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Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
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Sunday, August 31, 2014 11:12am
In the first of a new weekly in-season feature at ACCSports.com, we take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly around the ACC (AP Photos)
By: Adam Powell
In the first of what will be a weekly feature at
ACCSports.com during football season, we take a look back at the week that was around the ACC. For Labor Day weekend we won’t be adding the Louisville-Miami outcome, but we wanted to provide our Sunday readers an in-depth look at some of the happenings around the league as the season gets going.
THE GOOD
Pittsburgh was incredibly effective across the board in its 62-0 wipeout of Delaware, and the numbers really are staggering. The Panthers didn’t have a single negative offensive rushing play in the game. You read that right — they didn’t lose yardage on any rushing play all day. In fact, the only non-positive rushing attempt of the day, a no-gainer, was on the final play of the game. Along the way Pitt racked up 409 yards on the ground, picking up a whopping 28 first downs, and barely had to throw at all.
On defense the Panthers forced eight three-and-outs and recorded three interceptions in 11 of Delaware’s 13 offensive possessions. Pitt held the Blue Hens to just one conversion in 11 third down situations. The two Delaware possessions that did result in first downs and crossed midfield failed reach the Pitt 20-yard line. The result was just 64 yards allowed all day by the Panthers. Certainly Pitt will get tested a lot more this coming Friday night at Boston College, but we’re not sure what more Paul Chryst could have possibly hoped for as the Panthers picked up its first season-opening win under his leadership.
Anthony Boone was brilliant in Duke’s 52-13 win over Elon, completing 22 of 33 passes for 247 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. In Duke’s decisive 21-point surge in the second quarter Boone found Jamison Crowder and Isaac Blakeney each for scores, and the tandem finished the night with two touchdown receptions apiece from the Blue Devil veteran.
Granted it was Elon, but Duke rolled up 567 offensive yards and it was largely due to the solid play of its quarterback. He was in complete control, had time to throw and was picking his spots. Duke will likely get tested a little more at Troy next Saturday night but if Boone resembles the performance from this weekend, the Blue Devils should be fine.
We also can’t end this section without discussing Jameis Winston’s remarkable individual effort on his 28-yard touchdown run that gave Florida State a 27-17 lead late in the third quarter of Saturday night’s victory over Oklahoma State.
Demonstrating remarkable agility — not to mention toughness — Winston hurdled over a would-be tackler and then instantly sidestepped another upon returning to the ground before racing his way across the goal line. It was a brilliant maneuver that gave FSU a tremendous lift at a key time. Winston was far from perfect against the Cowboys, throwing a pair of interceptions, but it was this play that got the Seminoles back on track. Things got a little hairy in the fourth quarter but FSU never trailed, and Winston’s incredible run was maybe the single biggest reason why they were able to hang on.
THE BAD
Clemson’s 31 unanswered points allowed to Georgia after building an early 21-14 lead was every bit as shocking as it was painful for Tiger supporters. For a moment there it sure seemed like the Tigers were rolling, didn’t it? They were working in both quarterbacks Cole Stoudt and Deshaun Watson and both of them led scoring drives, leading to some uneasiness in Sanford Stadium during the second and third quarters. Heading into the fourth quarter, after a defensive struggle in the third, it appeared that Clemson very much had a chance, trailing just 24-21. But then the bottom fell out for the Tigers.
Todd Gurley had tied the game with a 100-yard kickoff return in the second quarter after the Tigers briefly led by a touchdown, and in the fourth quarter he and Nick Chubb lit up the Clemson defense. First Gurley broke off an 18-yard scoring run to give the Bulldogs a 31-21 advantage with a little over ten minutes left, and less than two minutes later Chubb reeled off a 47-harder for a score, which essentially ended the competitive phase of the game.
But Gurley wasn’t done, as he drove the final stake in Clemson’s heart with a surreal 51-yard touchdown carry coming just a little over a minute after Chubb’s long run. Gurley’s third touchdown of the night ended the scoring at 45-21, and gave him 198 yards on the day. Georgia as a team racked up 328 rushing yards, so it’s safe to say the Tigers are going to have to work a great deal on defending the rush against South Carolina State next Saturday and then in its bye week before they head down to Tallahassee to play Florida State Sept. 20.
Virginia’s inability to avoid turning the ball over in the first half cost them a chance to pull off what could have been one of the biggest upsets in school history over No. 7 UCLA in Scott Stadium. The heavy underdogs from Charlottesville played well enough to win, holding the Bruins to just 358 offensive yards, out-producing them, and sacking Heisman candidate Brett Hundley five times. But they fell into an early 21-3 hole thanks to three defensive touchdowns recorded by UCLA, including a 75-yard fumble return and two pick sixes on UVa starting quarterback Greyson Lambert.
Matt Johns entered the game at QB for the Cavaliers and he's likely won the starting job thanks to his gutsy effort, which gave UVa a fighting chance and actually made things interesting. After leading the Wahoos to a touchdown in the final minute of the first half, Johns found Darius Jennings for a 23-yard touchdown late in the third quarter to make the score 21-17.
In the end UCLA produced just seven offensive points, but it proved to be enough. And the Cavaliers are left kicking themselves for blowing a legitimate opportunity at what could have been a program-reviving triumph.
THE UGLY
Syracuse needed every bit of fight it could muster to take down Villanova 27-26 in two overtimes Friday night in the Carrier Dome, but things could have been easier perhaps for the Orange if they hadn’t lost quarterback Terrel Hunt, who was ejected in the second quarter for punching a Villanova linebacker.
In fairness to Hunt, it appeared that the Villanova linebacker, Dillon Lucas, did come from behind and corral him around the neck just as he was going down. But that doesn’t exactly excuse Hunt’s retaliatory sweeping left hook at Lucas from the ground, which grazed the linebacker’s face mask and brought out a shower of flags from the officials.
"I was trying to make a play on the ball and I guess he didn't like the way I hit him," Lucas said to reporters after the game. "When I rolled off him I felt a punch. There were no words exchanged, but maybe it was the way our defense kept pressuring him."
Certainly Hunt didn’t accomplish anything with the ineffective punch, and it put his team in a very difficult situation, having to win a close game in the second half without its starting quarterback. Prior to the ejection Hunt was 10-of-17 passing for 94 yards, and had broken off a 21-yard quarterback keeper earlier in the game. He wasn’t superb, but he had been reasonably effective.
Hunt could be seen on the sidelines looking rather remorseful after the punch, and there’s a very good chance this whole situation will make him a more mature quarterback and quite possibly a better quarterback. Hopefully he learned a valuable lesson from this whole situation — namely that it’s most often the guy who retaliates that gets in trouble on the football field.
“Terrel and I have talked regarding his flagrant penalty (vs. Villanova) and he fully understands the behavior is not condoned and regrets his action,” said SU head coach Scott Shafer in a University release Saturday evening.
Wake Forest’s late meltdown against Louisiana-Monroe was tough for any self-respected ACC fan to watch, and not just because of the way Wake Forest lost in the final minutes. It was because despite one of the worst offensive performances in school history — the last time Wake didn’t produce 100 yards of offense was back in 1987 — the Demon Deacons had a 10-0 lead in the second half and seemed to be in total control of the game defensively.
But a series of critical errors, including an interception return for a touchdown by the Warhawks, took away the strategic advantage for Wake down the stretch, and a late scoring drive for ULM — the only offensive touchdown of the night for either team — forced quarterback John Wolford, a true freshman starting his first-ever collegiate game, to win it in the end. That didn’t happen of course, and now the Demon Deacons have an 0-1 hole heading into one of the few remaining games they’ll likely be favored in, at home against Gardner-Webb.