2022 Game Recaps – We Can’t Have Nice Things

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!