CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Down 10 points at home in the second half to Syracuse, its offense stuck in a rut and its season hanging in the balance, Virginia showed the level of mental toughness it will take to hang around in the ACC title race.

No, the Cavaliers didn’t make much of an argument to be one of the league’s elite teams Saturday. But with a gutty 28-25 comeback win over the Orange, it kept itself in the conversation. 

Behind an offensive line that gave up 10 sacks a week ago in a road loss at Florida State, Virginia scored three straight touchdowns to keep itself relevant, for another week at least.

“We faced adversity last week,” UVA quarterback Beau Pribula said. “We didn’t handle it well. We made it a point to handle it well this time.”

Pribula threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Da’Shawn Martin in the third quarter, and Jekail Middlebrook ran for 95 yards and two fourth quarter scores. 

Virginia (4-2, 2-1 ACC) averaged 4.8 yards per rush, allowed just one sack and didn’t commit a turnover.

The race for second place in the ACC is as wide open as ever, a living, breathing testament to the old days of Coastal Chaos. With Duke’s loss to Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh falling to North Carolina, every team chasing undefeated Miami has at least one conference defeat. 

A second league loss this early would have rendered UVA an also-ran.

“Guys just made a decision. They just decided that they wanted to go win a football game,” coach UVA Tony Elliott said. “Guys stopped waiting for somebody else to go make a play and said i’m going to be a guy that’s going to step up and make a play.”

UVA opened the game with an 8-play, 75-yard touchdown drive – capped by a Xay Davis 14-yard score – then mustered a whole lot of nothing on its next six possessions. Syracuse took that opportunity to go ahead 17-7.

That hole could have – and should have – been even deeper for Virginia. But Fran Brown’s Syracuse team continued its year-long kicking woes, missing a pair of field goals.

The Orange defense mimicked some of what Florida State did successfully against UVA, but unlike the blowout loss in Tallahassee, Virginia’s defense kept it in the game until the offense could find its way.

Offensive coordinator Des Kitchings got on a play-calling roll in the second half, hitting the Orange with a deep play-action pass to Martin when Syracuse (2-3, 0-3) was loading the box, then getting his group into the end zone twice more with a pair of direct snap counter runs by Middlebrook. 

“Coach E challenged us at halftime,” Pribula said. “We were in the same situation last week at Florida State and we didn’t execute. That’s not who we were last week. We came out in the second half and said, ‘That’s not we are.’”

Of course, one thing is inescapable. 

Virginia should not have needed second-half heroics to escape against a mediocre Syracuse playing its third – and later in the game, fourth – quarterback.

Being down 17-7 at the half isn’t where a team that fashions itself an ACC title contender should be. Putting up just 117 total yards in the first half is a good way to draw halftime challenges from your head coach. 

Yes, Saturday night’s win left much to be desired. 

But Virginia walked off the field with the thing it desired, and needed, the most – the victory.