Women ages 40 to 50 went crazy when they saw this handsome man on TV.
During the height of the Second Punic War, the Romans were desperate for a leader who could overcome a string of defeats and bring the North African power that was Carthage to heel. Eventually, the man who would become known to history as Scipio Africanus took control of the Roman forces, defeated Carthage and put an end to the Second Punic War. Scipio’s success in Africa was so complete that it gave rise to a myth that only a Scipio could win in Africa. The Romans, a naturally superstitious bunch, believed so strongly in this that Julius Caesar had a descendant of Scipio on his staff during the African campaign of what his Roman civil war.
Just as only a Scipio could win in Africa, perhaps only an Elko can get a win in Durham against Virginia Tech. On Saturday, the Blue Devils defeated the Hokies at home for the first time since 1981. For context, I was just one day short of being seven weeks old the last time the Bull City Boys beat VPI in Durham. Man, that really makes me realize just how old I’m getting. Going to take a break to yell at the kids skateboarding on the sidewalk, check a weather app and did I hurt my neck again? All right, I’m back.
This game started like a lot of games have for Duke this season in that the Blue Devils let a really not good Virginia Tech team hang around. The first quarter ended with the Hokies up 7-3. The first half ended with Duke up by a narrow margin of 10-3. And, compounding that close score, it sure looked like Jalon Calhoun had a catch on a deep ball that could have kept a late drive going and, at worst, likely have set up chip shot field goal attempt. Despite having three timeouts, Coach Elko didn’t call one to give the refs a chance to have the play reviewed. It may not have been overturned given that there didn’t appear to be indisputable evidence of a catch, but you were facing 3rd-and-11, so why not use one of your three timeouts to decide on how best to use both downs to convert? By this I mean try to come up with a plan to use two downs to get the conversion instead of betting it all on 3rd down. You know, try a short pass on 3rd down to get to a more manageable distance and then … What’s that you say? We’re just throwing another incomplete pass on a deep route that leads to a missed 45 yard field goal? Not what I would have done, but okay.
But, that horrible instance of game management aside, the Blue Devils came out in the second half and put together a repeat of the UVA game – they just overwhelmed Virginia Tech physically. The OL started opening up some running lanes, the backs started chewing up yards and Riley Leonard started finding Hagans, Moore and Robertson. Two second half scoring drives later, Duke celebrated a 24-7 victory over a Coastal opponent. While there were a lot of cool moments from this game, like the Hokie quarterback just falling down and giving Duke a sack, I think we can all agree that the best moment of the game was me on TV. Let’s take another look at it
Sorry, ladies, I’m married.
So, what were the big takeaways from Saturday? I’d have to say that the defense continued to hold its own. There were two sacks, two tackles-for-loss and what seemed like a lot of pressure on the opposing quarterback. While the defense struggled at times to contain Virginia Tech when it went tempo, Grant Wells only managed to throw for 177 yards, an early TD and a Three Stooges style interception that landed right in Shaka’s hands. If that weren’t enough, the Blue Devils held the Hokies to just 104 rushing yards. Not a bad day for our defense.
Offensively, we saw several receivers step up in Eli Pancol’s absence. Jontavis Robertson had 5 catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. Sahmir Hagans had 2 for 20, with both coming at crucial times. The same was true of Nicky Dalmolin’s touchdown and Jordan Moore’s 3 for 37 outing (which included an unreal one-handed catch). Throw in 165 rushing yards on 41 attempts and you have a Blue Devil win. It may not have been perfect, but good teams are able to overcome slow and inconsistent outings by being more methodical, more physical and more determined than the competition. That’s what we saw from Duke on Saturday and that’s why the Blue Devils got the win. It may not have been perfect, but it sure made the drive home a lot more fun.
Before I finish up, I’d like to note that this team is 7-3 with two more games to go. This season is going a heck of a lot better than most of us expected. While there may not be a signature win (other than the one that got stolen), this is turning into what can only be characterized as a truly historic season. I know that I’m not the only that wants to see this team close out the 2022 campaign with three more wins, bowl game included.
And that’s it for the game recap which means we have another old-time tune! This one is called “Walking Up Georgia Row”.
Let me know what you think about what I think in the comments, on Twitter or on Reddit.
As always, Go Duke!
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