Nothing Like a Trip to Chapel Hill to Cure What Ails You

Amidst all the talk of the new offense, the fact that the defense has uncharacteristically struggled has been lost in the conversation.  Not Saturday.  They could have played eight quarters, and the Heels still wouldn't have crossed the goal line.  Some thoughts on Virginia's first win of the season:

• LB Steve Greer set the tone on the opening drive with two tackles for loss.  Matt Conrath (3 batted balls) continued the momentum.  Nate Collins finished the job with a hit on T.J. Yates that led to a Chase Minnifield interception, setting up the game-clinching TD. 
• If he's going down, Al Groh is going to go down his way.  From his offensive adjustments two weeks ago to his defensive game plan against UNC, Al Groh is putting his stamp on this team. Even on offense, the game was called to avoid mistakes under the assumption that UNC couldn't score without help.  They couldn't.  
• I'll admit I was a little nervous about how Virignia would respond after literally getting run over in back to back weeks against TCU and S. Miss.  Then I saw John Shoop in the coach's box calling UNC's plays and immediately felt better. 
• As we've said in this space before, Mikell Simpson is the best offensive player on the team, and UVA should be getting him the ball more.  Inspired by watching 2007 game film Friday night, Simpson WAS the offense on Saturday, with 20 carries for 102 yards and a TD, and a team-leading four catches for 45 yards.  That wasn't so hard, was it?
• Less than a month after Virginia played three QBs in the season opener, its now exclusively Jameel Sewell's show.  Marc Verica made a brief appearance, but only because Sewell was nursing a hand injury at the time.  And Vic Hall took himself out of the QB picture with an act of selflessness.  Sewell is flawed - he makes bad decisions from time to time, sails throws on an almost regular basis, and doesn't always seem to see the field particularly well - but he gives Virginia its best chance to win.  If Sewell can stick to the script - only 169 total yards but ZERO turnovers on Saturday - Virginia will at least be competitive the rest of the way.   
• Jared Green isn't a star but he's developing a nice little niche as 3rd down receiver.  Only two catches, but both moved the sticks on 3rd down.
• Tip of the cap to K Robert Randolph.  Teams often don't notice the kicker unless he's missing kicks, so we should recogize them when they do the job.  Randoph went 3-for-3 to stake Virginia to a lead before Simpson's TD sealed the deal.

Virginia is now 7-2 against North Carolina under Groh and 10-1 in October under Groh since 2007.  Perfect storm?  Maybe.  But the calendar doesn't turn from October until four more games are played.  November largely has been a different story (13-17, including 0-4 last year, under Groh), so UVA better get fat while it can.