“They don’t blink.”
That’s Mike Elko’s assessment of his Duke football team.
Duke certainly had plenty of chances to blink Saturday afternoon at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
After a pair of gut-wrenching last-second losses more than a few skeptics questioned whether Duke could fight back on the road against a Miami team that began the season nationally ranked.
Duke was about a 10-point underdog.
Duke fell behind 7-0 and was on the verge of falling behind 14-0 and went splat coming out for the second half, falling behind again.
But they didn’t blink. And at the end of the day the stunning final score read Duke 45 Miami 21. The win moves Duke’s record to 5-3, one win away from bowl eligibility, a remarkable turn around for a team that won only five combined games over the last two seasons.
It hardly could have started worse for the Blue Devils. Riley Leonard completed a pass to Jalon Calhoun on the game’s second play from scrimmage. Fighting for extra yards, Calhoun lost a fumble at the Duke 46.
Gifted a short field, Miami used 10 plays to punch it in and Duke was down 7-0 less than five minutes into the game.
A three and out and Duke was back on defense, with Miami poised to get some significant separation. The Canes drove to the Duke 23. But the interior of Duke’s defense stuffed Lucious Jackson on 4th and 1, Miami short by inches.
“I thought that was huge,” Elko said of that stop. “I thought that was really big. That fourth and one was critical and I thought the response of our offense to that stop was critical.”
Duke started forcing turnovers. DeWayne Carter forced a fumble which Shaka Heyward recovered and rumbled to the Miami 23.
It was the first of Miami’s eight turnovers. No, that’s not a typo. EIGHT.
Five plays later Riley Leonard took it in from nine yards out and it was tied.
It was the first of Leonard’s three rushing touchdowns.
“I want to prove to the guys, to prove to the O-line that I’m going to put my body on the line just like they do for me every single play. They created the holes for me and I’m going to run through full speed.
Reserve defensive back Cam Bergeron forced and recovered fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Leonard scored again, from the five, stretching the ball across the end zone as he was going down.
Following an exchange of punts Duke forced turnover number three. Unable to get consistent pressure on Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke Duke started blitzing and Miami couldn’t figure out how to stop it.
Van Dyke was sacked by linebacker Cam Dillon, fumbled and was knocked out of the rest of the game.
After a third-down sack Duke added three points on a Todd Pelino field goal to go up 17-7.
Todd who?
Charlie Ham missed the game due to personal reasons. Pelino was next man up, a true freshman from Cornelius, North Carolina. That’s a Charlotte suburb.
He didn’t miss a kick.
Miami moved into field-goal range late in the half. But a Brandon Johnson sack and a Jaylen Stinson interception and Duke took that 17-7 lead into the locker room. Facing backup quarterback Jake Garcia, Duke had to feel pretty good.
Certainly one of the narratives of Duke’s win will be the injury to Van Dyke. And there’s some truth to that. Van Dyke starts over Garcia for a reason. But Garcia had played and played well in three of Miami’s games, completing 19 of 28 for 272 yards, without an interception.
And he’s good enough to have hit Colbie Young for 71 yards down the sideline for a touchdown on the second play of the second half. Following a lost fumble by Eli Pancol—again after a completion downfield—Garcia found Will Mallory for 34 yards and Duke was down 21-17 two minutes into the third quarter.
Another chance to blink.
What followed can best be described as an epic drive. It wasn’t set up by a turnover, Jake Garcia had nothing to do with it and it certainly was not easy.
Duke took over on their 21. The first play was a sack. The second was an incomplete pass when an official got in Nicky Dalmolin’s way. Third and thirteen and the game was slipping away.
Somehow Leonard found running back Jordan Waters out of the backfield for a first down.
Duke kept moving. A holding penalty. Converting a 4th and 9. A touchdown called back on an offensive interference penalty. Another fourth down, this one a shuffle pass from Leonard to Dalmolin and it stood.
Nineteen plays, 9:22 off the clock and Duke was up 28-24.
Elko cited “the quality of this football team. We obviously didn’t start the third quarter the way we wanted to. We probably couldn’t have started it any worse if we had tried. But we had to go out there and respond. That’s what really good football teams do. Those kids just started to execute the plan a little but better. That drive was enormous, getting the momentum back.”
Leonard’s take?
“As an offense, we’re in control of how a drive goes. Before then we didn’t execute very well. We didn’t do our job. But when we go out there and do our job--it wasn’t like we made any crazy, fantastic plays. We steadily drove the ball down the field and that goes to show you that if we do our things and do what we’re supposed to do, nobody’s going to stop us.”
Duke’s defense had plenty of time to figure it out during this long drive.
“We knew that they gave us something that we could really handle.” Brandon Johnson said. “A couple of miscommunications, things that we could control. So, we were still calm, we were still relaxed as a defense.”
Duke dominated after that. Duke’s blitz continually put Garcia under pressure, Garcia and his receivers weren’t always on the same page and Duke’s defense played like a shark smelling blood in the water down the stretch.
Miami had five possessions after falling behind 24-21. The first ended with a failed fourth-down pass at the Duke 44 and the next four ended in turnovers, two fumbles and two interceptions. Leonard and Jordan Waters had TD runs and Brandon Johnson put the cherry on top with a pick-six.
Johnson noted that he “hadn’t seen the end zone since high school.”
Duke has the week off before visiting Boston College. Duke has four cracks at getting that sixth win but this team has set its sights a lot higher than six wins. So far Duke has been able to handle adversity, handle success and stay in every game it’s played. The doubters don’t have much to hang their hats on anymore. Mike Elko is building something special at Duke and he’s not waiting for next season.
Duke defense broke out the blitz package and put the heat on Miami quarterbacks. Great win! Duke is back on schedule to achieve bowl eligibility in year one of Elko Era. This win cancels out the loss to Georgia Tech.
Let’s get healthy during bye week before heading to Boston.
Great write up and a great win. This team has fight and believes in themselves and their coaches. Those 8 turnovers help our turnover ratio, even though we turned it over too. Let's take a week off and go beat BC for a bowl game.
GoDuke!