The clock hit triple zeroes early Saturday evening — but the result was sealed long before the sun started its descent past the early autumn sky.
Virginia lost 38-7 at Florida State, struggling immensely on both sides of the ball. Here are instant takeaways from Tallahassee, Fla.:
Clearly, Virginia is not an ACC contender
Two of the Cavaliers’ three wins came against lowly Norfolk State and Delaware. At the time, their win over NC State was impressive, but the Wolfpack have since collapsed. So — Virginia has only faced two decent teams (West Virginia and Florida State). The Cavaliers lost both games by multiple scores.
The contrast between Virginia’s three blowout wins at Scott Stadium and its two frustrating losses away from Charlottesville is absurd. At the moment, the Cavaliers cannot be considered a true contender for the ACC championship. Very difficult games against SMU, Wake Forest, Duke and Virginia Tech are ahead — Virginia must now win out (and likely get some help) to have a realistic shot at playing in Charlotte.
Missed tackles have been far too frequent (and costly)
Over 25 times, the Cavaliers hit a runner behind the line of scrimmage or the line to gain. And even more often, the Seminoles broke tackles and turned a broken play into a sizable gain. Virginia had a clear gameplan defensively (take away star receiver Duce Robinson). It is not the coaches’ fault that the Cavaliers did not execute said game plan properly…