The Virginia football team picked up a 24-13 ACC win on Saturday by defeating visiting Duke at Scott Stadium. The Cavaliers led 17-2 in the early going before finally putting the pesky Blue Devils away in the fourth quarter. Let’s take a closer look at some of the game’s details.

Defense Does Better

In the season-opening loss to Wyoming, the Cavalier defense was shredded to the tune of 452 yards. That included a poor showing on third down where the Cowboys converted 10 of 20 chances. UVa improved in both areas against Duke.

The Blue Devils ended up with 229 yards and 13 points on the day despite running 69 plays – that’s just 3.3 yards per play. Duke benefited from good field position on two poor snaps from Virginia, but also helped the bottom line with three field goal misses. What about third down? The Devils converted just 5 of 19 third down opportunities (though they did pick up 3 of 5 fourth downs).

All in all, it proved to be a decent day defensively for the Cavs. There’s much room for improvement though and the players are the first to admit it.

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