Duke Falls Hard At UVA, 48-14
An ugly loss
There’s no way to polish this one. Duke’s one-step forward, one-step back 2019 season took a giant step backwards in Charlottesville today, losing to Virginia 48-14.
The loss drops Duke to 4-3 overall, 2-2 in the ACC and creates serious doubt as to whether Duke can get to the six-win threshold necessary for a bowl bid.
Duke’s offense was totally over-matched. They couldn’t run block, pass block, throw the ball, catch the ball, even hold on to the ball.
The defense hung in there for awhile before field position, fatigue and perhaps frustration finally caught up.
Virginia opened the game with a long drive that came up empty when Leonard Johnson intercepted Bryce Perkins in the end zone. Duke later dug in and forced a couple of field goals.
But whenever the defense gave Duke a chance to get back into the game, the offense gave it right back, sometimes with a three-and-out, sometimes with one of five turnovers, failing to convert a 4th-and-1 at the Duke 34 with the score still a manageable 10-0.
It was only 17-0 at the half and we all saw what Duke did against Pittsburgh a few weeks ago.
But Duke opened the second half with an unforced turnover, when Quentin Harris and Deon Jackson botched the kind of handoff they’ve probably done a thousand times.
It was that kind of day.
The Cavaliers took advantage of the short field with their second field goal and the wheels came off.
“It’s tough,” safety Dylan Singleton said “but we have be able to hold Virginia and keep them from scoring touchdowns and take the ball away or hold them to three points. We were able to do that sometimes but I don’t think we were able to do it enough.”
The only time Duke scored when the outcome was even remotely in doubt, they allowed Joe Reed to return the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, which made it 34-7 and snuffed out even the tiniest hint of Duke momentum.
It all starts in the trenches of course and Duke didn’t win many individual battles or win many scheme battles either.
“No matter what you run or call offensively, we did not consistently block them,” David Cutcliffe said. “It was not a schematic issue. We just didn’t get it done, and that is my responsibility.”
“I think staying on the field offensively and then getting off the field defensively is what it comes down to,” Quentin Harris said of the disastrous third quarter that ended with Virginia up 41-7. “I’m not sure what our third down percentage was but I know it wasn’t great, so we definitely have to continue to convert on third down and stay on the field and keep drives alive. Defensively we also have to find a way to get off the field sometimes as well. It doesn’t help the defense when we put them in bad situations with turnovers. We need to find a way to limit those. I think they [Virginia] did a good job capitalizing on turnovers and converting those into points.”
Punter Austin Parker actually sparked Duke’s first scoring drive, twice converting on fourth down, the first time an improv after a low snap, the second time a called fake.
Parker picked up 17 yards on these two carries.
And Harris’ 36-yard scoring strike to Scott Bracey was the kind of offense we’ve seen lately from Duke, a perfectly thrown ball to an open receiver.
But it stood out like a small oasis in a great, big desert.
Duke’s final score came with lots of reserves on the field for both teams. Backup QB Chris Katrenick did look sharp on a 23-yard TD pass to Eli Pancol.
Duke recovered the on-side kick and promptly lost the ball on downs, a fitting end to a train wreck of a game.
Statistically, the game was closer than the final score suggests. Virginia out-gained Duke 307 yards to 250 and compiled 17 first downs to Duke’s 14.
Of course, when you keep getting short fields, you don’t have to compile lots of yards to compile lots of points. Virginia had scoring drives of 8, 34, 5, 21 and 40 yards.
And losing the turnover battle 5-2 is a recipe for exactly the kind of disaster that transpired.
The key for Duke is to keep this one loss as just one loss.
“To be honest, there is a little bit of a shock factor,” Cutcliffe acknowledged. “Everybody is hurting. It is only a setback tonight. It is a setback tomorrow only if we let it be a setback. That is the nature of this business. . . . You practice football, you also try to heal people emotionally. We have to be at our best tomorrow, be at our best Monday, Tuesday… I am not just talking about on the football field I am talking about complete. Then on the football field you simply go back to fundamentals to be successful on both sides of the ball and the kicking game.”
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