With 5:36 remaining and holding a 17-12 lead in Saturday's game against Duke, everything was on the line for Virginia - its slim chance of winning the Coastal Division of the ACC, its bowl prospects and whatever was left of coach Al Groh's job security.
Two minutes and 14 seconds later, the door on Groh's coffin was nailed shut - or so the mass exodus of fans amid a one-possession game would suggest.
"We put a lot into this - put everything we got into it," Groh said. "And when you get nothing back in return, it's a haunting feeling."
To understand this loss, you need to rid yourself of the misconception that the Blue Devils are Satan incarnate and that their unmatched ineptitude in ACC football somehow offers a proof for the existence of God.
The logic goes something like this: Duke hasn't defeated an ACC opponent in consecutive seasons in 10 years. That's a solid decade of looking at football from the perspective of, "At least absolutely nobody cares. When's the next basketball game?" Duke snaps that streak against Virginia. Therefore, Virginia replaces Duke as the worst team that the worst conference in the BCS has to offer. And at least Duke can still look forward to five months of basketball supremacy.
But this Duke team is not that old Duke football team. David Cutcliffe was the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Tennessee during the Peyton Manning era and became head coach at Mississippi after the Volunteers won the National Championship in 1998. He compiled a 44-29 record in six years at Ole Miss, suffering only one losing season. And in two years as head coach at Duke, Cutcliffe has ushered in a culture of "At least act like you care."
And it appears that the players do, in fact, care. Senior quarterback Thaddeus Lewis is a legitimate NFL prospect - and he showed why against Virginia.
With 6-foot-4, 255-pound Cam Johnson flying in on an all-out blitz on third-and-9 from the Virginia 42-yard line, Lewis held his ground and fired a tight pass over the middle which hit freshman Conner Vernon in stride. The receiver dashed past senior cornerback Chris Cook, with only open field and the end-zone ahead of him. Lewis fell to the ground, but his team seized a lead with 3:45 remaining, which it never relinquished.
But this was just one of many crucial plays Lewis conducted with the poise Virginia so clearly lacked in the last five minutes. Duke converted nine of 20 third downs, including a couple of smart, tricky plays that only a team and a coach set on winning would call and execute. On the first third down of the game, just as Virginia's defensive replacements hurried onto the field, Lewis took a quick snap and immediately plunged forward for a 3-yard gain and a first down. The unexpected timing threw the Cavaliers off guard, and demonstrated that the Blue Devils, or more specifically Lewis, was going to control the pace of the game.
On its next possession, Duke faced third-and-1 from the Virginia 37-yard line. Lewis walked back from the line of scrimmage and turned to the sideline, as if to receive a signal from the coaching staff to clarify the play-call. Meanwhile, freshman running back Desmond Scott, who was standing right beside Lewis, took a direct snap from the shotgun and rushed up the middle for a first down. Mix these "trick" plays in with Lewis's polished, accurate passing, and you see a developed, nuanced offensive attack. You see a coach and a quarterback who know how to win - which raises an important question: does Virginia have that swagger, that confidence that it knows it is going to win? Could you ever see Groh calling those smart third-down plays? I certainly cannot. The Cavaliers converted only four of 16 third downs - all too often, senior quarterback Jameel Sewell made the easy 7-yard passes look difficult, throwing the ball over the head of a wide-open Vic Hall, who is only 5 feet 9 inches tall.
But I don't want to blame Sewell for this loss. Sure, his first quarter statistics - 0-5 with an interception - are highly entertaining. And he is not the most accurate of passers - even Sewell has acknowledged that. But I don't have a single doubt that his teammates believe in him and that for all his flaws, he is infinitely better than junior quarterback Marc Verica.
It is fitting that after Sewell left the game with an undisclosed injury near the beginning of the second quarter, Virginia incurred a false start penalty on Verica's first play. This hesitance - though clearly not Verica's fault on this particular play - manifested itself throughout the quarter. At first, Verica only attempted short screen passes, probably to get into the flow of the game. When those didn't work, he naturally decided to toss a jump ball to the undersized Hall, who quickly summoned his cornerback skills to bat the ball down from the taller defender. Let's just say jump balls aren't meant for the little guy. It was evident that while Verica was in the game, Virginia would be complacent to settle for field goals and to let the Cavalier defense keep the team in the game. The result at halftime: three points and 81 total yards. Nice.
If there was one benefit to Verica's presence, it was that Groh and offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon finally decided to try running the ball with their 245-pound senior fullback Rashawn Jackson. Virginia had recorded only one first down until Verica handed the ball off to Jackson on second-and-15 from the Duke 46, at which point Jackson gained the necessary 15 yards for a first down, immediately placing the Cavaliers in field goal range. Just like that.
"I knew - okay, well [Jameel is] gonna be out for a few, so I need to run the ball and help keep us in the game, 'cause he's obviously one of our playmakers," Jackson said. "I figured if I can just hold my half until Jameel gets back, everything will be fine. Next thing you know, sure enough, he's back in the game. That was pretty good for the team's morale - a lot of guys liked that - it was like a breath of fresh air, sort of."
Sewell's final statistics were not impressive: 8-22 for 86 yards passing and an interception. But what was impressive was Sewell's toughness. When he returned to the game at the start of the second half from an undisclosed injury - one that probably affected his right ankle, which he has sprained and aggravated over the past few weeks - he immediately took charge of the offense, completing passes to freshman receiver Tim Smith and sophomore wide-out Jared Green. After a 16-yard burst by Jackson from the shotgun formation, Sewell found Hall in the slot for a 10-yard pass over the middle. From the 1-yard line, Sewell sacrificed his body and risked further injury to his ankle by plunging the ball in for a touchdown - something the Cavaliers could not do in the red zone last week against Georgia Tech.
Sewell is not the reason for this loss - he took the lead after sustaining an injury, and added to it with a perfect 19-yard touchdown pass to junior tight end Joe Torchia, whose hands often take the form of solid rocks. Quite simply, the senior put his team in a position to win.
Maybe you think his fumble at the Virginia 7-yard line cost his team the game. But I'll tell you that the offensive line laid an egg Saturday - it didn't show up in the box score as the line only allowed two sacks - but it was evident every time Sewell had to scramble from the pocket or make a hasty throw.
Maybe you think Groh should not have employed such a conservative offensive strategy after sophomore cornerback Chase Minnifield intercepted Lewis' pass in the back of the end zone with eight minutes remaining in the game. But I have no problem with the decision to give the ball to Jackson - he's the team's most effective runner, he's huge and can milk the clock. In hindsight, the strategy didn't work, but don't label it as "playing not to lose." I think running the ball with one of your best players when you have the lead safely fits into the "playing to win" paradigm. It certainly seemed so when Jackson rushed for 43 yards in the fourth quarter of Virginia's 20-9 win against Maryland.
And aside from a couple lapses in coverage in the final five minutes, Virginia's defense did a fine job of limiting Duke to field goals and stifling Lewis in the red zone.
And, after listening to Jackson, you can't tell me this team doesn't believe in Jameel Sewell. If you think that, you're flat-out wrong.
All these signs suggest a team that's not going to give up on its coach or quarterback just yet. Sitting at 3-5, Jackson offered an interesting analogy to assess where the team stands.
"I really feel like we're a lot better than what our record shows, but I also agree you are what you are," Jackson said. "When you're born - your mom either has a boy or a girl - there's no in between ... How many Jamie Lee's are there"
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