Duke defeated Lafayette 42-7 Saturday night to run their record to 2-0.
If that’s all you know about the game you’d think it played out according to script.
But the game was surprisingly close for longer than any one would have expected.
Duke used a fourth-down stop in the middle of the second period to jump start the evening and pulled away after that.
We all knew the potential problems. We talked about it all week long, the coaches, the players, the media, the fans. A short week coming off a huge win, an underwhelming opponent, human nature.
“Offensively, I thought we came out and did the things we wanted to do,” Mike Elko summed up. .
But it took a bit longer for the defense to come around.
“Defensively, I thought at times we were a little flat to start the game. We just didn’t have an edge about us, we didn’t communicate at a really high level. But then we settled in and certainly in the second half played defense the way we wanted to.”
Duke got the ball first and marched down the field for a touchdown. No surprise there,
But the visitors answered with a 75-yard drive of their own and the first period ended 7-7.
The Lafayette TD drive burned 7:20 off the clock, just what they needed to make a game of it.
Jordan Waters had the ball stripped at the end of a long run and by stripped, I mean Lafayette's Gabe DuBois simply reached in and took the ball away.
Waters said “we always say ‘it’s the one you don’t see’ and I didn’t see that one.”
Waters didn’t let it bother him too much, He ended the game with 112 yards on 11 rushes, a five yard TD run and a 16-yard TD run to put Duke up 21-7 at intermission.
That’s a career high in rushing yards for Waters.
“I knew I had to come out and redeem myself. It’s part of the game. You just have to have a quick turnaround.”
But in between those two TD runs came a huge play. Lafayette ball on the Duke 24, fourth and one, Duke up 14-7.
Jermaine Conyers ran up the middle and gained, well, a couple of inches less than he needed.
Here’s how Duke linebacker Dorian Mausi saw it.
“Our D-line really set the line of scrimmage in that play. I remember during the play, I go to fill my left B-gap and I look over and I see Nick Morris-the running back is trying to jump— and he hits him in the hole and I think ‘this is how we play.’ A shout-out to him.”
Duke responded with a 76-yard drive which ended with Waters’ second TD and it was 21-7. Myles Jones picked off a long Lafayette pass late in the first half and Riley Leonard put together a perfect two-minute drive, 64 yards in 26 seconds in five plays, to set up a 29-yard Todd Pelino field goal.
He missed.
Elko said he went out of his way not to talk to Pelino at the half.
“It was a great drive,” Elko said. “I thought we operated pretty well. We made some plays and got it going. I thought we did everything right except make the field goal.”
Pelino’s miss was about the last thing that went wrong for Duke. Unless you count the rain that started as a drizzle and went to a downpour and then became whatever follows downpour and took up much of the second half.
But Duke added three more touchdowns, the final two drives quarterbacked by backup Henry Beilin IV.
“We weren’t trying to disrespect anybody,” Elko said “but in this type of game we have to take care of ourself and that’s the most important thing. It’s really important that Henry goes out there and throws the football and that we ran the offensive game plan so that Henry can function in that game plan that he worked on all week. Those snaps are critical for us.”
Duke actually could have scored again, reaching the Lafayette 15 late before pulling the plug.
And, yes, lots of other deep reserves got some snaps. Not as many as Duke hoped, in part because Lafayette ran 51 plays in 24:46, milking every second possible.
There are some interesting stats. Leonard was 12 for 12 passing, for 136 yards, Belin 8 for 8 for 118 yards. There was a team incompletion, i.e. clocking, or spiking. Punter Porter Wilson could have stayed at home and stayed dry. Duke did not punt a single time. Waters’ fumble was Duke’s only turnover. Neither Leonard nor Belin was sacked. Duke had 515 yards total offense, Lafayette 213, only 58 after intermission.
Sterner tests await, much sterner tests. And Elko freely admitted that Duke has some stuff that needs cleaning up. But despite the somewhat wobbly start Duke basically got what it needed.
Yea, but you were in the Navy. :)
Lewis broke a thumb against Clemson. Came back in and played with a cast. Warmed up before last night’s game, didn’t like the way it felt and decided not to play. Elko says Lewis is day to day