PERKINS PROVIDES HIGHLIGHTS
QB’s big plays, stout defense crush Cardinals
CHARLOTTESVILLE — If Virginia’s season has a signature moment to this point, Bryce Perkins provided it Saturday — twice.
The Cavaliers’ junior quarterback had already proven he could go around, and occasionally through, defenders.
This time, he went over.
And then he did it again.
Perkins passed for 197 yards and two touchdowns — and had a pair of insanely acrobatic runs — in U.Va.’s thorough, wire-to-wire 27-3 win over Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.
In their most complete defensive effort of the season, the Cavaliers (3-1, 1-0 ACC) held the visitors to no touchdowns and just 214 yards of total offense. Louisville (2-2, 0-1) rushed 29 times for 66 yards.
Third-year U.Va. coach Bronco Mendenhall credited co-defensive coordinators Nick Howell and Kelly Poppinga with preparing the unit.
“Just happy for them and happy for our players,” Mendenhall said. “They played really well.”
Perkins, a transfer from Arizona Western Community College making his fourth U.Va. start, perhaps played better than anyone.
With his team ahead 20-3 in the middle of the fourth quarter, Perkins kept the ball on a draw play and went 8 yards up the middle for a touchdown. As he crossed the goal line, he hurdled over a would-be tackler who was going after his legs, delighting the already-thinning crowd of 34,446.
Perkins’ 44-yard pass to Joe Reed gave the Cavaliers a 20-3 lead with 13:08 left in the game. The touchdown finished an eight-play, 62-yard drive that consumed more than four minutes.
Perkins’ first leap, almost certain to go down in U.Va. lore, happened when he broke free for 36 yards on a draw. Louisville safety Dee Smith went all-in on a low tackle attempt, and Perkins turned him into a steeplechase obstacle at the 25-yard line.
The play set up the game’s first touchdown, a 3-yard Perkins pass to tailback Chris Sharp, and it’s sure to dominate highlight reels in the coming days.
In the short term, though, it elevated the energy on U.Va.’s sideline.
“That just juices everybody up,” cornerback Bryce Hall said. “That dude’s a different breed. Anytime he can electrify the whole stadium, that just makes it more live when we come on.
“He’s creative, and he’s a heck of a player. We’re lucky to have him on our team.”
Perkins left the game briefly in the second quarter when he dislocated his right pinkie while trying to catch a pass on a wild reverse play. He had it wrapped in ice after the game, but he expects a quick and full recovery.
Confirming that the injury was indeed to his fifth digit, Perkins shrugged.
“But who needs pinkies?” he said.
Jordan Ellis carried 20 times for 68 yards for the Cavaliers, who generated 401 yards of total offense and became the first team to keep Louisville out of the end zone since the Cardinals joined the ACC in 2014.
Perkins led the team with 78 rushing yards, and he completed passes to 10 receivers.
“We came out, thought we had a good game plan,” said Smith, who led Louisville with eight tackles. “They came out, they had a great game plan. They outplayed us.”
Charles Snowden, a 6-foot-7 sophomore linebacker, had a monster game for U.Va. He had a team-leading eight tackles, a sack, 1 1/2 tackles for loss and an interception.
After Rodjay Burns intercepted a Perkins pass that slipped through the fingertips of Olamide Zaccheaus and set the Cardinals up at the U.Va. 3, Blanton Creque’s 20-yard field goal pulled Louisville to within 6-3 with 9:45 to go in the third quarter.
Hunter Pearson’s 24-yard field goal with 2:23 left in the first half gave the Cavaliers a 6-0 lead. The kick came four plays after backup quarterback Brennan Armstrong, summoned after Perkins injured his hand, went 34 yards on a draw to set U.Va. up at the Cardinals’ 11.
Pearson, making his first ap- pearance in a game, kicked a 28-yard field goal to give U.Va. a 3-0 lead with 10:46 left in the first quarter. The scoring drive was set up by Snowden’s interception of a wayward Malik Cunningham pass over the middle.
The Cavaliers made progress on their first possession before the drive stalled out at Louisville’s 15. A.J. Mejia’s 32yard field-goal attempt sailed wide right, and he was soon lifted for Pearson.
But the game will likely be remembered as a coming-out party of sorts for Perkins, whose diverse skill set is becoming less and less of a secret around the league.
The hurdles, he said, were sheer instinct, though he did admit to a certain amount of risk.
“I’m just playing,” Perkins said. “I just go out there and play fast, play physical. I don’t think too much about getting hurt. Whatever it takes to score or make a big play, I’m going to try to do that. But I do gotta start being smarter. I was thinking in the air on the second one, ‘Please don’t let somebody come over the top.’ ”
Saturday might also someday be regarded as the day when winning ACC games became the accepted norm in Charlottesville.
The Cavaliers believe they’re on their way.
“I feel like the biggest thing is our mindset and our expectation,” Hall said. “We have a high standard for ourselves that we set, so it’s like we expect to come out and dominate each game. We expect to win. I think that’s something that’s huge because in the past years here, we would be out there kind of wishing, hoping. This year, we know.”