Cavs take their spot at bottom of league

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: September 27, 2008

DURHAM, N.C.

Virginia’s football season threatened to burst at the seams on Saturday when the Cavaliers committed the ACC’s version of the unforgivable sin. They lost to Duke.

With a roster depleted by a series of off-season academic and legal issues and without two of the top offensive stars that Virginia started the season with (quarterback Pete Lalich and tailback Cedric Peerman), the Cavaliers turned in another woeful performance at ancient Wallace Wade Stadium.

Duke snapped a 25-game ACC losing streak with a

31-3 victory over the Cavaliers, the first time Al Groh’s Wahoos had lost to the Blue Devils in eight seasons. One more loss by Duke would have broken the conference record in futility, but a breakdown of UVa’s already-impotent offense helped save the day for the hosts.

No surprise for hosts

Oddly, when the dust had cleared, there wasn’t a rowdy celebration. Not a single fan of the 25,527 turnout jumped the wall. There wasn’t storming of the field. The goalposts couldn’t have felt endangered.

Maybe it had been so long that Duke had forgotten how to celebrate the end of its frustration. Maybe it was because the Blue Devil fans realized that Virginia is a bad football team.

The most raucous postgame moment came when the public address announcer proclaimed “The Duke ACC winning streak has started.”

Who’s to argue? The Devils are 3-1. Virginia is

1-3 and reeling.

Before the season, Groh had believed that if his team could win two of three games in a stretch against Richmond, Connecticut and Duke, then it would have a three-game home stand to fall back on (Maryland, North Carolina and East Carolina). Right now, having lost two of those three games, the prospect of beating any of the upcoming home opponents appears bleak if the team continues to execute so poorly.

It’s not like Virginia didn’t have its chances. The Cavaliers finished the game with seven possessions inside the Duke 40-yard line and emerged with a mere three points.

Turnover troubles

Blunders, particularly early, prevented UVa from being more competitive. Virginia ran off 26 plays in the first quarter compared to 12 for Duke (including two punts and an interception). Groh’s offense squandered scoring opportunities like a gambler in Las Vegas.

The Cavaliers, ranked No. 118 (out of 119 FBS teams) nationally in total offense coming into the game and No. 116 in scoring offense, opened the game by driving for a first down at Duke’s 32 ... but ended up punting.

On their next possession, they moved to Duke’s 15 from where they avoided the shutout with a field goal. On their third possession, the Cavs had a fourth-and-one at the Duke 20 ... and were stuffed.

Running back Mikell Simpson, who dazzled us with his speed and brilliance a year ago, has chugged like a slow train behind an inept offensive line. He was stopped inches short, leaving in question why Virginia didn’t use one of its bigger backs, Rashawn Jackson or Keith Payne, to pick up the short yardage. On their first seven carries of the game, both of the wide-bodied backs gained positive yardage.

Virginia was stuffed and the game began to turn as Duke discovered its long lost mojo.

“If you don’t take control of the game, the game eventually gets away from you,” Groh said afterward. “We had the opportunity there to take control of the game. I’m not saying lasting control, but we had a chance to have 10 or 17 points at that time ... a time when we were getting a lot done that we wanted to get on defense. We might have been able to play an entirely different game.”

Duke’s confidence grew with every Virginia misstep and by halftime, the Dookies had knotted the score at 3-all.

Four second-half interceptions thrown by UVa quarterback Marc Verica provided the Blue Devils with all they needed to turn the game into a lopsided affair. Three of those led to Duke scores as the Cavalier defense couldn’t withstand the relentless pressure, especially during a critical span when linebacker Clint Sintim (three sacks) and cornerback Ras-I Dowling (two interceptions) left the game with cramps. In their absence, Duke increased its lead from 10-3 to 24-3.

Ballgame.

Even Blue Devils coach David Cutcliffe couldn’t believe the bonanza that benefited his team’s quest to end the unspeakable streak. You won’t find any mention of the streak in any of Duke’s media notes package or media guide.

“...The turnovers, good gracious — the game just blew up for us,” said a thankful Cutcliffe, who has breathed life into a stagnant program.

Cutcliffe turned the opportunity into a milestone rather than a millstone as Duke’s 28-point win was the largest margin of victory overall since a 44-10 win at Northwestern just over a decade ago, and its largest in an ACC game since 1990.

Duke had not beaten a Virginia team like this since 1982 when then-Blue Devils offensive coordinator Steve Spurrier & company walloped the Cavaliers 51-17, which created one of the league’s best rivalries for years to come. That win also came at Wallace Wade Stadium, and Welsh never forgot it.

Groh, whose teams had won seven in a row over the Devils, won’t soon forget this one, either.

“Every team, every person in life faces adversities and challenges,” Groh said. “The first way to start overcoming those things is with positive energy. We’re going to point out things we need to do better. We’re going to see what we’re doing positively. This bus is going in a forward direction and we’re going to have those guys on the bus of that mentality.”

The Cavaliers did see some silver lining in that they got solid play from 12 freshmen as Groh

continues to patchwork this team together. After having built the entire offense around Lalich’s arm and Peerman’s legs, things just aren’t the same without them.

Lalich was booted from the program for a series of off-the-field misconduct and Peerman has been hobbled by a leg injury.

All this is bound to make it open season on Virginia football and rightly or wrongly, Groh will receive the brunt of the criticism.

“I think our only option right now is to fight through it,” said Sintim. “We’ve never been a team that has laid down and continued to get beat. We’ll try to come out next week with a win. Right now we’re not a very good team.”

Right now, there’s no signs of this team becoming one unless something dramatically changes.

It’s gut check time in Charlottesville.