CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.-Sometimes even the opening kickoff can serve as a good indication of how a football game will turn out.
Such was the case Saturday for the Blue Devils, when sophomore Chris Davis caught the opening kick a few feet into Duke's end zone. Taking a baby-step across the goal line, Davis saw the approaching Cavalier special teams unit and attempted to backtrack into the end zone and take a knee. After realizing his mistake, Davis managed to avoid the safety but was tackled on Duke's own three-yard line, bringing a homecoming crowd of 61,021 to its feet and ushering in a long afternoon of poor field position for the Blue Devils.
"That's not how you want to start the game," head coach Ted Roof said.
Although Duke managed to escape its predicament with a 49-yard punt from Chris Sprague, the Blue Devils were consistently pinned on their side of the field. Virginia's average starting field position was at its own 47 yard-line, while Duke averaged a start on its own 21. This included possessions beginning on its own three-, four- and nine-yard lines.
Most of Duke's problems can be traced back to its offense, as turnovers and costly penalties forced the defense to play on its own side of the 50-yard line. The Blue Devils turned the ball over three times on their side of the field, resulting in 10 Cavalier points.
"Any time you have a lot of penalties, any time you turn the ball over you're going to be in poor field position and this afternoon that certainly held true," Roof said.
Those turnovers proved to be the downfall of starting quarterback Mike Schneider, who was removed for the first time of the game after a fumble in the first quarter and then was benched after throwing a bad interception to Virginia cornerback Marcus Hamilton in the second quarter.
Although the two mishaps led to just one Virginia field goal, the strong play of true-freshman Zack Asack could mean a new starting quarterback for Duke next weekend against Navy.
"[Schneider has] fumbled a couple weeks in a row," Roof said. "I'm not down on Mike Schneider, but Mike's got to take care of the football just like everybody on our football team does.
"We'll have to sit down and evaluate that and see where we are and make a decision to see where we'll go."
When Duke wasn't committing turnovers, the offense struggled to move the ball, giving Virginia excellent field position on punts and preventing the Blue Devils' tired defense from resting. Duke entered the locker room at halftime down only 10-0, but the small deficit was largely the product of a strong Blue Devil defensive effort rather than a competitive offensive battle.
All of these problems coalesced for the Blue Devils in the second half, as Duke gave up 28 points on scoring drives that averaged a lighting-quick 72 seconds long.
As the game wore on, the Blue Devils' defensive line began to get worn down from the Cavaliers' physical offensive line, and Virginia quarterback Marques Hagans had all day in the backfield to find open receivers down the field.
"I thought they fought hard," Roof said of his defense. "I thought they played really well in the first half, I was extremely pleased with that. The inability to get off the field on third down in the second half certainly hurt our defense, as did poor field position at times."
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