There’s never just one reason a team loses a football game.
Against NC State on Friday night, the Virginia Cavaliers could blame three personal fouls in the final 36 seconds which ranged from “not a great choice, but forgivable” (Anthony Colandrea’s pose after completing an 18-yard two-point conversion to Malachi Fields to tie the game) to “what on Earth are you thinking?” (Ty Furnish’s headbutt after Virginia’s TD cut the lead to two, the reason Colandrea’s 2-point conversion needed to go 18 yards).
They could blame a poor special-teams effort, which most notably featured a back-breaking 35-yard kickoff return allowed with 36 seconds remaining in a tie game which sliced Virginia’s win probability in half from 40% to 19%, according to Game on Paper.