Another game has come and gone, and the Cavaliers are 2-2. In their second road test of the season, the Cavs put on a powerful second half performance against the Syracuse Orange. But, one good half wasn’t enough and the Cavs fell to the Orange on Friday night. The game wasn’t all bad, with the team showing definite improvement over their time on the road against Illinois especially, but it proved there’s still a long way to go for the 2022 Virginia Cavaliers. For the studs and duds of last night’s game, this is the Virginia-Syracuse recap.
Virginia-Syracuse Recap: The Studs
The standout performance of the night goes to Virginia’s defensive line. That’s a sentence no one expected to read or write going into this season, but here we are. Since the opener against Richmond, John Rudzinski’s defense has played above expectations with visible improvement every week. Last night was no exception.
The Cavaliers defense forced four turnovers last night and kept consistent pressure on Syracuse QB Garrett Shrader. The defensive line had six sacks. Performances by Kam Butler, Chico Bennett, Aaron Faumui, Paul Akere, and Ben Smiley kept the Cavs in the game. The disruption to the pass rush and the efficiency with which they stopped the run were excellent. Nick Jackson, Virginia’s top linebacker, was ejected from the game on a targeting penalty but the D-Line didn’t falter without him.
The run defense and the pass rush were Virginia’s strengths on defense last night. They held the Orange to 75 yards on 38 carries as a team. More impressively, they held Syracuse’s leading back Sean Tucker to 60 yards on 21 attempts. In the second half, the Cavs defense held Syracuse’s offense to just six points for the entire half. For a defense facing pretty low expectations heading into the season, this one is doing the work to earn respect in the football world.
The Hoos might not have won this one but the defense’s performance overshadows the offense without question. The Cavs’ D-Line is the stud of the week.
Virginia-Syracuse Recap: The Duds
It’s perplexing but after four rough weeks, it has to be said: the Cavaliers offense is a problem. After an explosive offensive performance through much of 2021, the offense was expected to be the saving grace of the 2022 Cavaliers. Now? Not so much.
I will give them this: the first and second half performances from the Cavaliers’ offense were night and day. The Cavs entered halftime down 16-0. I don’t know what kind of speech they got in the locker room at halftime, but they came out for the second half looking like a different team. They scored on their first two drives to bring the score to 16-13 and finally, it was a ballgame.
Keytaon Thompson and Perris Jones performed well in the second half, but penalties worked against them. A too-many-men-on-the-field penalty negated their decision to go for two after Thompson’s score, and a blocked extra point on Jones’ score made things all the more difficult.
The Cavs clawed ahead to a brief 20-19 lead but the Orange kicked a go-ahead field goal with 1:14 in the fourth quarter and the Cavs couldn’t pull together another drive to win the game. The Hoos offense came to play in the second half but the botched first half made matters complicated. Were it not for the consistency of the defense, this game would’ve mirrored week two’s debacle in Illinois.
This loss was devastatingly close with a final score of 22-20. The offense did a lot wrong, but tried to make up for it in the second half and for that I commend them. Ultimately though, the Cavs’ offense is the dud of the week.
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The House Always Wins
The Wahoos pulled much closer than predicted in this game. I said in my preview article that if you were betting the spread, you should take Syracuse. At halftime I was sure I was right. In the end, I wasn’t. Syracuse didn’t cover the spread and I didn’t win that bet. However, if you took UVA to cover the spread-congrats on your luck!
I’ve never wanted to lose a bet but in this case, I’m okay with it. The Cavs might’ve lost but they fought hard for it and I still believe there’s room to improve over the next several weeks. I’m not giving up hope for a bowl appearance just yet.
The Road Ahead
Coming up, the Cavs will head to Durham next week to take on the Duke Blue Devils.
For pre-game coverage and Vegas odds, check out the University of Virginia on Gridiron Heroics!
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