CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - During the halftime show, the Marine drill team performed with absolute precision. Unfortunately, neither Duke's nor Virginia's football team did the same.
Saturday's matchup was full of blunders, as the Cavaliers and the Blue Devils made one mistake after another. Virginia coach George Welsh won his 66th conference game, setting the all-time Atlantic Coast Conference for wins by a coach, but was hardly pleased with the result.
The Wahoos committed five turnovers, recovering only two of their five fumbles. Quarterback Aaron Brooks's sloppy play almost cost UVa the win, as the signal caller fumbled three of his own snaps and had three passes intercepted. One such pass, picked off by Duke nose guard Eric Scanlan and taken down to Virginia's 19-yard line, set the Blue Devils up for a second-quarter field goal by Sims Lenhardt.
"We struggled all over," Virginia offensive tackle Doug Karczewski said. "We struggled to pass, we struggled to run the ball, block it, we fumbled. Everything we could do wrong, we did wrong."
Later on in the second quarter, tight end Billy Baber fumbled a pass from Brooks. Cornerback Lamar Grant recovered the fumble for the Blue Devils.
With 8:19 remaining in the third quarter, linebacker Chike Egbuniwe intercepted another Brooks pass, sparking a 13-play, 45-yard drive that culminated in fullback Lay Marshall's two-yard run for Duke's only touchdown of the game. In effect, it was Brooks' shoddy passing that allowed the Blue Devils to even up the score.
"We're going to eliminate those mistakes we made today," Virginia coach George Welsh said. "We're going to have to eliminate them, and we're going to, or they ain't gonna play.... We shouldn't play that bad-ever."
The Cavaliers' weaknesses, though, could only take the Blue Devils so far. Duke's offense just couldn't pick up where the defense left off. Despite the fact that they faced an opponent that was playing well below its offensive potential, the Blue Devils didn't seize the opportunities handed to them. For Duke, Saturday's outing was truly a game of missed chances.
Lenhardt's field goal capped off a Duke run that started at UVa's 19-yard line. On first down, with two scant yards between their offensive line and the end zone, the Blue Devils appeared poised to leap back into contention for the win. However, it seemed they could only move back. On first down, fullback Dawud Rasheed caught a pass from backup quarterback David Green but was tackled by Wale Elegbe and Byron Thweatt before he could budge. On the second down, Thweatt sacked Green for a loss of three yards. Green's third-down pass to split end Scottie Montgomery fell incomplete, tipped out of reach by Shannon Taylor. Five yards from their intended destination, the Blue Devils had to settle for the field goal. Grant's recovery of Baber's fumble gave Duke the ball at Virginia's 34-yard line with 3:38 left in the first half. For the first time since the Wahoos' touchdown, the Blue Devils found themselves in position to catch up. But a stifling Virginia defense, led by Thweatt, Wali Rainer, Dwayne Stukes and Donny Green, thwarted their chances, pushing them back three yards. Once again, Duke failed to capitalize on Virginia's mistakes.
"[Our defense was] playing amazing," said Bobby Campbell, Duke's starting quarterback. "They just do a great job week after week. Basically, it's time for us to start playing well too, because I know it's gotta frustrate everyone like crazy, making play after play and turnover after turnover, and the offense at times just isn't producing. We get the drives at times, but after the turnovers is when we need to start going for the heart, being aggressive."
On the offensive end, Duke committed several errors of its own. The Blue Devils recorded one interception and three fumbles.Stephen Phelan's interception of Campbell's throw with 4:48 left in the first quarter led to a touchdown for UVa on only its second possession of the game. Wide receiver Germane Crowell caught Brook's first-down pass from 31 yards out and ran into the end zone to light up the scoreboard for the Cavaliers.
Fumbles by halfback Letavious Wilks and Campbell cost Duke possession to end what looked to be promising offensive drives.
But Duke's biggest fumble of all came when, after tight end Terrence Dupree caught a 32-yard lob from Campbell, Stukes stripped the ball away from him and put the ball back in Virginia's hands with just under seven minutes left in the game, at its own 43-yard line. Four minutes and 27 seconds later, place kicker John Allen Roberts sent a 29-yard bomb through the goalposts to put the game away. In the end, it was Duke's own mistakes that cost it the win.
"There's always more the defense could have done," defensive tackle Chris Combs said. "If we hadn't allowed the touchdown and the field goals, we would've won the game.... It just takes a play here and a play there. We could've won this game easily."
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