After Saturday night's 41-28 loss to Maryland, the football team finds itself in a position that it has experienced before--mediocrity. Every year at this time, the seniors on this Duke team have been able to tell where their season was headed. In the 1992 and 1993 campaigns, the Blue Devils started off the season being blown out by powerhouses Florida State and Virginia, while also dropping a close game to an out-of-conference opponent to start both of those seasons at 1-3. Those seasons never turned around as Duke ended up at 2-9 in 1992 and barely improved to a record of 3-8 in 1993.
1994 was a different story. Duke won those early games and tore off to a 4-0 start, giving the team the confidence it needed. The Blue Devils ended up with an 8-3 regular season mark and their first bowl appearance since 1989.
Currently, Duke sits at 2-2, not knowing exactly where its season is going.
"We still have seven games left," senior outside linebacker James Kirkland said. "We just have to regroup and make the best out of this season because it's not over. It can still be a successful season."
The team's remaining games run the gamut from No. 11 Virginia to 1-2 Navy, a loser last Saturday to Wake Forest. Depending on how they handle their current situation, the Blue Devils could end up anywhere from 2-9 and last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference to 9-2 with an invitation to a major bowl.
For now, though, Duke is trying to look past the Maryland game.
"All in all, it came down to [the fact that] our kids fought their guts out and somehow got us in a position to win the football game with four minutes to go in the ball game," head coach Fred Goldsmith said. "But we didn't pull it off this week.
"We've got to comeback and rebound, and we've always been able to do that."
The main point of contention at Monday's press conference questioned the ability of this year's defense to perform as well as it did last year. After holding Maryland to just 16 points last season, Duke's defense was toasted for 41 over the weekend. Part of this has been blamed on the fact that the Blue Devils' blitzing scheme is not as much of a surprise as it was last season.
"[The blitz] hasn't been as effective for us," Goldsmith said. "Somewhat because the people we've been playing are doing a better job and are more aware of it. It happened some at the end of the season last year."
This problem was most easily seen in the Maryland game, where time after time, Terrapin quarterback Brian Cummings would recognize the blitz and get rid of the ball for a big gain right before he was hit.
"The weaknesses in our blitzes were exposed a lot at the end of last year," Kirkland said. "We've seen more of the blitz beaters when we've blitzed, especially that little Montana pass that Jermaine Lewis pulled off--we see a lot of that now. A lot of people have gotten hip to what we're doing in the blitz game."
With the defense not sure of which direction to turn, it's no doubt that Goldsmith and the Blue Devils are looking forward to facing a Navy team next weekend which they easily handled last year by a 47-14 margin. But looking down the schedule, Duke needs to find some answers for all of its questions before it resumes its ACC schedule. Right now, the team is still trying to figure out what is wrong.
"I don't know--I'm at a loss," Kirkland said. "Last year we just made a lot of plays, and this year we're not making them."
Despite the problem of the defense not keeping the opposition off of the scoreboard, the two sides have yet to really click for an entire game. When the defense played well in the first quarter of the Maryland game, the offense only scored three points. Once the offense started playing well and scoring points, the defense couldn't stop Maryland to get the team back on top. One key problem area is the offense's inability to convert on third-down conversions. After making only one out of 14 third-down plays against Rutgers, the Duke offense again struggled against Army, once again making only one third-down conversion in 14 attempts.
"Fatigue starts to set in," Kirkland said. "Fatigue becomes a big factor when you're playing 95 to 96 plays a game, as opposed to maybe 60, which is the average.
"This week that wasn't a problem. The offense held the ball this week and gave us enough rest. If anything they didn't get enough rest because Maryland would score on us so quick. We just have to shore up our side of the ball, and the offense just needs to keep doing what they're doing."
Both sides of the team have proven that they are capable of playing well. Now all that's left is for Duke to put it all together. If that happens, the Blue Devils' season may look a little more like the successful season of last year, rather than the disasters from previous seasons.
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