Despite five first half turnovers by Virginia Tech, the Duke Blue Devils fell to the Hokies in an ugly defensive struggle. With its 14-3 win Saturday night at Lane Stadium, Tech's hopes of an ACC Championship berth are well within reach.
Click here for a photo gallery from the game.
"I thought our defense did a fantastic job," head coach Frank Beamer said. "Really to keep us in the game in the first half when we were having some troubles, they did a great job."
It was a game ruled by defense, and the Hokies (7-4, 4-3 ACC) made key interceptions in the final minutes of play.
With backup quarterback Zack Asack starting in place of the injured Thaddeus Lewis, the junior struggled to establish a solid passing game and that was accentuated in their final three drives.
With just over four minutes remaining, and Tech up 7-3, the Blue Devils (4-7, 1-6) got the ball at their own 20 after another Tech drive stalled.
Asack threw into double coverage and the pass was picked off by Stephan Virgil.
After an Evans first down, the Blue Devils stopped the Hokies rushing attack on three consecutive plays, while also using all of their timeouts.
Starting at the Tech 18 yard line, Asack's first pass on their next possession went into the hands of Tech senior cornerback Victor "Macho" Harris, who returned it back to the end zone and, in turn, sealed the win.
"I just made a bad read and a bad throw and it cost us the game," Asack said.
Virgil was in perfect position again with under a minute to go, intercepting Asack's final pass.
The backup finished going 2-of-9 through the air for just 20 yards and four interceptions. Overall, the Hokies defense stifled the Blue Devils offense to just 136 yards total.
Playing without Lewis, who injured his foot in Duke's loss last week to Clemson, the Devils offense pushed on and stuck to a conservative run-first game plan with Asack.
The Blue Devils stuck to the running game with Asack and running backs Jay Hollingsworth and Tony Jackson.
Asack carried the load for the most part, rushing 24 times for 87 hard-earned yards against the stingy Tech defense.
When Duke did go to the air, the only completion of the half was a badly overthrown ball to Harris of Virginia Tech.
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Holly lousy offense.. with all due respect Mr. Beamer, I hope if we get through to play for a BCS Bowl game, and we get blown out of the park, you will finally realize that the record doesn't mean anything and you should take care on business in the offensive depratment of your coaching staff. Till then : http://firebryanstinespring.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html
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IT is the simple "easy" protest to say Bryan Stinespring should go. The ambitious one is to call for Frank Beamer to do the right thing and step down. When is the last time we won a major bowl game (e.g. Sugar, Orange, Rose, Fiesta, BCS Championship)? 1995 against Texas, if I recall? Sad.
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Mr. Crandley, Just FYI: in your second sentence, it should be ACC championship berth, not birth.
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