There’s the an old adage, don’t let a team beat you twice.
It’s something the Virginia Cavaliers will be up against this week.
Last week’s 16-9 home loss to Wake Forest took the air out of Scott Stadium, but as head coach Tony Elliott said at the postgame press conference, everything is still in front of them, and it is.
The ACC standings have five teams with one loss, with two of them being Virginia and Duke, so this will be a de facto elimination game.
The Wake loss included Chandler Morris getting knocked out of the game in the second quarter, three lost fumbles, and a Demon Deacon punt return for a touchdown, yet Virginia was on the doorstep of tying the game with Daniel Kaelin at the helm.
There’s a chance that Morris will be back this weekend against Duke.
The Blue Devils can be tough to figure out. A 3-0 ACC start has been met with losing two of the last three games, with one coming last week against a non-conference opponent, UConn.
In the 37-34 loss to UConn, Duke continued to struggle with turnovers. They had three on the night, with two coming via Darian Mensah’s interceptions. The Blue Devils’ turnover margin is minus-nine in their four losses.
The Cavaliers can’t go to Durham and get field goals instead of touchdowns. Virginia got into the red zone four times against Wake and got three field goals and a turnover on downs in the final possession. Once Virginia couldn’t run it in with brute strength, they struggled to find creative ways to score. That could be fixed with having Morris’ arm and legs down close, but we’ll never know.
Kaelin did a really good job between the 20s, but how he impacted the coach’s playcalls could have been the difference between winning a close game and a one-score loss.
Defensively, Virginia has gotten better by the week. It’s probably one of the most impressive things about this season. The Cavaliers defense looked like it would be a leaky, just get the important stops defense. It has turned into a dependable ACC defense.
The Cavaliers’ defense turning Duke over is one of the pathways to a win after not being able to force a turnover against the Demon Deacons.
Last week, Virginia was a dismal 3-14 on third-down conversions. What jumped out was the Cavaliers’ third-down passing. Sure, they were 5-9, but for only 18 yards. Virginia’s average 3rd-down-yards-to-go was 5.6. Yes, there were some good runs on third down, but Virginia could have used more downfield plays on third down.
