Cavaliers come off Miami high, control Duke for road win

Virginia 28, Duke 14

Coming off a big home win over a ranked Miami team, it would've been easy to have a letdown Saturday. As sports fans, we've all seen it through the years. They happen to UVa and all other teams on all levels in all sports.

But the Cavaliers refocused for a road game at Duke and controlled the affair from just about start to finish to improve to 5-2 and 3-1 in the ACC, a half-game behind Coastal Division leader Virginia Tech and one win away from becoming bowl eligible for the first time in back-to-back seasons since 2004-05. It was rainy, and the atmosphere for a Duke football game is always the opposite of a Duke game at Cameron Indoor Stadium -- sleepy. And the 12:30 p.m. kickoff just exaggerated that feeling. But the coaches and players came out hyped up and didn't need a wake-up call. Their first play of the game was a trick play, an Olamide Zaccheaus pass to Bryce Perkins for a modest nine-yard gain, showing they were there and ready to play aggressively. The Wahoos had a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.

I have plenty more I want to discuss, so let's get to it: 

Perkins continues to do amazing things. The junior college transfer had not had a very good past couple games against N.C. State and Miami, but he responded at Duke with his best outing since facing Louisville. Perkins finished 20 of 32 for 189 yards, a really important and incredible TD I'll get to in a minute, and zero picks a week after throwing three, to go along with 61 rushing yards and two scores. I love his competitive spirit and demeanor. Late in the third quarter, he was taken down for a short loss, and a Duke player came up to him and sort of kicked at the ball or Perkins' (possibly

still injured) finger/hand. It was a subtle action by the Blue Devil but was visible when I rewatched

Bryce Perkins reaches for the goal line on his second rushing TD.

the game. Perkins doesn't get mad and up in his face, which would've possibly drawn a penalty. Instead, he gets up and starts clapping, and it looks like he is saying something like, "OK, OK, it's gonna be like that? Watch this." He uses the moment as fuel. Great to see. Other than that, Perkins' demeanor reminds me of -- dare I say it --  someone like Malcolm Brogdon. Perkins' expression on the field rarely changes. He never looks flustered. He never looks overly celebratory. Before each play, he looks like a machine just calmly looking at the defense, his eyes taking in and processing the information. Tony Bennett would be proud. Perkins never appears to get too up and never appears to get too down.

OK, now on to those improvisational throws. Let's start with the back-breaker. Late in the fourth quarter, Virginia held on to a 20-14 lead, driving for a game-sealing score. First, I have to mention that on third-and-5 at the Duke 23, Perkins found Zaccheaus on a slant for a first down. Clutch play. An incompletion would've resulted in a long field goal try. And then on first-and-10 at the 16, Perkins faced an incoming Duke rusher who had a clear, unblocked path to sack him, with a good chance to probably make Perkins fumble and give Duke a shot to drive down for a game-winning touchdown. Perkins saw/sensed him, dodged him, rolled to his left and then calmly found an open Evan Butts in the end zone. Butts made a great jumping grab, by the way. I'm not a quarterbacks coach, so I don't really know how to explain it. But the ability Perkins showed on that play to have the awareness to see or sense the defender and then take off but keep his eyes downfield for a scoring opportunity, seems almost innate. Some players have it, some don't. I'm not sure if it can be coached. I guess it can be improved, but some QBs will probably always be better at it than others. The escape-and-score was Tony Romo-esque. Perkins said after the game that in watching film, he noticed receivers were open when he scrambled, so he made sure to continue to look to pass. Earlier in the game, Perkins had another nice play like that. On third-and-4 near midfield on Virginia's first drive of the second half, Perkins rolled out to his right, away from the pass rush, pointing out defenders for his teammates to block, and eventually found Jamari Peacock in an open area for an 18-yard gain. Again, fantastic awareness and smarts from Perkins, and also a great job by Peacock in helping his quarterback by making himself a target. That was a big drive, because Duke had just made it 14-7, and Virginia at least responded with a field goal.

Speaking of responding, the defense did an awesome job of responding to Duke's TD drives and kept it from building momentum. After the Blue Devils' first touchdown, their next two drives resulted in one first down and then a Bryce Hall interception, respectively. And after the Blue Devils' second TD, the Virginia offense punted the ball right back, and Duke had possession down 20-14 with more than eight minutes to go in the game. What does Virginia do? After giving up an 11-yard pass play, the Cavaliers sacked Daniel Jones twice and threw him for a loss on a designed run once.  Like I mentioned last week, I'm really enjoying the collective nature of this defense, and after Chris Peace's second sack of the game, the last sack was a group effort. In the play by play, it is credited to Charles Snowden -- who arrived first -- and Chris Peace (and thus why Peace is credited with 2.5 sacks in the game), but Elliott Brown, Matt Gahm, and Zane Zandier all end up in the backfield on the ground next to Jones. Overall, the Cavaliers sacked Jones four times.

Jones again looked average against Virginia. He threw two more picks, one to Hall I mentioned, and one to Juan Thornhill, his third in two weeks. Jones finished 22 of 40 for 240 yards, and I think he only went over 200 yards on the final garbage time drive. I think it might be time to consider this pair elite. Thornhill is tied for second in the country with four interceptions, and Hall is tied for second with 16 passes defended. Thornhill led the team with eight tackles against Duke. Hall finished with five tackles, three breakups, and the pick, which was a beauty. He ran down the sideline with his

Juan Thornhill tackles Duke QB Daniel Jones. He also picked him off once,
adding to Jones' misery when facing the Wahoos.

receiver, never losing contact and yet never really interfering, pinned him to the sideline, and then turned his head and leaped for the interception. And some of his breakups look effortless. He has some speed and a long 6-1 frame that makes it look like he glides in between passes and receivers. Hall is someone that shows how badly recruiters can miss on certain players. He was a consensus two-star recruit. How does that happen? On Thornhill's pick, these two had the Duke receiver bracketed in the end zone. But Jones threw it deep anyway. Not sure why. Jones now has nine picks in three games against UVa. 

Oh, hello there, OZ. After only tallying three catches for 15 yards against Miami, and having some other quiet games this season, Zaccheaus was active at Duke, catching 10 passes for 66 yards and carrying the ball three times for six yards. And he had the aforementioned big catch on third down right before Virginia's final TD.

Kudos to Brian Delaney. The Virginia kicker, who became the new starter vs. Miami, missed his first two kicks at Duke, and UVa fans must have been thinking, "Here we go again," in regards to the kicking game. But he stepped up, probably cleared his head, and refocused, making two big kicks in the second half from 37 and 42 yards. Did I notice that on both he missed, he was on the right hash mark, and on the ones he made, he was on the left? Maybe that makes a difference for him. Off the top of my head, I can't recall where the team was lined up for his makes against Miami.

I thought the offensive line did a nice job. It hasn't gotten much credit from me this season, but it's performed pretty well overall. The big boys have had some rough games, but the Duke game was a good bounce-back. The team ran for 178 yards, and Perkins was sacked just twice after going down four times against Miami. But the past two games, against tough defenses, the line held its own and created some running room for Jordan Ellis and Perkins.

Speaking of Ellis, he hurt his ankle in the game. But Monday, Mendenhall said he could play this coming Saturday vs. North Carolina. If not, PK Kier looks to get the most carries. Against Duke after Ellis went out, Kier had 12 carries for 36 yards.

And, this probably shouldn't be last, because they were so important to field position, but how about those punt returns? Virginia added a twist and put Tavares Kelly and Chuck Davis back to return, and it threw Duke's coverage for a loop. At least on a couple of occasions, the Blue Devils didn't know who the ball was going to. The result was one return for Davis of 27 yards, and two for Kelly for 72 yards. His last one went for 43 yards and set up Virginia's final drive. Ricky Brumfield is in his first season as special teams coordinator and was hired in the offseason. When the NCAA ruled that teams could have 10 coaches on the sideline on game day, Mendenhall decided to make that new coach a special teams coach, so he hired Brumfield, who has a great track record. Mendenhall said that choice has had a domino effect. Before, one of his defensive coaches also coached special teams. But now that special teams is taken care of, the defensive coaches can spend all their time on defense. Mendenhall, who has been hands on with the defense in prior years, has taken a step back this season for that reason and has had more oversight on all phases of the game. I think it has helped overall. I wonder if he is in offensive coordinator Robert Anae's ear more to advise on play-calling.

Virginia continues to make headlines. The 'Hoos are receiving votes in the latest AP poll, enough that they'd be 31st if the poll listed that many teams. There's talk of not only bowl eligibility now, but also, the players continue to discuss beating Virginia Tech openly, and Thornhill even said after the Miami game that they have a shot at the ACC title. That's bold, but the players are walking the walk right now. They'll need to refocus, put that stuff out of their heads and take on North Carolina this Saturday, but this team has shown the ability to do just that: Remain steady and tackle the task at hand.