CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Virginia used its open date to hit the reset button on a season that was slipping away.

Saturday, the Cavaliers went back to start, comfortably handling an inferior opponent at home. Has Tony Elliott’s team found a new life? Matchups with North Carolina and then at Virginia Tech will answer that question.

For now, it’s fair to say that UVA accomplished the task at hand Saturday, bouncing back from a lopsided beating  at Wake Forest by taking care of business in a 36-7 get-right win over visiting Cal. 

“They had a decision to make when we showed back up on Monday after Wake Forest on what they want to do as a team,” Elliott said. “But also individually, what kind of a person are you going to choose to be. Are you going to say, ‘Hey, all is lost. The sky is falling.’ Or are you going to be a person that digs your feet in and say, ‘I’m going to focus on what I can control. I believe in the best to come ahead of me and I’m going to go fight for that.’ And that’s what you saw.”

Virginia fans showed their frustration with the team’s three-game slide by not showing up Saturday. On a crisp fall day, UVA (5-5, 3-4 ACC) announced an attendance of just 39,423, a season low at Scott Stadium. 

Those who stayed home missed a commendable bounce-back effort.

The defense, which is getting healthier in the secondary while being beaten up at linebacker, was stout and turned in the game’s biggest plays, recording four sacks and intercepting three passes. Safety Brandyn Hillman and linebacker Kam Robinson each had pick-6s.

Cal (3-7, 2-5) managed just 201 yards of total offense.

“Even though we was losing, we always knew that we weren’t bad,” said Robinson, who had a game-high 12 tackles. “We just had to lock back in on the details and that’s what we did.”

The Cavaliers’ offense was effective if not explosive, opening the game with an impressive scoring drive, then getting bogged down by penalties and bad field position for the rest of the first half. Still, UVA finished with 424 total yards, its best mark in six games. It posted its first 200-yard rushing day since Sept. 11 against Norfolk State. 

“I think it gives us a lot of confidence just playing such complimentary football tonight,” said quarterback Beau Pribula, who finished 16 for 24 for 146 yards and one touchdown and ran for 67 yards on seven carries. “I thought we made a lot of progress during the bye week, and it showed up tonight.”

Saturday, UVA got plenty of help from the visitors, from turnovers, to penalties to questionable coaching decisions. None impacted the game more than Tosh Lupoi’s decision to fake a field goal on fourth-and-goal at the 4-yard line in the second quarter.

“It was 9-0 at that point and we came here to try to win the game. … Obviously the disaster struck, throwing the ball to the other team,” Lupoi said. “In hindsight, here to win and coached the game to win. We put into our preparation for that and called the call we knew we wanted to call in that situation.”

Hillman said the UVA coaches had his unit equally ready for the play.

“I was 100% prepared for it,” Hillman said. “I know any time they do a field goal or extra point they’re going to come out in the swinging gate. So we were expecting that. I seen exactly that I seen on film and executed the play.”

The Cal win was a small victory, a step toward, the team hopes, being able to compete in the final two games of the regular season. 

That’s really what this year has been chock full of – small victories and disappointing losses.

For the most part, Virginia has beaten the worst teams on its schedule and gotten beat by everyone else.

Its five wins have come against teams that are a combined 21-30, its five losses to foes that combine for a 35-17 mark.

The Cavaliers’ best win of the season is probably its 28-25 escape against Syracuse on Oct. 10 That day, UVA had to come back from a 10-point halftime deficit at home against an Orange team down to its third-string quarterback. 

Still, with one more victory, the Cavaliers will achieve the modest accomplishment of becoming bowl eligible for a second straight year.

A small victory and a step in the right direction.