Virginia

You know that feeling when you your body is just beyond miserable. You are one hundred percent convinced that you have some rare South American disease and may not make it to next Thursday. You go to your local family physician and after some concerned eyebrows and what seems like way too many heavy sighs, she tells you...you have a cold. Yeah, it sucks but you really expected it to be much, much worse. As the iPhone banged out that Katrina and the Waves fave at 4 a.m. to catch my dawn departure from Jefferson's hometown Sunday morning, I lived this highly overcooked metaphor. Yes, we lost, but part of me - and apparently every talking head on every national network - expected it to be much worse.

The first sign of trouble was not in the fourth period when the defense reverted and worked tirelessly with the black and white idiots to throw the game. Nope, the trouble began as we headed to halftime, with a almost insumountable 14-10 lead and our kids were jumping, leaping, and dancing like the Maypole was out in 1426 Londontown. It was an incredibly even first half with the only difference being a hideous toss by their QB picked off in the redzone.Yet, somehow, when we have pretty much cemented that we are incapable of winning a second half; our kids were running out of the house at dusk on Halloween. How do our coaches let this (culture) happen? Slap just a few of them across the helmet and that ridiculousness might cease. But we seem to reward malfeasance. Otherwise, players that commit drive-continuing personal fouls would ummm, not be still on the field after their idiocy. The head coach spends almost every press conference lamenting penalties, yet a man who literally has almost nothing to do every game now, does nothing to perfection when it comes to disciplining his kids.

But, let's go back to that not-so-bad feeling of losing by just a little. I do not approve of the new normal, but I digress... I suppose it is possible that our new booth analyst sprinkled magic dust on our defense in just 2 days. But, there is also a chance that we simply are improving ever so slightly whilst facing a thrower with limited downfield ability and a less than stellar running attack played into our hands early. Regardless, it was a terrific team effort throughout the first 3 quarters, especially up front with Marvin Wilson again just dominating everyone in front of him and Corey Durden also consistently winning the edge. It is clear that Amari Gainer should not leave the field unless he has the aforementioned South American disease. Meanwhile, DJ needs to look into a career in jazzercise motivation. He can not function in this defense and the freshman McRae in stupidly limited snaps is absolutely perfectly suited to be an interior thumper who actually meets the ballcarrier on the line instead of committing an international crime 7 yards downfield like Jackson. But, the truth is that on this night, none of the Noles still taking college credits have quit on their coaches. They played hard...not smart...but hard. That is laudable when fans are quitting in record numbers (which we will get to see in a 1975 era crowd next week).

Unfortunately, when you have a QB like the Hoos, you can not play man almost at all. If your DB's are all sprinting away and this dude takes off, he could run for 200 yards. So, we zoned it up and it was our best effort at this mess we have displayed all year. What would have actually closed the deal is getting Warner off the field on 3rd down and bringing in another DB. In the second half (Link: Wikipedia Nole miserably failing adjustments), Virginia just lined up their best WR in the slot, motion, or in the backfield all with the single minded purpose of getting #2 in the flat matched up with poor Leonard. If he was Little Bo Peep, there would be no poem because that boy could not have caught his sheep in the first place. He was pitifully trailing this sunuvagun all over Scott Stadium like me trying to play tag on the playground with Usain Bolt.

Two plays defined this game to me. The first was the fourth and two when we had the lead, momentum, and the Home of the Hoos was post Grinch quiet. We stopped the play at the line, and then their guys just wanted it more than ours and they pushed us back for a gain of three. Ugh. Then, with a lead and the ball,  and just 5 minutes on the clock, we were looking at a crucial 3rd and 6. Terrifc and easy play call in a quick hook to Tre McKitty. He was open like a bail bondsman at 2 am and James just completely whiffed on the easiest throw in football. Punt, ballgame.

The offense was good enough to win again. But when you have the 116th best defense in Division One ball, good enough is not good enough. Sadly for our Noles, JB1 is not good enough right now. Yes, he also missed a wide open Terry with the game tying toss and then had another chance on an easy rollout, and overthrew him again. He is not properly recognizing the DE on the RPO runs, and even if he kept it - is really not athletic enough to be a dangerous runner. For my money, I would skip to Jordan Travis and give the rest of the year a tryout.

I got a slew of angry texts last night all saying that we should have spiked the ball at the end. Well, my take is that the aforementioned black & white togged morons with letters on their back should have stopped the clock with 7 seconds, not 4. However, we are a tempo team, and with the limited resources at OL we possess, going fast is our best hope. I like the call. We got it to our best player with a chance to win and rewrite 24 years of direct snap BS highlights from the Commonwealth. But, when 2 of your lineman run into each other (one was pass blocking), and your star wideout decided to take the play off instead of getting any kind of edge block that probably would have sprung Cam, it is tough to score. So, I guess a spike might have given us 20 seconds to slowly tell all 11 on the field what the play was. So, maybe you were all right. But, I still liked the call (as opposed to Taggart - with another Patton leadership moment - when asked about it in his presser chose that moment to tell writers that he is not in charge of the offense).

Special teams was again very good. We missed DJ, but Ricky hit a huge pressure FG, and our punter not drunk scootering (allegedly), was also amazing in his at bats. Kids, if we can somehow fix this cluster of a defense - there is hope. That was a well coached, pretty good Virginia football team on the road, and we fought and coulda shoulda...Yes, we have to overcome a coach who is more like Mr. Rogers than Vince Lombardi, but every legit coordinator type he hires brings a light in the darkness. Know your weaknesses padwan (umm, its football Willie), and work around it. Let's choose to have fun this week and win another home game for a change!