dakota Twitty carted off with a non-contact injury. The offense, which entered the game ranked No. 5 in the country, could only muster 237 total yards playing behind a decimated offensive line.
The Cardinals were being single-handedly dragged toward a potential win by receiver Chris Bell, who had 12 catches for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns. And they had all the momentum after forcing overtime at 24-24 after a 10-0 fourth quarter, but even with these "Cards" against them, the Hoos found a way.
The Cavaliers held the Cardinals to a field goal on the first possession, following an overturned catch call, but the roadblocks weren’t quite cleared. On 2nd-and-8, Chandler Morris rushed towards the sideline when flushed from the pocket and nearly picked up a first down, only to take a big hit and exit the game for the next play. The Wahoos faced 3rd-and-1 from the Louisville 2-yard line and backup quarterback Daniel Kaelin would have to take at least one snap. Only Kaelin never had to touch the ball, as J’Mari Taylor took the direct snap and ran to victory, 30-27.
"I think that we proved that to ourselves, we're not worried about anybody outside of our walls, but we proved to ourselves that we did manage the success by finding a way to win, even though we didn't play our best," Virginia coach Tony Elliott said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network postgame show. "What we validated to ourselves is that we got a heart of a champion, because that's what it took to win a game like that."
For the second straight week, No. 24 Virginia came out on top in overtime with the 30-27 win in Louisville. This was the first time since 2019 the Cavaliers won a game while ranked and marked the first time since 2021 UVA has won back-to-back games as underdogs.
As the ESPN2 broadcast said: "There's some magic right now in Charlottesville."
Here are three takeaways from another edition of Cardiac Cavaliers.
Where There's A Will, There's A Win
Tony Elliott started the week by saying Virginia had "not played" its best game yet. Safe to say Saturday was not the best display for the Cavaliers either.
UVA had an inauspicious start to the game. The offense punted on its first possession for just the second time this season. The defense followed up with a few head-scratching penalties and it appeared Louisville would cut right through the defense until a fumble gifted the Hoos an early lead. Donavon Platt scooped up the ball and went 61 yards for the score.
Chandler Morris and the Virginia offense had not been held to less than 400 yards of total offense all season, but found themselves well short of that number with only 237 yards. In the end UVA scored 30 points, but only had 1 touchdown on offense during regulation.
"In every game we're trying to learn something about ourselves, and so we validated to ourselves that we'll play however long it takes, and we'll find a way to win," Elliott said. "Those guys on that sideline, regardless of, you know, the lead that we gave up in the fourth, man, they believed that they were going to find a way to win. Defense believed they were going to get a stop, and then if offense got a chance, they believed they were going to find a way to make plays to win it."
Virginia entered the game down several offensive linemen already, including starting center Brady Wilson for the second game in a row, but it also lost left tackle McKale Boley in the second quarter. Throughout most of the game, UVA was playing behind four backups with left guard Noah Josey the only starter
in his normal position. The result was a slower day offensively than fans were accustomed to this season.
"We just had to tighten up our screws and take what the coach said about details," Virginia running back J'Mari Taylor said.
Between offensive coordinator Des Kitchings and Morris, the UVA offense was able to put together enough to get by. One of the more underrated plays of the
afternoon came on 3rd-and-20 in the second quarter when Louisville brought the blitz, but Morris audibled to a screen pass to Taylor. The play resulted in a 19-yard gain and set Virginia up for a first down and eventually the lone offensive touchdown in regulation on a 19-yard TD pass from Morris to Cam Ross.
In overtime, Kitchings called a well-crafted play-action pass to backup tight end John Rogers, playing extended snaps due to the Twitty injury, and he gained 14 yards for a first down. Then after Morris was injured on the sidelines, UVA went back to its bread-and-butter short yardage play with the direct snap to Taylor for the walk-off 2-yard touchdown.
"Chandler went out and people were telling me it's about to be your play, either get this first down or score," Taylor said. "Really my mindset was, oh, we won the ball game."
Overall, not much was pretty about Virginia's performance in any phase of the game, but teams can't always win pretty. The Wahoos won to move to 3-0 in ACC play for the first time since 2007 and firmly place themselves in the ACC driver’s seat, and they did it with a bad hand of cards.
Step On Up Virginia Defense
The Virginia defense has taken its fair share of punches this season playing in the shadow of a dynamic offense, but in an ugly game it shined.
Sure, the Cavaliers have plenty of questions on the defensive side of the ball still, especially after allowing Louisville star Chris Bell finish with 12 catches for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns, but the unit lifted the team on this day.
"Really big shout out to the defense because they held us in the game, they made big scores,"Taylor said.
UVA's defense, in a similar fashion to last week's win over Florida State, made the momentum-shifting plays throughout Saturday's game. It started on the first series when a tired defense looked nearly helpless against Louisville's attack. However, Miller Moss saw his pitch to running back Isaac Brown fall to the turf and Cavalier defensive back Donavon Platt scooped the ball and scored a 61-yard touchdown.
The play seemed to give the Virginia defense a boost because linebacker Kam Robinson came out the next series shot out of a cannon for a tackle in the backfield. Robinson finished the game with a team-high 10 tackles, but his biggest play was a familiar sight in Kentucky.
Tied at 14-14 after halftime, the Cavaliers flushed Moss out of the pocket and nearly brought him down for a sack. But inches off the ground after his wrist touched the turf, Moss threw a pass which was picked off by Robinson and returned for a 47-yard touchdown. The pick-6 was Robinson's second career touchdown, the first happening two years ago in the same stadium.
This was the first time Virginia’s defense recorded multiple touchdowns in the same game since 2003 when that team had 2 interceptions returned for touchdowns against Western Michigan. The unit also kept Moss under duress throughout the afternoon with 5 sacks and 5 quarterback hurries. Mitchell Melton led the Cavaliers with 2 sacks, while Daniel Rickert, Jason Hammond, and Hunter Osborne joined him in bringing the Louisville quarterback down at least once.
"I mean, it was a little bit more of not necessarily complementary football, but compensating football," Elliott said. "I challenged the defense at halftime to come out, get some pressure on the quarterback, shut down the run, be able to get some stops, and that's what they did."
A Very Well-Timed Bye Week For The Cavaliers
Virginia sits at 5-1, now tied for the most wins in a season of the Tony Elliott era, with a 3-0 record in the ACC for the first time since 2007 heading into a bye week. ESPN Analytics shows that UVA has a 52% chance of reaching the ACC Championship game now following the win over Louisville. Analysts in the postgame show are discussing the College Football Playoff possibilities for a Virginia team currently favored in every one of its remaining six games this season.
Elliott has discussed just wanting to be in the driver's seat this season - safe to say the Cavaliers are buckled in with their hands at 9 and 3 o’clock. But even after back-to-back overtime wins for the first time in program history, no one is quite satisfied.
"I'm just happy for the guys in that locker room because they've believed, they've worked, they've been unselfish, they've come together, and really, we haven't done anything yet," Elliott said. "I mean, we still got a lot of football to play. We haven't played our best game."
That's why this bye week comes at an opportune time for Virginia. UVA is a team in need of the extra week to recover as a growing list of injuries has pushed the ACC Injury Report graphic to where it can't even fit all of them now.
One injury concern no one needs to worry about is quarterback Chandler Morris, who Elliott said was fine and just took a big hit after the game. The coach even went a step further by saying Morris would have returned to take the next snap had Taylor not scored the game-winning touchdown.
The primary concern will with the UVA offensive line, where Terry Heffernan has done yeoman's work to put a productive five-man group on the field. Starting left tackle McKale Boley will be a question mark through the bye week, but Elliott previously said starting center Brady Wilson plus transfer offensive tackles Wallace Unamba and David Wohlabaugh Jr. will all return after the bye week. Running back Noah Vaughn should also return following his high ankle sprain and safety Antonio Clary should be ready for even more snaps after gradually being worked back in prior to the bye.
UVA will return from the bye week with a home game against a Washington State team currently 3-2 with a game at Ole Miss the week before traveling to Charlottesville. The Cavaliers will also likely rise in the top 25 rankings after several teams ranked ahead lost on Saturday.
All told, Virginia is 5-1 and 3-0 in ACC play with everything to play for the in the second half of the season. For the first time in a while no one is ready to turn the page on this Cavalier team.
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