UVA @ Duke

[devildeac]

Wow, what a game. I "watched" it on a stupid stat tracker. According to that, Renfree completed a 32 yard pass on 4th and 20 with like a minute left to lead the game winning drive. Is that true? Cause that's just INSANE. Wish I coulda seen THAT.

That's pretty darn close. It was 4th and 18. ;)

Sensational pass by Renfree and then catch by Varner.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

This morning I'm recovering from the weather conditions and O dark 30 start yesterday. As I reflect on yesterday, that game has to be one of the best football games in Wallace Wade in many years. What an action-packed game! It may be easier on the constitution to witness an easy win, but you really get your "money's worth" with a game like that one yesterday! I appreciated Coach Cutcliffe's comments in the post game interview when he was asked about highlights or top plays of the game. He replied that there were so many that he felt overwhelmed..... didn't know where to start talking about them.

Great win in November! Great streak against Virginia!

This is the Duke team I've been anticipating all season.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Post game thoughts (past the fact that it was insanely fun to watch and experience).
The defense was a walking dichotomy, showing both brilliance and flat play. Cockrell gets 2 great interceptions (and almost a third) as UVA throw us the ball 3 times. And yet Dontrelle Inman still has an amazing day pulling in 10 catches for 239 yards! (He was 3 yards short of the school record.) There were some amazing catches that he made (such as in the 4th quarter when he almost ran it in but was called OB), but some were just gifts to him. On serveral catches our backs weren't within 5 yards of the open receivers. That's frustrating to watch.
One quick note about that catch I mentioned. I watched on the replay...and just before he crosses the goal line he drops the ball. (I'm assuming he heard the refs whistle him out.) The officials then reviewed the play to make sure he was actually out. Since he intentionally fumbles before he crossed the line, and then the ball rolled into the endzone, who's ball would have that been? If it was ours that would have been huge because UVA would not have had their last TD.
The last great bit of great defense was the hit and sack delivered to Verica preventing UVA's 2 point conversion. That was huge and needed.
I loved our offense, I loved the way Cutcliffe used both Connette and Renfree. I'm not often a big fan of a 2 QB system, but coach Cut is using it very smartly and it's working. Two get over 230 yards rushing was great to see. Renfree used his feet so well; he escaped some sure fire sacks and turned those opportunities into big plays. Kudos also to special teams play. Snyderwine's kickoffs were sweet, most of them were boomed into the endzone. One beef is I'm not sure why we used Vernon for the kickoff returns. I know he can catch and run, but to put a valuable receiver in front of a moving freight train, when our receiving corps is already banged up, seems questionable to me. Hopefully he is ok; after the game he said he was, but for all I know he might have been saying that to both of me.
To me there are 4 reasons why we won the game.

1.Our solid offense. Just under 500 yards split evenly between rushing and passing.

2.Our ball control. We only turned the ball over once (which did result in points), but we won the turnover battle for the game.

3.Forced turnovers. Great day for Russ Cockrell.

4.UVA penalties. I love seeing the other team shoot themselves in the foot. UVA had 11 for 103 yards. Three of those were inconsequential to the play they occured on as they were late hits or other personal fouls. And that's the ones that were called, they beat up poor Will Snyderwine every chance they got, and those were on kicks that were called as fair catches. Anyway...thanks for keeping our ball moving Cavs.

[devildeac]

Post game thoughts (past the fact that it was insanely fun to watch and experience).
The defense was a walking dichotomy, showing both brilliance and flat play. Cockrell gets 2 great interceptions (and almost a third) as UVA throw us the ball 3 times. And yet Dontrelle Inman still has an amazing day pulling in 10 catches for 239 yards! (He was 3 yards short of the school record.) There were some amazing catches that he made (such as in the 4th quarter when he almost ran it in but was called OB), but some were just gifts to him. On serveral catches our backs weren't within 5 yards of the open receivers. That's frustrating to watch.
One quick note about that catch I mentioned. I watched on the replay...and just before he crosses the goal line he drops the ball. (I'm assuming he heard the refs whistle him out.) The officials then reviewed the play to make sure he was actually out. Since he intentionally fumbles before he crossed the line, and then the ball rolled into the endzone, who's ball would have that been? If it was ours that would have been huge because UVA would not have had their last TD.
The last great bit of great defense was the hit and sack delivered to Verica preventing UVA's 2 point conversion. That was huge and needed.
I loved our offense, I loved the way Cutcliffe used both Connette and Renfree. I'm not often a big fan of a 2 QB system, but coach Cut is using it very smartly and it's working. Two get over 230 yards rushing was great to see. Renfree used his feet so well; he escaped some sure fire sacks and turned those opportunities into big plays. Kudos also to special teams play. Snyderwine's kickoffs were sweet, most of them were boomed into the endzone. One beef is I'm not sure why we used Vernon for the kickoff returns. I know he can catch and run, but to put a valuable receiver in front of a moving freight train, when our receiving corps is already banged up, seems questionable to me. Hopefully he is ok; after the game he said he was, but for all I know he might have been saying that to both of me.
To me there are 4 reasons why we won the game.

1.Our solid offense. Just under 500 yards split evenly between rushing and passing.

2.Our ball control. We only turned the ball over once (which did result in points), but we won the turnover battle for the game.

3.Forced turnovers. Great day for Russ Cockrell.

4.UVA penalties. I love seeing the other team shoot themselves in the foot. UVA had 11 for 103 yards. Three of those were inconsequential to the play they occured on as they were late hits or other personal fouls. And that's the ones that were called, they beat up poor Will Snyderwine every chance they got, and those were on kicks that were called as fair catches. Anyway...thanks for keeping our ball moving Cavs.

Some answers, some comments and a couple nitpicks.
1. Our FS shoulda tipped/picked that great catch. If the play is OOB, the whistle ends it, assuming the review confirms the call on the field. If it overturns it, it's a TD if he entered the endzone with the ball. If he fumbled it into the endzone and they recover, TD 'hoos. If we recover, touchback. If it goes through the endzone. touchback.
2. about the coverage, and for the 3 INT and the sack preventing the 2 point play. Huge.
3. Renfree's pump fake AND great footwork, avoiding a sure sack and then turning into a ~40 yd TD run was a monster play.
4. Snyderwine was mugged on 2 KO into the endzone, not fair catches. Shoulda been 2 more flags on uva
5. Agreed on the KO returns for us. I guess he was used as Josh Sneed was injured. We coulda used Thompson who has great speed and strength.

[devildeac]

From a pretty reliable source:

Roper suggested a new running play and Cutcliffe concurred.

Scott got the ball, simply looking to gain yardage to set up Snyderwine before running out of bounds. But he found the left sideline open before diving the final 5 yards to reach the end zone and give Duke the lead for good.

"I was pretty good at geometry," Scott said. "I knew with the angle I had on the guy, I could dive, so that's what I did."

;)

[CameronBornAndBred]

From a pretty reliable source:

Roper suggested a new running play and Cutcliffe concurred.

Scott got the ball, simply looking to gain yardage to set up Snyderwine before running out of bounds. But he found the left sideline open before diving the final 5 yards to reach the end zone and give Duke the lead for good.

"I was pretty good at geometry," Scott said. "I knew with the angle I had on the guy, I could dive, so that's what I did."

;)

Cutcliffe talked about that in his press conference. Nice to see them bring out the new plays, much like you said they had kept some still under wraps against Navy. Loved Scott's geometry comment, that was great.

[devildeac]

From a pretty reliable source:

Roper suggested a new running play and Cutcliffe concurred.

Scott got the ball, simply looking to gain yardage to set up Snyderwine before running out of bounds. But he found the left sideline open before diving the final 5 yards to reach the end zone and give Duke the lead for good.

"I was pretty good at geometry," Scott said. "I knew with the angle I had on the guy, I could dive, so that's what I did."

;)

Cutcliffe talked about that in his press conference. Nice to see them bring out the new plays, much like you said they had kept some still under wraps against Navy. Loved Scott's geometry comment, that was great.

Geometry, heh-heh.

Unlike some other HS and universities who think algebra 3 comes before algebra 2.

Yeh, I'm looking at you (s)U(c)K.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Congratulations to Cooper Helfet for being named ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week for the second week in a row!

[lawgrad91]

Congratulations to Cooper Helfet for being named ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week for the second week in a row!

Yay! I love me some Cooper Helfet!

One final postmortem from me: did anybody else think it odd that when Brandon Connette came into the game, the uva defense seemed to be SHOCKED! SHOCKED! that he ran the ball? Did they watch absolutely no tape?

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Congratulations to Cooper Helfet for being named ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week for the second week in a row!

Yay! I love me some Cooper Helfet!

One final postmortem from me: did anybody else think it odd that when Brandon Connette came into the game, the uva defense seemed to be SHOCKED! SHOCKED! that he ran the ball? Did they watch absolutely no tape?

Maybe UVA's not as smart as they used to be......

[lawgrad91]

Congratulations to Cooper Helfet for being named ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week for the second week in a row!

Yay! I love me some Cooper Helfet!

One final postmortem from me: did anybody else think it odd that when Brandon Connette came into the game, the uva defense seemed to be SHOCKED! SHOCKED! that he ran the ball? Did they watch absolutely no tape?

Maybe UVA's not as smart as they used to be......

Certainly not as disciplined as they used to be.

Btw, no uva alumni or fans (and they are legion around here) have called or come by today, and several who have cases that need to be settled should call early this week. Wonder what's up with that.