Wake Forest Demon Deacons Drown Blue Devils 59-7

DURHAM, NC – The seniors for the Duke Blue Devils walked out of the tunnel to a cold, rainy and mostly empty stadium on their senior day game. They walked off Brooks field at Wallace Wade stadium for the final time with a 59-7 loss to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons looming over their heads.

The Demon Deacons got off to a hot start on the first drive of the game by netting positive gains on 8-9 plays. The drive was capped off by a 5-yard rushing touchdown up the middle by junior running back Cade Carney with 12:11 left in the first quarter.

“They play with tempo,” Blue Devils head coach David Cutcliffe said when asked about the first drive. “We study it. I think they ranked like third in the country in tempo. So, it wasn’t the tempo. It was the lack of execution on our part on third down.”

With punts on the next offensive possessions, the Blue Devils started the drive on their own 11-yard line with 8:08 left in the quarter.

On the first play of the drive, Blue Devils sophomore running back Deon Jackson fumbled the ball. The ball was forced out by Demon Deacons redshirt senior rover Demetrius Kemp and recovered by redshirt senior defensive tackle Willie Yarbary.

With the ball on the Blue Devils 17-yard line, the Demon Deacons capitalized on good field possession and scored three plays later off a 15-yard touchdown pass from redshirt sophomore quarterback Jamie Newman to redshirt wide receiver Greg Dortch.

The game’s next score came off a 9-yard touchdown pass from Newman to redshirt junior wide receiver Scotty Washington. The Demon Decans were leading the Blue Devils 21-0 with 1:29 left in the first quarter.

On the ensuing drive, the Blue Devils scored their first points of the game off a 6-yard touchdown pass from redshirt junior quarterback Daniel Jones to Jackson. A converted PAT by redshirt senior kicker Collin Wareham made the score 21-7 with 12:48 left in the second quarter.

The next 8:31 of play was marked by six consecutive 3-and-outs by both teams.

On the first play of the Blue Devils drive with 4:17 left in the second quarter, Jones threw an interception to freshman strong safety Nasir Greer. He ran the ball back 20-yards for a touchdown. This was Greer’s first career interception. A made PAT by freshman kicker Nick Sciba put the Demon Deacons up 28-7 with 4:10 left in the 2nd Quarter.

“I just threw it to a guy I shouldn’t have thrown it to,” Jones said when asked about what happened on the pick six.

Down 21 points, the Blue Devils offense went three-and-out for the fourth time and left the field scoreless for the fifth time in the second quarter.

“I think those three-and-outs really kind of put a nail in the coffin,” Blue Devils senior left guard Zach Harmon said. “We just didn’t progress the ball at all on offense. We had some dropped passes, some bad protections, some bad throws, some bad reads. And just really all-around bad performance.”

With 2:52 left in the half, the Demon Deacons offense sparked an 11-play, 72-yard drive which was capped off by a 20-yard field goal by Sciba at the end of the half. The Demon Deacons were up 31-7 on the Blue Devils.

At half, Carney had already eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark with 118 rushing yards off 18 attempts for one rushing touchdown. The 31 points scored by the Demon Deacons put them over their 30.1 points per game season average. The Blue Devils had 122 yards of total offense.

“Four things in the first half defined (the game),” Cutcliffe said. “first, the turnover ratio…Second thing’s the third down conversions…Third thing was the rushing game…And then the last one is carry the fight to the opponent for 60 minutes and keep it there. And obviously we didn’t do those things.”

The Blue Devils woes continued out of halftime as they went 3-and-out on their first drive of the half.

On the next drive the Demon Deacons faced 3rd and 8 on their own 42-yard line. This play Newman connected with Dortch on 30-yard pass to extend the drive and put the Demon Deacons in Blue Devils territory. Five plays later, Newman threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Alex Bachman.

Down 38-7 with 9:54 left in the third quarter, Jones and the Blue Devils’ offense started the drive with earlier success. However, the Blue Devils stalled at the 50-yard line and was forced to punt.

With the ball on their own 20-yard line the Demon Deacons faced a third down early in the drive. Newman threw a 5-yard pass to redshirt freshman wide receiver Sage Surratt to keep the drive alive. Two plays later the Demon Deacons faced another third down. A 48-yard rush by Carney brought the Demon Deacons to the Blue Devils’ 12-yard line.

After a five-yard penalty on first down, the Demon Deacons faced another third down. This third down gave way to a 9-yard touchdown grab by Surratt from Newman. A made PAT by Sciba put the Demon Deacons up 45-7 with 1:24 left in the third quarter.

Once again, the Blue Devils offense was forced to punt with 14:49 left in the game. To this point the Blue Devils had gone scoreless for 27:59 consecutive minutes of gameplay. On the next drive, Demon Deacons went three-and-out and was forced to punt. The Blue Devils started the ensuing drive on their own 36-yard line.

Redshirt senior quarterback Quentin Harris was subbed in for Jones to start the drive for the Blue Devils. After a rush for no gain by senior wide receiver T.J. Rahming, redshirt sophomore running back Brittain Brown coughed the ball up. The fumble was recovered by redshirt freshman defensive end Mike Allen.

With great field possession, the Demon Deacons scored off a 12-yard rushing touchdown by Carney. A converted PAT by Sciba put the Demon Deacons up 52-7 with 10:15 left in the game.

The ensuing offensive possession for the Blue Devils ended in similar fashion as the last one. A fumble by Harris was recovered by Demon Deacons sophomore linebacker Jake Simpson at the Blue Devils 45-yard line.

An 11-yard rushing touchdown by redshirt junior quarterback Kendall Hinton gave the Demon Deacons another scoring drive off a turnover. A made PAT by redshirt freshman punter Zach Murphy gave the Demon Deacons a 59-7 lead with 4:20 left in the game.

The Blue Devils scoring drought continued to the final seconds of the game as the final score was 59-7 in favor of the Demon Deacons.

Carney finished the game with 31 rushes for 223 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. His 223-yard rushing total set the record for the most rushing yards by a Demon Deacon player against the Blue Devils.

What’s Next

With today’s win The Demon Deacons (6-6, ACC 3-5) became bowl eligible.

The Blue Devils (7-5, ACC 3-4) finish the regular season with a 1-3 home record against ACC opponents.

Both teams will find out their bowl destination and opponent on December 2.