Cavaliers Football: Special Teams Prove Pivotal in Virginia-Indiana Contest

The Virginia Cavaliers football team got off to its first 2-0 start since 2005 by defeating Indiana 34-31 in an absolute barn-burner on Saturday.

The special teams play of Virginia played a prominent role in the various momentum swings of this game, and while everyone will remember Robert Randolph's game-winning field goal as time expired, other aspects of the third phase of the game were much more worrisome for the Cavaliers.

Three huge miscues on the Cavaliers' return units threatened to tip the balance in favor of Indiana.

Early in the game, a muffed punt by Dominique Terrell threatened to provide a huge momentum swing for the Hoosiers, but Darius Jennings was able to fall on it. However, it would turn out to be portentous.

Later in the game, Indiana scored a touchdown to cut UVA's formerly commanding lead to 23-10. The Cavaliers needed a good drive to seize the momentum back. The kickoff was headed out of bounds and Jennings touched it just before it soared out.

Because of Jennings' miscue, UVA took over on their own six instead of the 40-yard line.

For the remainder of the third quarter, UVA was backed up in their own half of the field. While they maintained their 23-10 lead, they were in a precarious position heading into the fourth quarter.

Eventually, a punt deep into UVA territory was ruled a muffed punt by the refs and Indiana recovered with a very short field. With the momentum they had grabbed, Indiana scored on that drive and followed with two more touchdowns to seal a 31-23 lead.

Here is the good part of the story. UVA's kickoff coverage and punt coverage units had been fantastic. They allowed just one punt return for eight yards. They repeatedly pinned Indiana deep in their own territory and had forced a fumble on a kickoff just before halftime that was converted into a Robert Randolph field goal. 

The return units had struggled, but Jennings got a good return after the Hoosiers took their eight-point lead and the Cavaliers were able to drive the field and tie the game at 31-31 with a minute and a half to go.

Then the kickoff coverage unit pinned Indiana deep. The Hoosiers turned the ball over and UVA milked the clock down to two seconds and set up for a 23-yard field goal attempt.

Robert Randolph was three-for-three on field goals and two-for-two on extra point attempts at this point. His kicks had included a 42-yard field goal from the left hashmark and a 45-yard field goal from the right hashmark.

Randolph drilled the field goal to win the game.

His four-for-four performance made him eight-for-eight on the year on field goals and six-for-six on extra points.

His 30 points currently are tied with teammate Kevin Parks for first in the ACC and fifth in the nation.

The Cavaliers clearly have work to do. Darius Jennings and Dominique Terrell, specifically, have to be smarter as kick and punt returners.

However, their mistakes were easily correctable freshman mistakes and Virginia has plenty of talent on special teams, with Randolph leading the way.

If they clean up the play, the coaching staff could potentially turn this unit into one of the top special teams in the conference.