Despite a 7-5 record in the regular season, Duke won the ACC Championship Game on Saturday night in dramatic fashion.
The Blue Devils won 27-20 in overtime thanks to a big defensive play. Duke picked off Virginia‘s Chandler Morris on the Cavaliers’ first play of the overtime period. Here’s a clip of that play:
On the prior possession, Duke quarterback Darian Mensah threw a touchdown pass on 4th down to give the Blue Devils the lead. With that pass, Mensah became the first Duke quarterback ever to pass for 30 touchdowns in a single season.
Duke led for much of this game, but Virginia rallied late to force overtime thanks to a few Blue Devils miscues late in regulation. Duke committed multiple penalties with under 3 minutes remaining to stop the clock, allowing for Virginia to keep timeouts in its back pocket. Duke also ran out of bounds to stop the clock on its final play of regulation, further saving the Cavaliers a timeout.
Then, Duke’s defense allowed Virginia to go on a 10-play 96-yard drive to tie the game late in the 4th quarter. Virginia’s Eli Wood made the big play, securing a touchdown to make it 20-20 with just 19 seconds remaining.
However, it wasn’t enough. Duke was able to secure its first ACC Championship since 1962 and just its 5th outright title overall.
The result of this game was always going to have serious College Football Playoff implications. As a conference champion, Duke will receive CFP consideration but may be on the outside looking in due to a poor nonconference résumé.
Duke will learn its CFP fate on Sunday afternoon when the full bracket is announced by the selection committee.
Duke 27, Virginia 20 (OT)
Here’s the complete ACC Championship box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
