(16) VIRGINIA 19, (25) AUBURN 0
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) - Beating No. 25 Auburn was a lot easier than
Aaron Brooks thought it would be. Brooks threw a 61-yard
touchdown pass to Kevin Coffey in the second quarter and set up
two field goals with passes in leading 16th-ranked Virginia to a
19-0 victory over Auburn Thursday night.
"I thought they would bring all 11 guys on the line to confuse
me, but they didn't," Brooks said. "I expected them to do
something out of the ordinary. We expected the blitzes they
brought, but expected a little more."
Virginia dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage. Brooks
took care of the offense and the defense made it a miserable
debut for Auburn quarterback Ben Leard.
Auburn Coach Terry Bowden had promised the Tigers would depend
more on the running game this year, especially with the
inexperienced Leard at quarterback. So Virginia was ready,
holding Auburn to only 18 yards rushing and 179 yards total
offense.
"We are a pretty good run-stopping team," Virginia coach George
Welsh said. "Through the years, it's been pretty tough to run
(on) our defense. They didn't run on us last year, but they threw
for a ton of yards. This year they didn't."
"The plan didn't work," Bowden said. "The plan was to establish
the running game and not rely on the quarterback. It failed. We
need to find a running game."
Virginia cornerback Anthony Poindexter said the Tigers had a
miserable time running the ball because the Cavaliers were ready
for it.
"We knew coming in they were going to be committed to running the
ball, so we knew we had to shut down the run," Poindexter said.
"We knew we had to make them pass and I think we were effective
doing that."
Brooks, 16-for-28 for 220 yards, gave the Cavaliers the only
points they needed when he checked off his primary receiver and
found Coffey between two defensive backs in the right flat.
Coffey scored untouched and Virginia led 6-0 with 5:27 left in
the half.
Brooks' 22-yard completion to Casey Crawford set up Todd
Braveman's 24-yard field goal in the third quarter, and his
10-yard pass to Terrence Wilkins got Braveman within range for a
32-yarder with 12:57 to play.
Leard was unable to move the Tigers through the air, hitting only
11-of-25 for 146 yards with one interception. Leard also lost two
fumbles after being chased out of the pocket.
It was a rematch of last year's season opener and Brooks made
sure his Cavaliers avenged last year's 28-17 loss at
Charlottesville. The fifth-year senior capitalized on the big
play, hitting on 10 passes of 10 or more yards.
(16) Virginia 19, (25) AUBURN 0
1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH FINAL
--- --- --- --- -----
Virginia 0 6 3 10 19
Auburn 0 0 0 0 0
Second Quarter
Vir-Coffey 61 pass from Brooks (kick failed), 5:27
Third Quarter
Vir-FG Braveman 24, 7:55
Fourth Quarter
Vir-FG Braveman 32, 12:54
Vir-Jones 3 run (Braveman kick), 2:09
Vir Aub
--- ---
First downs 20 8
Rushes-yards 38-165 27-18
Passing 220 161
Comp-Att-Int 16-28-0 12-26-1
Return Yards 2 91
Punts-Avg. 6-38.5 7-36.3
Fumbles-Lost 3-1 2-2
Penalties-Yards 5-34 6-55
Time of Possession 33:05 26:55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-Virginia, Jones 21-100, Womack 12-68, Brooks 5-(minus 3).
Auburn, Carter 7-17, Burks 7-16, Evans 3-3, Nelsen 1-1, Collier
1-(minus 5), Pennington 4-(minus 7), Leard 4-(minus 7)
PASSING-Virginia, Brooks 16-28-0-220. Auburn, Leard 11-25-1-146,
Collier 1-1-0-15
RECEIVING-Virginia, Crawford 4-67, Wilkins 3-48, Jones 3-18,
Baber 2-35, Coffey 1-61, Hawkins 1-4, Southern 1-(minus 2),
Brooks 1-(minus 11). Auburn, Robinson 4-86, Evans 3-36, Bailey
3-27, Lowe 1-15, Carter 1-(minus 3).
A-78,315.
Courtesy of Infobeat Sports