For first time under coach David Cutcliffe, Duke starts 0-3 after loss at Virginia

For three quarters, Duke football’s new secondary held firm. But in the fourth, it faltered.

A receiver like Virginia’s 6-foot-7 freshman Lavel Davis Jr. can do that to a defense.

In his first career game, Davis caught four passes for 101 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns as the Cavaliers beat the Blue Devils, 38-20, in a back-and-forth game Saturday. Duke (0-3) was down its top two cornerbacks in Mark Gilbert and Josh Blackwell, both of whom are out indefinitely.

The Blue Devils “had our moments,” coach David Cutcliffe said, when they held leads of 10-0 in the first quarter and 20-17 in the third quarter against Virginia (1-0), which was playing its first game of 2020.

But another week of backbreaking turnovers — seven, two more than last week against Boston College —forced Duke’s defense into tough situation after tough situation and neutralized an offense that showed flashes at times. Eventually, Davis and Virginia quarterback Brennan Armstrong made them pay.

“12 turnovers in two games gives you no chance to win,” Cutcliffe said.

Duke quarterback Chase Brice threw for 246 yards on just 16 completions but had four interceptions, including a crucial one in the fourth quarter with Duke trailing 24-20. By the end of the game, he’d been benched for backup Chris Katrenick, who coughed up a fumble of his own.

Cutcliffe, in his postgame interview, said he’ll need to review the game film before deciding if he should re-open Duke’s quarterback competition among Brice, Katrenick and Gunnar Holmberg.

Virginia’s Armstrong, meanwhile, led a 10-play, 94-yard go-ahead drive to start the fourth quarter and finished with 316 total yards and three touchdowns in his first start. He was the standout on a balanced Cavaliers offense that outscored Duke 38-0 in the second and fourth quarters.

“We just have to respond better,” defensive end Chris Rumph II said.

And although it allowed some big plays — four Duke receivers had a catch of 31 yards or more — Virginia’s defense stiffened when it mattered. Safety Joey Blount most exemplified that early in the fourth quarter, intercepting Brice at midfield with 11 minutes remaining and Duke down 24-20.

After that turnover, Armstrong hit Davis for his second touchdown of the quarter to put Virginia up 31-20, the dagger in a game that ended as an 18-point blowout.

With the loss, Duke fell to 0-3 for the first time under Cutcliffe, its coach of 13 years. As he did after last week’s 26-6 loss to Boston College, Cutcliffe took full responsibility for Duke’s lackluster performance.

“There’s nothing about being 0-3 that this team dreamed it would be,” the coach said. “This team, like every team in the country, has been through a lot. I’ve got to do a better job of helping them.”

Duke, for what it’s worth, got off to a strong start. The Blue Devils led 10-0 after a punt-heavy first quarter, thanks to a Christian Hood fumble recovery on the opening kickoff, which led to a short field goal, and a 55-yard touchdown pass down the seam from Brice to No. 2 tight end Jake Marwede.

But Virginia caught fire in the second quarter behind Armstrong, the redshirt sophomore lefty tasked with replacing dual-threat star Bryce Perkins, who willed Virginia to a 2019 ACC Coastal title.

The Cavaliers racked up 147 total yards, 95 rushing yards and four plays of 10+ yards in the second quarter, scoring on three straight long drives to take a 17-10 lead into halftime.

“Our job is to stop the offense,” Rumph said. “You have to give credit to them.”

The Blue Devils used another big play on their opening drive of the second half — a 34-yard catch and run by Jalon Calhoun — to pull within 17-13 on a 47-yard field goal, the longest of Ham’s career.

And although Brice ended the next drive with an interception, his second of the game, Duke got the ball right back when linebacker Rocky Shelton II picked off Virginia’s Armstrong from his own end zone.

Faced with another short field off a turnover, Duke capitalized in full this time, as Brice found Noah Gray, his No. 1 tight end, for an eight-yard score to put the Blue Devils up 20-17 with five minutes left in the third. It marked the first time Duke has led in the second half this season.

Duke’s defense was also stellar in that third quarter; along with Shelton’s interception, the group allowed just 70 total yards. But the Cavaliers and Armstrong broke through early in the fourth quarter with a heavy dose of Davis, who’d been held to just one catch for 18 yards over the first three.

Although Davis had one juggling catch overturned, Armstrong found him again for 39 yards up the right sideline and then on an 18-yard fade route touchdown to give Virginia a 24-20 lead with 12 minutes left.

After Blount’s timely interception of Brice, the two struck again to ice the win. Virginia added a final touchdown from running back Wayne Taulapapa (16 carries, 95 yards) before game’s end.

“We have not played well late,” Cutcliffe said of his team, which has been outscored 57-17 in the second half and 34-0 in the fourth quarter through three games.

After the loss, Rumph acknowledged some Duke players may be rattled or upset with the team’s 0-3 start. Those emotions are fine for Saturday night, he said, because he thinks they’ll change Sunday morning, once the Blue Devils are back in Durham, rested with a new day of practice ahead of them.

“We’re going to wake up tomorrow, the sun’s going to rise, we’ll all still be alive and we’ll get back to work,” the junior defensive end said.

This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 7:46 PM.