Duke and Northwestern are two schools with a lot in common. They attract the same kind of top students, are both situated on beautiful campuses, and play in two of the most elite sports conferences in the NCAA.
Unfortunately for Duke, the Wildcats (2-0) proved themselves to be quite different in one regard Saturday, as they handily defeated the Blue Devils (0-3, 0-1 in the ACC) by a score of 44-7.
"We're a better football team than we showed tonight," Duke coach Carl Franks said after the game. "We played a very, very good football team that exposed some weaknesses. Northwestern had the number one offense in the Big Ten last year, [and] they were number one in scoring as well."
This offensive proficiency was demonstrated in both Northwestern's ground attack and its passing game. Senior running back Damien Anderson ran for 189 yards and scored four touchdowns in a single game for the third time in his career. And senior quarterback Zak Kustok also constantly frustrated the Blue Devils, passing for 318 yards and running for 33 of his own.
The game got off to a rocky start for Duke, as quarterback D. Bryant was sacked at the line of scrimmage on the first play of the night. Following the sack the Blue Devils regrouped to march across midfield, but were stopped in their tracks when a pass intended for wide receiver Kyle Moore was picked off by Northwestern linebacker Billy Silva. Bryant was
"We were trying to get the ball down the field," Franks said. "We lobbed a few down there, which were a few of the passes we shouldn't have tried to throw. Maybe we should have tried to run the ball more than we did tonight."
Duke's defense was quick to exact revenge however, as sophomore Matt Zielinski broke through the line to sack Kustok on his first play of the game. Duke held the Big Ten's most productive offense to only four yards in the Wildcats' first series, but was unable to capitalize on the opportunity with a scoring drive of its own.
Instead, the Blue Devils were forced to punt on fourth down, giving Northwestern the ball back on their own 33-yard line. Three plays later, on 3rd-and-14, Kustok found wide receiver Sam Simmons for a 60-yard pass that began a string of Northwestern first downs on third-and-long. Damien Anderson followed up with an 11-yard carry for a touchdown, putting the Wildcats up 7-0 with 7:07 to play in the first quarter.
"It was good to see us improve as the game went on," Northwestern coach Randy Walker said. "When we came out less-than-perfect, we found the things we needed to work on. Duke came out with some things we hadn't seen before, like the no-huddle offense, and we needed to adjust. We got better through the first quarter, and started to look like NU again."
The Blue Devils responded with a scoring drive of their own, beginning with a 23-yard pass to Ben Erdeljac. Bryant then found Reggie Love for a 38-yard completion that put Duke on the Northwestern 6-yard line. Mike Hart completed the drive, catching a pass for his 15th consecutive game and tying the score at 7-7 with 5:03 to play in the first quarter.
"We got a score in the first quarter," Hart said. "It was a nice little pass from D. Emotions were high and we were ready to give them a hard game, things just went kind of sour from there."
After Northwestern scored another touchdown and a field goal before halftime to make the score 20-7, the Blue Devils still remained confident. Duke's hopes of a comeback, however, were shattered when Northwestern's Kevin Lawrence made a 45-yard return to midfield on the opening kickoff of the second half. Anderson followed suit with carries of his own, covering the other half of the field in just three plays to put Northwestern up 27-7 only one minute into the third quarter. The Wildcats added to one more touchdown and a field goal in the third quarter, and scored their final TD less than a minute into the fourth to seal the runaway victory.
"We had something to prove offensively," Anderson said. "This was a great day to showcase what we can do. We had some opportunities, and our line held very well to let us take advantage of them."
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