2022 Game Recaps – Duke Beat Miami

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!