You’ll remember the INT on the final play in OT, but Virginia’s 27-20 loss to Duke in the 2025 ACC Championship Game was more than that one mistake on that one play.
It was a lot of mistakes on a lot of plays.
Not exactly making you feel better there, am I?
It started with the offside call on D lineman Jacob Holmes a punt on Duke’s first drive, which turned a fourth-and-7 into a fourth-and-2, which Manny Diaz decided to roll the dice on, and converted, leading to a Duke TD.
ICYMI
In the second quarter, on a fourth-and-2 from the Duke 33, the punt team, now overly focused on not jumping offsides, left a running lane that the upback, Kevin O’Connor, read, adjusted the play call to exploit, and turned into a 6-yard gain, keeping another eventual TD drive going.
Another special-teams error popped up in the fourth quarter: after the D got a stop and forced an actual punt, Cam Ross failed to field a Kade Reynoldson punt, which hit at the UVA 10, and was downed at the 1.
Three plays later, Chandler Morris threw the first of his two late-game picks, which led to a Duke field goal.
By my count: that’s 17 Duke points resulting from three mistakes.
Will Bettridge missed baldly on a 45-yard field-goal try in the first quarter, so badly that Tony Elliott didn’t send him out for a potential 41-yarder early in the fourth quarter, ahead of an incomplete fourth-down pass and turnover on downs.
That’s six points left off the board on two mistakes.
More little things: the Bettridge first-quarter attempt that missed came after a false start on a first down at the Duke 26 that set the offense behind the chains.
A third-quarter drive that ended with a short Bettridge field goal got to the Duke 2 on second down, when Morris misread the Duke D on a read-option, decided to keep, and was dropped for a 5-yard loss.
There’s some point value to those miscues.
Despite all of this: Virginia rallied from down 20-10 with 5:02 to go, getting a nerve-wracking 42-yard field goal from Bettridge with 3:54 left, then, after a stop by the D, Morris drove Virginia 96 yards in a minute-twenty-two, connecting with Eli Wood on an 18-yard TD pass with 22 seconds left in regulation to send the game to OT.
Virginia won the toss, did what you’re supposed to do – went on defense first – and had the game in its hands.
Duke had a fourth-and-goal officially from the 1, but the spot was as close to the 2 as it could be.
The play call: rollout pass.
Darian Mensah kept the play alive with his feet, and found tight end Jeremiah Hasley a step inside the end zone for the TD pass that put Duke on top again.
The penultimate mistake of the night: on the play, Virginia linebacker James Jackson was flagged for roughing the passer, which set the start of the Virginia offensive possession back 15 yards, from the 25 to the 40.
You forget that now, because of how the game ended, one play later.
The ACC Championship Game in photos
Here’s where Virginia fans are about to fire everybody – which, whatever, the word fan is short for fanatic.
The play call from UVA offensive coordinator Des Kitchings: handoff to tailback J’Mari Taylor, who backwards-passed the ball to Morris in the left flat.
Now, it was obvious to me, in the press box, high above the field, as the play unfolded, that Morris had no one remotely open – that Duke, however this is the case, had this most odd of trick plays snuffed out.
Just eat it, get to second down, no harm.
Morris tried to force the ball into the tightest of windows to Wood at the Duke 23.
Luke Mergott – INTs to this moment in his college career: zero – picked the ball off.
Ballgame.
Highlights
Takeaways
The loss, obviously, eliminates Virginia (10-3) from College Football Playoff contention.
Duke (8-5) is technically still alive, but realistically, there’s no way Duke jumps either Tulane (11-2), the American champ, or JMU (12-1), the Sun Belt champ, as the fourth or fifth highest-rated conference champ.
Maybe the ACC still gets a CFP bid from #12 Miami (10-2), which was 12th in this week’s rankings, but should move up with both #9 Alabama (10-3, after a 28-7 loss in the SEC title game to #3 Georgia) and #11 BYU (11-2, after a 34-7 loss in the Big 12 title game to #4 Texas Tech) not only losing, but losing badly.
Miami would need to get to the #10 spot to get an at-large bid.
I’d be shocked if this doesn’t happen.
For that matter, Duke getting in even with five losses, not out of the realm of possibility – clearly, the final spot will come down to Duke or JMU, whose schedule was ranked 123rd in FBS (out of 136 FBS programs).
JMU played exactly one game against a Power 4, and lost that one by two TDs – at Louisville, 28-14, back in Week 2.
I still see JMU getting the final spot, and think it would the uproar of all uproars if Duke gets it instead.
Still …
What this means for Virginia
I dunno.
Seems most likely that the bowl destinations would be either:
- Orlando, for the Pop-Tarts Bowl, vs. a Big 12 opponent, on Dec. 27.
- Jacksonville, for the Gator Bowl, vs. an SEC opponent, on Dec. 27.
- El Paso, for the Sun Bowl, vs. Arizona State (8-4), on Dec. 31.
- Charlotte, for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, vs. an SEC opponent, on Jan. 2.
- San Diego, for the Holiday Bowl, vs. Arizona (9-3), on Jan. 2.
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Chris Graham
