That Virginia offense, the one that put up 540 yards and 34 points, in the 34-17 win at Duke on Saturday, looked like the Virginia offense that we saw back in September.
The defense, which held a potent Duke offense to 255 yards, and made the $7 million Duke quarterback, Darian Mensah, look replacement-level, is the one that we’ve been seeing for a while now.
ICYMI
This one might have been the most complete performance we’ve seen from this UVA team all season, which is saying a lot for a team that improved to 9-2 with the win.
The ‘Hoos (9-2, 6-1 ACC, ACC Championship Game status: your guess is as good as mine) scored on their first drive, muddled for a bit – with an INT and turnover on downs in plus territory – then scored twice in the final two minutes of the first half to go into the break up two scores, at 17-3.
A 10-play, 87-yard drive on Virginia’s first possession of the second half finished with a 20-yard TD pass from Chandler Morris to Trell Harris, who had 161 yards on eight catches on the day; then, after a stop on a Duke drive that got inside the UVA 10, J’Mari Taylor broke off a 78-yard TD run to put the ‘Hoos up 31-3.
It would get interesting for a minute in the fourth quarter.
Duke’s offense finally got into the end zone with 10:23 to go, on an 11-yard TD pass from Mensah to Cooper Barkate.
Virginia, on its next possession, could not have possibly effed things up any more.
Offensive coordinator Des Kitchings should have been running the ball to bleed a little clock, but he had Morris throw on a play-action on first down, with the pass incomplete.
A second-down run lost yardage, and on third-and-long, Kitchings had Morris attempting to throw a screen.
Duke safety Tre Freeman read it all the way, picked the ball off at the 18, and raced into the end zone untouched.
Within a minute of game clock, the score went from 31-3 to 31-17.
Ruh, roh.
The next UVA possession started with four runs, and ended with a 42-yard Will Bettridge field goal that made it a three-score game again, and with just 5:42 left.
Duke inched the ball into plus territory, but failed on a fourth-and-1 at the UVA 41, and the ‘Hoos were able to run out the clock from there.
Offense notes
Morris was 23-of-35 for 316 yards, two TDs and the two INTs.
I don’t want to count the picksix against him; just a dumb play call.
Seriously, run the ball and punt there.
The ground game finished with 224 yards, with Taylor putting up 133 yards and two TDs, and backup Harrison Waylee gaining 62 yards on 16 attempts.
Harris had his eight catches for 161 yards on nine targets. Pretty efficient.
Cam Ross had seven catches on 10 targets for 63 yards.
Bettridge was 2-of-2 on field-goal tries, both from 40-plus (44,42).
Defense notes
Kam Robinson was only on the field for three snaps – he was injured on his second snap of the first half, and the first snap of the second half; looked like his knee locked up.
Mensah, who came into the game averaging 310.4 passing yards per game, was just 5-of-11 for 26 yards at halftime, and only got to 213 yards – on 18-of-35 passing – because Duke, behind big at the half, put the ball in the air a lot in the second half.
The Virginia D sacked him four times (Camac Fisher-2, Jacob Holmes-1, Melton Mitchell-1, and recorded six QB hurries (Fisher-1, Ethan Minter-1, Daniel Rickert-1, James Jackson-1, Marcellus Maddox-1, Jason Hammond-1).
Wideout Cooper Barkate came in averaging 5.6 catches, 8.1 targets and 91.6 yards per game through the air; he had three catches on five targets for 45 yards.
Slot receiver Que’Sean Brown came in averaging 4.7 catches, 6.5 targets and 64.9 yards per game; he had three catches on six targets for 14 yards.
The UVA D had eight pass breakups (Emmanuel Karnley-3, Devin Neal-2, Ethan Minter-1, Donavon Platt-1, Christian Charles-1).
Duke had 66 sack-adjusted rushing yards on the day.
Duke tailback Nate Sheppard came in averaging 73.0 yards per game and 6.6 yards per rushing attempt; he had 43 yards on 12 carries today (3.6 yards per attempt).
Five UVA defenders lead the D with six tackles (Fisher, Holmes, Neal, Minter, Landon Danley).
Next up
A well-deserved and -timed bye week awaits, we can hope to give some guys time to heal up.
It wouldn’t hurt if we could will Louisville into beating SMU next week while we’re on vacay.
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Chris Graham
