Virginia opens up offense after game gets out of reach

Late in the fourth quarter, amid a morgue-like environment at Scott Stadium, a loud ovation came out of nowhere.

It turned out that the crowd was giving a mock cheer for a pass thrown deep downfield in the direction of freshman wide receiver Tim Smith.

The pass was incomplete, but fans didn’t seem to care. They were just pleased that Virginia had finally attempted a pass down the field.

Until that point, most of UVa’s passing routes were short ones. Even the crowd seemed to be able to recognize the value of stretching a defense.

Exactly why Virginia didn’t attempt to stretch the field until the game was well out of reach is a mystery.

Even TCU coach Gary Patterson was a bit perplexed.

“I don’t know why that was,” Patterson said following his team’s 30-14 victory. “I was kind of surprised that we didn’t see more vertical routes on third-down situations. But I’ve got my own problems.

“Why they didn’t — I don’t know if they expected blitz. It’s hard because [UVa coach Al Groh] knew that I had [time to prepare] … we had five weeks to get ready for Virginia, so we could man-blitz them, zone-blitz them and play base defense. I mean, we had everything in our arsenal that you could possibly have.”

It was on the very next play after the long incomplete pass that was intended for Smith that Virginia finally got on the scoreboard. Jameel Sewell connected on a 56-yard bomb to Javaris Brown.

Then, on the team’s next offensive series, Sewell found Smith on a 26-yarder.

In preparing for Virginia, Patterson said his team studied film of Bowling Green games. That’s where UVa offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon served before this season.

“If you looked at Gregg Brandon’s offense at Bowling Green, which is what we had to prepare for, it got us ready for the rest of the season because you name, they can line up in it,” Patterson said. “I was proud of the way the kids handled the no-huddle, lined up and did some things.”

Believe it or not, TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes said Virginia players played the Horned Frogs tough.

“They played hard,” Hughes said. “It was once we got the momentum on our side, we got things going and got the jitters out of the way.”

TCU linebacker Darryl Washington said the Horned Frogs’ defense did a good job of keeping Sewell in containment.

“Our D-line did a tremendous job up front of not letting [Sewell] scramble around,” Washington said. “We had a great game plan and executed.”

Washington said No. 16 TCU had the perfect mindset coming into the game.

“Any time you’re playing an ACC team or any team, it’s tough going into their house, you have to execute,” he said. “We didn’t look at Virginia like the underdog or anything. We looked at ourselves like the underdog.”

Patterson was just happy to get out of Dodge with a win.

“Crazy things happen in first ballgames, and this was our first ballgame, so for us the biggest thing is, ‘Don’t go in and beat yourself,’” he said. “We turned the ball over early, but then no more after that. We wanted to make sure we minimized the mistakes and not give up the big play, and we didn’t until the game was in hand.”

Despite the 0-2 start, Patterson believes UVa can still be a “dangerous” team.

“I’ve known coach Groh for a long time,” he said. “He’s a good football coach, and that’s a good staff. I wish him the best of luck the rest of the way.”

He’ll likely need it.