Duke overcame a slow start to defeat Virginia Tech 24-7 Saturday afternoon. The win moved Duke to 7-3 overall, 4-2 in the ACC.
Duke accomplished a lot with the win. It was the program’s first home win over Virginia Tech since 1981. It guaranteed a winning season at home-Duke is 4-1-guaranteed an overall winning season and ensured that Duke would finish no worse than .500 in ACC play.
It could hardly have started worse. On Duke’s first play from scrimmage Riley Leonard had Jalon Calhoun wide open down the left sideline for what would have been an 88-yard touchdown strike. But Leonard overthrew Calhoun by about a yard or so.
“I missed Calhoun on a deep one,” Leonard said. “I wish I get [it] back. But that kind of opened my eyes that we were going to attack these guys and we had the capability to do so.”
Tech answered with a two-play, 55-yard drive, the final 53 on a perfectly thrown sideline pass from Grants Wells to De’Wain Lofton and it was 7-0.
Duke also punted on its second possession after a penalty nullified a long pass and the Hokies picked up two first downs, to the Duke 48.
The underdogs were in danger of getting some serious separation against a Duke offense that was showing some early signs of stagnation.
But Jaylen Stinson stopped a Tech completion five yards short of the first down and VT was forced to punt.
“I thought they [Duke’s defense] responded really well to the bad opening drive,” Mike Elko said. “The thing wasn’t tilted in our favor to start the game, for sure and we answered. We got some stops from the defense and we needed that and that got the momentum back and the offense was able to get it going. We had a couple of drives that we kind of beat ourselves on. The defense curbed the momentum of the game for sure.”
Safety Brandon Johnson agreed with Elko’s assessment.
“Very important. We always stress bend don’t break. We got the stop.”
Duke’s defense dominated after that. But Duke’s offense kept throwing lifelines to the underdog visitors. Late in the first period Leonard and Calhoun connected for 18 and 31 yards on consecutive plays and Duke had a first down at the Tech 13.
But the drive stalled and Todd Pelino put Duke on the board with a 25-yard field goal. Early in the second quarter a holding penalty by wide receiver Sahmir Hagans nullified a 65-yard touchdown run by Jordan Waters. Then with the ball on the Tech 16 Leonard threw an interception at the 2.
“Just a bad throw,” Leonard said, adding that he had a good matchup but “I’ve got to put it in a better spot.”
Duke finally crossed the goal line in the second period. The key play was a 4th and 7 at the Tech 37, that in-between situation, too close to punt, too far for a field goal. Duke went for it and Leonard hit Jontavis Robertson for 13 yards. On the next play he connected with tight end Nicky Dalmolin for 24 yards and a lead Duke would never relinquish.
“When the time was needed, some guys stepped up and made some big plays,” Leonard said.
Duke reached the Tech 27 right before half-time but Pelino missed a 44-yard field goal, after which Tech’s John Love was well short of a 50-yard field goal as time expired.
A 10-7 lead at intermission is hardly comfortable, especially when the trailing team gets the ball first coming out of the locker room. But by this time Duke’s defense had figured out Tech’s offense.
“Defensively we played our best effort of the year,” Elko said, “we way we controlled the line of scrimmage, I thought we really kind of controlled the tempo of the game. We were able to get off the field a lot.”
Tech converted 2 of 6 on third down in each half and came up empty on a pair of fourth-down tries. They had the ball three times in the decisive third quarter, punting twice and losing the ball on downs at the Duke 21 on an incomplete pass.
And Duke starting stringing together some drives. After that first empty VT drive of the second half, Duke put together an 11-play drive, seven passes, five rushes, the longest play a 19-yard completion to Robertson, to set up a short Leonard keeper for the score.
Time will tell but this may have been a breakout game for Robertson, who had five receptions for 81 yards.
Leonard said Robertson “had a great week of practice, changes everything in his game and goes out there and makes some incredible catches.”
Duke kept the ball for around 20 minutes in each half.
“We were able to trot down the field and execute on offense,” Leonard said. “We started to lock in. But that really goes back to the defense. We held the ball on offense and they got rid of it pretty quickly on defense. Just playing complementary football.”
Johnson returned the favor.
“I almost feel like I didn’t play a game. The offense letting the defense rest is pretty crucial in how the defense performs.”
Duke wrapped it up with a five-minute drive spanning the third and fourth quarters. Jordan Moore made a highlight-reel catch on 4th down to keep alive the drive, one of several catches Duke’s receivers made on sub-optimal passes.
“I’ve got to them out to dinner,” Leonard said of his receivers. “Those dudes made some plays for me.”
And don’t forget Brandon Johnson, who sacked Wells twice on blitzes, both on third down.
“It’s always fun to blitz,” Johnson acknowledged. “Timing, alignment. I was playing mind games with the quarterback, with the O-line, getting them to slide out of the way, things like that.”
Duke kept the ball for seven minutes late in the game, eschewing the field goal on 4th down because the goal had been accomplished, bleeding the clock and leaving the Hokies no options for a comeback.
Elko has consistently praised its team for its focus and buy-in and said win number seven changes none of that.
“Obviously excited about win number seven. We challenged the guys last week that we started this thing to become the best football team we could be this year and not just to become a bowl-eligible team and I thought they handled that challenge really well.”
Duke didn't get any help from the officials, that's for sure.
A huge shout out to the defense for their performance yesterday. After giving up a touchdown on Virginia Tech’s first possession, the defense dominated the rest of the game.
Leonard struggled a bit with accuracy but completed passes when he had to. A second shout out to Jordan Moore for the one handed snag.
I believe Duke football made a statement yesterday by winning easily on a day they didn’t play their best.
Because I am greedy, at 7-3, it sets my hair on fire that we lost to Georgia Tech. Oh well, water under the bridge. Let’s go to Pittsburgh and beat the Panthers.