COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Another opportunity lost and one more game of wasted chances for Duke.
In six words, defensive tackle Matt Zielinski might have best summed up the Blue Devils' 33-20 loss to Maryland Saturday night.
"We ended up killing ourselves again," Zielinski said.
Yeah, Maryland made some key offensive adjustments at halftime. Yeah, it made some big plays in the passing game and stopped the Blue Devils when it needed to, but don't think the Terps won this game--they didn't. Duke lost it.
"Maryland came out and capitalized on our mistakes and played a great game," Zielinski said. "We went out there and shot ourselves in the foot once again this week."
Turning the ball over twice, committing 13 penalties, allowing drive-killing sacks and fumbling the ball deep in its own territory on a shotgun snap--the game was decidedly more lost by Duke than won by Maryland.
"They caused some of our mistakes, the fumble, the interceptions, but not the offsides," Duke head coach Carl Franks said. "Maryland made some good plays on defense; it was not always our fault. But a lot of times we stopped ourselves...We decided we didn't want to give ourselves a chance."
And what's so frustrating about the Blue Devils is that when they aren't shooting themselves in the foot, they generally are on their way to winning games.
Duke gained more yards on the ground and through the air than Maryland for the entire night. It held the Terps to just 2 of 11 on third-down conversions. Running back Chris Douglas and fullback Alex Wade ran for a combined 142 yards and averaged nearly five yards per carry.
And here's the stat of the game: time of poessesion. Duke had the ball for over 36 minutes, while Maryland had it for less than 24. Duke held the ball for more than 36 minutes against Florida State two weeks ago as well.
How many times does a team other than Duke control the ball for that long and lose?
Perhaps the only way to accurately describe Duke football is this: it's inconsistent and weird. The Blue Devils are brilliant at times and self-debilitating at others.
Against Florida State, Duke orchestrated an 82-yard drive in the first quarter and sliced through the Seminole defense like it was a practice squad. The Blue Devils controlled the line of scrimmage and Douglas and Wade were grounding yards out; freshman quarterback Mike Schneider threw a perfect timing pass on third down to tight end Calen Powell, who got his feet down in textbook style.
Duke is 2-4 and may or may not deserve that record. But if the Blue Devils could just stop making so many mistakes, that 2-4 would certainly be different.
Duke football this year will most likely not beat the Florida States of the world, but who knows how good it could be if it played mistake-free?
"It's going to be scary when Duke puts a whole game together and plays like we know how to play," Zielinksi said.
It probably will be scary when that happens. The question is just, when is that going to happen?
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