Five Things We Learned After Virginia’s 28-14 Win Over Duke Saturday

Five things we learned from Virginia’s 28-14 win over Duke at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham on Saturday:

1. Dominating, not Dominated: In Virginia’s two losses this season, on the road at N.C. State and Indiana, the Cavaliers were soundly beaten on both sides of the line of scrimmage. That wasn’t the case at Duke.

UVa’s defense suffocated the Blue Devils offense for the most part, smothering Duke’s running game and continued to own QB Daniel Jones.

Duke managed but 58 yards rushing and averaged only 2.1 yards per carry on 27 attempts. Jones, know more for his passing skills than as a runner, was the Devils’ leading rusher with 37 net yards (he was sacked for 27 yards in losses). Duke’s main running back Deon Jackson was stopped dead in his tracks most of the day by an aggressive UVa front seven. Jackson had only 17 net yards in 11 attempts (1.5 ypc).

Virginia’s front seven put pressure on Jones as well, sacking him four times, two hurries, part of the eight tackles for loss, and two interceptions. UVa was credited with six passes broken up as well. Jones is probably glad he won’t see Virginia again. Not only has the Cavaliers beaten Duke four times in a row, but they now own nine of Jones’ 22 career interceptions.

Duke senior center/guard Zach Harmon said that it’s always a physical game against Virginia and more the same Saturday, “very physical,” he said.

While Duke was expecting more of a three-down UVa front, the Cavaliers featured more of a four-down look.

“They got really exotic with some of their stunts and some of their blitzes,” Harmon said.

Meanwhile, UVa’s offensive line, which couldn’t block Indiana or N.C. State, has been outstanding the past two weeks against Miami, one of the nation’s top defenses statistically, and Duke, whose defense was rated in the top half of nearly every ACC statistic coming into the game.

QB Bryce Perkins was only sacked twice and Virginia piled up 178 rushing yards against what has been described as Cutcliffe’s best and fastest defense in his time at Duke.

While UVa’s prime running back, Jordan Ellis, was sidelined with an apparent left ankle injury and did not return the second half, the Cavaliers filled in nicely with running back by committee with P.K. Kier, Lamont Atkins and Chris Sharp.

2.  UVa’s Secondary is Nasty: The Cavaliers have now picked off 10 enemy passes this season. Juan Thornhill, Bryce Hall, Joey Blount, Brenton Nelson, Tim Harris, and Darrius Bratton have become a force. They terrorized Duke’s Daniel Jones on Saturday, four sacks, two picks and six PBUs.

Hall is No. 2 in the nation in passes defended and Thornhill is No. 2 in the country in interceptions.

Jones barely completed 50 percent of his passes, 22 of 40.

While Blount went to the sideline with an unspecified injury, De’Vante Cross, who switched from wide receiver to backup free safety during the bye week, was solid as a replacement.

3. Special Teams are Becoming Special: Remember all the bungles the past couple of years and the inability to have a reliable kicker? All those weak links appear to be trending toward strengths under new special teams coach Ricky Brumfield, hired in the offseason.

Virginia had 99 yards in punt returns Saturday, including 72 by true freshman Tavares Kelly, highlighted by a 43-yarder. Chuck Davis had a 27 yard return.

Joe Reed got things started with a 37-yard kickoff return to open the game, putting the Cavaliers in great field position and leading to a quick 7-0 lead.

New place-kicker Brian Delaney continued to shine, going 2-for-4, making him 5-for-7 during UVa’s back-to-back ACC wins. Delaney was good from 37 and 42 in the third quarter. He missed a 33-yarder early in the second quarter, but nobody’s perfect. His 51-yard attempt to close the first half was a shot in the dark.

Lester Coleman, as always, was solid as UVa’s punter, booting four for a 44.4 average, one inside the 20, one touchback, and a long of 50.

Delaney, by the way, also booted five of his six kickoffs into Duke’s end zone for touchdbacks.

4. The Nation is Starting to Notice: Virginia is gaining the attention of the nation’s poll voters. The Cavaliers would rank No. 31 nationally in the writer’s AP Poll with 25 points, not far behind No. 22 N.C. State and No. 33 Miami (Really???).

Virginia would rank No. 33 in the Coaches Poll (N.C. State is 22, Miami 25).

Oh, and Wahoo fans will love this. Virginia Tech received no votes in the AP poll, and would rank No. 43 in the Coaches Poll, behind Duke, and just ahead of Syracuse.

5. Bryce Perkins is so Good That We Almost Take Him For Granted: Is Perkins perfect? No. Certainly he has flaws, makes mistakes. Consider though that Saturday was his seventh game as an FBS player. He’s only going to get better as he learns.

He kept Duke off balance all day, completing 20 of 32 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown (big one to TE Evan Butts at the end to ice the game). He was only sacked twice and had a couple of intelligent throw aways. No interceptions.

Perkins also rushed 15 times for 72 yards (the 11 yards in sacks gave him a net 61 yards rushing). He averaged 4.1 yards per rush and scored two touchdowns rushing, one a 23-yarder. He puts so much pressure on a defense.

Not only that but Perkins led Virginia to three scores in four red zone trips against a Duke defense that ranked No. 3 in the nation in red zone defense coming into the game.

“He’s impressive and he’s not so high and not so low,” UVa coach Bronco Mendenhall said after the game about his quarterback. “For someone that’s dynamic, sometimes the personality that comes with that is dynamic, and with that comes really high and really low swings.

“[Perkins] is a dynamic player with a very consistent mindset. That’s a unique quality.

“He’s poised and that builds confidence in our offense. When they see him just scrambling and running and creating, he just treats it like normal. There isn’t any like ‘block your guys,’ or ‘we’ve got to do better.’ It’s just like that’s our offense. He just takes that in stride, which is a really cool way without saying anything to build up his teammates,” Mendenhall said.