Duke has played 45 football games since I’ve been a student here. I had never been as excited about one as I was last Saturday.
Now, it’s important to keep in mind that the Blue Devils won a grand total of one game in the 2006 and 2007 seasons, and that victory was on the road against Northwestern. In 2008, the David Cutcliffe Era got off to a blazing start, but Duke faded quickly once ACC play began.
This season, the Blue Devils did the reverse. They had an awful opening game against Richmond, bounced back against Army and hit their stride starting with the N.C. Central contest. Going into Saturday’s game in Chapel Hill, Duke was 4-1 in its previous five games with a realistic chance to get a bowl berth.
Plus, the matchup with the Tar Heels had been moved away from its traditional time slot of Thanksgiving weekend, so for the first time, I was going to be able to watch this rivalry game. It was a sunny 66 degrees at kickoff—perfect weather for the Blue Devils’ pass-oriented offense.
And then the game started.
Nothing went Duke’s way. North Carolina scored on its first drive. Then the Blue Devils went three-and-out to turn the ball right back over. They went three-and-out on their second possession as well, foreshadowing an afternoon in which they were completely dominated in time of possession.
UNC quarterback T.J. Yates, while not awe-inspiring, was efficient when he had to be. Thaddeus Lewis, however, was harassed all day and never seemed comfortable. He completed just 16-of-33 passes for 113 yards.
Safety Jordon Byas blocked a punt in the first quarter, but he later interfered with a Tar Heel punt returner who was calling for a fair catch, giving North Carolina 15 free yards to start its next drive. The Tar Heels lost starting running back Shaun Draughn to a fractured shoulder blade early on, but backup Ryan Houston filled in and ran all over the Duke defense.
There was a reason for much of that misfortune, though, and it’s the same reason why I was so excited to watch this game: Playing in a big game was a brand new experience for Duke Football. I had never watched a game like it, and none of the Blue Devils had ever played in one like it.
“Our guys had never been in this position,” head coach David Cutcliffe said after the 19-6 loss. “I don’t know if they knew it was going to be as hard as it was, but it’s not supposed to be easy. You know what? Thank goodness it’s not easy, because if it was easy there would be a whole lot of people doing it.”
Now, barring an upset of Georgia Tech or Miami in the next two weeks, Duke will not be one of those teams playing in the postseason, and it’s because of what transpired Saturday at Kenan Stadium.
The Blue Devils were outmatched against North Carolina. There’s no question about that. (In fact, Cutcliffe astutely pointed this fact out early last week.) But Duke has been outmatched before and still played well. It hung with then-No. 6 Virginia Tech, losing by just eight points Oct. 3. Defenses have been keying on the passing game for weeks, but Lewis had still gotten it done before Saturday. The Blue Devils have played well on the road this season, as well. They were 16-point underdogs against N.C. State but thrashed the Wolfpack in Raleigh Oct. 10. It’s not like the Kenan Stadium crowd was incredibly intimidating, either, so the road atmosphere could not have affected Duke very much.
It would be overly simplistic to say the sole difference against the Tar Heels was the magnitude of the game, but I think it was a major factor. For the first time in years, Duke was playing in a game with direct bowl implications, and it showed.
The good news is that the Blue Devils will know what to expect when this type of situation comes up again. And it will come up again. Maybe not this season, although Duke is still technically in the hunt for the Coastal Division title and a bowl berth. (If the Blue Devils can’t stop Houston, can you really envision them slowing down 2008 ACC Player of the Year Jonathan Dwyer this week or Miami’s Jacory Harris the next?)
But Cutcliffe undoubtedly has the program on the right track. Whatever happens in the season’s final three games, this season has been a success. When was the last time November football meant more than November basketball in Durham?
A year or two from now, when Duke has more of Cutcliffe’s recruits and more players who have participated in big games, it’s unlikely the Blue Devils will fall flat like they did Saturday. Cutcliffe may even refer back to this game as a key learning point in the program’s development.
Right now, that may not matter much to a senior class that never won the Victory Bell or a program that has lost 19 of its last 20 against its archrival.
And yet, in a development that would have been unthinkable just two years ago, it will matter soon—and that’s the real accomplishment of this season.
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