Instant takeaways after Virginia’s loss against the Mountaineers

The Cavaliers dropped their first loss of the season this year, falling to West Virginia 38-27 down in Charlotte, N.C. It was a shocking upset in which Virginia was outclassed for a majority of the evening, particularly on defense.

The clock just hit triple zeroes Saturday night — here are instant takeaways.

Questionable play calling resurfaces

Offensive coordinator Des Kitchings has occasionally been maligned for questionable play calls. Those doubts rose Saturday night as the Cavaliers failed to decimate a shaky Mountaineers defense. Virginia, with superior size, strength, speed and experience, could not execute.

Defensive playcalling was also unstable, as blitz packages failed to generate pressure and quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. largely looked comfortable. Saturday, the Cavaliers allowed the most points they have given up since their upset win over Florida State early last season. 

In obvious passing downs, Virginia’s offense must improve

West Virginia found success keying in on stopping the run. Once the Mountaineers pushed the Cavaliers into long third downs, they were able to force Pribula into incompletions. For the most part, Pribula and his receivers struggled to connect off-script once plays broke down. 

On a key fourth down late in the game, Pribula did not read the blitz and was sacked before he could throw up a prayer. 

The Cavaliers lack a consistent pass rusher opposite Fisher Camac 

It was expected that Hawkins would make some plays. He did a lot more than that. He made Virginia’s defense look completely lost on several occasions, which was exacerbated by an ineffective pass rush.

Because the Cavaliers could not generate pressure, they consistently sent extra blitzers. That came at the expense of pass defense — which was also mediocre. 

Virginia got a taste of its own medicine for a while — which could be a big problem

The Cavaliers’ strategy is simple — possess the ball for seemingly forever, grinding out long touchdown drives. West Virginia was able to throw that back at them on a few occasions. Compared to last season, Virginia has yet to show the same explosiveness to score quickly.

Can Pribula lead a 30-second scoring drive? He has not been put in a situation where he is required to do so. However, that might come soon if the Cavaliers defense experiences some rare struggles like it did a few times against West Virginia. 

The season has taken a shift

Given Virginia’s less-than-difficult schedule, a loss is extremely detrimental to College Football Playoff hopes. The Cavaliers will need to win at least eight of their next nine games (most likely all remaining games) to earn a CFP spot. The only other possibility is to win the ACC Championship Game.

However, the path to the ACC title game is difficult — and Virginia has lost two straight heartbreakers in Charlotte, N.C. This team has some recovering, planning and realigning to do. The silver lining is that this was not an ACC loss. The Cavaliers are still a perfect 1-0 in conference play.