Duke Football: Blue Devils lose ugly to Virginia in big ACC game
Duke Football fell at home to the Virginia Cavaliers in a major game in the ACC Coastal Division race and the game didn’t even feel that close.
It was going to be a season defining game for both teams.
Virginia coming off of a huge home upset over then No. 16 Miami and the Blue Devils coming off of a road win over Georgia Tech.
Virginia was the only team that was able to carry the momentum over from last week as they walked into Wallace Wade Stadium and rolled over a slow, sleepy Blue Devil team on Saturday afternoon.
More from Ball Durham
- Duke basketball: The architect behind digital dominance
- Duke basketball prioritizing frontcourt prospects in 2025
- Duke basketball: Unmasking the hate for the Blue Devils
- Duke basketball: Countdown to Craziness lands another huge visitor
- Duke basketball fills final open scholarship
It was evident from the first drive that UVA was on a mission and it would be up to the Duke defense to keep them in this game, and for the most part they did their job.
Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins was the best player on the field as he completed 20 of his 32 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown and he kept the ball himself for quite a few plays and it always seemed he was getting positive yards as he rushed for 61 yards on 15 carries and two touchdowns.
The Duke offense was inept, any time it looked like they might have had something going it was wiped away either with a turnover or a penalty.
Daniel Jones finished the day completing 22 of his 40 pass attempts for 240 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
However, despite how bad the Blue Devils were all day, they had a shot with just under ten minutes left in the game to drive down the field and take the lead.
Down 20-14, the Blue Devils forced a Virginia punt, when the Blue Devils get the ball back on the first play of the drive inside of their own 15 yard line, Daniel Jones found Chris Taylor for a 12 yard gain.
Now with a first down from about the 27 yard line, Jones get sacked on first down, then a QB Draw was called on second down that went for a loss of two yards, and then on third down Jones gets sacked again.
As the Blue Devils needed a big time punt and punt cover, Tavaeres Kelly killed the Blue Devils like he did all day, brought the kick back inside the Duke 30.
To put an exclamation point on the horrible afternoon, Virginia has a 1st Down inside of the Duke 20 yards line. The Blue Devils bring a corner blitz off the left edge, it looks like Perkins is going to get drilled from the blindside and possible fumble the ball depending on the impact of the hit.
As soon as the Blue Devil defender gets to Perkins, he breaks the tackle, rolls to his left, and finds a wide open receiver in the end zone for a touchdown.
That it just what kind of afternoon it was for the Blue Devils.
Duke will try and bounce back next Saturday on October 27 in Pittsburgh as they take on the Panthers in Heinz Field at 3:30 pm ET.