CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – In Miami’s 16-13 loss to Virginia, it never felt right throughout the game for some reason.
Even though the Hurricanes defense forced three turnovers and only allowed one touchdown, it was the offense that held back the nation’s No. 16 team.
Head coach Mark Richt used two quarterbacks in this pivotal ACC road game, which was done to provide a spark to the team.
Richt inserted redshirt freshman N’Kosi Perry as the starter again, but pulled him after going 3-of-6 passing with only 20 yards and two interceptions in the first half. For the rest of this game, the Hurricanes head coach went with former starter and fifth-year senior Malik Rosier, who went 12-for-23 with 170 yards, an interception, and a late 11-yard touchdown run.
There were some highlights on the offensive side of the ball, which included Rosier’s rushing score with 3:40 left in the game. With the extra point by kicker Bubba Baxa, Miami cut Virginia’s lead from 16-6 to 16-13.
But Rosier would not get another chance to complete the comeback effort, as Miami’s special teams opted to onside kick the ball and Virginia recovered it to keep possession shortly thereafter.
There were two penalties – one on defense and one on special teams – that ultimately sealed the loss for Miami (4-2; 2-1 in ACC).
The first one was a late penalty on defensive lineman Tito Odenigbo, which gave the Cavaliers a first down situation. The second one actually came on a 30-yard field goal attempt by Virginia kicker Brian Delaney, which was a roughing the kicker penalty on Miami defensive back Trajan Bandy.
With 30 seconds left in the game, Delaney connected on the field goal to make the score 19-13. It would have given Rosier that last chance to win it, but the Bandy penalty actually negated it and gave Virginia a first-and-goal situation.
From that point on, Virginia (4-2; 2-1 in ACC) ran the clock out and pandemonium set in for the home team.
“It was a rough game the entire night,” said Hurricanes senior defensive back Jaquan Johnson, who tied with linebacker Michael Pinckney for a team-high 12 tackles against Virginia.
“Hitting after the play and the ref letting us play, it was just the wrong time to make a mistake like that,” Johnson continued. “I told Tito to keep his head up. In the locker room I reassured him. On to the next one, be ready for it.”
Richt spoke on the decision to go for the onside kick after Rosier’s late rushing score.
“Once we got the penalty, the ball got moved up 15 yards,” Richt said. “If you go onside and you get it, it’s a bonus. If you go onside and you don’t get it, normally the guy gets tackled. You may lose 10 to maybe 15 yards of field position if you don’t get it and still have time, have three timeouts to get a stop. You can debate that both ways. If there wasn’t the penalty, there never would have been a thought. We would have kicked it deep.”
Rosier’s interception throw came late in the fourth quarter as well. He spoke with media members about it after the game.
“It was tipped a little bit,” Rosier said. “That’s just football. He [the Virginia defensive back] did a good job of getting his hands up and tipping the ball, then they had a guy underneath. If not, Will Mallory was wide open and it was going to be an easy completion…Tipped balls are something that every defense works on, and they just did a good job of deflecting it.”
Johnson said there’s still hope for Miami after its second loss of the season.
“There’s definitely still positivity,” Johnson said. “I mean it’s a tough loss, so that’s around the locker room right now. I believe that the players’ heads are high. We have a long season left, just can’t let anymore go. We have to come out and dominate them starting in practice.”
Next game for Miami: Bye
Next game for Virginia: Road game at Duke (Saturday, Oct. 20; 12:30 p.m. kickoff)
