Blue Devils hampered by conservative offense in loss to Wildcats

In the Blue Devils’ first two games of the season, the offense carried the team to a pair of easy victories by averaging nearly 600 yards per game and eclipsing 35 points both times. New quarterback Thomas Sirk looked comfortable in his role, slinging the ball accurately on a variety of short and intermediate routes, with the occasional deep ball mixed in that hinted at big-play potential.

For the first two drives of Saturday’s game against No. 23 Northwestern, Duke’s offense looked primed for another productive day. The Blue Devils crossed midfield on the game’s opening drive before stalling, but crossed the goal line on their second series—a savvy, five-yard tuck-and-run by Sirk to give Duke a 7-0 lead less than six minutes into the game.

But that was just about all the offense would provide, scoring only a 38-yard field goal the rest of the way as the Wildcats clawed their way back to a 19-10 victory at Wallace Wade Stadium.

It wasn’t so much the final numbers that told the story for the Blue Devils—who notched 327 total yards against a defense that had allowed just six points in two games entering Saturday—but rather the approach that did them in. A predictable rotation of swing passes, up-the-middle runs and screens kept Duke from gaining large chunks of yards without any semblance of a downfield passing attack.

These issues manifested themselves most on third downs—often the plays on which an entire game swings—when the Blue Devils found themselves in uncomfortable down-and-distances. Of the 15 third- or fourth-down attempts Duke failed to convert against Northwestern, 10 were either runs by Sirk or passes near the line of scrimmage that were far short of the chains.

“We have to look at that in regard to the passing game. We have to look at every aspect of protection and what he’s seeing,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said. “It’s not normal to have as many layoffs as we did. We had 13 balls thrown to Shaquille [Powell] and Shaun [Wilson]. That’s something we’re studying.”

Sirk finished 24-of-39 for 150 yards through the air with an interception, culminating in a paltry 3.8 yards per attempt. The Glen St. Mary, Fla., native completed just eight passes to his starting wide receiver trio of Max McCaffrey, Johnell Barnes and T.J. Rahming—one more than Powell caught out of the backfield by himself.

Aside from one 32-yard completion to McCaffrey—which came on a free play after a Wildcat defensive end jumped offsides—Sirk directed most of his passes to the running back tandem of Powell and Wilson in the flat. The duo accounted for 13 receptions and 78 yards, more than the rest of the receivers and tight ends combined.

With the Blue Devils driving near the end of the second quarter looking to extend their 7-0 lead, the pattern they had fallen into finally cost them dearly. On second and goal from the Northwestern 11-yard line, Sirk looked right and tossed yet another short swing pass—except this time, 6-foot-6 defensive end Dean Lowry had anticipated the play, stepped into the passing lane and snagged the interception to thwart the best scoring chance Duke would have the rest of the afternoon.

“I saw him—he just made a great play,” Sirk said. “He’s a big athletic guy and he just made an outstanding play.”

Even as the game moved on to its later stages and the Wildcat defense showed its ability to smother the Blue Devils’ cautious attack, offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery didn’t introduce much variety to his play-calls. Duke took a few shots down the field throughout the game, but a combination of good coverage by the secondary and slightly errant throws by Sirk prevented Cutcliffe’s squad from completing the elusive deep ball.

On multiple occasions, Sirk had balls knocked down at the line of scrimmage by defensive linemen who had jumped the route. Northwestern defenders crept closer and closer to the line of scrimmage as they realized the Blue Devils were not willing to take chances, leaving almost no room for the backs and receivers to break free for longer gains.

In just about any sport, coaches will preach the importance of needing to keep the opponent on its toes by switching things up. Saturday, Duke did exactly the opposite of that, and it led to its first defeat of the season. The Wildcats did what any good team would do and made the proper adjustments, and they left Durham with their perfect record intact.

“I think they tried to read our passing a little bit more, they weren’t as aggressive as we saw on film. I think you saw that with the batted balls. They would rush a few steps and then just wait for the ball,” center Matt Skura said. “Obviously, that’s something we’re going to have to pick up because other people are going to see that on film and want to do that as well. We’re going to take that as a learning lesson and hopefully improve.”