For the first time all year it was actually close, so close that some thought that big fat zero in the win column just might vanish.
But it was just not to be.
Instead, the football team watched its halftime lead turn into a 20-9 loss against the Maryland Terrapins (4-4, 2-3 in the ACC) Saturday.
Duke (0-8, 0-5) held a 3-0 lead going into the locker room until LaMont Jordan, the Terrapins' preseason All-America running back exploded for a 77-yard touchdown rush on the second play of the third quarter. The run was part of Jordan's 158 yards rushing, all but 12 of which came in the second half. More significantly, though, it gave the Terps a lead they would hold for the rest of the game.
"We went into halftime with a lead and we talked about playing hard and coming out playing hard again, continuing to get after their running backs," Duke coach Carl Franks said. "Then they popped one on us."
However, it wasn't over yet. While Maryland scored later in the third quarter to expand its advantage to 10-3, Duke answered on a double-reverse flea-flicker from wide receiver Ben Erdeljac to quarterback D. Bryant. The gimmick turned into a success as Bryant found himself wide open and caught the
All of a sudden, the Blue Devils found themselves in uncharted waters. All they needed was a converted extra point and they would be out of the red in the second half for the first time all season.
But the Blue Devils did something they have done well all year-turn an easy play into a difficult situation, as kicker Brent Garber missed the extra-point. Instead of evening the score at 10-10, Duke left it at 10-9, forcing itself to find a way to score again to win the game.
Franks' squad just couldn't do it though, and Maryland tallied 10 unanswered points, the last of which came on a 28-yard Jordan touchdown run with 3:18 left that effectively put the game out of reach.
"We really pushed them to get down the field and get that last touchdown we needed to put the game out of reach," Terps coach Ron Vanderlinden said. "The offense answered, and that's the mark of a team that's got a lot of character."
Maryland's offense, though stagnant in the first half, played very well coming out of the gate for the second stanza. The Terrapins broke big plays, converted key downs and scored when they needed to. They also wore down a Duke defense that spent too much time on the field thanks to offensive turnovers in the endzone and penalties like roughing the kicker that resulted in extra Maryland first downs.
"I thought our offense showed a lot of poise coming out in the second half and not having any penalties," Vanderlinden said. "They were doing what they needed to do to secure the win."
Those same penalties and turnovers were key to the Blue Devils' loss. For instance, Bryant twice threw interceptions when Duke was within scoring distance in the second half.
"I thought the defense played very well," Franks said. "They gave us a chance to win the game... but we seemed to throw interceptions in the endzone too many times."
For the Blue Devils, it was yet another disappointing loss that kept the team's winless season alive and pinned all hopes of breaking it on next week's game against also-winless Wake Forest.
"Our guys worked hard this week," Franks said. "We gave ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter, something we haven't done in the last three weeks. But it's a tough situation, very frustrating.... Next week we got two teams that haven't won a game so we're just going to see who wants it more."
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