2022 Game Recaps – Undefeated No More

All good things, as they say, must end. Just as the reign of The Five Good Emperors ended when Marcus Aurelius chose Commodus as his successor, the … Sorry, I’ve been listening to The History of Rome again. Let’s try the game recap one more time.

After three games against a questionable level of competition, Duke faced its first real challenge of the season on the road against Kansas. The Jayhawks came in firing on all cylinders after wins against West Virginia and Houston and didn’t miss a beat on Saturday. Kansas shredded the Blue Devil defense on its way to putting up over 500 total yards. The Jayhawks made one big play after another, which included runs of 30, 24 and 17 yards by three different backs (one of whom was the QB). In addition, one Kansas receiver broke off a 73 yard reception and three others had longs of of more than 20. Jalon Daniels came into the game getting hyped for the Heisman. While it may be too early for that discussion, he sure looked like the real deal on Saturday. Daniels made every throw and led his team in rushing. He played great. No question about it. But for getting stopped on 4th and Goal on the opening drive and a fumble in the first quarter, Daniels could have easily put two more touchdowns on the board.

So, with that context, I’m probably going to discuss how Duke got blown out by a score of like 56-20, right? Nope, I’m not going to do that. Because that isn’t what happened. The final score was 35-27. And while a loss is a loss, you can’t say this is a bad one. Despite giving up a lot of yards and a lot of big plays, the Blue Devils managed to hold the Jayhawks to their lowest point total of the season and had a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter and force overtime. While Duke couldn’t pull off the victory, the Blue Devils hung around despite Kansas running all over the field and generally being in control from start to finish.

In a losing, but valiant, effort, Riley Leonard had a great game, 24/35 for 324 yards and a touchdown plus 54 rushing yards, Jalon Calhoun had 93 yards, Jordan Moore had 7 catches and Eli Pancol had 3 catches for 62 yards with a long of 49. Jontavis Robertson also had a 38 yard catch. This team showed an ability to make explosive plays and stay in the game despite falling behind by 15 in the third. While this game ended in a loss, we can all be optimistic about the remainder of the season. Kansas was by far the best team the the Bull City Boys have played all season and the Jayhawks didn’t run their opponent off the field. Our guys absorbed a lot of punches but managed to keep the game close and were in it right until the end. That’s a good thing – let’s not overlook that in the loss.

I’m going to forego the Five Things in this recap – this specific game didn’t really lend itself to that type of discussion – and will instead note that I liked a lot of what I saw on Saturday even though Duke came out of it at 3-1 and not 4-0. The Blue Devils played hard, didn’t get overwhelmed by the moment and fought all the way until the end. These guys played with a lot of heart and a lot of pride. Those are two things that a team needs in order to win.

Now, while the recap has been overwhelmingly positive, there were a few things that Duke will need to work on in order to do well in conference play. There were a lot of missed tackles yesterday, a lot. Coach Elko has to get that fixed and soon. Consistent with the poor tackling, the Blue Devils were atrocious on third and fourth down, giving up 6/10 and 1/2 respectively (although you can’t read too much into the fourth down numbers alone as there were only two attempts. I’m talking about the two situations as a whole here, not individually). In order to win enough conference games to get to a bowl, the defense will have to tighten up and improve in critical situations. Critical downs (what I call third and fourth) have been a problem all season and the coaching staff has to correct it and fast. In addition, there were a few times where receivers ran routes a yard or two short. That sort of thing can kill a team in close games and will need some attention at practice this week.

But, even with those problems, our team was very close to winning. Despite falling behind 7-0 and generally getting obliterated by the opposing offense, Duke only trailed by eight at the half and saw Charlie Ham, who had struggled of late, connect on two field goals. And after trailing by 15 in the third, the Blue Devils fought back and outscored their opponent 14-7 down the stretch. That takes some character, determination, grit and, if you will, GRIND. So, the loss notwithstanding, it isn’t all doom and gloom.

Now, before we wrap up the game recap, I want to give myself a high five for being pretty accurate in my preview for this game. I predicted a lot of running the ball (correct), a lot of points (more or less correct, but I was off on over the under prediction), explosive plays (check and check), an exciting game (was it ever) and Kansas to win in a game that could have gone either way (check plus). Bonus points for me stating that it will come down to who can run the ball and stop the run the best. Unfortunately for us, the Jayhawks did that on Saturday – our committee put up 139 compared to the other team’s 204). While I’m terrible at score predictions, I think I may finally understand a little bit about this football thing.

So, that’s it for the game recap. Let me know what you think about what I think in the comments or on Twitter.

Go Duke!