Month: October 2022

After getting eight total turnovers, three interceptions, six sacks and seven tackles for loss, Duke’s Instagram models absolutely dominated Miami and head into the bye week at 5-3 after a 45-21 victory on the road. For a guy who could only listen to the radio and watch the condensed game on YouTube, I’ll say that it sure sounded like the Blue Devils decided to perform a repeat of the UVA game and just physically overwhelmed the Hurricanes. The highlight, of which there were many, was probably when Brandon Johnson took an interception to the house, broke the U and then flipped it upside down. Somewhere, Deon Jackson and Ben Humphreys smiled.

Despite the lopsided score, it wasn’t a pretty start. Jalon Calhoun fumbled on Duke’s opening drive and Miami pulled ahead to a 7-0 lead. Things settled down a bit after that and the Blue Devils managed to put together a 17-7 lead at halftime. But it was a deceptive lead. The defense was playing outstanding and gave the offense short fields to score on. Which was great because the offense really, really struggled through the first thirty. (The scoring drives consisted of 23, 22 and -1 yards respectively.)

It looked like things were going to completely fall to pieces in the second half when, despite an injury to Tyler Van Dyke, the 32 Hurricane fans in the stadium energized the home team. Miami came out hot and pulled ahead 21-17. But then the Blue Devils calmed down. And by “calmed down”, I mean the defense said, “We got this, bro.” More sacks, TFLs and interceptions followed. The Hurricanes, who only converted 4/12 third downs, collapsed. Duke, on the other hand, calmly moved the ball a bit better than in the first half and put up three unanswered touchdowns, including a nice shovel pass to Dalmolin on a 4th and Goal, before the aforementioned Johnson interception pushed the score to 45-21.

A quick survey shows that every Blue Devil fan is excited about the win and is even more excited about being 5-3 after eight. But knowing that Coach Elko is Coach Elko, he’s going to look at the tape from this game and tell his team, read “offense”, that they have to play better. Eight turnovers is not something a team can replicate each week, so the offense is going to have to step up. And while the 24 point win was exciting, it is hard to win games when the passing offense puts up an anemic 136 yards on 13/25 passing. While Leonard ran well, the leading receiver was Eli Pancol who had 3 catches for 39 yards. While Eli had some critical catches, 39 yards to lead a receiving corps isn’t not the sort of stat line you expect from a team with Pancol, Calhoun, Hagans, Robertson and Dalmolin.

Coach Johns is going to have to find a way to get the unit to be more consistent throughout the game. One way to accomplish this may be to forego the running back committee and go with the hot hand. Jaquez Moore had a nice game yesterday and Waters did, too. Perhaps we should limit the number of backs we use to two and make one the primary? I know I’m old school when it comes to the running game, but I’d like to see one guy get most of the touches and be the feature back.

Another thing that could spark the offense would be to let Hagans return punts and create more opportunities through better field position. I was listening to the Duke radio crew, who were great (s/o to Jamie for the suggestion), while catching up on some overdue marketing work for the law firm (I mean, do I really have to put my case reports on the website? I’m already the Legal Mamba. Isn’t that enough? I submit that’s enough), and missed out on who returned punts. The box score said it was Luca Diamont, who I would like to see on the field more, but I think we can all agree that Hagans needs to be the guy. If anyone knows who actually returned punts, please let me know. I apologize for this oversight and will do better in the coming weeks.

All things considered, I’m pretty excited about this win and where the Blue Devils are at this point in the season. Let me know what you think about this team, and what you think about what I think generally, in the comments or on Twitter.

As always, Go Duke!

We all know how Duke “lost” to UNC last night. (Thanks, refs.) After throwing what should have been a game winner to Jalon Calhoun, Riley Leonard joined a long list of Blue Devil quarterbacks who have watched wins get taken away by refs suddenly deciding to call penalties for no apparent reason. Oh, wait, scratch that. He joined that group last week against Georgia Tech (and I know that was the right call, but you get my point). The touchdown got taken off the board, Duke couldn’t convert a third down for a second time and then Charlie Ham missed a field goal to push the lead to seven.

What happened after that is already well known, so I won’t recap it here. I’m also not going to go through a long, traditional game recap. Instead, I’m resurrecting the Five Things from last year to give you all five reasons that the Blue Devils lost the game that weren’t related to a “chop block” and an equally, if not more so, terrible unnecessary roughness call on DeWayne Carter.

But, before we get to that, the botched UNC kick return wasn’t a safety last night. If you look at Rule 8, Section 5, the call was correct. It wasn’t a safety for a number of reasons, the main one being that the defense wasn’t responsible for the ball being behind the goal line.

Okay, now here are the Five Things:

No. 1 – Critical downs. This team is not great at critical moments. Let’s start with a bad (read “really bad”) fourth down call by Coach Johns. On 4th and 2 at the UNC 3, the call is for a sort of swing pass to the right out to Calhoun. Incomplete. Turnover on downs. How about a running play there? You have a mobile quarterback who can go under center and get pushed ahead. You also have a good RB committee who, checks notes, ran the ball really well last night. The team had been running well throughout the first half and, instead of a run, you call a high level of difficulty pass play? It didn’t make sense at the time and it makes less sense now that the game is over.

Consistent with that call, there was a third down and like six or so that Maye allegedly picked up on a scramble. It didn’t look like Maye had the yardage on the TV, and we weren’t on Bally Sports, so I have a higher degree of confidence that Maye didn’t make it. Given what we saw on TV, I expected Coach Elko to take a timeout to allow for a review. But that didn’t happen. UNC gets the first down and keeps rolling.

Look, I like what this staff is doing overall, but it has to improve in those critical moments. If the coaches aren’t good when it matters most, the players won’t be good, either. Which brings us to the second point.

No. 2 – Too many penalties. We can talk about the ones that shouldn’t have been called, and the holding calls on Carter that repeatedly weren’t, but, as the Section 17 guys noted, you can’t win a game with 8 penalties for 85 yards (ESPN had the number at 85 yards, not 90. I don’t care which is right in this context because five yards doesn’t matter). You also can’t win games when your LB captain picks up a 15 yarder for a facemask on what turns out to be the game winning drive for your opponent. Mistakes happen, I get that, but when a team averages six penalties a game, we can’t be stunned by close losses. And, close losses takes us to point number three.

No. 3 – The kicking teams. These first three points tie together well as they all relate to critical moments. As I regularly say, a good kicking unit can win you two games but can lose you a lot more. The latter is what we saw unfold last night. Instead of going for a field goal early and getting a chip shot for three points, Duke comes away with nothing. To make matters worse, Charlie Ham missed a 43-yarder late that would have gotten the game to 38-31 and likely forced overtime. The announcers thought there was a bad snap which may have contributed to the outcome. I don’t know if that’s the case and I won’t watch it again. What I will say is this – the kicking unit has to be shaken up. It just isn’t working. While we’re on the topic of shaking up the kicking teams, let’s turn to the next point.

No. 4 – Why didn’t Hagans return kicks? Seriously, can someone explain this to me? Is there something occurring at practice that makes what he did against the Yellow Jackets irrelevant?

No. 5 – WE GOT FREAKING HOSED! WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO WE LIVE IN THAT ALLOWS THIS TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE TO OCCUR?!?! THIS WAS STRAIGHT TRASH!!! I know I promised five things that weren’t related to the penalties called by the refs and I broke that promise. But I don’t care. That was awful, awful officiating.

I am going to conclude by saying that the Blue Devils played real, real hard. They competed on every down, didn’t quit and showed a real ability to not get overwhelmed by the moment. To have the game end the way it did was inexcusable and I’m glad that Coach Elko got the unsportsmanlike call. I think it will further tie the team together. There is nothing more motivating and unifying for a team than being able to credibly believe that everyone is out to get you. After what we saw against Georgia Tech and Chapel Hill College, this team will believe that to be the case. They will be motivated. They will be angry. And hopefully they will ride those emotions all the way to a bowl game.

Let me know what you think about what I think in the comments or on Twitter.

As always, Go Duke!

Before you listen to this, please allow me to qualify it by stating that I am not holding myself out as an expert on college football rules. I read up on some rules this morning to try and get a sense of why the penalty got called. You can view the replay by following this link.

With that qualification, here is my interpretation of the pertinent rules. And, before you listen, keep in mind that the neutral zone is basically the space between the two lines of scrimmage extended to the sidelines. The width is equal to the length of the ball. Got it? Good. Now here’s my take on the rules.

If there’s a rule I missed, PLEASE POINT IT OUT TO ME. I am not an expert on CFB rules. So, please feel free to correct me. I won’t take offense.

Finally, it would help if the Rules Committee added on some advisory committee notes to explain the purpose of each rule, suggested calls, etc. in more detail like is done with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. It’s a helpful thing to have in these situations.

Let me know what you think about what I think in the comments or on Twitter.

As always – Go Duke!

Duke went into Atlanta with a chance to get to 5-1. A chance to get one win away from a bowl. A chance to win two conference games for the first time in a long, long time. And, unfortunately, the Blue Devils came away with a loss. A bad one. From the jump, Georgia Tech looked in control. The Yellow Jackets were more physical, more assertive and more determined to get a win. Duke’s entire team, coaching staff included, looked off. The offense didn’t take a lot of shots down field (probably due to a Jalon Calhoun injury) and the running game never came together (although not a bad 33/142, but the RBs and OL couldn’t manage to set the tone for the game). Riley Leonard had his first bad (read awful) game of the season. He went 20/41 for 136 yards, 1 TD and 1 costly INT. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech kept pushing the ball downfield. Slowly, and methodically, the Yellow Jackets accumulated 412 total yards of total offense. 180 of those came on the ground. That’s not a recipe to get a win on the road.

But, despite that, the Blue Devils had a chance to win. While the defense didn’t do anything great, it did just enough to keep the things close as it held Georgia Tech to 5/15 third down conversions. Despite getting gashed for big run after big run by the Yellow Jackets, the Blue Devils’ defense bent, but refused to break. If a defense can do that when the offense struggles, a team can steal a win. And Duke got our hopes up for just a minute there when it sure looked like this team was going to steal one on the road.

It started when we all learned how Sahmir Hagans should have been returning kicks all year. With about 6:10 left in the game and down 20-6, Hagans took a punt 81 yards to the house and followed it up with another good one for 58 yards. Despite not playing well for most of the game, Leonard drove the Blue Devils down the field with time running out and got the ball to Nicky Dalmolin for a touchdown. A Charlie Ham PAT later, Duke had forced overtime. Somehow. It shouldn’t have happened, but the Blue Devils had a chance as the Yellow Jackets seemed determine to give Duke the win.

And it sure looked like that was going to happen. Georgia Tech got the ball to start overtime and, after a clean hit by Oben and Carter, the Yellow Jackets lost their quarterback and settled for a field goal. And then it all fell apart. After what looked like a conversion on 3rd down, the play came back thanks to an offensive PI call that a lot of people dispute. Coach Elko refused to discuss it after game. Honestly, I don’t remember the play well enough to comment on it. I just saw the penalty flags and died inside. I’ve seen this script too many times not to recognize what was about to happen. Leonard couldn’t get the ball downfield on the next play and Ham missed a 52 yard field goal to end the game. Georgia Tech won. The Blue Devils lost.

Why did that happen? Well, there are a lot of reasons. I’d start with injuries and Shaka Heyward getting DQ’d after a targeting call (and that was the correct call). Waters going down didn’t help, either. And the offense looked lost without Calhoun. But I think we have to admit that the real problem was that Coach Johns called his first bad game. When Duke was driving in the third quarter with a chance to score and down 17-3, a touchdown was a necessity. The drive started to stall in the red zone and we have a 3rd and 8 from the 11 with a chance to still get a first down. So, you’re down two touchdowns in the third and have a chance to get a first down at the 3. Instead of getting the ball to the tight end, utilizing the middle of the field, or generally acting like he had two downs to get the first, the call was a throw to the pylon. It didn’t work. It wasn’t ideal situational football. Why not use both downs and try to convert on a 4th down attempt? Worst case scenario is you pin your opponent and get better field position. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me in the moment and I have real time text messages to prove it.

Consistent with that poor decision making, the Blue Devils absolutely botched a chance to do anything at the end of the first half. With three timeouts and the ball, Coach Johns went conservative and put up a drive that managed six yards and used one timeout after letting the clock run down. There were 57 seconds left in the half when the offense got the ball and we saw an incomplete pass, a run (I think up the middle) and then a run out the clock running play at the end. A chance to score or do something positive down a touchdown was wasted. Why? I have no idea. It’s hard to understand why Coach Johns wasn’t more aggressive given that Duke was going to get the ball to start the second half. Why not take a chance? I didn’t understand it then and I sure don’t understand it now. But, let’s be honest. Not every night is going to be your best night. No one is perfect.

Finally, a lot of anger will be directed at the penalty call at the end. My good friend Lee Rodio put together a sensible argument that it was a bad call. I won’t say whether it was the right call or not because I can’t remember where Hagans was when he caught the ball. If someone has the video, send it to me. Regardless, it looked like the proper call may have been ineligible downfield. Putting aside whether it was the right call, the game shouldn’t have gotten to that point and it isn’t what cost this team a win.

Let’s get real for a minute – the Blue Devils were 4-1 heading into a road game being held on homecoming against a team with a losing record. That’s the exact kind of game you have to win if you want to be a good a team. And given how bad Georgia Tech has been, this is one that you can’t lose because you get outplayed, out-worked, out-coached and because you aren’t as physical as the other team. Maybe the buzz (wrong term, I know) around these guys got too positive, maybe the team looked ahead to next week and maybe the 4-1 start was built on wins against a bunch of bad teams. But none of that matters in the moment – Duke had a chance to win the game and the Blue Devils repeatedly failed to execute. That’s what cost them the win. As if the loss weren’t bad enough, this was a game that Duke had to win if it wants to get to a bowl. I hope it won’t be the case, but this is the kind of loss that could keep the Blue Devils from a bowl game. I sure hope that won’t be the case. Only time will tell.

To be fair, 4-2 after six isn’t the end of the world and a lot (read all) of us would have taken it before the season started. But this isn’t preseason. As we’ve seen this Duke team develop and progress, it’s hard not to get upset that a game like this slipped away for a number of preventable reasons. Those reasons include bad play calls, Leonard throwing a pick in the red zone at the 8 yard line, 7 penalties for 75 yards and a targeting call. Injuries didn’t help, either, but those happen and those didn’t cause the loss. Correctable mistakes did.

(Quick plug – if you want to know more about how the Blue Devils will deal with the injuries, listen to our interview with Steve Wiseman.)

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

As always, Go Duke!