Virginia football's 3-game reign ends in the rain with loss to Georgia Tech

CHARLOTTESVILLE --

Virginia linebacker Denzel Burrell looked at the clock after the opening drive of the third quarter Saturday. "Wow, that drive was that long?" he asked a teammate.

Georgia Tech's 18-play drive lasted nearly 11 minutes, but Burrell could have been speaking about many of the No. 11 Yellow Jackets' possessions during their 34-9 win that returned Virginia (3-4, 2-1 ACC) to reality after a three-game winning streak.

Georgia Tech maintained possession for 42 minutes 43 seconds -- 25 minutes more than Virginia -- and executed 35 more plays on offense. The reason was simple: The Cavaliers could not run, and they could not stop the run. Both were strengths in Virginia's three wins.

"The game was a case of third downs," Virginia Coach Al Groh said. "Clearly, we didn't make enough on third down to do what's necessary and stay on the field a substantial amount of time against that team. We allowed them too many conversions, frequently after we had good plays preceding on first, second or third down."

Virginia converted only 2 of 11 third downs. Georgia Tech (7-1, 5-1) converted 8 of 17 third downs. The number was a drastic difference from the three previous games, when the Cavaliers converted 37 percent of their third downs and held opposing offenses to 32 percent on the same down.

Georgia Tech's third-down conversions helped prolong possessions, and all but one conversion came on the ground. The Yellow Jackets rushed for 362 yards and four touchdowns. Running backs Jonathan Dwyer (125 yards) and Anthony Allen (103 yards) eclipsed the 100-yard plateau.

"We knew throughout the organization that it would be critical to not let those guys have the best of days," said Groh, who later added that Georgia Tech's game plan went as the Cavaliers anticipated.

Virginia is not the first team that has allowed big days to the Yellow Jackets' backfield, but their lack of rushing production -- and lack of running plays, in general -- was an issue. While playing in similar rainy conditions in last week's win over Maryland, Virginia relied on a power running game.

On Saturday, running backs Mikell Simpson and Rashawn Jackson had a combined seven carries for four yards. Jackson, the power back, received only one carry. Neither had a carry in the second half.

Groh said Virginia did not show enough with the running game in the first half to continue in that direction, although the sample size was all of six carries.

"They were taking 10-minute drives and eight-minute drives, and at that pace, we can't come out and run the ball because we're not going to get into a time-of-possession game, which they killed us on," Simpson said. "So we just tried to come out and score quick, and moving the ball through the air was the best way."