TROY, ALA.—Erase the first three possessions of Saturday night's game against Troy, and Duke would have put together an almost perfect game—a 34-3 butchering of the Trojans on their home field. Alas, there are no mulligans for possessions in football, although the Blue Devils needed a few early against Troy.
The Trojans operated like a well-oiled machine on their first two offensive possessions, putting together consecutive 83-yard touchdown drives in 13 or less plays with little resistance from the Duke defense. The Blue Devils would clamp down defensively and score 21 points in the second quarter to take the lead and silence an upset-minded Troy squad, but not before falling into an early 11-point hole.
"Not only did we have to come back from being down, we had to come back from being shocked,"Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said.
The Blue Devils found themselves trailing 14-3 after Troy running back Jordan Chunn punched in a touchdown from one yard out on the first play of the second quarter. The Trojans utilized a fast-paced, short-yardage attack—not unlike Duke's offense in Cutcliffe's first years in Durham—to keep the Blue Devil defense on its heels. Troy scored its first touchdown in just 3:15 and its second in 4:09, overwhelming a Duke squad that looked like it had just stepped off the bus minutes before game time.
"It's the first time we've played another hurry-up offense in a while," senior linebacker David Helton said. "We just had a little adjusting to do."
But the Blue Devils overcame their slow start and spent the next three quarters exacting their revenge on the Trojans.
Duke limited Troy to just 230 yards of total offense and three points after the Trojans' first two scoring drives, an impressive defensive turnaround after the Blue Devils' initial struggles. After its first two possessions, Troy only made it into the red zone once and only crossed the 50-yard line three times. After starting the game 4-for-4 on third down conversions, the Trojans converted just 4-of-13 third downs the rest of the game—not to mention going 0-for-3 on fourth downs. Duke's offense, on the other hand, finally found its rhythm, scoring on four straight possessions after punting the ball away on its first possession.
"A year ago these guys had 500-and-something yards," Cutcliffe said, referring to last year's 38-31 victory over Troy in Durham. "They didn't do much in the second half. 396 yards of offense, and they are very capable."
The cause of Duke's slow start was not immediately apparent, although the Blue Devils had various theories on why they took so long to find their rhythm.
"We were just coming into a hostile environment and trying to feel ourselves out, but once we got comfortable with what they were running we just came out and played ball like we were supposed to," redshirt junior safety Jeremy Cash said. "I think the quick pace in cahoots with the weather made it a little different."
An attacking offense, a hostile environment and an extremely hot night might have played a role in the slow start, but a unique road trip may have also been a factor. The Blue Devils do not usually travel to locations as remote as Troy, Alabama—a rural college town with a population of roughly 18,000 located about an hour from Montgomery, where Duke stayed Friday night.
Maybe the slow start can be attributed to the hour-long bus ride from the team hotel to the stadium, as opposed to the normally quick gameday trips at ACC venues where the team stays closer to the stadium.
"It's a tough adjustment, having an hour drive from Montgomery to here, to hop off the bus and get ready to play a football game," redshirt senior quarterback Anthony Boone said. "It took us a while to settle in."
Regardless of the cause, the Blue Devils played like two completely different football teams Saturday night. In the first quarter, a slow-moving team lacking aggression on both sides of the ball took the best punch Troy had to offer. In the final three quarters, the Blue Devils looked as good as they did in their week one trouncing of Elon.
Although Duke overcame its slow start and escaped the heart of Alabama with a victory, the next time the Blue Devils step off the bus and into an opponent's stadium—at Miami in three weeks—they may not be able to take a quarter off and see a similar result. Duke prides itself on being a second-half team, but it will take a strong performance for all four quarters to defeat ACC opponents on the road in tougher venues than Troy.
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