Duke must be ‘committed’ to fixing mistakes before season goes sideways
While Duke has produced more and more NFL players in recent years, it hasn’t done it by cycling five-star athletes through its program.
Rather, Duke’s path to football success means getting, mostly, three-star recruits and developing them into players who make the best decisions to maximize their potential.
Saturday’s 38-7 loss at North Carolina is an example of the opposite end of that equation, when the Blue Devils make poor decisions and lack discipline to sabotage themselves.
Seven penalties and two turnovers were the glaring errors, particularly when one of the turnovers became a UNC touchdown on a fumble recovery.
But it goes beyond that to create missed opportunities that led Duke’s offense to have its poorest performance of the season.
“We have some good football that we played,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “But the inconsistencies, the penalties, the turnovers, the assignment issues that can happen at times. I have to own them. That’s all head coach.”
Cutcliffe routinely points the finger at himself in these situations. Now in his 14th season at Duke, what happens on the football field is a direct reflection of the job he’s doing.
This time, however, he also reminded everyone that this is a two-way street.
“When you have a disciplined football team, it’s in everything that you do every day,” Cutcliffe said. “When you are getting those types of inconsistent results, that’s the thing that you can’t run from. I have to own it and run to it. Now, they have to own their end of this. They have to be where their feet are everyday. We have to be committed to each other.”
Team captain DeWayne Carter, a sophomore defensive lineman, and senior running back Mataeo Durant were the Blue Devils made available to speak for their teammates on Saturday’s postgame Zoom with reporters.
Both sounded ready to get back to work on Sunday to prepare for the next game with Georgia Tech and not wallow in a lopsided loss.
“We just want to work on being a better offense, and a team, by being more disciplined and consistent with the opportunities that we are presented,” Durant said.
Carter will push his teammates to shore up their inconsistent play.
“Consistency,” Carter said. “The good teams can play defense for 30 minutes. The great teams do everything right, everything correct, don’t miss assignments, don’t miss any block and have great communication. We have to be more consistent when it comes to being out there on the field.”
Durant did the job he normally does, breaking free for a 37-yard gain on Duke’s first play from scrimmage and gaining 114 yards for his fourth 100-yard rushing game this season.
Carter played well up front, helping harass UNC quarterback Sam Howell by recording 1.5 sacks and another quarterback hurry on a day Duke sacked Howell five times.
But none of that was enough, because Duke did too many other things to hurt itself.
The Blue Devils drove the ball into UNC territory on their first three possessions of a scoreless game yet never advanced further than the Tar Heels 38. Penalties slowed the first two drives with wide receiver Jalon Calhoun and right guard Jacob Monk getting called for false starts.
On the third drive, with UNC up 7-0 and Duke looking for a tie, UNC defensive tackle Kevin Hester pushed past Monk and into the pocket where he batted the ball from Holmberg’s hand as he attempted to throw.
UNC’s Trey Morrison scooped up the fumble and returned it 63 yards for a touchdown.
“We carried the fight to them to start the game,” Cutcliffe said. “But it’s not enough if you stop yourselves, if you suddenly go backward.”
That 14-0 lead would be plenty big enough for the Tar Heels as Duke’s offense failed to mount much of a threat.
Yes, Calhoun turned a medium range pass and catch into an 80-yard touchdown play that accounted for Duke’s only points.
But, other than that play, the Blue Devils averaged only 6.5 yards per completed pass as they couldn’t generate a downfield passing game. The line and the receivers bear most of the blame in this one since Duke entered the game averaging 12.3 yards per completed pass.
“A big part of that was pass protection,” Cutcliffe said. “We struggled in pass protection early on. We had some calls down the field that we just couldn’t get off. The other part of that is I just didn’t think we separated in some of those so it forces you to hold the ball. You have to make defensive backs work. You have to get them running.”
The failures on offense left the defense under pressure to keep UNC’s high-powered offense under wraps, a nearly impossible task especially with the Tar Heels at home on Saturday.
That doesn’t mean Carter and the defense get a complete pass here. UNC wide receiver Josh Downs had 168 receiving yards, with 120 coming after he made the catch. Running back Ty Chandler had 62 yards after the catch on his 75-yard touchdown reception from Howell.
So Duke’s tackling remains not good enough.
Overall, though, Cutcliffe found little fault with his defense because he saw improvement in stopping UNC’s running back, pressuring the quarterback and defensive backs being competitive in pass coverage.
Still, none of that will matter if Duke continues its self-inflicted wounds with penalties, turnovers and missed assignments all over the field.
The less-than-rugged ACC allows Duke opportunities to find three more wins to make a bowl game. But the Blue Devils (3-2, 0-1) will have no chance to get them if they keep beating themselves.
This story was originally published October 3, 2021 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Duke must be ‘committed’ to fixing mistakes before season goes sideways."