DURHAM, N.C. -- Despite only rushing for two yards as a team, Virginia used two fourth-quarter touchdowns to pull away from Duke and hold off the Blue Devils last Saturday, 27-22.
The Cavaliers (4-2, 2-1 ACC), who ran nine plays for a net loss of nine yards in the third quarter, opened the fourth quarter with the ball at their own 10-yard line and the score knotted at 13.
Junior quarterback Matt Schaub marched the Cavaliers 90 yards in eight plays, capped by an 18-yard touchdown pass to freshman fullback Jason Snelling for the 20-13 edge.
Duke (2-4, 0-2) answered with a field goal, and after the teams traded punts, the Cavaliers' quick-strike offense used two big plays to add on another score.
From his own 14, Schaub hit senior receiver Billy McMullen between a pair of Blue Devils for a 35-yard gain. On the next play, with the Blue Devils expecting a run, offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave called for a flea-flicker.
It worked, and Schaub hit a wide-open Michael McGrew for 54 yards to get Virginia down to the Duke 2-yard line. Sophomore running back Alvin Pearman, playing with a cast after suffering a broken hand, punched the ball in to the end zone.
"We had to make some plays, and we had some real playmakers step up and make them," Virginia Coach Al Groh said. "The Schaub-to-McMullen play was a remarkable throw-and-catch under the circumstances."
Duke quarterback Adam Smith threw a touchdown pass to sophomore Khary Smith with just less than three minutes left in the game, but an unsuccessful two-point conversion left the Cavs up 27-22.
A Duke defensive holding penalty on the ensuing second down gave the Cavaliers a fresh set of downs, but they had to punt the ball anyway. The Blue Devils got the ball with 29 seconds and 77 yards to go, but Virginia senior safety Shernard Newby intercepted Duke quarterback Chris Dapolito's Hail Mary attempt on the final play to give the Cavaliers their fourth straight victory and move them into third place in the ACC.
Schaub, the nation's fourth leading passer, threw for 181 yards in the fourth quarter to finish 27-of-45 for 315 yards and one touchdown.
"I told [Matt] after the game that he did a really good job," Groh said. "He was 22-of-27 last week, but being a quarterback isn't about being 22-for-27 every week. It's bringing a team home under tough circumstances, and that's what that was today."
The Cavaliers had negative rushing yards for most of the game, not breaking into positive yardage until their final drive.
"They were doing some things that made it hard for us to run the ball, so we opened it up," McGrew said. "We knew as an offense that the only thing that could really stop ourselves was ourselves. We had a couple of mental errors, but we knew that we were going to come back together."
The Virginia defense, ranked last in the ACC in rushing, kept Duke out of the end zone twice when the Blue Devils were operating on a short field -- once after a blocked punt and once after a Schaub interception.
"The defense obviously kept us in the game for a long, long time until we could get something going," Groh said.
The defense did surrender over 200 total yards to Duke junior tailback Chris Douglas, but forced two big fumbles in the second and third quarters to halt Duke's drives. Senior middle linebacker Angelo Crowell finished with 15 tackles, 13 solo, and the Cavaliers sacked Duke four times.
"That's two weeks in a row we've won on the road, and that's what good teams have to do," Groh said. "We're pretty pleased about [being 4-2] and coming home for two. I think we've been through some pretty hot challenges."
The Cavaliers will host Clemson (3-2, 1-1) Saturday at noon at Scott Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
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