Blue Devils fall short at Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – This didn’t feel like an emotional let-down or failure to bounce back from last weekend for Duke coach Mike Elko.

Saturday’s 30-27 loss at Virginia just felt like a poor performance at Scott Stadium.

“For us to become the program that we want to become, for us to get where we want to go as Duke football and become a team that’s consistently competing for this thing in November, I think understanding the challenge every single week, executing every single week, what that takes and what that looks like,” Elko said.

Saturday’s game wasn’t a total and complete failure, as Duke mounted a fourth-quarter rally all the way to needing an onside kick recovery it failed to get with 1:13 left.

But the result has become all too familiar for a Blue Devils team that started the season 5-1.

Duke (6-5, 3-4 ACC) has lost four of its last five games — the only win being the only home game in this stretch, against Wake Forest — and closes out the regular season with next weekend’s Senior Day game against Pittsburgh.

“I’m discouraged with how we played today,” Elko said. “I’m not disappointed in who we are. I thought we battled all the way to the end.”

A week after giving up a season-high 537 yards in the double overtime loss at UNC, Duke gave up 448 yards to Virginia (3-8, 2-5). That’s the most the Cavaliers have had against an FBS team this season — they had 453 against William & Mary.

Freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea completed 21 of 30 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns. He also led Virginia with 66 rushing yards and, perhaps the most-important part for a QB who had 10 giveaways in five games, didn’t commit a turnover.

“We had a few opportunities to get the ball,” Duke nickel Brandon Johnson said. “We’ve just gotta execute and capitalize on those opportunities whenever those opportunities present themselves.”

Therein lies the main takeaway for Duke on this thing.

Saturday’s loss guarantees a few things — the Blue Devils can’t match last season’s win total, can’t finish above .500 in the ACC, and won’t have a winning record in November.

It also means their only road win of the season came at Connecticut.

“They made plays, which teams are going to do,” Johnson said. “As a defense, we’ve got to gel together, we’ve got to lock in and like I said, make sure we have great weeks of practice, therefore it carries over to the game.”

Todd Pelino made a 29-yard field goal on the last play of the first half to tie the game at 10-10. It capped a 15-play drive.

That was the last good news for Duke for a while.

Virginia forced a three-and-out and scored in the first four minutes of the second half. The touchdown was a 29-yard pass from Colandrea to Malachi Fields, and came one play after Colandrea threw a 27-yard pass to Malik Washington to convert a third-and-11.

On the three-and-out, Duke was stuffed on third-and-1 — one of three times the Blue Devils failed to convert that scenario.

“You know, very disappointing,” Elko said. “That’s obviously something we’ve been really good at, it’s something we take a lot of pride in and we didn’t get it done today.”

Grayson Loftis was intercepted on Duke’s ensuing possession, and Virginia turned that into a two-touchdown lead with Colandrea’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Washington on third-and-goal.

Duke clawed back into the game and was within a touchdown, at 27-20, with 9:03 left when Jaquez Moore broke loose for a 58-yard touchdown run.

Virginia took the ensuing possession down to Duke’s 13-yard line, bleeding several minutes off the clock and forcing Elko’s hand to use all three timeouts. Will Bettridge’s 30-yard field goal with 3:43 left made it 30-20.

The last gasp was Duke’s 14-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Mehki Wall’s 2-yard touchdown catch — the first of the redshirt freshman’s career. Charlie Ham’s onside kick was recovered by Kyle.

Virginia scored first on a 34-yard catch-and-run by Washington, the Cavaliers’ All-ACC-to-be wide receiver. He ran a mid-level crossing route and stiff-armed Jaylen Stinson to free himself for the last 15 yards or so.

Duke responded with a decent drive that reached Virginia’s 25-yard line, but Jordan Waters lost a fumble.

The Blue Devils drew even at 7-7 early in the second quarter when Jalon Calhoun hauled in Loftis’ high-arching pass to the back corner of the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown.

EXTRA POINTS: The penalty disparity was stark: Duke had one 10-yard penalty, while Virginia was penalized 12 times for 117 yards. … This is the second time under Elko (24 games) that Duke has lost the turnover margin by two; the other was this season’s loss to Notre Dame. That’s also the only other game this season in which Duke failed to create a turnover. … Wall had five catches for 36 yards, all in the fourth quarter. Moore had nine catches for 117 yards to lead Duke’s receiving corps.