news-record.com

DURHAM -- Playing one week after dominating then-No. 9 Miami, No. 6 Virginia Tech was nowhere near that crisp Saturday. But they were good enough to claim their ninth straight victory against Duke, 34-26.

"I don't think that's the old Duke football team," Tech coach Frank Beamer said.

Thaddeus Lewis was 22- of-40 for 359 yards with two touchdown passes, including a 4-yarder to Austin Kelly with 25 seconds left. But Lewis said the Blue Devils (2-3, 0-1 ACC) too often settled for field goals, with Will Snyderline kicking four, including a 43-yarder that pulled the Blue Devils to 27-19 with 7 minutes left.

"We needed to get seven points, and we didn't do that," Lewis said. "But three points is better than no points."

The Blue Devils, 17-point underdogs, kept this one tight throughout, but were denied their first win over a top-10 opponent in two decades. Before last year's 14-3 loss in Blacksburg, Duke hadn't come within 24 points of the Hokies since they joined the ACC in 2004.

"We got close enough in the fourth quarter to go beat a great team," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. "Once you taste that, you like it. I wouldn't say we spit it out -- it wasn't a choke -- but we just didn't finish."

Indeed, Tech spent much of this one looking ripe for an upset after routing the Hurricanes 31-7 to vault back into the top 10. By halftime, the Hokies had matched their season highs with seven penalties for 55 yards, and they finished with 12 flags for 105 yards.

"Too many penalties and too many long plays," Beamer said. "We weren't as sharp as we would like, but I don't think it was lack of effort. Part of it was Duke, and part of it was us. ... Sometimes I think you've just got to win some games that's not real pretty on the road, and this is probably one of those."

Tyrod Taylor threw for a career-high 327 yards with two long touchdown passes to help the sometimes-sloppy Hokies dodge a letdown and beat Duke 34-26 Saturday.

Taylor was 17 for 22 with TD tosses of 36 yards to Danny Coale and 28 yards to Jarrett Boykin, and Josh Oglesby had two late touchdown runs once the rushing game opened up for Virginia Tech (4-1, 2-0).

Virginia Tech 7 10 3 14 -- 34

Duke 7 3 3 13 -- 26

Duke--B.King 48 pass from Lewis (Snyderwine kick)

VT--Coale 36 pass from T.Taylor (Waldron kick).

VT--FG Waldron 40

VT--Boykin 28 pass from T.Taylor (Waldron kick)

Duke--FG Snyderwine 29.

Duke--FG Snyderwine 25

VT--FG Waldron 33

Duke--FG Snyderwine 47

VT--Oglesby 12 run (Waldron kick)

Duke--FG Snyderwine 43

VT--Oglesby 19 run (Waldron kick)

Duke--Kelly 4 pass from Lewis (Snyderwine kick).

A--26,211.

VT Duke

First downs 21 17

Rushes-yards 39-150 31-38

Passing 327 359

Comp-Att-Int 17-22-0 22-40-0

Return Yards 7 16

Punts-Avg. 2-43.0 4-40.5

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-0

Penalties-Yards 12-105 7-44

Time of Possession 29:25 30:35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--Virginia Tech, R.Williams 24-83, Oglesby 6-59, Roberts 2-6, Coale 1-3, T.Taylor 5-1, Team 1-(minus 2). Duke, D.Scott 7-34, B.King 2-7, Boyette 10-4, Kurunwune 4-2, Lewis 7-1, Team 1-(minus 10).

PASSING--Virginia Tech, T.Taylor 17-22-0-327. Duke, Lewis 22-40-0-359.

RECEIVING--Virginia Tech, Boykin 6-144, Roberts 4-38, Coale 3-94, Boone 2-25, Smith 1-17, Boyce 1-9. Duke, Kelly 6-43, Vernon 4-128, Varner 4-87, B.King 3-58, D.Scott 1-26, Williams 1-11, Kurunwune 1-7, Huffman 1-3, Boyette 1-(minus 4).