Jaylynn Nash-USA TODAY Sports
Helpless Hoos: Duke Routs Virginia 38-17
UVA's seven-game winning streak over Duke came to an emphatic and abrupt end on Saturday night.
The Blue Devils capitalized on several UVA mistakes early on and raced out to a 21-0 lead. UVA's offense struggled again and even the reliable defense looked out of sorts at times and Duke took full advantage, cruising to a 38-17 win over Virginia on Saturday night in Durham.
Sluggish starts have been the common trend in UVA's losses this season and Saturday was no exception as the Cavaliers fielded perhaps their worst first quarter performance of the season.
A pair of personal fouls from the UVA defense helped Duke score its a first touchdown, a 19-yard strike from Riley Leonard to Jalon Calhoun, who freed himself on a double move for the score.
As it has so many times this season, the Virginia offense then sputtered and then Daniel Sparks had his punt blocked. Duke moved the ball down the field with ease - thanks to an effective rushing attack and another personal foul by the Virginia defense - and Riley Leonard took it in himself on a two-yard touchdown run.
Demick Starling returned the ensuing kickoff out to midfield, but lost control of the ball as he hurdled the Duke kicker and his fumble was recovered by the Blue Devils. The Duke offense cashed in on the takeaway with another scoring drive capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run by Jordan Waters.
Virginia's offense continued to struggle to put anything together until its final possession of the first half, an 11-play, 83-yard drive, punctuated by an 11-yard touchdown pass from Brennan Armstrong to Perris Jones, who dove into the pylon to score UVA's first points of the game.
Even with that long drive, UVA was outgained 206 to 137 in the first half by Duke, who took a 21-7 lead into the halftime intermission.
Any momentum the Cavaliers had from the end of the first half dissipated quickly to start the second as UVA went three-and-out and then gave up a six-play, 72-yard touchdown drive, finished by another rushing score for Riley Leonard. Another UVA defensive penalty helped the Blue Devils into the end zone as well.
Virginia put a nice long drive together towards the end of the third quarter, but the Hoos were unable to execute in the red zone. UVA ran six plays from inside the Duke 15-yard line, but couldn't get the ball across the goal line and had to settle for a 34-yard field goal from freshman Will Bettridge, the first of his career.
Hope for a comeback still remained as the Cavaliers trailed by just 18 points, but then Jaquez Moore burst free for a 59-yard touchdown run on his first carry of the game to put the Blue Devils back up 35-10 heading to the fourth quarter.
The Virginia offense finally responded, as Armstrong found Lavel Davis Jr. for a 34-yard completion, followed by another first-down pass to Dontayvion Wicks to get inside the Duke 10-yard line. That set up a five-yard touchdown run by Brennan Armstrong a few plays later, made possible by a nice block on the edge by Keytaon Thompson.
That would be the last flurry of life shown by the Cavaliers, however, as Duke delivered the killing blow with a 10-play, 53-yard drive that took seven and a half minutes off the clock. Charlie Ham knocked through a 34-yard field goal to make it 38-17 with three minutes remaining.
To put the cherry on top, Brennan Armstrong threw an interception on the final drive of the game, a fitting end to a disaster of a road trip for the Cavaliers.
It was a forgettable evening all around for the Cavaliers, who were penalized six times for 87 yards, had a punt blocked, and fumbled on a kickoff return. The Hoos surrendered only 129 passing yards, but instead let the Blue Devils gash them for 242 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, UVA managed just 93 rushing yards on 25 attempts.
Dropping below .500 for the first time since 2020, Virginia (2-3, 0-2 ACC) will search again for its first conference win of the season back at home against Louisville next Saturday at 12pm at Scott Stadium.
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