Duke can’t overcome Virginia Tech, drops to 0-4

An uneven performance leaves Duke with an even more lopsided record after Virginia Tech’s 38-31 victory on Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium.

When Duke’s defense kept the Blue Devils (0-4, 0-4 ACC) in this one, the offense was absent. When the offense got rolling in the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils’ defense had been worn down too much to come up with the stops it needed.

“When one got going, something else didn’t hold up,” coach David Cutcliffe said, noting that in Duke’s successful seasons, his team has usually been strong in all three phases. “You have to look at the coach and what you’re doing.

“I can’t lose my head, I have to be objective. … We’re not going to stop working and we’re not going to run away from the problems.”

Duke had one chance, after a botched handoff gave the Blue Devils the ball at their 20-yard line with 4:35 left, trailing by three. After the first two drives of the fourth quarter saw Duke average 12 yards per play, this one went backward — a blown up run on first down, a drop on second and a sack on third.

Virginia Tech (2-0) effectively ended it on Khalil Herbert’s 60-yard touchdown run on the following possession — that put the Kansas transfer up to 208 yards rushing and was his second touchdown.

Herbert had 116 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries in the fourth quarter.

“It was definitely difficult, he was a good back, very fast but powerful,” Duke senior safety Michael Carter II said. “It was a unique challenge this week, he’s a smaller back. … We’ve just gotta be able to bring him down to the ground.”

While Herbert became the Blue Devils’ problem in the second half, the offense’s inability to muster any rhythm was their undoing in the first half.

“Our defense was really strong in the first half, and couldn’t quite help them in the second half,” quarterback Chase Brice said. “We had too many self-inflicted wounds that stopped some drives, stopped some momentum.”

After netting 91 yards total in the first half, Duke took its first drive of the second half 77 yards and took a 14-10 lead on Deon Jackson’s knifing 10-yard touchdown run.

The answer from Virginia Tech first came with Herbert’s 83-yard kick return to the 16-yard line — it took six plays and two third-down conversions to retake the lead.

After Duke punted back to the Hokies on the ensuing possession, Virginia Tech went 94 yards in five plays — the chunk coming on a 56-yard pass and the touchdown coming on quarterback Braxton Burmeister’s second rushing touchdown of the third quarter — to open up a 24-14 lead.

Duke got within three points of the lead early in the fourth quarter with a quick-strike, four-play, 84-yard touchdown drive.

Virginia Tech answered with a six-play, 70-yard touchdown drive to push the margin back to two scores at 31-21.

Again, Duke responded, going 75 yards in nine plays — Jackson accounting for 56 yards and the touchdown on a 1-yard plunge.

That was as close as the Blue Devils came to the Hokies’ lead, though. Duke’s Charlie Ham kicked a field goal on the final play of the game to make it a seven-point margin.

“I think there’s always good to take from the wins and the losses. I think we played pretty hard. The only thing is to finish, if we finish, we win the game,” Carter said.

Duke was gift-wrapped the first points of the game on a muffed punt return by Tayvion Robinson, after which the ball was swatted around a couple of times on the ground before Jaylen Stinson recovered in the end zone for a touchdown.

To that point, Duke had run six offensive plays for a combined 5 yards.

The Blue Devils’ offense never got things going in the first half.

Brice was 7-for-12 for 67 yards in the first half. Duke had seven possessions (not including the final play of the half) and six of them ended in less than five plays. Brice was sacked four times and picked off once — his pass over the middle went through the hands of his receiver and into Tyler Matheny’s hands.

Virginia Tech announced before the game that it was missing 21 players and two full-time assistant coaches due to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing.

This story was originally published October 3, 2020 at 7:29 PM.