UVA 19, BYU 16 -- Picking Over the Box Score

I wanted to say a lot more Sunday morning, but I ran out of time before Labor Day travels had to begin... and now I've kind of lost my train of thought.

But cracking open the box score and poring over some numbers yields the following nuggets:

-- 7-62-1, that's WR1 territory for Darius Jennings.  He made two particularly great catches in the game, including the clutch toe-drag touchdown in the 3rd quarter.  I'm back to drinking the DJ kool-aid.

-- 18-for-32 for 114 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 INT.  The numbers weren't horrible for David Watford in his first game as our unquestioned starter... especially when you consider the weather, the top-5 defense he was facing, and the gameplan (which was obviously to grind it out with the run come hell or high water, and there WAS high water).  Watford was certainly better than the 5-for-26 for 59 yards and an INT that Logan Thomas hung on Alabama.  Boom.

-- D-Wat's 3.6 average yards per pass attempt is pretty putrid, though.  It's also indicative of a gameplan so vanilla it made regular Breyer's vanilla with the little black dots in it seem super exotic, like some sort of sexy supersonic grape kool-aid sorbet.  So sexy there's a thingie above the e in sorbét.  Anyway, we'll need to trust the downfield game a lot more moving forward... and I'm sure we will.

-- 7 carries for 16 yards represented what was, to me, a disappointing debut for Smoke Mizzell.  He also didn't register a catch in the game.  It was a debut so clunky I want to put the two dots above the u in debut.  Debüt.  Wait, that might make it sound good.  Anyway, I'd like to see a bit more from Smoke in the coming days... and I'm sure we will.

-- 3 catches for 21 yards, solid work for Zach Swanson.  That said, get him off the field and get #83 out there, dammit!

-- 2 drops.  C'mon Tim Smith, your senior year's a-wastin'!  But at least you didn't get hurt.  Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

-- 20 carries for KP.  Found out that his new nickname is "The Incredible Hulk," by the way.  Gotta love that.  But yeah, 20 carries, that's what I like.  Feed the Hulk.

-- Speaking of feeding, where the hell are the targets for E.J. Scott?  C'mon coaches, FEED THE SQUIRREL.  #FeedTheSquirrel

-- BYU punted 11 times, and we fielded 10 of them.  I'm not keen of fielding punts inside the 8 yard line, but credit to Dom Terrell for not committing the doomsday muff we all expected in the wet weather.

-- 537 yards.  That's the punting yardage produced by Voz.  That also includes four punts downed inside the 20.  That also includes the clean fielding of one bad snap and another truly awful snap, that would have gone way up over the head of a punter who was a mere mortal.  But, you know, the Voz is the Voz.

-- It's hard to figure out exactly how many, but I know our defense registered a big ol' pile of TFLs.  At one point, HooVision said 22 tiffles.  That couldn't be right, could it?

-- We gave up 362 yards, but 52 of those came on the last play of the game, the desperation heave that was caught 30 yards from the end zone.  We also game up 77 yards of offense on BYU's in-rhythm 92-yard drive to take the lead at around the 7:00 minute mark.  Again, I think our defense - by and large - was pretty damn impressive.  Especially Eli Harold, and of course Anthony Harris.

-- Propers also to the "Urbanator" Brent Urban.  Two big swats at the LOS.  Dikembe Mutombo type shit.

"Urbanator" is cool, but face it:
"Urban Legend" is a better nickname.

-- I can't take credit for "Urban Legend," by the way.  It was one of the members of our group, but for the life of me I can't remember who.  Mike?  Rookie?  Sparkle?  It was a long day.

-- Double-digit tackles for Canady, Romero, Harold, Harris, and Coley.  My takeaway from this is that our defense, as a unit, seemed more sure-tackling than in recent memory.  I hope that's true and not just a mirage.

-- 53,310 was the announced attendance.  Nothing to be proud of there.  However, I am proud of the Virginia fans that stuck it out 'til the end of the game.  We made it loud when it needed to be loud.

-- Watch it again.  Go ahead.  Treat yourself!

That's about it.  What a great win.  Really, an awesome way to get the season started.  Hopefully David Watford is watching Jameis Winston right now and finding inspiration.