Orange Blows Away Duke on Windy Day
Durham N.C. – A cold, windy night on Saturday in Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium as the Duke Blue Devils got blown away by the Syracuse Orange with the final score being 49-6.
Duke offense was stagnant in the first half only rushing 22 times accounting for only 44 yards. Quentin Harris threw 15-for-29 during the first half gathering 136 yards through the air.
When you look at the time of possession (19:10), first downs (12), and total yards (180) you wouldn’t believe that the Blue Devils would have been down but that just isn’t the way football works. Side-note offensive tackle sophomore Casey Holman got carted off of the field it was a very scary moment, prayers go out to him and his family.
The third quarter took a horrible turn for the Blue Devils, on the first drive Harris backed up into the pocket and threw an interception to Sophomore Free Safety Andre Cisco who ended up returning the ball 48 yards for a Syracuse touchdown for the pick-six.
On the very next drive, Harris threw a pass to Jake Bobo in which the ball bobbled in the air and intercepted by Christopher Fredrick to derail the Blue Devils progression.
Syracuse got the ball back with great field position and capitalized threw a 22-yard touchdown pass from Tommy Devito to Luke Benson to give Syracuse a 28-6 lead. Literally within a blink of an eye on the Blue Devil’s next possession they thought they could get it going with the running game, that quickly changed as Mataeo Durant fumbled the ball to place Syracuse in perfect field position again, and of course they capitalized and scored a one-yard touchdown rush by senior running back Moe Neal to give the Orange and 35-6 lead.
Coach Cutcliffe mentioned later “Just bang, bang, bang…there’s a problem there because we keep on doing it…three completely different types of turnovers but it’s happening, words aren’t going to fix this, blame isn’t going to fix this, looking for answers isn’t going to fix this.”
For Syracuse, they fired their defensive coordinator after their last game, so they have an interim coach this week until they figure this out. Well, it looks as if they are moving in the right direction because the defense reacted quick and swiftly not giving Duke any breathing room, especially holding them to six points.
The Orange (4-6, 1-5 ACC) finished the game rushing for 286 yards and scored four rushing touchdowns, going through the air they threw for only 105 yards and two receiving touchdowns with a total of 395 combined yards. Coach Cutcliffe said after the game “I was shocked they ran the ball that effective against us, I didn’t think that could happen.”
This will be Duke’s fourth consecutive loss after starting the season 4-2. The Duke Blue Devils only points came off of the two field goals made by junior kicker AJ Reed both were made in the second quarter.
The Blue Devils were an awful 5-for-20 on third-down conversions and 2-for-4 on fourth-down conversions no wonder they only scored six points. Duke’s offense finished with 122 rushing yards and 157 passing yards totaling for 279 yards, they only entered the Red Zone once and hit one of the field goals.
If Duke plans to be Bowl eligible they will have to win out their last two games of the season going up against Wake Forest and Miami to get an invitation for a bowl game appearance.
Next week the Duke Blue Devils (4-6, 2-4 ACC) will travel on the road to BB&T Field in Winston Salem N.C. November 23rd to face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in ACC play.