“The ‘Havoc Hoos’ were out again in this spooky season of October.”
University of Virginia football safety Joey Blount coined this following UVA’s matchup with the Coastal Division rival Duke Blue Devils. The junior’s catchy phrase – with a wide grin, he admitted he had thought about it beforehand – amused the media. For Duke, however, Saturday’s contest in Charlottesville was anything but amusing, and playing against Virginia in the Bronco Mendenhall era has yielded downright frightening results.
Returning home for the first time since a win over Old Dominion on September 21, Virginia delivered an unexpected 48-14 blowout of a Duke program that had won four of its last five, including a blowout victory over Virginia Tech on its previous road contest. Playing without All-American cornerback Bryce Hall, who is out for the season after suffering an ankle injury in the 17-9 loss at Miami last week, the Cavalier defense forced five Duke turnovers and held a previously high-octane Blue Devil offense to 250 yards of offense and two touchdowns – the second coming with 4:17 remaining in the 4th quarter with many of Virginia’s starters on the bench.
“I didn’t anticipate the game going as it did, because rarely do they turn the ball over, rarely does pressure affect them the way that it did, and uncharacteristically the number of turnovers and the field position and just the way the game went in general wasn’t how Duke had played football to this point,” Mendenhall said. “I credit our defensive staff, especially for the number of turnovers. The five turnovers certainly mattered. Fourth down stops is also taking possessions. The kickoff return by Joe [Reed]. Simply the field position and the number of opportunities we had was too great for our opponent to overcome, and those were all executed well by us and so I don’t think it was luck and I don’t think it was random, but to have that many in the same game I don’t think anyone expected that.”
UVA boasts a five-game winning streak in the series with Duke, including a 4-0 mark in the Mendenhall era. The Blue Devils have committed 15 turnovers over the course of their last four games against Virginia – six in 2016, two in 2017, two in 2018 and five on Saturday.
A much-maligned Virginia offense took some time to get going but ultimately was able to take advantage of another outstanding effort by the Cavalier defense. Quarterback Bryce Perkins started shaky in the passing department, completing four of his first nine throws and tossing an interception in the Duke end zone on the Cavaliers’ opening drive of the game.
The senior signal caller rebounded early in the second quarter, though, completing four straight passes – two to senior receiver Hasise Dubois for 36 yards, one to senior tight end Tanner Cowley for 19 yards and one to senior receiver Joe Reed for 12 yards – to set up the Cavaliers with a first-and-goal at the Duke 5. Perkins’ 1-yard touchdown run on third-and-goal snapped the Hoos’ streak of seven quarters without a touchdown and gave the home team a 7-0 lead in an important divisional matchup.
Virginia closed out the first half in impressive fashion. Junior safety Brenton Nelson recorded his first interception of the season to set up a Brian Delaney 30-yard field goal that gave UVA a 10-0 lead. The Cavalier defense, which allowed just three first downs in the entire first half, then forced a turnover-on-downs. Duke’s fourth-and-1 gamble from its own 34 backfired as defensive lineman Eli Hanback and outside linebacker Noah Taylor stopped quarterback Quentin Harris short of the line to gain. Perkins notched his second rushing score of the game eight plays later to give Virginia a 17-0 advantage.
After surrendering two first downs on Duke’s ensuing drive, the Cavalier defense came through with another big play when Taylor tackled Blue Devils receiver Mateo Durant for 2-yard loss. Taylor forced a fumble and defensive lineman Mandy Alonso recovered, ending the visiting team’s hopes of scoring before halftime.
Duke’s turnover problems on the opening play of the second half, when Harris and running back Deon Jackson mishandled the handoff and linebacker Charles Snowden pounced for the recovery. Virginia capitalized with another Delaney field goal, this time from 33 yards out, to go up 20-0. A quick 3-and-out by the Duke offense gave Virginia the ball back less than two minutes later. Perkins and company marched 67 yards on seven plays before Wayne Taulapapa scored on a 3-yard touchdown run, and suddenly the Virginia held a 27-0 lead in front of an approving Scott Stadium of close to 53,000.
Duke finally got on the scoreboard when Harris found receiver Scott Bracey on a 36-yard touchdown pass to cut Virginia’s lead to 27-7, but even that success was short-lived as Joe Reed returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. It was Reed’s fifth kickoff return touchdown of his standout career, a feat that is tops in Virginia football history and third in ACC history. Reed is the only player in Football Bowl Subdivision history to have over 2,700 kick return yards with a career kick return average of over 28 yards.
Duke turned the ball over two more times – a Harris fumble on a Jordan Mack sack and a Harris interception – to finish out the third quarter. Meanwhile, UVA converted those turnovers into touchdowns – a Perkins 3-yard touchdown run and a Taulapapa 9-yard run – to deliver the knockout blow. Harris exited after three quarters having completed 13-of-26 passes for 88 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He also had the one fumble lost. Harris, Duke’s leading rusher prior to tonight, finished with 37 yards on the ground on eight attempts. The Blue Devils finished with 132 yards rushing on 41 attempts, an average of 3.2 yards per carry.
Emphasizing the run early paid off for Virginia, which finished with 154 yards on the ground in 41 attempts. Perkins led the way in terms of carries with 22 attempts, netting 62 yards, while Taulapapa gained 77 yards on 14 rushes. The rushing numbers may not be eyepopping, but it’s a step in the right direction for a team that was averaging 102 yards rushing per game and averaging 3.2 yards per carry coming in. Perkins added 141 yards passing while completing 13-of-26 passes with the one interception. He was sacked twice, an improvement after Notre Dame (8) and Miami (5) accumulated 13 sacks of the Cavaliers’ signal caller.
“Really happy with some of the progress I saw with our offensive front and the protection of our quarterback and improvement in the run game,” said Mendenhall, who mainly played an offensive line of Dillon Reinkensmeyer at left tackle, Ryan Nelson at left guard, Olusegun Oluwatimi at center, Chris Glaser at right guard and Bobby Haskins at right tackle. Tackle Ryan Swoboda was out with an injury. “I thought both of those things were improved. I thought our blue zone scoring was also improved. Things that we had worked so hard on from a week ago I saw improvement and progress, which is really fun to see players improve and progress when they work so hard on something.”
Hasise Dubois led all receivers with 62 yards, a solid outing especially when you consider he was questionable with a shoulder injury. He had four receptions, including a highlight-reel 13-yard reception on third-and-4 on UVA’s first scoring drive. Dubois now has 36 catches for 489 yards on the season. Reed led all receivers with five catches and amassed 45 yards receiving.
A defense that has not surrendered 400 yards or more of offense to any team this season set the tone for Virginia once again, in part because of the play of those replacing the aforementioned Bryce Hall. De’Vante Cross replaced Hall at cornerback, in turn leading to a bigger role for safety Chris Moore. Both players responded with quality efforts. Moore wound up leading the team with 12 tackles while Cross had two pass breakups.
“They both did really well against a team that was scoring 40 points a game, so this wasn’t against a team that wasn’t brilliant and capable on the offensive side – they’ve shown that they are,” Mendenhall said of Cross and Moore. “That context, I hope, doesn’t get lost because that makes it more impactful of how our defense played with Chris Moore and De’Vante Cross having to do really well, otherwise we don’t have a chance to play like that.”
Blount had 10 tackles and an interception. Linebacker Zane Zandier had eight tackles and three pass breakups, while fellow linebackers Mack, Taylor, Snowden and Matt Gahm combined for 4.5 tackles for loss and a sack. Gahm, a junior out of the Dallas (TX) area, had two of the tackles for loss.
Saturday’s victory puts Virginia (5-2) within one win of bowl eligibility. It also moves the Hoos to the top spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division. Virginia’s 3-1 ACC mark leads the Coastal over 2-1 Pittsburgh, the team the Cavaliers defeated in the season opener. Duke, Virginia Tech and North Carolina are 2-2 in conference play, while Miami and Georgia Tech are each 1-3. The Hoos hit the road each of the next two Saturdays, starting with Louisville next weekend.
“The urgency is what I liked,” Mendenhall said of how his team bounced back from a disappointing loss at Miami. “We felt like we let a game slip away from us a week ago, and man that hurts. And we have a lot of goals that we’re after, not only this season but for the future of the program. Our team expects to win and they’re not surprised when they do. They’re actually mad when they don’t now, and that’s a completely different place than where this program was.”
– Highlights, Courtesy of Virginia Sports TV
