CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--Duke's 35-0 thrashing at Virginia Saturday was a pitiful excuse for a football game.
The Blue Devils' performance on the field was deplorable in almost every respect. A sideline fight in the fourth quarter made things even worse -- if that was possible.
"I'm disgusted with the way we played," head coach Barry Wilson said. "I wish, I thought that we could account for ourselves better and we just couldn't get it done."
The Duke offense was nowhere to be found Saturday. A capable cast of familiar faces took the field -- players who had tallied nearly 500 yards of total offense and at least 38 points in each of the last two games. But quarterback Spence Fischer and company managed just 221 net yards on this day.
Duke mounted only two serious scoring drives -- early in the first quarter, ending with an interception at the Virginia 30, and late in the fourth when the outcome had long since been decided.
The lowlights included five interceptions and a fourth-quarter drive that featured a third-and-57 situation.
"We had spurts of some good things offensively but certainly not consistently enough," Wilson said. "[There were] too many cases where we just broke down somewhere, just some bonehead plays that you can't do against somebody of [Virginia's] caliber."
The Duke defense lived up to its billing as the team's weakest facet. The Virginia offensive line, anchored on the left by a couple of 300-pound All-Atlantic Coast Conference tackles, created gaping holes for the Cavalier tailbacks. But the Blue Devils could not tackle the orange shirts they had in their grasp.
Linebacker Brad Sherrod's career-high 16 tackles was the highlight of the afternoon for Duke. But most of his stops came in the secondary, after Virginia had gained over five yards.
"I think [Duke is] more physical on defense this year, I really do," UVa head coach George Welsh said. "We used to just knock 'em back and run over them for seven or 10 yards.
"We had to do some other things today, some finesse things. It wasn't a domination up front, as much as it had been."
It is not clear which game Welsh was watching. Virginia's band of superior athletes ran over and through Duke defenders for most of the afternoon. The Cavaliers averaged 6.5 yards per rush in the first half, breaking several runs for big gains.
It is of little consequence that the Duke defense played better in the second half. For all intents and purposes, the game was over when Virginia took a 28-0 lead into the locker room at the break.
The Blue Devils' embarrassment was complete and thorough. UVa's afternoon of finger-pointing added insult to Duke's injury.
When Cavalier quarterback Symmion Willis knocked Sean Thomas out of bounds following an interception, he then taunted Thomas as Thomas lay on his back on the Virginia sideline.
The Blue Devil bench charged across the field to defend its defensive back, and it took 10 minutes to separate the teams and sort out the mess.
The Duke players were right to help their teammate, but the move only brought the crowd into the game.
Two plays later, the Blue Devils were facing a third-and-57. It was, without a doubt, the low point of Wilson's tenure at Duke.
Not much remains, other than seven games. The prospects are not good for winning any of those contests, except for maybe Wake Forest and perhaps Maryland. Duke's trip to Tennessee next weekend feels like a hurricane in the Atlantic that is about to hit shore.
The Blue Devils are a team of quality individuals and superb student-athletes, but they simply were not ready to play football against Virginia. They didn't even belong on the same field.
"We're better than what we played today -- I promise you that," Sherrod said. "The blame comes back to the players. If you want to make a tackle, you're going to make a tackle. If you want to block, you're going to block. If you want to catch the ball, you're going to catch the ball. That's all it comes down to."
Duke football is not about winning national championships, dominating a schedule and sending illiterate athletes to the National Football League.
It is about providing an education and a great experience for 80 young men. It is about offering alumni and fans five or six Saturdays of family entertainment. And it is about putting a team on the field that can compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Everyone -- from administrators like Athletic Director Tom Butters to coaches, players and fans -- expects these things. Right now, the Blue Devils are falling short of that third goal.
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