By Jerry Ratcliffe
Two passes.
Two desperate, fourth-down, game-deciding incomplete passes, both 50-50 fade routes to the right corner of the end zone by a sixth-year quarterback and a redshirt freshman.
That’s what separates Virginia from an undefeated season, a perfect 10-0 record.
Veteran Chandler Morris was picked at NC State in a 35-31 (nonconference) loss. Redshirt freshman Danny Kaelin, in for an injured Morris last Saturday night, watched his potential miracle hit the ground in a 16-9 defeat at the hands of underdog Wake Forest.
Now, Virginia (8-2, 5-1) finds itself the underdog at Duke this weekend (opened 5.5-point, now 6.5-point favorite) in a mad scramble for a place in Charlotte come December.
Here’s the picture:
Georgia Tech (5-1), UVA (5-1), Pitt (5-1), SMU (5-1), Duke (4-1). Talk about parity.
Oh, and Louisville and Miami are hanging back with two conference losses.
As Tony Elliott reminded his team and his fan base after Saturday night’s loss, all of Virginia’s goals. — to reach the ACC championship game and to win the state championship — are still alive. Most likely, the Cavaliers must win out to reach Charlotte. They face rival Virginia Tech at Scott Stadium in the regular-season finale.
In order for those goals to be met, UVA must get its offense straightened out. Des Kitchings’ offense didn’t score a touchdown, the first time a Virginia team was kept out of the end zone since 2022.
Certainly two major factors were Morris leaving the game with what was believed to be a concussion with 8:33 remaining in the second quarter, and three lost fumbles, two on sacks of Kaelin, another by running back J’Mari Taylor late in the game in Wake territory. UVA entered the game as one of only two teams in the country (Miami was the other) that had not lost a fumble this season.
Virginia’s best chance to reach paydirt came only three plays after Morris left the game. Kaelin took off around the left corner and raced 54 yards, getting knocked out of bounds at the 8-yard line when he committed the cardinal sin of looking back over his shoulder.
Remember what baseball great Satchel Paige said: Never look back because something might be gaining on you.
Virginia settled for one of its three field goals in the game.
The Cavaliers’ offense just hasn’t been right in weeks, although it looked close to normal out at California a week ago.
It wasn’t a spectacular night for Kitchings, who seems to be either really hot or not.
Special teams, which has been questionable of late, gave up the game’s only touchdown, an 88-yard punt return when UVA’s gunners simply didn’t do their job. Unforgivable.
“We played with fire and we got burned,” Elliott said after the game.
It’s no secret that a high percentage of ACC games are decided by one score, and particularly true for Virginia. Five of the last six Cavaliers contests have been decided by one score (UVA is 4-1 in those games).
Still, it’s incredibly challenging when most of the mistakes are self-inflicted.
The coaching staff must get these issues solved before going to Durham. Duke is a high-scoring offense led by redshirt sophomore quarterback Darian Mensah, who is No. 2 nationally in passing yardage (310.4 yards per game) and is in the top five in both touchdowns and passing efficiency. The Blue Devils boast three receivers with at least five TD receptions each, sparked by the ACC’s leader, Cooper Barkate (91.5 yards per game), 824 receiving yards.
Thank goodness the defense just keeps getting better and better. Coordinator John Rudzinski’s squad has played lights-out football, even in Saturday’s loss when they held Wake to 203 yards, the fewest allowed by a UVA defense since 2022, and a measly 64 yards passing (fewest by a UVA defense since 2018) and only 9 complete passes.
Rud’s defense will be tested by Mensah’s golden arm on Saturday.
If Duke is successful, Des’ offense may be forced into a shootout, and that would require more imaginative route concepts for receivers and a healthy Morris, whose status will likely be revealed at Elliott’s press conference later this morning.
