Duke coach David Cutcliffe’s aggressive decisions made a difference for the Blue Devils
A season-opening loss to Charlotte didn’t turn David Cutcliffe timid.
Neither did an early touchdown deficit to N.C. A&T Friday night.
Duke’s coach told this team long before the game started and backed up his words with actions during the game.
“I told our team at the hotel we were going to play aggressively,” Cutcliffe said. “We were not going to play safe. We were not going to play soft. I wanted them to display that.”
Two plays during the first half of what became a 45-17 win over N.C. A&T showed Cutcliffe following through and his players converting.
After N.C. A&T marched 86 yards on 20 plays to take a 7-0 lead, Duke responded to tie the game on the first of Mataeo Durant’s three touchdown runs.
On the ensuing kickoff, Duke kicker Charlie Ham squibbed the ball 10 yards in an onside kick attempt. Ham fell on the ball and it squirted free. But Duke’s Jaylen Stinson recovered and the Blue Devils drove for another touchdown to lead 14-7.
Reviewing scouting videos earlier in the week, Cutcliffe and special teams coordinator Kirk Benedict saw an opportunity to steal a possession with an onside kick. They made the decision they’d try it the first time Duke kicked off, even if it would have been on the opening kickoff of the game.
The Aggies won the toss, so the trick was delayed but successful nevertheless.
“I’ve learned through the years, if you don’t plan to do it, you won’t do it,” Cutcliffe said. “You can talk yourself out of it.”
After N.C. A&T put together another touchdown drive to tie the score at 14, Duke’s aggressive mindset was on display again.
The Blue Devils took possession with 58 seconds to play in the half at their own 26. Not content to take a tie score to halftime, Duke quarterback Gunnar Holmberg completed a 10-yard pass to Jake Bobo followed by passes of seven yards to Bobo and 14 yards to Jalon Calhoun.
On fourth-and-four from the Aggies 37, Cutcliffe eschewed a field goal attempt and Holmberg fired a 15-yard pass to Calhoun.
Another pass over the middle to Calhoun, this one for 20 yards, moved Duke to the Aggies 2 and Cutcliffe used his last timeout of the first half with five seconds to play.
An easy field goal would have given Duke a 17-14 halftime lead. Or Duke could have attempted a quick pass hoping for a touchdown at best or, in the case of an incomplete throw, enough time for a field goal kick.
Cutcliffe, though, chose door No. 3.
And not only that, but he called on Durant to run the ball. A preseason, all-ACC running back, Durant plowed up the middle, protected the ball through contact and crossed the goal line to put Duke up 21-14 at halftime.
Other than putting the ball in the hands of the team’s best offensive player, nothing about that sequence was safe and all of it was aggressive.
“That’s not easy,” Cutcliffe said. “You can take the points and it’s a great drive and you can kick a field goal and hope it’s good from that distance. But everything in analytics tells you to be aggressive and everything in my heart tells me that we have to be an aggressive football program to be as good as we can be.”
As for the play call, Cutcliffe said, “I’ve always thought `players, not plays.’ Let’s run Mataeo. We’ll run the ball and he’ll score. Thank goodness Mataeo scored.”
The onside kick and the running play with no timeouts late in the half, both highly aggressive decisions, turned into 14 points and put Duke on the path to an easy win.
In his 14th season at Duke, Cutcliffe’s approach is to maximize every scoring chance, even if it sometimes means going with an unconventional route.
“Everything in my heart tells me we have to be an aggressive team to be as good as we can be,” Cutcliffe said.
How good can Duke be this season? That answer has yet to be provided during a 1-1 start. In both the 31-28 season-opening loss to Charlotte and Friday night’s romp over N.C. A&T, Duke’s defense showed an alarming amount of leakage.
The offense, though, looks potent through the season’s first eight quarters. Duke is averaging 36.5 points per game and 527 yards of total offense per game.
Holmberg has completed 40 of 56 (71.4%) of his passes. He’s yet to throw an interception, a notable accomplishment after last season’s turnover-plagued campaign with Chase Brice under center.
All those gaudy stats, though, were compiled against teams below the Power 5 conference level. The rest of the way, Duke plays nothing but Power 5 teams, starting with Northwestern from the Big Ten on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Wallace Wade Stadium.
Kansas, from the Big 12, comes to Durham Sept. 25 to wrap up Duke’s nonconference slate and then it’s nothing but ACC teams the rest of the regular season.
So Duke still has plenty to prove.
But, as Friday night showed, the Blue Devils won’t achieve anything unless they play aggressive football.
Cutcliffe won’t have it any other way.
This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Duke coach David Cutcliffe’s aggressive decisions made a difference for the Blue Devils."