CLEMSON, S.C. -- It's called Death Valley for a reason, as Duke demonstrated in Saturday's 40-7 loss to Clemson at the Tigers' aptly named stadium.
The Clemson offense controlled the game from the first quarter, punctuated by a 30 second scoring blitz producing a 14-0 Clemson lead. During the drive, Clemson quarterback Charlie Whitehurst threw five complete passes, including a 31-yard touchdown to start the scoring in the first.
After Duke's Senterrio Landrum returned the Clemson kickoff for 25 yards, Stephen Jackson caused a Landrum fumble, giving the Tigers excellent field position. On the next play, Clemson capitalized on the Duke mistake, with a 25-yard touchdown pass by Whitehurst, increasing its lead to 14.
"We got behind early with turnovers and field position," Duke interim head coach Ted Roof said. "Win or lose it always comes back to turnovers and field position, and we obviously lost that battle."
Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden recognized the impact of the early Clemson lead on Duke's confidence.
"It's really demoralizing on the other side of the field when you can score that quick," Bowden said.
In the second quarter, Clemson pushed its lead to 24-0 with a 44-yard field goal kick by Aaron Hunt and a touchdown pass by Whitehurst following a first-and-goal situation.
Toward the end of the half, with Clemson again in control of the ball, Whitehurst threw three complete passes for a total of 60 yards. However, Duke was able to stop the Tigers from scoring again as John Talley intercepted a Whitehurst pass in the endzone, his first career interception. Talley had another endzone interception in the fourth.
"I saw John Talley grow today a lot," Roof said. "I think that young kid responded and made some plays for us."
The Clemson offense continued to dominate with two more touchdowns in the second half--a 63-yard punt return by Justin Miller and a 4-yard run by Chansi Stuckey.
The only Duke scoring came in the fourth quarter after a fumble forced by Terrell Smith and recovered by Orrin Thompson. The action was capped off with a 25-yard waltz into the end zone by Cedric Dargan.
Although the Clemson defense held Chris Douglas to 62 rushing yards on Saturday, he became the career rushing leader at Duke. Douglas' 1,019 total yards for the season make him the fourth Duke player eclipse 1,000 yards plateau. While Saturday was a big day for Douglas, the focus was on the disappointing team performance.
"Douglas is the ultimate team guy and he did break some records today," Roof said. "I think today he thinks about what happened to our football team, not about what happened to Chris Douglas. That's what makes him so special."
For Douglas, the loss overshadowed his person achievement.
"I don't really like hearing about it right now because we just went out there and didn't play our game of football." Douglas said. "That's the thing that's running through my mind right now. I just wanted to go out there and establish our gameplan."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.