Sunday Couch QB: Maryland

By Josh Burton

The University of Virginia Football team suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday night, a 27-13 loss at the hands of longtime rival Maryland. Let’s take a look at some things that went well, along with what all needs to be cleaned up and worked on going forward.

Offense

Unfortunately last night, Virginia's offense was what kept Maryland in the game early and ultimately allowed them to pull away. The biggest problem early on was the Hoos inability to convert red zone drives into seven points. The most costly of these was the Hoos second drive, as they got all the way to the Maryland five-yard line before a Anthony Colandrea fumble as he was trying to escape the pocket gave Maryland the ball back and essentially cost the Hoos points. This play was more about ball security and awareness than it was about Maryland making a play, it should be something that can be cleaned up going forward.

Towards the end of the first quarter, the Wahoos had another drive that got deep into Maryland territory before ultimately ending with a field goal. In two plays, the Hoos went from their own 34 yard line all the way down to the Maryland 6 yard line by taking deep shots against a shaky secondary unit. From there, the next play got the Hoos down to the two yard line before back to back incompletions led to the field goal. This was especially frustrating for me as I’ve been harping on the need to be able to establish the run, as has the staff since their initial hire. To be in their third season and to see us completely abandon the run for back to back plays when all they needed was six feet is frustrating. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the call to kick the field goal here as Maryland's offense had to this point been completely ineffective and would’ve been pinned very deep in their own territory had we not converted. 

FINAL: Maryland 27, #UVA 13

'Hoos offense did little to nothing all night and the defense, eventually, wore down.

Virginia went 3 for 15 on third down and committed four turnovers, though the D didn't allow a point off them until the final one in the fourth quarter.

— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) September 15, 2024

The second half of this game was a breakdown of the Hoos offense from essentially every aspect.  Our offensive line got weaker as the game went on while Maryland's rush really picked up.  The Terps allowed Colandrea very little time and also exposed some of his inexperience as he really began forcing throws. To go along with that our running game quickly became ineffective, only picking up 16 yards in the third quarter with 14 of that coming from one Xavier Brown rush.

As the game went to the fourth quarter, we continued to wear down as Maryland appeared to get stronger with the game essentially being sealed following a Malachi Fields fumble and Maryland immediately converting the short field given to them into a touchdown.

Defense

I thought things went much better, especially early on, on the defensive side of the ball. The Hoos were flying around the field and playing good assignment football for most of the first half, rendering the Maryland offense completely ineffective until their final drive of the half.

One play I’d like to point out as a noted improvement directly from the previous game was Maryland's first play of their second possession, which began after they fair caught a punt at their own nine. Wake Forest called an option play last week very similar to what Maryland called on this play, in each instance, the quarterback kept the ball and tried to run it himself. Last week instead of holding contain, the defensive end fell for the fake and crashed down on the running back, allowing the Wake Forest QB to escape for a good gain. This week, however, when faced with the same situation, instead of crashing the same defensive end stayed home and was able to stop the quarterback for a short gain. This was an example of good assignment football that was addressed from the previous week and cleaned up.

In the secondary, I thought they did a good job in coverage and showed very good ball skills, knocking away potential big catches on multiple occasions. One big concern I saw was the general lack of speed. The Hoos were playing mainly softer coverage, lining up deeper off the ball, and still allowed the Maryland wide receivers to get behind them. On the flip side of this, the softer coverage also allowed space for Maryland's short passing game, allowing them to gain 4-5 yards at a time on the quick routes. I would prefer to see a more aggressive approach from the defense, trying to jump some of these short routes and force turnovers as opposed to what feels like a bend but don’t break approach.

Special Teams

I liked what I saw from the special teams units across the board last night, even if I didn’t fully agree with their use. The field goal unit converted their tries while the punting and kickoff units both did a great job of holding Maryland in check. I also really liked that with the “punt safe” unit keeping the majority of the defense on the field for situational punts they opted to put return man Chris Tyree back deep to return. This resulted in some good decision making on when to field the ball, allowing the Hoos better field position when possible. 

Clash at Coastal

The Hoos now head to Myrtle Beach for a road contest against Coastal Carolina. This game will be Saturday (9/21) and will kick off at 2 pm EST, airing exclusively on ESPN+.

UVa opens as a 5-point road favorite for Saturday’s game at Coastal Carolina. Virginia hasn’t been a 5 or more point favorite in a road game since 2011

— Brandon Lloyd (@blloyd8298) September 15, 2024

There was certainly a lot to be seen and discussed from last night's game. What did you see or feel good or bad about? Hop in on our discussion on the Locker Room Access forum!

(Featured Image Credit: Jamie Holt/UVA Athletics)