It may have been a different first verse, but it was the same old song for Duke Saturday.
The Blue Devils (0-9) extended the nation's longest losing streak to 17 with a 38-13 drubbing at the hands of Navy (6-3) in Wallace Wade Stadium.
Duke's defense gave up 435 yards on the ground to the second-best rushing offense in the nation. Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada attempted just four passes in his second career start but rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries.
"I'm certainly not at all pleased with this performance," head coach Ted Roof said. "They executed well, and I don't think we tackled very well."
Click for related content:
Duke got off to a promising start, marching 70 yards in just five plays for an opening-drive touchdown. Thaddeus Lewis completed a play-action pass to Eron Riley for 38 yards to advance the Blue Devils to Navy's one-yard line. Sophomore Re'quan Boyette punched in the score on the next play, but Joe Surgan missed the extra point, and Duke led by just six.
Navy did not stay behind long, driving 72 yards on 11 straight running plays to go ahead, 7-6. The Midshipmen scored 38 unanswered points after Duke's opening touchdown, courtesy of a triple option running attack that the Blue Devil defense was never able to slow. Navy averaged better than six yards on its 70 carries and had 12 rushes of 10 yards or more.
The Midshipmen, who never punted in the game, were also 8-for-14 on third down conversions, helped largely by the fact that they had only two third downs requiring more than five yards.
"It's a goal of ours to get off the field on third down, especially when you've got those third-and-two, third-and-three situations," linebacker Codey Lowe said. "And when they pick up five or six yards on a third down, it's awful."
Duke continued to hurt its chances with poor special teams play and costly penalties. In addition to Surgan's missed extra point and a blocked field goal, Navy's second touchdown was set up by Reggie Campbell's 44-yard return of a short Alex Feinberg punt to Duke's 25-yard line. The Blue Devils also had six penalties for 52 yards, including a personal foul that led to sophomore defensive end Greg Akinbiyi's ejection early in the fourth quarter.
"Most of it was self-inflicted-we had penalties, stupid penalties, and we ran the wrong assignments," wideout Eron Riley said.
After holding Miami to just three points and negative-19 yards rushing in the second half of a 20-15 defeat Oct. 21, Duke's defense has been shredded in back-to-back weeks. The Blue Devils gave up 512 yards to Vanderbilt last Saturday and allowed 25 first downs to Navy.
"This is a setback," Roof said. "We've had a couple setbacks, but that's part of any growth process. That's certainly not what we're sitting here and saying is acceptable, because it's not. We've got to do better, and we will."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.