Notre Dame football: Virginia will be no match for the 2021 Irish

Notre Dame football: Virginia will be no match for the 2021 Irish

Virginia in 2020

Virginia’s 2020 football season was defined by two major streaks. From their second through their fifth games, Virginia went 0-4. They lost those four games by an average score of 34.5 to 20.25. It looked like they were heading for a disaster of a season, which they would try to write off as a tough year during a pandemic.

Then, between their sixth and ninth games, they would go 4-0, winning by an average score of 43.25 to 26.25. On either end of these two streaks were a win over Duke and a disappointing loss to Virginia Tech.

In all, it was a very average Virginia football team that lost to teams it could have beaten and beat teams that it shouldn’t have. At 5-5 and the middle of the pack in the ACC, though, the Cavaliers quickly became one of the most forgotten teams at the FBS level. Still, the potential is clearly there and it’s going to come down to whether or not Virginia can figure out why they struggled so much during their losing streak.

Of course, you do need to defend the Cavaliers, as two of those four losses during their losing streak were to ranked opponents in Clemson and Miami. NC State and Wake Forest are less forgivable, though.

However, an injury to quarterback Brennan Armstrong that cost him playing time during this losing streak certainly does excuse the offense’s issues.

The defense, on the other hand, was abysmal. There really wasn’t anything good to say about their defense all season long, other than they forced a bunch of turnovers. That wouldn’t be enough, though, as they had to play almost every game like a shootout.