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UVa’s Phillip Sims passed for 268 yards with 2 INTs. |
For the fourth straight week, the Virginia football team fell behind by at least three scores in the second half and lost in disappointing fashion. The Cavaliers continued struggling to score and lost the turnover battle again as they got beat in all phases of the game in a 42-17 loss to Duke on Saturday. The Blue Devils have three straight victories in Durham against Hoos.
UVa has lost six of its last seven games against Football Bowl Subdivision foes. The average margin of defeat in those six losses is 24 points.
“I thought the effort was good but you have to have 11 guys with great effort,” Cavalier coach Mike London said. “The guy that has got to close down and take the dive has got to do that. If he doesn’t do that, if he misses the call, doesn’t get it, it hurts you defensively. The long passes that were thrown, our defenders are right there but they made great catches. On the other side, the balls were just out of outstretched hands. So the effort I thought was good but it just didn’t result in any points or any dynamic plays like we had last week.”
Obviously, things didn’t go as many had hoped in quarterback Phillip Sims ‘ first start at Virginia. The sophomore signal caller led UVa to two touchdown drives in the first half and helped manufacture a late field goal before intermission too, but he also tossed a first-half interception that led to a Duke touchdown. In the end, Sims finished 21-of-42 passing for 268 yards with 0 TDs and 2 INTs. He left the game in the fourth quarter after being slammed hard to the ground.
Sims did bring a downfield element to the passing attack, taking several shots on deep and intermediate throws during the game. Unfortunately, few of those attempts connected with the intended target. Once the ball sailed just beyond Perry Jones ‘ reach. Twice Darius Jennings couldn’t make a play against a crowding defender. Numerous other passes were dropped too, including one to Canaan Severin in the end zone. Dropped passes were prevalent with Michael Rocco at quarterback as well; Rocco played late in the fourth quarter after Sims’ exit. E.J. Scott led the receivers with career highs of 5 receptions and 98 yards. Jones had 4 receptions, giving him 102 for his career.
“While I haven’t seen everything, I know there are two interceptions. [Sims] threw the ball pretty well in the first quarter. The first half we were doing some catches and runs,” London said. “It just seemed like on the long balls, they were just over the fingertips or just off the hands. Last week, guys were making those long ball catches.”
“We really started to mix our press coverages and backing off pretty well, and we got [Sims] into a little bit of a mix where he had to hold the ball somewhat,” Duke defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “I’m so proud of our corners. Lee Butler was semi-hurt today but he came in in special situations. I thought Tony [Foster] and Ross [Cockrell] did an excellent job and you can’t forget about Dwayne Norman out there as a true freshman and Walt [Canty] and Jordon [Byas]. I thought our [defensive] backs really mixed coverages well and they responded to it.”
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Perry Jones now has 3,378 all-purpose yards for his career. He passed Jerrod Washington (3,274) and Cedric Peerman (3,349) for No. 10 all-time at UVa. |
The running game found some traction against Duke, generating both of the Cavalier touchdowns and 186 yards on the ground. That broke snapped a 16-quarter streak without a rushing TD that dated back to the Richmond game. Jones and Kevin Parks got the bulk of the carries, though Clifton Richardson did return to action this week as well. Jones posted 100 yards rushing to give him 1,865 career yards as he took over the No. 18 spot all-time at Virginia (surpassing Gary Helman); he added 1 touchdown. Parks, who had the other TD, and Richardson added 74 and 15 yards, respectively.
The most disappointing part of the rushing attack was a poor second half (2 yards) and another failed fourth down rushing attempt, though. In fact, it helped spark the Blue Devils’ run-away effort in the second half. With Duke leading 21-17, UVa faced a 4th-and-1 call near midfield and London elected to go for it as is generally his philosophy in those situations. The play call was a deep, slow-developing handoff. Behind an offensive line struggling with short-yardage power blocking all season long, it was a dubious selection. The Devils, like many other teams this season, stuffed the run in the backfield as Walt Canty, who had 14 tackles, made the play. The hosts then marched to a touchdown that began the blowout.
“Walt Canty is one of the better football players that I’ve ever coached. He is a football player. He has a great knack, a great understanding of the game. He does a lot for our team as a captain,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “You just see him make big plays over and over again. He kind of defies things. He’s a pretty beat-up youngster. Everybody talks about who is out, but they don’t realize how many of our guys that are playing that are hurt. I don’t know what you can do to keep Walt out, he just keeps ticking.”
The short yardage shortfall wasn’t the worse part of the day for the offense, though. No, the bigger issue continues to be point production. The Cavaliers have scored 20 points or less in four of their five games this season against FBS competition. That’s become a disturbing trend for Bill Lazor’s offense, which has ranked in the bottom 30 teams in the country throughout his tenure to date in scoring against FBS teams.
“The running game was 184 yards in the first half moving the ball, finding those spots defensively,” London said. “We had to do that because of their eight-man front, bringing those extra safeties down. Using the long passes, trying to get behind them, but we just couldn’t connect on those so the running game picked up a bit, but I was disappointed when there was [short yardage] and we couldn’t get that. Again, statistics look nice but in the end all that matters is what it says on the scoreboard.”
The defense, meanwhile, didn’t help the cause. The Hoos fell prey to more field position problems – three Duke scoring drives started in UVa territory, including the first two of the second half that helped erase a 17-14 Cav lead – and couldn’t get the needed stops. The Cavaliers failed to create any turnovers either to maybe swing momentum in their favor.
The Devils finished with 394 yards of offense. Receiver Conner Vernon became the ACC’s all-time leader in career receptions during the game. He now has 239 catches in his career after posting 7 for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns Saturday. Both of those TD passes came from Anthony Boone, who threw for 212 yards and 4 TD passes in his first career start. Duke starting quarterback Sean Renfree sat out with an elbow injury.
LaRoy Reynolds returned from injury and posted a team-high 11 tackles. Steve Greer , who is having a solid season for the Hoos, added 10 stops. With 309 career tackles, he passed Chris Slade (299), Jon Copper (301), Ray Savage (302) and Phil Thomas (306) to move into the No. 12 all-time spot at UVa.
Virginia has allowed at least 27 points in six of its last seven outings against FBS teams. Duke outscored the Hoos 28-0 in the second half Saturday, winning both quarters 14-0.
“Nothing. Nothing happened in the third quarter. They scored too many points, we didn’t get any points. It was frustrating on both sides, I’m talking about offense and defensively,” London said. “We’ve got to carry the momentum of halftime and our lead, and they moved the ball on us and ended up scoring points and we didn’t answer. We didn’t respond.”
