After three consecutive narrow loses to top-flight ACC competition, the football team entered Saturday's contest against Maryland hoping to finally come through and earn its first conference victory in three seasons. From the opening snap, their hopes never materialized.
The Terrapins simply annihilated the Blue Devils, dominating almost every possible facet on their way to a 45-12 victory.
Scoring touchdowns off the ground, through the air and via punt and interception, the Terrapins (6-2, 2-1 in the ACC) dealt Duke (2-7, 0-5) an embarrassing loss in front of a Parents' Weekend crowd.
Stunned and struggling for answers, the Blue Devils tried to put Saturday's debacle behind them as fast as possible, so they could focus on next week's game.
"I'm going to coach and figure that it was an anomaly," said head coach Carl Franks. "That's not the way we play. That's not the way we've played all year... We did not play well anywhere today."
Maryland All-American linebacker E.J. Henderson established Maryland's dominance on the game's first play from scrimmage, a Duke handoff to Chris Douglas.
The 6-foot-2 250-pound junior Henderson found himself unblocked and put a ferocious hit on the 190-pound Douglas, driving him backward into the ground after a one-yard gain.
"It kind of set the tone, didn't it?" Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen said. "I loved it, loved it. I said, 'Oh boy, here we go.'"
From the opposite sideline, Franks could tell his side was in trouble.
"When [they] kicked the ball off today I could tell we weren't there," Franks said. "We didn't have the same intensity that we usually have, especially on that first offensive series."
Saturday saw the season debut of Maryland running back Bruce Perry, who, although a star for the 2001 Terps, had yet to play because of a torn groin muscle.
The junior showed excellent speed on a 19-yard run--Maryland's first offensive play--but left the game immediately with yet another injury, this time to his shoulder.
The Terrapin running attack never missed a beat, however.
Friedgen shuffled a a number of different backs in and out with great success, as Maryland finished with 151 rushing yards on 40 carries.
Conversely, the Duke offense struggled mightily for the majority of the afternoon.
Only in the fourth quarter--by which they trailed 45-0--could the Blue Devils find the end zone, as backup quarterbacks Chris Dapolito and Chris Wispelway each threw touchdown passes.
For starter Adam Smith--who threw for a career-high 353 yards against No. 12 N.C. State, but managed only 109 against Maryland on 12-of-23 passing--Saturday's defeat proved sickening.
"It feels terrible, to be honest," he said. "To come out here on Parents' Weekend where there are a lot of people in the stands and play as poorly as you possibly could, it hurts."
Smith struggled for an explanation for Duke's poor performance. The sophomore said that for some reason the Blue Devils felt unsure of themselves.
"Sometimes it just seems like not everybody has their mind and their heart 100 percent into it," Smith said. "Today it just seemed like everybody was out there not really sure what was happening. We just seemed confused."
The Duke defense, which last week managed to hold national passing efficiency leader Phillip Rivers and the Wolfpack offense to just 24 points, had problems.
Maryland ran and passed the ball with ease. All told, Maryland racked up 428 yards, almost 100 more than the Blue Devils.
Facing little to no defensive pressure, quarterback Scott McBrien finished the day with 264 yards through the air, with most of his completions going to surprisingly wide open Maryland receivers. The Blue Devils were less then eager to dwell on their disappointing performance.
"This game is behind us, there's no doubt about that," said defensive tackle Matt Zielinski. "When I say it's east to fix, it is--the leaders are going to turn this thing around. There going to talk about attitude.... We didn't have a swagger, we didn't have the confidence in ourselves to go out there today and do what we needed to do."
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