CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Virginia’s quest for an ACC championship ended in overtime Saturday night, in wild and thrilling fashion. 

Chandler Morris rallied the Cavaliers for 10 points in the final five minutes to force overtime, but his interception on a trick play ended the game.

“Even when we was down 10, we knew the script. We just had to find a way to try to claw back,” wide receiver Cam Ross said. “And that’s what we did. We put ourselves in position to tie it up, go to OT, and put ourselves in position to win the game. Just came up short.””

Duke, which UVA beat during the regular season, got two touchdown passes from Darian Mensah, including the game-winner in overtime, beating Virginia 27-20 and leaving the ACC’s College Football Playoff outlook murky. 

At 8-5, Duke is unlikely to be selected, leaving Miami (10-2) as the league’s best hope for representation. 

The committee will have to decide whether to jump Duke up in the rankings enough to make it one of the four highest-ranked conference champions, or give that spot to Sun Belt champion James Madison (11-1). The Dukes’ lone loss came to another ACC team, Louisville.

Virginia trailed 20-10 with five minutes to play in the fourth quarter, but rallied to force its fourth overtime game of the season. 

After Will Bettridge hit a 42-yard field goal with 3:54, the Cavaliers got the ball back one final time in regulation, with 1:44 to play. Morris drove them 96 yards in 10 plays, hitting Eli Wood for a game-tying 18-yard touchdown with 22 seconds left. Wood got just behind a Duke defender and Morris slung a perfectly-placed pass into his arms. 

Duke got the ball first in overtime and, on fourth-and-goal at the 1, Mensah hit Jeremiah Hasley for the go-ahead score. Virginia linebacker James Jackson was flagged for roughing the passer on the play, backing UVA up to the 40-yard line to start its overtime possession.

That longer-than-the-norm field position prompted Virginia offensive coordinator Des Kitchings to dig deep in his bag of tricks, dialing up a play where Morris took the snap, pitched it to running J’Mari Taylor who threw it back to Morris. Morris then pulled up and threw down field toward Wood, who had two Blue Devil defenders on him.

Duke’s Luke Mergott intercepted the pass at the 24-yard line to seal the Blue Devils’ victory.

“They’ve got the heart of a champion,” UVA coach Tony Elliott said of his team. “The football team that lost tonight, came up a touchdown short. They’ve got the heart of a champion or they wouldn’t be in the situation they’re in.”

It was one that started with impressive ball control by the Blue Devils.

“They definitely took advantage of our mistakes,” Jackson said. “And we made some mistakes.”

Duke went ahead 7-0 after its first possession, a title-game record 9:38 march. That was the lone score of the opening quarter.

In the second, UVA’s defense set up the Cavaliers’ first points. 

Defensive back Corey Costner’s interception set Virginia up at the Blue Devils’ 23-yard line. It took three plays for UVA to find the end zone, Taylor scoring on a short throw from Morris that Taylor took 11 yards for the score, juking Duke’s Landan Callahan on his way to the end zone. 

The Blue Devils answered with the second longest scoring drive, by time, in title game history, holding the ball 8:02 on their way to a Nate Sheppard 16-yard touchdown run and a 14-7 lead. 

The teams traded field goals in the third quarter and UVA went to the final frame down 17-10.

Virginia, on the second play of the fourth quarter, went for it on fourth-and-5 at the Duke 24, but Morris’s pass into the end zone to a double-covered Trell Harris fell incomplete. 

Virginia, which was 4-2 in one-score games entering Saturday, got the ball at its 1-yard line with 8:46 to play, trailing by a touchdown. 

But after two ineffective rushing attempts, UVA tried to pass. A miscommunication between Morris and his receiver led to Morris floating a ball that was intercepted by Caleb Weaver at the Virginia 33-yard line. 

That set up another Duke field goal and a 20-10 Blue Devils’ lead. 

UVA trimmed the deficit to 20-13 on Will Bettridge’s 42-yard field goal with 3:54 to play.

Virginia got the ball back one final time, at its 4-yard line with 1:44 to play and two timeouts. Morris led them on the game-tying drive, hooking up with Wood for one of the most dramatic touchdowns in program history.