After Duke’s soggy 17-13 win over Maryland, Duke head coach David Cutcliffe led off his press conference by saying, “When’s the last time any of you saw Duke win an ugly football game? I bet it’s been a long time.” Duke had a season high 12 penalties and lost the ball twice on fumbles in scoring position, but still managed to pull out a key win.
While the game was indeed ugly due to weather conditions, the win looks beautiful for Duke when one takes a look at the ACC Standings. The win pushed Duke to 2-1 in conference and 4-3 overall and postponed basketball season a bit longer for some fans.
One would think Duke’s second consecutive ACC win, the first time since 1994, would get more exposure, but the kick off to the basketball season with Countdown to Craziness and exhibition game and ACC Operation Basketball grabbed most of the headlines. For more on that, visit Blue Devil Nation.
Once again Thaddeus Lewis showed up big going 30 for 43 for 371 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. It was the seniors third consecutive 300 yard plus game. Lewis also moved into 10th in the ACC all time leaders list in passing yards.
“We made some mistakes but in the end we were fortunate enough to come out on top,” said Lewis. He then continued by saying, “Our defense came through when we needed them too.”
And it was Duke’s defense which held up. In fact, take away Maryland’s biggest play from scrimmage, a 61 yard pass play on broken coverage, and the Terps would have had less than 200 yards of offense. This is a testament to the hard work Duke Defensive Coordinator Mike McIntyre has done with a defense that has many freshman in the two deep.
The Blue Devil receivers showed up once again as well with Austin Kelly leading the way with 9 catches, Donovan Varner hauled in 8 for 120 yards and a score and true freshman Conner Vernon had 5 catches for 102 yards. Johnny Williams may have had the biggest catch when he dug a pass off the ground during a key series in the game.
Williams was considered Duke’s top threat in the pre season and defenses have been covering him tightly, but his numbers should soon go up for teams that are unable to play off any of the Duke wide outs.
Duke will next travel to Virginia as a six point underdog this weekend. Duke handled the Cavaliers easily in Wallace Wade last season and you can bet this game has been circled for revenge. While it may seem a daunting task for Duke to win a third consecutive game on the road in the ACC, more and more people are starting to believe in Duke Football and there is no doubt that Cutcliffe and his staff have the Devils a little bit ahead of schedule as he rebuilds a once historically dominant team on the Methodist Flats.
I think that Duke has an excellent shot to improve to 3-1 against UVa this weekend. The passing game is phenomenal. Unfortuately, pass defense is UVa’s strength, so Duke might have to run the ball a bit to stay in the game.
[...] loss came despite Duke winning it’s second ACC game in a row for the first time since 1994 (over oh-so-lowly Maryland, how sweet, and did I mention Maryland was lowly?) and Georgia Tech [...]
UVA hasn’t seen a passing attack as talented and confident as Duke’s. I expect Duke to stick to what they do well and move the ball through the air against UVA. Virginia will be out for revenge, so Duke must match their intensity for 4 quarters to have a chance to pick up another road ACC win.