2021 Game Previews – Northwestern Comes to Town

Duke is back in the win column after beating NCA&T last week. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. And after what happened against Charlotte, we’ll take the W and be happy about it. But a much, much tougher challenge awaits this week, the Northwestern Wildcats. This is a team that hasn’t looked great so far this season, but nonetheless remains a dangerous team. They are in the Big Ten after all. As far as a breakdown for the game and what to expect, I’m going to do something a little different this week and go over key parts of the soon to be competing teams to see who has the edge coming into the game.

Let’s start with the head coaches. Northwestern has Pat Fitzgerald. The Blue Devils have David Cutcliffe. While Cutcliffe has done a lot of good things at Duke, I’m going to give the edge to Northwestern on this one. Fitzgerald’s career is remarkable for its consistency. His overall record is 107-82. He is 5-5 in bowl games – that’s 10 total bowl games (more than Cutcliffe has been to since he became head coach at the end of the 2007 season). Fitzgerald’s teams finished in the Top 25 five times. He has a winning record in conference. On top of that, he has three ten win seasons. Pretty impressive.

Compared to Cut’s time in Durham, Fitzgerald has a clear lead, especially of late. Cut is sub-.500 at Duke and his conference record isn’t much to write home about (35-71). Duke has been trending down since The Jump Pass – compiling a total of four wins since that disastrous play. The 2020 season is particularly instructive in understanding the differences in directions for the two programs. Northwestern finished in the Top 10 while the Blue Devils fell to 2-9 (1-9) and tied for 14th in the ACC. Advantage goes to Northwestern on this one. If you disagree, I’d love to hear why.

What about the defense? I’m going to have to give the edge to Northwestern again. While the Wildcats didn’t look great against Michigan State, they did hold Indiana State to 6 points. Duke’s defense is still a work in process. This unit has continued to struggle on third down, particularly third and long, and just doesn’t look right. Maybe they will come together on Saturday, but until we see it, I think we have to expect Northwestern to do more on defense. Fitzgerald was a linebacker at Northwestern back in the day, so expect his defense to do well. I’m hopeful that everything will click for the Blue Devils on Saturday, but the inability to get stops against Charlotte and A&T is concerning.

What about the offense? I’m going with Gunnar, Jake and Mataeo on this one. I’ve said it a lot, but this team was real close to scoring 40+ points against Charlotte and looked pretty darned impressive last week against A&T. Gunnar has a swagger and Mataeo and Jake look like men on a mission. Northwestern hasn’t looked particularly strong and has had injuries to key players to deal with. Cut is supposedly an “offensive guru”, and given how well Gunnar has played these first two weeks, I’m taking Duke’s offense. I mean, we have a quarterback who can throw deep. Why wouldn’t I pick the Blue Devils?

Kicking teams (that’s what I call the special team – deal with it)? Sorry, but we have the best punter in the country. Don’t @ me. Duke by a mile here. I think our kicking teams can give us some points and help keep us in the game.

So, where does this leave us? I think that Duke can win. Gunnar, Mataeo and Jake have a swagger about them and if we’ve learned anything from the podcasts we’ve done, it’s that confidence goes a long way. Once a team starts to believe in itself, anything is possible. The offense looks pretty confident, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to expect them to play well and to carry this team to a win. I think it’ll be a close, hard-fought game, but a fun one to watch.

To conclude, I’m taking the Blue Devils to win. Go Duke!