Pro Football Focus graded the Virginia defense’s effort against North Carolina from the weekend as the worst it’s ever seen. Bronco Mendenhall, as is his nature, is trying to see the glass as half-full.
“I think the effort was most likely at the highest level of any of the three games we’ve played for the longest, so effort overall was a step forward. The competitive spirit I think was. Execution was very inconsistent and poor at best. And lack of assignments, and just basically being where we needed to be, frequently or infrequently, led to just lots and lots and lots of yards, plays, points, et cetera. We can certainly do a better job preparing our players to give them their best chance, as well,” Mendenhall told reporters at his weekly Monday presser.
Carolina, you know already, put up 699 yards of total offense. Not sure which was worse, the efficient 307 yards for Sam Howell, who only needed to throw 21 passes to get five passing TDs, and only completed four balls that traveled more than 10 yards in the air, or the 392 yards that the Heels piled up on the ground.
Can they both be worse?
A five-yard hitch turned into a 59-yard TD. A 13-yard slant turned into a 75-yard TD.
The front only got pressure on Howell on seven of his 27 dropbacks. The front also allowed 197 rushing yards after contact.
None of this is good.
Mendenhall, again, a glass-half-full guy, is trying to see the positive.
(There’s a positive to this?)
“If you can get the lessons exposed and what needs to be improved early, early on, man, that gives us the best chance to recover and go forward,” Mendenhall said. “UNC found themselves in a similar situation after losing to Virginia Tech in the opener, and man, I think they’ve made considerable improvement from what I’ve seen by the time that we faced them.”
We all need to channel that level of positive mental attitude. Life is probably less stressful that way.
Big plays were the issue again, as had been the case in 2020. Passing TDs of 59, 75 and 37 yards. Ty Chandler had runs of 17, 28, 60, 21; Howell had runs of 12, 20, 13, 16, 14; Caleb Hood had runs of 25 and 15.
That’s 241 yards on 11 run plays, on top of the 233 yards on Howell’s five chunk pass plays of 25+ yards.
“The tackling was poor, and again, so much of it was a surprise, because I was really impressed by Week 1 and Week 2. I really – again, what I saw and then what I saw on Saturday, the difference was beyond what I had expected, and it was consistent. So, that was frustrating, I think, to all of us,” Mendenhall said.
“Give UNC credit. We didn’t have many players beating blocks and making tackles, and sometimes, and more frequently, we had unblocked players missing tackles. All those things we hadn’t seen in Week 1 and Week 2, but it wasn’t because of – I would say being out of position and being assignment sound was a contributor, but those are almost two separate issues,” Mendenhall said.
In terms of adjustments, Mendenhall isn’t throwing the baby out with the bath water. He’s not firing anybody, not demoting anybody, not taking over as defensive coordinator, not delivering ultimatums.
There’s really not much time for that.
The next game, Wake Forest, on Friday, in Scott Stadium, is coming on a short week.
“My biggest task is to prioritize and truly identify, take all the emotion out of it and step back and objectively say what actually happened, where, what common themes, because even though there might be run defense mistakes or pass defense mistakes, are there common themes, and they could be different for each play. Then I just target one thing at a time, and I put them in sequence, because as you mentioned, there’s not enough time to do it all,” Mendenhall said.
“But you look at for the outcome, and again, I was really impressed with how we played Week 1 and Week 2, and UNC is a different type of offense, very good skill players, and again, some overestimation on my part of where we were, so underestimation on my part of where they were and what the match-ups might look like,” Mendenhall said. “So, much clearer now, but then within that, to your point, there are some schematic things, or there are some strategic things, that certainly can be addressed, as well, besides some technique things. So, rather than taking it, oh, man, there’s no chance, a couple things addressed would have made a huge difference in that game, and so that’s really what I’m focusing on.”
Story by Chris Graham
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