Virginia 43, Richmond 19

As a fat guy, I was inclined to thank the heavens for yesterday's ~85-degree heat and cloudy / steamy conditions, as opposed to 90+ and sunny.  Still, I was able to scrape a nice layer of salty grundlecheese off of my taint once I got home from the game.

At the game, however, I was treated to many things I liked, and tormented by a few things I didn't like.


THINGS I LIKED:

-- A win is a win is a win is a win is a win.  This one had some style points (Darius Jennings' catch and run, Jake McGee's one-handed snag), but after losing the home opener to Bill & Mary three years ago, I have learned to roundly appreciate any win we get.

-- Speaking of DJ's catch and run...

-- And speaking of McGee's one-hander...

-- Awesome stuff.  I also liked the orange over orange over white look as seen above, even if it is a carbon copy of Clemson.  As a once-in-a-blue-moon alternate uniform combo, it's good.

-- The 545-266 yardage advantage... especially considering U of R's pass-happy spread... and especially considering our über-green secondary.  We gave up four long passing plays (21, 24, 25, and 25 yards), but the damage was mostly mitigated.  I think the young coverage unit acquitted itself fairly well.

-- Mike Rocco's 68% completion rate on his way to a 300+ yard passing game.  It was mostly safe, dink and dunk stuff, but it was effective production that led to a win.  And no interceptions (though three throws were ugly near-INTs) is a pretty big deal.

-- Khalek Shepherd.  I thought he was awesome on all of his returns, and I thought he looked explosive out of the backfield.  I'm tempted to suggest we try to steal a redshirt for Clifton Richardson to get this kid more carries.

-- Tim Smith.  Thought he looked every bit the #1, go-to receiver we need him to be this season, despite a relatively slow start to the game.  He quietly gave us 6 catches for 96 yards, though the 44-yarder in the 3rd quarter wasn't quiet at all.

-- The run-stopping unit.  Holding Richmond to 28 rushing yards and 1.3 yards per carry is pretty awesome... especially when you consider that 21 of those yards came on a single Kendall Gaskins run.  (Gaskins, you might recall, rumbled for 123 total yards and a touchdown against us as a sophomore in 2010.  Yesterday, we held the thumping fullback - two years older and stronger - to 41 total yards.)

-- Zach Swanson.  He was ALWAYS wide open on the fullback screen or the flare to the flat.

-- The defensive line rotation.  After so much idiotic iron man football under Al Groh, it was really nice to see a healthy rotation along the defensive front in this year's season opener.  We finally have a stockpile of game-ready DTs and DEs, and seeing them play in waves means we'll have a fresh front in the 4th quarter of most games.  Bodes really well for us in games against run-heavy teams.  Virginia Tech, I'm looking at you.

-- Tipped or batted down passes at the line.  I think had four of them?  That sort of ball disruption can lead to very good things.

-- E.J. Scott!  Where the hell did you come from, bro?  You looked awesome in late game heroics.

-- Drew Jarrett looked like a real kicker as he drilled that 45-yarder.

-- Going for it!  I'll never not like going for it on 4th down, and Coach London does it A LOT.

-- Zero turnovers and just three penalties is good stuff.  Tells me the team was ready to play.  Nothing looked especially sloppy, either.  Bodes well.

-- Overall, I thought the team looked pretty good.  A 24-point win speaks for itself.


THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:

-- The student section.  Half full, a quarter full after halftime.  Embarrassing.  It's not like this team didn't win 8 games last year.  Current UVA students suck as football fans.

-- The new kickoff rules: totally lame.

-- The running game, in general.  Maybe it was our reshuffled interior o-line, maybe it was Richmond stacking the box hard, maybe it was a whole host of things.  But knowing the Spiders run the newfangled 4-2-5, I expected to see us line up and grind them to dust with runs up the gut.  Instead, it was mostly fits and starts with the running game between the tackles... though we were able to punch in a bunch of short touchdowns.

-- Michael Strauss going 7-for-8 for 60 yards and a TD.  This is petty and mean-spirited, but I generally don't like seeing guys who transfer away from UVA play well.  And I especially don't like seeing that happen against us, on our home field.  Oh well, best of luck to Strauss moving forward (he's Richmond's best QB, by the way.)

-- Speaking of best QB... Man, I hated, HATED seeing Phillip Sims look so freaking awesome in his one late-game series.  I feel like way too many of our fans are going to go way too far overboard overreacting to Sims' 5-for-6 for 50 yards performance against a deflated, defeated Richmond defense.  I'm nervous to start hearing the "Checkdown Charlie" references to Rocco, and I'm nervous about hearing the boo-birds come out once Rock throws his first INT of the season.  Sims playing well in mop-up duty - while great - has a lot of potential downside for the stability of our offense right now.

-- Mike Rocco's deep throws.  Not good.  Fluttery.  Off target.

-- Lack of killer instinct.  We had Richmond on the ropes at 16-0 after the first quarter.  Instead of curb-stomping them into oblivion, we throttled back a bit.  Better teams will come back and beat us if we don't crush them once we have them down.

-- Perry Jones looked pretty pedestrian in the game.  Nothing to worry about, but he's our most marketable star, and he had a quiet game.

-- Dominique Terrell didn't do much damage from the slot, and I'm beginning to fear he might end up being "just a guy."

-- Pass rush.  Yes, U of R was cut blocking like nobody's business, but zero sacks on 43 dropbacks is not good.

-- The simple eyeball test... I think we looked like something closer to a 6-win team than a 9+ win team.



I'm ready for Penn State.  Seeing them lose to Ohio U yesterday actually gave me confidence.  The Bobcats have a good squad this season; they might be the class of the MAC.  But our talent level across the board stacks up favorably.  Calling it now: Virginia 24, Penn State 16.

GO HOOS!