Category: Game Recaps

2021 Game Recap – Duke Went Winless (in the ACC)

When I first met my wife in 2001, Carl Franks roamed the sidelines in Durham as Duke’s head football coach. Back then, the Blue Devils were bad, real bad. In fact, when my wife and I met in August of that year, Duke was in the midst of a 12 game losing streak that would turn into a 23 game losing streak before it ended. I remember when the Blue Devils finally won a game in 2002 and followed it up with another win that season – two in a year, what?!?! – and we went out for a beer to celebrate. That’s how rare wins were for Duke back then.

So, when my wife and I drove down to Durham to watch the Blue Devils close out a disappointing season, I felt a little like we were traveling back in time to the start of our life together. And while I had great time at the game with my wife, I couldn’t say that I had a great time watching the game itself. Unfortunately, the people who say you can never go home again are wrong. You can always go home again, especially if you never leave. And that’s what it feels like watching Duke football right now. We’re stuck in a weird time loop that has taken us right back to where we were when Franks and Roof were coaching. As proof, look no further than the fact that, after finishing an underwhelming 3-9 this year, David Cutcliffe has a 77-97 overall record as the Blue Devils’ head coach. That isn’t a misprint – Cut is just three loses away from 100 for his career and is twenty games under .500 in Durham. Not great, Bob, doesn’t even begin to summarize where we are right now.

But enough of that. Let’s turn to Five Things. We’ll start with what I liked:

  1. The kickoff returns. Stinson showed up with our only touchdown of the day on his second return of the game. I won’t let the fact that he scored our only touchdown depress me. Too much.
  2. The people I got to see. It was nice to touch base with The Hard Hat Guys, The Section 17 guys, Michael Torbert, Lee Rodio and his brother and a number of different Duke parents family members. Lummie Young has one real proud grandfather. All of you family members are great. You support your kids no matter how rough the season gets. It wasn’t easy for you, but you are one special group.
  3. The soft pretzels get an A+.
  4. Did I mention I mention I went to the game with my wife? Here we are having a great time together
She doesn’t like to have her picture taken.

Now, let’s turn to Five Things I Didn’t Like.

  1. Too many Miami fans. Back in the old days, the opposing team’s fans would significantly outnumber the Blue Devils’ fans. That’s what it was like today. The Miami fans were on our side of the stadium which caused us to move seats. And because so few Duke fans were there, we didn’t have a hard time. But at least we got to be near the Blue Devils’ parents, so that was cool. Putting that aside, poor fan turnout means the program is backsliding. Something has to be done about it.
  2. The offensive plays were fairly bland and predictable. I didn’t like the 4th down run it up the middle call, letting Calhoun try and pass for a TD so early didn’t make sense and the fake punt coming just a week after Porter pulled it off … Sorry, that’s probably enough for now. But even worse than the “Let’s throw a bunch of short routes and never stretch the defense” offensive strategy was …
  3. The bad personnel grouping. I still don’t think that we ever got the right WRs on the field at the same time. I also think we subbed too many people in too frequently and prevented them from getting into a rhythm. Now, I am not criticizing the staff for utilizing depth, but I am saying that they didn’t get the right offensive guys on the field at the right time. It was the same with the defense. Franklin didn’t play enough today. Given that we went to a 3-3-5 for a lot of plays, which I commend the shakeup, I don’t understand why he wasn’t the starting nose tackle. I also don’t understand why we always seemed to use a LB as a fourth DL in that formation and did it in a way that didn’t confuse anyone. While I respect the DCs for trying something different, I think the execution was poor. There’s more that I could say about the defensive personnel issues, but I am afraid it will come across as critical of players and I don’t want to do that. Those guys play hurt, through pain and put it all out on the field, so, if you want to hear more about that just DM me on Twitter.
  4. Can we get people in charge of gameday operations to do better? How about playing music with the word “Devil” in it at set times during the game? (H/t to The Hard Hat Guys.) Why are we playing Sweet Caroline at all? If the goal is to intimidate your opponent, Sweet Caroline won’t do it. If the goal is to play music your mother or grandmother liked, you’ve succeeded. While victory may be in how you define the parameters, you’re still losing if you play that song. I mean, I don’t even understand why anyone plays Sweet Caroline. It isn’t a song that pumps people up. “Carolina” isn’t in our name like it is for the Panthers down in Charlotte which gives them some reason to play that song (not that they should play it, I’m just pointing out they have a reason to do it, no matter how dumb that reason actually is). Are you telling me there isn’t a better song in the entire history of music you could play? A simple Google search uncovered 10 rock songs, mainly metal, with “devil” in the title or the lyrics. This isn’t hard. And why do the Red Sox play it after they win? What is wrong with you people?!?!
  5. A winless conference season. You can’t sugarcoat this one – this is just pathetic. From 1996 until 2008, Duke went winless in conference eight times. EIGHT. Over twelve seasons. The word you’re looking for there is pathetic. The fact that we’re back to doing that again says a lot about what we’re in for if we stay the course and keep this coaching staff intact. I’m not rooting for anyone to lose their jobs, but I am pointing out that what the current staff is doing isn’t working.

I’ll have a lot more to say about what happened to the Blue Devils in 2021 when I do my season recap later this week. But I’m going to turn away from that for a few days because I need to decompress and, more important, because we are going to drop episode 2.1 tomorrow! Check out the site and follow our podcast to get notified when the episode is available.

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

Go Duke!

2021 Game Recap -The Wheels Came Off (Again?)

Duke got beat by Louisville on Thursday night. Badly. This was a seventh straight conference loss and seventh straight loss overall. Since there wasn’t much to like about it, I’m going straight to the Five Things I Didn’t Like:

  1. I didn’t like going to Moore the first time in the red zone. I liked it even less the second time. Gunnar was in a rhythm, moving the ball well and putting us in a position to score even though Mataeo was hurt. Why disrupt the rhythm on first down? Why not wait till third and fourth or inches to do it? And, more important, why not let Moore do more? How about a deep toss instead of running all the time? We saw him connect for a touchdown in Blacksburg. Why didn’t we let him do it again? Probably because …
  2. The offensive staff sure seemed to want Gunnar to fail. The play calling and personnel groupings on offense didn’t show signs of life or smarts until Riley Leonard came in. Look, Jake Bobo is as tough as they come, but he won’t fool anyone when he goes in motion. No one is going to think we’ll actually run the ball with Jake (who is a great player, by the way. I can’t say enough good things about him. I’m just saying he isn’t a running threat.) But, hey, we did that exact play with Jalon when Leonard was under center and, wow, it worked. Why not do it with Gunnar? Even harder than that for me to understand than the sudden change in play calling is how it looked like Gunnar got benched. Up until he was taken out of the game, Gunnar played well. It wasn’t his fault the Blue Devils were getting abused by the Cardinals. How about the staff support Gunnar and give him a chance to win?
  3. I continue to not like our defense. Despite all the time the staff has had with this unit, they still haven’t figured out how to cover the edge and fill gaps. Or how to cover open offensive players. The worst, or best, example of this was when both of our LBs left an open man on 3rd and long (3rd-and-24, if my memory serves) to give up a touchdown. How in the world they managed to do that WHEN WE ALWAYS PLAY MAN is beyond me. Even more problematic is the fact that this unit can’t tackle. I like a lot of these guys individually (especially Woods who sure didn’t seem to get enough playing time), but the coaches aren’t putting them in a position to make plays. Week after week, this unit gives up a ton of points and way, way too many yards. Yet we keep doing the same thing. Over. And. Over. Again. With the same results.
  4. How d0 we not have Satterfield in some coaching role at Duke given that he grew up in Durham? That doesn’t really count as a thing, but it’ll have to do.
  5. No energy from Coach Cut. Before the game, the TV cameras picked up the Duke team in the tunnel. Cut was near the front of the group and, as I pointed out previously, he didn’t seem to have much energy. Cut looked disinterested and like he wanted to be anywhere but where is feet were. There’s a good political history comparison I could make, but I don’t get political on this site, so I won’t now. DM me on Twitter and I’ll discuss it with you. While I didn’t like Coach Spurrier resigning as head coach of the Gamecocks midway through the season, I now appreciate a coach realizing it wasn’t working and deciding to make a change.

This has been a rough season for the Blue Devils, real rough. And the way that the staff has failed to make adjustments hasn’t helped. The way it seems to undermine a very, very talented quarterback who has played well makes it even worse. I will understand if a lot of these guys refuse to come back next year, just like a lot of seniors did last year. Benching Gunnar explains that while Cut looks out for a staff that can’t put an offensive or defensive game plan together, he sure doesn’t look out for guys who stuck out several rough seasons and put it all on the field for the team. And that’s unfortunate. But that’s where things are now.

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

Go Duke!

2021 Game Recap – Duke Lost to Virginia Tech

In my game preview, I picked Duke to win. Then, shortly before the game started, I learned that Gunnar Holmberg wasn’t going to start. I told the guys I went to the game with I was switching my pick and taking VT to win. The three of us all shared the same assessment – the Blue Devils would lose a close game against a bad VT team. We were half right, but way, way wrong. This one turned into yet another blowout conference loss; and it was a bad loss to a bad team led by a coach that is going to get fired at the send of the season. To be clear, I’m referring to Tech, but the assessment about a bad team with a coach on his way out could apply to Duke.

It was fun till it started.

The Blue Devils lost 48-17 against a hapless Hokie crew. So, let’s get to Five Things followed by a little Duke history lesson.

Five Things I liked:

  1. I met Stanley Monk and the Hard Hat Guys. That was cool.
  2. Jordan Moore played well in relief. But I have more on the quarterback situation in what I didn’t like.
  3. I got Porter Wilson’s attention coming out of the tunnel after the half when I yelled “Go Duke!”. He looked up, I yelled “Go Duke!” again and he nodded. Then we became best friends. We’re going to hang out after the season and he’ll teach me how to avoid injury from an official’s penalty flag. (Okay, only the first part of that happened. The rest of it is just a dream. But you keep punting, you crazy diamond.)
  4. I’m all tapped out.

Five Things I didn’t like:

  1. Mataeo didn’t get enough touches. The three of us couldn’t figure out why Mataeo didn’t get the ball 30+ times. One of us was a VT fan, so he was fine with it, but it didn’t make sense to anyone. VT probably loved it, especially when nothing was done to give the QB a chance to succeed. Which brings me to the next thing I didn’t like …
  2. We didn’t let Riley Leonard throw the ball down the field. He clearly had single read plays and we didn’t adjust from that. VT stacked the box and there were throws to the right on a quick slant that we didn’t take advantage of. Bad. Play. Calling. Take pressure off of the OL, give your RB and QB opportunities and force VT to get out of its comfort zone.
  3. And speaking of bad play calling, how do we get an interception at the VT 12 yard line and not give Mataeo the ball one time? Bring in Moore to run? OK, well that’s stupid because everyone knew what was coming. Mataeo is one of the best backs in the conference. He should have gotten the ball in that situation. We also needed to put in Diamont at WR (and possibly Moore, too, given how fast he is), because our WRs are not great at getting separation. We need to be creative, but, just like our play calls are bad, our utilization of talent on offense is subpar. Fortune, as they say, favors the bold. And whatever the heck we’re doing isn’t bold. Well, perhaps it is in its stubborn commitment to doing things that don’t work, but I’m not sure that’s what Caesar meant.
  4. Bad quarterback management. When Gunnar went down, we should have been ready to turn to Luca who spent last year learning the system. Instead, we turned to true freshmen. And the results spoke for themselves. Leonard looked uncomfortable, missed open receivers by throwing low and wide and generally looked like he wasn’t ready for the moment. WHICH IS NOT SURPRISING BECAUSE HE’S A TRUE FRESHMAN AT A DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM. WHY PUT HIM OUT THERE? It’s particularly hard to understand given how well Moore looked when he got into the game. A lot of this may have been that the staff helped him by doing smart things (finally) and letting him throw down the field. Yesterday was the predictable result of terrible QB room management. It’s just another reason Jeff Faris and David Cutcliffe will have a lot to answer for at the end of the year.
  5. The defense. We got zero pressure on the quarterback. We gave up over 500 yards to a bad VT team. The defense has been terrible all season in conference. But we just keep doing the same thing. This is a result of scheme and not putting the right players on the field together. Which all goes back to coaching. All of it. It’s hard to say that these folks deserve another chance given how poorly they’re performing.

Watching the Blue Devils lose another conference game in blowout fashion was painful. Yesterday seemed a lot like “Same old Duke football.” Bad situational management, an early missed field goal and no creativity after the first drive. It reminded me of all those Franks and Roof years where there would be one good drive to start the game and that was it. And, speaking of which, tell me which conference season you would prefer if you had to choose.

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

If you chose Option 1, you chose Carl Franks’ 2002 season. That was the one before he got fired during the season. If you chose Option 2, you chose Ted Roof’s 2006 season. That was his next to last season as the Blue Devils’ head coach. If you chose Option 3, then you’re one of the last people who doesn’t think Duke needs a new head coach (you chose this season). And, if you do think that, I would appreciate you telling me why. No changes are being made on offense or defense, the team continues to be haunted by the same problems every week and there is zero life on the sidelines. This team looks dead in the water. Like I said previously, it’s time for a change.

This program is right back where it was when the two coaches who are generally considered the worst in its history (and possibly some of the worst in college football history) were told it was time to leave. The current coach isn’t doing any better than those two did at the end of their tenures. In 2019, Cut went 3-5 in conference. Last year, he managed an abysmal 1-9. And now? We’re on track for a winless conference record and seven straight losses after a 3-1 start. (So, maybe last year wasn’t all on COVID?) If football matters in Durham, the trends tell you all you need to know about what has to happen after this team concludes its season at home against Miami on November 27.

All that said, I won’t stop rooting for the Blue Devils. Let me know what you think about what I think below.

Go Duke!

2021 Game Recap – Duke Loses More than a Game Against Pitt

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I don’t know why I’m posting this image. Just trying to promote the brand, I guess.

We all expected Duke to lose, but what we didn’t necessarily expect was the fight the Blue Devils put up against a 6-2 (now 7-2) Pitt team. Duke had chances early. Gunnar Holmberg, Mataeo Durant, Eli Pancol and company came out firing and kept this game interesting until late in the second quarter. But two trips to the Pitt one yard line that ended on a fumble and a turnover on downs were too much for the Blue Devils to overcome. Despite an early field goal, a safety and a nice touchdown toss from Gunnar to Calhoun, Pitt did what every other ACC team has done to Duke this season – win. The 54-29 final score was another blowout loss in conference this season.

Even worse for the Blue Devils than the fifth straight loss was that Gunnar Holmberg left the game with an injury. It appears to be a hairline-ish rib fracture and not the more serious clavicle fracture we were all concerned about based on the way Gunnar held himself as he left the game. While Riley Leonard did all right in relief, I think we would all prefer to have Gunnar when Duke takes on the Hokies next week. And, speaking of the quarterback situation, it’s time to get to Five Things because there is something about that situation I certainly don’t like. But, before we get to that, here are Five Things I liked:

  1. We returned a kick for a touchdown! Our man Jaylen Stinson, after a number of questionable returns all season, showed up big when he took one 69 yards to the house. Jaylen, I’ve been critical of the way the staff has let you return kicks as opposed to taking a touchback, but you sure made the most of that one. Congrats, my man!
  2. Our offense actually put up points for the first time since Georgia Tech. While 29 wasn’t enough, the Blue Devils moved the ball real well until Jeff Faris decided to stop running the ball (more on that below). Gunnar looked sharp, we used our tight ends, Bobo and Durant did what they do and Eli Pancol showed up. It was nice (while it lasted).
  3. We. Got. A. Safety. I have been pretty critical of our DL not getting a lot of pressure (which I think is the result of youth and not getting the right unit on the field), but they stepped up early. That safety gave us a real shot to hang around. It just wasn’t in the cards today.
  4. How about Dorian Mausi causing a turnover? We didn’t really know what to expect form him when Rocky Shelton was dismissed from the team earlier this year, but the man has stepped up. He looks like a leader out there and calls the plays, changes assignments and gets in the middle of it. Sam McGrath has done a heck of a job with this linebacker crew. How about a 4-3 next year instead of the 4-2-5 the opposition just runs a wheel route against?
  5. And for number five … I got a new set of strings on my acoustic Fender. Does that count? No? Well, tough – that’s all I’ve got.

And now for the Five Things I didn’t like:

  1. How in the world do we get inside the opposing team’s 1 yard line twice and come away with zero points? It’s a rhetorical question, so don’t bring up the play calls and the fumble. That poor performance just can’t happen. We have an older team on offense and ought to be able to punch the ball into the end zone in those situations. This team just isn’t good at situational football and the fumbling continues to be a problem.
  2. So, too, does the quarterback situation. I don’t understand what the quarterback whisperer / offensive guru is doing with this unit. Holmberg hasn’t been allowed to run the ball since the Kansas game and the crappy offensive performances speak for themselves. Then, when he gets hurt, we turn to a true freshman and not the sophomore Luca Diamont? Plus, we let Leonard run, but not Gunnar? And what happened to Moore? Are we going to blow both of their redshirts because the staff has some apparent issue with Luca? I don’t know what Jeff Faris (read “David Cutcliffe”) is doing, but none of this makes sense. Duke runs an offense that takes time for a new quarterback to figure out, so it would make sense to let Luca play in this situation. But mismanaging the quarterback room is par for the course for this staff, so let’s move onto number three …
  3. Jeff Faris cut our offense off at the knees. Putting aside the points we left on the board early by giving the ball away, the Blue Devils ran the offense pretty well early on. Durant burst through holes and Gunnar actually picked up a few yards on the ground. And then Faris abandons the run and starts throwing the ball every down? Sure, Jan, that makes sense. Keep doing what works until the other team stops it. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.
  4. Our defensive line is not getting any pressure. Maybe get Franklin and Oben in more? Maybe give the guys who get a lot of pressure and are disruptive more opportunities? How about we pair them with Carter and Smith? I don’t know if our staff is the best at putting the right guys in position to make plays. Our defense gave up way too many points, way too many yards and generally fell to pieces as the game went on. I expected us to struggle defensively all season because of all the depth we lost and the fact that we were going to play a lot of young guys, but Duke is giving up well over 40 points per game in conference. That says a lot about scheme, design and coaching.
  5. Why didn’t Cut use his timeouts at the end of the first half to try and ice Pitt’s kicker? It’s an eight point game, you have two timeouts and Pitt gets the ball to start the second half. Use the timeouts and try to ice the kicker. Cut didn’t and I can’t figure out why. Like I said after the last loss, Cut has shown a complete lack of energy and it almost seems like he doesn’t care. Not using your timeouts there signaled defeat. Again, this team, staff included, is bad at situational football, but you can be bad at situational football and still care. Unfortunately, Cut sure seems like he’s checked out.

Let me just wrap up by saying that while I expected this Blue Devils’ team to be 4-8, I expected more losses like we saw today. Competition early followed by the game slipping away. Unfortunately, because the staff isn’t fixing the ball control issue, isn’t making the right decisions in key situations and isn’t using personnel correctly … Wow, just re-read that. What was my point? Oh, right – because of the way this team is losing there isn’t a good reason to keep the staff around for another season. I will say that I hope our OL coach, our LB coach and Requan Boyette get another season. I’m also fine with keeping Ben Albert around so long as he moves back to just being the DL coach and we get a new DC.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I’m going to strum those new strings I mentioned because my kids are watching an Adam Sandler movie and, I’m gonna go ahead and say it, he’s not funny. He just isn’t. I will die on this hill.

Let me know what you think about what I think in the comments or on Twitter. But, before you do that, send some good vibes to Gunnar. Get well soon – we’ll need you in Blacksburg!

Go Duke!

And, P.S., congrats to Mataeo on getting past the 1,000 yard mark this season. A one thousand yard rusher would normally be enough to get to bowl game at most schools, but it isn’t enough in Durham.

2021 Game Recap – Cut the Cord

I’m going to skip the recap of yesterday’s fourth straight painful loss and get right to what needs to be said. Sorry if you were looking forward to Five Things, but now isn’t the time for that. (We did record a jam session yesterday which I will try to post tonight.)

During yesterday’s game, I said I on Twitter that I would not hold back in my game recap. Here’s what I said:

That’s the tweet!

I don’t remember what specifically caused me to lose my patience and self-control, but it’s about time I come out and say what I’ve been hinting at all season. So, as promised, here it is – it is time for Duke football to move on from David Cutcliffe. The Blue Devils need a new coach. We can appreciate all that David Cutcliffe did from 2008 until 2018 while recognizing that he’s holding Duke back and an impediment to winning. I’ve been talking about trends all season and I’ve been doing it for a reason – once the Blue Devils lost to Charlotte, I had a sense that Cutcliffe wouldn’t fix the problems that had been haunting this team since 2018-ish and we’d see a repeat of what we’ve seen since 2019. That premonition turned out to be accurate when North Carolina absolutely demolished Duke – Cutcliffe won’t make changes. He won’t make adjustments. He won’t adapt to the changing football landscape. And the results speak for themselves – blowout loss after blowout loss. It’s pathetic. We’re every bit as bad as we were when Cutcliffe came to Durham.

If the university cares about football, I don’t know how this can be allowed to continue. I’ve watched the Blue Devils regularly since the 1990s, I have a vague memory of knowing that Duke did well real during Spurrier’s last season, so I can say this with a good deal of authority – this is one of the worst teams I’ve ever watched. This Blue Devils team is just bad. There’s no way around it. This Duke team is getting beat, manhandled and pushed around just like all those teams under Franks and Roof did.

The key difference, though, is this team has a lot more talent than those bad Goldsmith, Franks and Roof teams that went winless. Those teams were often younger, smaller and slower than the other team at every position. That isn’t the case here – our OL and DL can match up with their opposition from a size perspective and the corners play well in coverage (aside from constantly being left alone in single coverage which just about every corner is going to get beat on). We have a good running back, a real good one, and a quarterback who can complete a pass and run (but the staff doesn’t let him, because, you know, idiocy). There is absolutely no excuse for the failure of this offensive staff to put points on the board and to give up 30+ each week.

So, why is it happening? Well, I guess we will do Five Things after all and put the blame where it belongs – on the head coach. Here are Five Things that are wrong with the program right now:

  1. Cut promotes people based on time served, not on merit. Zac Roper and Jeff Faris are the perfect examples of bad promotions. Why do we have a former special teams coordinator and a walk-on safety running our offense instead of a former QB or a WR? It’s a good question without a good answer. When you’re on a team or part of a business, and a university football program is a business, you have to produce. Cut has seemed content since 2015 to let people advance based on time served as opposed to merit and performance. That’s a terrible way to run a business. Produce or go home. If results aren’t expected and demanded, you start to slip. Then you fall. That’s what’s happening now. We are falling right into adversity.
  2. Cut doesn’t hold people accountable (and this is going to bleed into numbers three and four, because there’s a lot to unpack here). How in the world Jeff Faris still has a job after UNC, UVA and Wake is beyond me. His game management yesterday was terrible. I don’t want to go into the bad plays, but what he’s doing isn’t working. But it isn’t entirely on him, it’s an extension of what happened when Zac Roper ran the offense. And it only took wasting a generational talent at quarterback followed by a jump pass that cost Duke a bowl game to make a change there. Wasting talent is what happens when you don’t hold your staff accountable. Before I leave this point, am I the only one who has noticed that Roper seems to be hovering around Cut all throughout the game? Does he still have some involvement in the offense? If so, why? Look, Faris may be a good person and a nice guy, but, like Donny in The Big Lebowski, he’s out of his element.
  3. The defensive scheme has been figured out. We’ve been in a 4-2-5 for years. You have gaps because you don’t have a third LB to fill them. Teams know where those gaps are and run plays to force the LB to come in on runs or drop into coverage on a WR on pass plays. They then go to where the LB isn’t (or just heave it on single coverage). The result – big plays and blowouts. Just like Faris shouldn’t be running the offense, Matt Guerrieri isn’t doing a good job. We keep getting burned on the same plays we’ve gotten burned on since 2015. We also can’t disguise our blitzes. And we don’t adapt. Again, Guerrieri may be a nice guy, but his defense is giving up a lot of points. Despite that, we keep seeing the same press coverage week after week. I’ve had enough. We need to make a change.
  4. We’re bad at situational football. I won’t go into the poor use of timeouts and bad use of the Moore package all season, but I will say that the kicking teams yesterday was the worst I’ve seen them. If we brought Scott Boylan in to return kicks, why are we letting Stinson return kicks from the end zone to put us in worse field position? Why not take the touchback? And running backwards on a return (I can’t remember if Stinson did that or not, but it happened)? What in the world is going on? We supposedly have fast players, why not let them have a shot? No knock on Stinson, but there are types of law I don’t practice because those areas don’t mesh well with what I do on a day-to-day basis and because I don’t have enough experience in those areas to do them comfortably. Same here with Stinson – it just isn’t his thing. The staff has to do a better job of coaching players on when to return and has to put players in situations to make plays. I’m not seeing a lot of that from the kicking teams. And, again, it only took until the eighth game of the season for the staff to put someone else back there. You guys watch film all week and practice this stuff, but you’re just now figuring it out?
  5. No energy. I have some comments here that could be deemed criticisms of the players. That isn’t the case – pay close attention and you’ll see that. Cut sure doesn’t seem to care on the sidelines. He looks disinterested and not into the game. The team seems to be taking a lead from that because they don’t look like they care on the sidelines, either. I think it’s pretty obvious that Cut has lost the team and the players are going through the motions as a result. But part of why I said that this team is one of the worst to watch is because of the apparent lack of leadership from the players. No one is acting like Koby Quansah, Carlos Wray or Max McCaffrey would when things got tough. As rough as some of those Goldsmith seasons were, the players would fight and compete. They just didn’t have the depth to get more wins. This team wasn’t going to be much better than 4-8, but when you have a chance to get to 5 wins early on, you have to dig deep and come out angry. You have to demand accountability from your teammates and lead by example. I haven’t seen that from the coach or the team this season. Now, I’m not pinning this on the players. This is a reflection of a poor culture that Cut has let take hold. He’s accountable for this. But I will say that the players have to start leading around Cut and take control of this. I don’t see these guys snapping a six game losing streak like we saw happen in 2017. This is a culture problem and it has to change.

There’s no way Ms. King can bring Cut back next season. Cut won’t do what it takes to fix the program. The trends show he isn’t capable of it. If it were up to me, I’d go ahead and cut the cord now and name Boyette or Frey interim coach. Boyette has had a lot of success with RBs over the years and Frey’s OL has been a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season. It’s been time for a change for a good while now, and yesterday took away any reason to give Cut more time. Thanks for all you’ve done coach, but it’s time for someone else to lead the Blue Devils. I hope you enjoy retirement and come back to Durham often. I’ll remember the good years and won’t fixate on what happened at the end of your time as head coach. Again, I appreciate all you’ve done, but it’s time for a change.

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

Go Duke!

2021 Game Recap – Duke Loses (Yet Again)

I’ll be honest with you, I feel like this blog is turning into a form of therapy. I come here and vent my frustrations about a long-term relationship that is causing me a lot of pain, stress and worry. I’m not talking about my soon to be 18 year marriage, I’m talking about my relationship with Duke football. (The line about the marriage is a joke Been married for 18 years and we’re all good.) This loss may have been the worst since … Take your pick of one from last season. I don’t know how to begin to recap the fact that the Blue Devils put up a goose egg against UVA. But I’ll try.

Let’s get to Five Things.

Here are the Five Things I liked:

  1. Um … Well … Let me just try and see if I can …
  2. The game ended (h/t to Duke Rivals for that one).
  3. The reasons not to make significant changes to the staff are all gone. I’ve been talking about trends a lot all season, and I’ll keep doing it, because the trends tell the story. And that story is that the rest of the ACC has moved in front of Duke. Since conference play started, the Blue Devils are 0-3 which continues a trend of mediocre conference play dating back to 2017 (I’ll give the 2016 team a pass because of all the injuries that season). If the administration cares about football, it can’t allow this to continue. Cutcliffe has shown that he can win in Durham, but his reluctance to make significant changes on the staff is holding the team back. The repeated losses, the margin of defeat and the ugly nature of a lot those losses means that Cut and his staff have allowed the program to crash and burn to the bottom of the Coastal. The staff isn’t capable of winning games. Changes have to be made.
  4. The OL didn’t give up a sack until the second half (if memory serves).
  5. That’s it — I’m all tapped out.

Here are the Five Things I Didn’t Like:

  1. This game was so painful that I stopped watching at the end of the 3rd quarter which is something that I almost never do. I’ve been a loyal fan since I was a kid, but this was too much for me. The Blue Devils’ offense was so inept, the defense was completely unable to get a stop and the game was generally so painful that I couldn’t take it. I don’t how you come out and lay an egg like that after a close loss against Georgia Tech. My sense is that the staff lost control of the team. I’ll stand to be corrected on that, but the outcome speaks for itself. Pulling Charlie Ham will cause things like that to happen. Just saying …
  2. Jeff Faris doesn’t understand situational football. I mean, what the heck were you doing? Duke is down 27-0 at the end of the first half (about two minutes to go) and has all of its timeouts. Gunnar throws underneath for 5 yards and a timeout is immediately called. Okay, but why? Why not just call a play and burn clock in the event that you aren’t able to get a first down? Then another 4 yard pass and it’s 3rd & 1 with 1:42 and you call … Another timeout? Are you trying to give UVA the ball with a lot of time to score? Well, if you were, great, because that’s what happened. And can we talk about the only good series you had in the 3rd quarter that you wasted by going huddle for a direct snap to Mataeo on 2nd down followed by a designed run on 3rd that everyone and their blind mother saw coming? Gunnar had been throwing great on that drive. How about keep calling Jontavis Robertson’s number?
  3. Continued lack of discipline. Drops and penalties killed this team. Add in bad situational football and you end up getting a whooping. And that’s what that was. The Blue Devils got whooped and the sloppy play that has been a problem all season didn’t help.
  4. The same old message. I’m sure Cut will take the blame for this and talk about how he needs to prepare the team better. He’ll say he knows what good football is. But is that message resulting in wins? Is it making the team better? Is anything changing? If we keep hearing the same thing week after week followed by the same result week after week, what reason do we have to believe that Cut is going to turn this around? Look, I love everything that Cut did for the program. I respect everything he did for the program. But we are knee-deep in Franks and Roof territory. Look at all the conference losses and the margin of defeat in those losses from the last conference game of 2018 to this season and you can see that we’re just as bad now as we were 20 years ago. I’d argue that the way Duke is losing now is worse than a lot of what we saw from Franks and Roof. And it isn’t acceptable if we care about football.
  5. The Blue Devils are getting embarrassed. 38-7 against Carolina coming off of three straight wins. A tough loss to Georgia Tech followed up by a loss of almost 50. This is embarrassing. And it hurts.

Well, that’s it for a while because we have a bye next week.

Go Duke!

2021 Game Recap – Duke Loses to Georgia Tech

My game recap is going to be a little abbreviated today because I missed a lot of this game thanks to a trip to VT to watch the Hokies play the Irish. Unfortunately for me, I caught the end of Duke blowing a fourth quarter lead to Georgia Tech to lose what should have been the Blue Devils’ first conference win of the season. I vented a lot of my frustration on Twitter after the game, so let’s go straight to Five Things.

Five Things I liked:

  1. Despite going down 14-0 early in the game, Duke fought back and didn’t quit. The Blue Devils outscored Georgia Tech 27-17 after spotting the Yellow Jackets two scores. That tells me that this team doesn’t quit. And you need that during a season like this one.
  2. Mataeo gonna Mataeo. 43 carries. 152 yards. 1 touchdown. 8 receiving yards. 2,000 plus total rushing yards in his career. Mataeo can ball.
  3. The defense is getting better (wheel route notwithstanding). We got two picks. Despite a poor start to the season, the defense has shown an ability to make plays. (Capitalizing on them is another matter all together which we discuss below.)
  4. I like being right. No, I’m not talking about predicting a loss. I’m talking about my early season prediction that the Blue Devils would lose a lot of close games but would show signs of life. That tells me while this season may be rough, things could well go differently for Duke next year. The real question is who will be around to lead the Blue Devils during what could be a season like 2012 was.
  5. Our QB was 22/29 for 2 touchdowns. Sure, there was one pick at the end of the game, but that happens in those situations. With a guy who is that efficient under center, Duke should have a chance to steal a game or two during the second half of the season. But that probably won’t be enough to get us to a bowl which takes us to …

Five Things I Didn’t Like:

  1. The Blue Devils gave up another 4th quarter lead. Just like with Charlotte, Duke had a chance to seal a win and, just like Charlotte, the defense didn’t hold. While some people who probably know a little more about football than I do have told me the defensive play call wasn’t a bad one, I’m not sure how, on third down, the DC leaves a corner in man coverage on a deep ball. Sure, a 36 yard toss for a TD isn’t easy, but college quarterbacks practice this. Plus, it seems like the Blue Devils always get beat in such situations, so why not drop 7 or 8 and be willing to give up the field goal to prevent the TD? Take it OT – the offense has played well. I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.
  2. Rough day for a good kicker. I saw some players slip at times, so I’m going to chalk it up to just a bad day for Charlie Ham. Even Ross Martin missed some field goals now and then.
  3. Why aren’t we giving Mataeo the ball on 4th and short? Looking at No. 2 of what I liked, he is pretty darned good and an effective player. Not letting Mataeo take the ball in those situations is really, really hard to comprehend. Play calling has been an issue all year and not letting your best back touch the ball in short yardage is a symptom of a larger disease. So, too, is not turning turnovers into points. And not giving your TE the ball enough. I could go on for a while, but I think you guys get the point. But speaking of Duke’s situational football woes …
  4. This team could easily be 5-1, easily. Two blown leads in the 4th quarter has the Blue Devils trending downward and away from a bowl game. Better play calling has this team at 5-1. Losing close games the same way year after year indicates that coaches aren’t making adjustments, aren’t making changes and aren’t good at situational football. Good teams overcome, bad teams find ways to lose. The Duke coaching staff sure seems to be good at finding ways to lose. That might explain why less than 12,000 showed up to watch the Blue Devils lose.
  5. Duke lost another conference game. The Blue Devils haven’t had a winning conference records since 2014 when Duke finished second in the Coastal with a 5-3 record. Let that sink in for a minute – 6 seasons with a losing conference record. That’s pretty bad no matter how you try and spin it. Last week I said look at trends and, when you do that, you see that the Blue Devils are not competitive in conference. To borrow an old phrase, you are what your record says you are and Duke’s conference record isn’t very good. How do you feel about your conference record, random fan?
Not great, Bob.

Let’s hope the Blue Devils bounce back, because UVA won’t be easy.

Go Duke!

2021 Game Recap – The Real Game on Saturday

To try and get the terrible taste of the last game out of our collective mouth, I was going to post a video of my daughter scoring a goal in her soccer game on Saturday followed by her brother, the “referee”, celebrating with her, but I’d have to pay $84 to upgrade the website plan and I don’t want to do that. So, instead of a video, I’m doing another audio breakdown of the real game on Saturday. I hope you all enjoy it.

Go Duke!

2021 Game Recap – The Winning Streak Ends (Brutally)

Duke went to Chapel Hill. The Blue Devils lost. Despite a good first quarter, it got ugly. The same problems that have been hovering around this Duke team all season cropped up and it cost them – big plays, the wheel route, penalties and questionable situational football. We all saw it, so I won’t spend a lot of time wondering why we used Moore in short yardage instead of giving the ball to Gunnar or Durant. I also won’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out why we didn’t throw down field. Let’s just get to the Five Things and skip over the fact that we didn’t run Gunnar despite him having four rushing TDs against Kansas.

Five things I liked:

  1. Let me see here … Not much on offense to like thanks to the lousy play calls discussed in Number 2 of what I didn’t like.
  2. Defense got a lot of sacks, that was good.
  3. We punted the ball pretty well.
  4. I didn’t break anything at the house during the game and I didn’t throw anything, either. Am I becoming an adult?
  5. My profanity was kept to a respectable minimum

Five things I didn’t like:

  1. We lost to Carolina, so let me just say … F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! MOTHER F*&^%#$!
  2. Jeff Faris called the worst game for a Blue Devils team in a long, long time. And that says a lot. Gunnar wasn’t allowed to run and Faris botched the Moore package. Maybe there was some truth to that joke I made about a walk-on safety being allowed to call the plays? I’m not sure what the offensive strategy was, but Carolina loaded up the box after Durant burned them a few times and we never got the ball consistently to a TE. Why not try a screen to a running back? I don’t get it. I just don’t get it
  3. We didn’t see a lot of Woods. He should have played a lot, lot more.
  4. Oh, and back to Number 1 – F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%! F*&^%!
  5. We’re 3-2 and 0-1 in conference. The rest of our schedule is BRUTAL. It’s going to be a long season for us if Faris keeps calling plays like this and we can’t figure out how to cover a wheel route.

Go Duke!

2021 Game Recap – Duke beats Kansas!

Eli Pancol and Gunnar Holmberg celebrate one of 5 Gunnar touchdowns.

It was a wild day in Wallace Wade as the Duke Blue Devils beat the Kansas Jayhawks by a final score of 52-33. And when I saw “a wild day”, I mean it. Duke found a way to keep Kansas in the game and were down at the half 24-21. Despite that, the Blue Devils didn’t quit and outscored Kansas 31-9 in the second half on their way to a third straight win (which, checks notes, is the first time this program has won three straight since 2019).

I was at the game and, despite being pretty darned nervous, loved watching Duke get a win. I was there with fellow Drinking Team Coordinator Tim and my aunt and uncle, Tom and Mary. It was great to be able to get together for our yearly game after not being able to last year (Tim hadn’t been there since our 2018 game due to a 2019 scheduling conflict). And it was also great to get to meet so many DukeGang parents. You all are wonderful people – thank you for letting me bother you. On top of that, I really enjoyed catching up with a lot of Blue Devils fans and a podcast guest.

For the recap this week, I’m going to address five things I liked and five things I didn’t like about the game. If we make this a regular part of the recaps, we’ll call it “Five Things”. Let’s start with what I liked:

  1. Gunnar is getting comfortable.
    1. The quarterback keeps getting better each week. On Saturday he completed 22 of 29 passes for 328 yards and a touchdown. His interception looked like a miscommunication with the receiver which is something that can be fixed. More important, he chased the Kansas defender down, tackled him and saved a touchdown. That’s a statement play.
    2. If his passing numbers weren’t enough, Gunnar ran all over the field on Saturday. He scored four, count them, FOUR, touchdowns on the ground. He also kept the ball on RPOs and it looked like he’s learned when to take chances running the ball. If he continues to be this comfortable each week, this could be a real fun season.
  2. The OL continues to improve.
    1. Just as Gunnar looks better each week, the offensive line seems to be settling into a groove. Coach Frey is utilizing his depth and giving Gunnar time to throw the ball. The line is also creating space between the tackles and Mataeo, Waters and Gunnar are taking advantage of the opportunities their line gives them.
    2. While things may change once we get into conference play, you have to be happy with how the line is playing. The offense put up 607 yards and 52 points on Saturday. The lowest scoring output of this season so far was a 28 point effort in Week 1 against Charlotte and that easily could have been a 40 plus point game for Duke. If this unit holds together, we could be looking at Fun ‘n’ Gun numbers.
  3. Mataeo and Waters ran the ball well.
    1. Fumbles aside (and we cover that in more detail below), the running backs had another great day. Mataeo ran for 124 yards on 21 carries and Jordan Waters added 59 yards on 11 caries. Both scored touchdowns. The Blue Devils have an outstanding one-two punch. When your two running backs combine for two touchdowns and 183 rushing yards, you’re doing something right.
  4. The defense locked Kansas down in the second half.
    1. Despite struggling early, Duke’s defense made adjustments and held Kansas to nine points in the second half. While the Blue Devils didn’t get many sacks, the defense snagged two crucial interceptions. Despite looking lost in the first half, they didn’t quit. It’s hard not to root for these guys.
  5. A lot of third down stops.
    1. If you’re a Duke fan, third down, particularly third-and-long, makes you close your eyes and hold your breath. Our defense has been vulnerable in those situations for what feels like forever. Despite that painful history, Tim and I both commented on how well the defense did on third down, holding Kansas to three conversions on fourteen attempts. Those are numbers you have to like.

Now that we’ve finished with what I liked, here are the five things I didn’t like:

  1. Sloppy play – too many turnovers and penalties.
    1. I mentioned it as an area of concern after Duke beat Northwestern, but the Blue Devils didn’t listen and finished the game with six penalties for 65 yards. That’s better than last week, but that will come back to haunt the team at some point. Duke has to tighten up.
    2. And on the turnovers front, one interception and one fumble isn’t bad, but it isn’t ideal, particularly if you factor in the fumbles that weren’t lost but could have been. While it didn’t cost the team on Saturday, it will at some point. Again, this team has to take better care of the football. And speaking of which …
  2. Durant is fumbling too much.
    1. If memory serves, he fumbled two times on Saturday and almost a third. The Blue Devils were fortunate to lose only one of those, but you can’t pretend this isn’t a problem. The coaches sure seem concerned about it because I got the sense that Durant got pulled for a bit after his last fumble.
    2. This has to stop. Mataeo is too good of a player to be this careless with the football. Maybe it’s just bad luck and people gunning for him, I don’t know, but I think we would all like to see the fumbles stop.
  3. The defense is still vulnerable to big plays.
    1. This one is self-explanatory. Kansas’ top receiver had 5 catches for 122 yards. The Jayhawks’ second best receiver had 4 catches for 99 yards. Three different receivers averaged 20 plus yards per catch. That’s a recipe for trouble, particularly if the defense doesn’t figure out how to cover the wheel route.
  4. We made Kansas look real, real good.
    1. As part of my game preview, I detailed pretty extensively how Kansas hadn’t played well coming into Saturday. Offensive woes aside, the Jayhawks sure looked like world-beaters in the first half. Despite having a quarterback who hadn’t thrown particularly well all season, Kansas’ starter finished with 323 yards and 2 touchdowns.
    2. It seems like Duke plays to the level of competition, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. While the Blue Devils’ offense finally played well in both the first and the second half, the fact that the defense hasn’t put together one consistent game has to be an area of concern for the coaching staff. Let’s hope this gets turned around as the season goes on
  5. Consistent with points three and four, the DL needs to get more pressure on the quarterback.
    1. While the one sack Ben Frye got was a huge one that killed a Kansas drive, it was the only sack the team managed. Add to that Kansas rushing for more than 200 yards and you have a defensive line that isn’t controlling the line of scrimmage. If Duke wants to keep up its winning ways, the DL will have to start getting more sacks and do more to control the line of scrimmage.

Can the Blue Devils do it? I sure hope so, because this is a real fun team to watch. Let me know what you think below.

Go Duke!