FB: Duke 52, Elon 13

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Just to be clear, it's Brandner (substitute RFr OL) not Bradner, worth noting as there is also a (walkon?) OL Brodner, who doesn't play.

Sirk and Wilson were very impressive...Sirk does has some serious speed, and I was surprised and impressed about how quickly and crisply he threw the ball.
I expected more tentativeness in his throwing...but there was none.

A couple of Martin's kickoffs were line drives which were suboptimal, no hang time, definitely contributed to longer returns than we would like.

Only disappointments were the non emergence of secondary receivers, and the way we gave up too many rushing yards. But all in all, a very nice night.

At one point, one of Sirk's passes was tipped up not far from goal line. He's so quick, he almost got there to catch the tip himself. Had he done so, that would be something to talk about... almost like catching one of his own passes.

Yesterday was only a glimmer of what I think Thomas can do.

[budwom]

As Bob Green mentioned, LOTS of people avoided sitting in their blue seats (including us) as the heat was absolutely stifling. We sought shade on the Duke side of the field for the first half.
Anyone who actually sat through the first half on the East side deserves some kind of commendation. Nasty, nasty hot.

[Jim3k]

As Bob Green mentioned, LOTS of people avoided sitting in their blue seats (including us) as the heat was absolutely stifling. We sought shade on the Duke side of the field for the first half.
Anyone who actually sat through the first half on the East side deserves some kind of commendation. Nasty, nasty hot.

I wonder how difficult/expensive it would be to set up a misting system. We see it in many large scale public places. (Downtown Sacramento shopping mall is a prime example). The new Forty-Niners stadium has a similar problem. Not certain if they are looking into a misting system, though.

[loran16]

The O was good and shouldve surprised no one.

The D... again our issue last year was the Dline - and we lost our best , or maybe best 2, members of that unit. unsurprisingly, elon had way too much time to throw....our secondary is going to need to be insanely good to cover for them

[uh_no]

I wonder how difficult/expensive it would be to set up a misting system. We see it in many large scale public places. (Downtown Sacramento shopping mall is a prime example). The new Forty-Niners stadium has a similar problem. Not certain if they are looking into a misting system, though.

ehhh...for the one or MAYBE two patsy (boy isn't that a change...) games in the OOC schedule...probably not worth it

[uh_no]

The O was good and shouldve surprised no one.

The D... again our issue last year was the Dline - and we lost our best , or maybe best 2, members of that unit. unsurprisingly, elon had way too much time to throw....our secondary is going to need to be insanely good to cover for them

we didn't bring a whole lot of pressure, but that was often reserved for the fourth quarter last year, when our starters were out yesterday. they're still adjusting to the loss of Mr. Brown, no doubt. I'd give it time before declaring it hopeless.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

I wonder how difficult/expensive it would be to set up a misting system. We see it in many large scale public places. (Downtown Sacramento shopping mall is a prime example). The new Forty-Niners stadium has a similar problem. Not certain if they are looking into a misting system, though.

There were announcements about the hot weather plan... use of shade, hydration, etc. I thought there was some mention of locations of misting stations. I was sitting in the heat of the shady west side and admit that I wasn't paying close attention. Perhaps others who were at the game Saturday listened more closely than I did. I checked the A-Z Game Day Guide on goduke.com to try to get some clarification of the hot weather plan, but it's not included in that guide.

[Acymetric]

There were announcements about the hot weather plan... use of shade, hydration, etc. I thought there was some mention of locations of misting stations. I was sitting in the heat of the shady west side and admit that I wasn't paying close attention. Perhaps others who were at the game Saturday listened more closely than I did. I checked the A-Z Game Day Guide on goduke.com to try to get some clarification of the hot weather plan, but it's not included in that guide.

Yep, not sure how many but there were misting stations with free water and a small shade tent around the concourse.

[billy]

I had to run a quick errand early afternoon and happened to catch part of a Cut interview on the Jim Rome show. I love Cut. Always straight up. One example: JR:"
so coach, have you ever dismissed a player for violating social media rules?" Cut: "Yes. More than once"

He then went on to say something else interesting. He stated that unofficial visits happen often, and if during a visit, the Duke players hosting the recruit get a bad vibe, or sense that the character of the kid is not going to be a good fit on their team, the recruitment stops there. The hosting players alert the staff, then Coach gets on the phone with the kids High School coach and/or parents the next week thanking them but letting them know Duke is ending the relationship. The other thing he mentioned was he is not dealing with a handler or "7 on 7" coach for a recruit. If Cut can't speak directly with a parent or the High School coach, the kid ain't wearing Duke Blue.

That was awesome in my opinion. We surely lose talented kids from time to time due to the strict policy, but we are likely better off in the long run. High character man. The way it ought to be.

P.S.> As I was typing this Fedora and Bubba were on WRAL explaining why 4 UNC players are suspended for the first game. Gotta love the karma.

This reminded me of a speech I saw Lee Corso give, which was surprisingly good. Money quote was "You win with character, not characters"

[Henderson]

It's not Aaron Boone. It's his brother Brett.

Aaron Boone's brother is "Bret" not "Brett". But my Cincinnati roots are showing, calling Anthony Boone Aaron. Sheesh.

Off-topic funny story about Bret Boone: Bret Boone showed up spring training in March of 2001 totally cut with an additional 20 lbs of muscle from the previous September. 20 lbs. of muscle in 7 months. On a second baseman. And he'd never been a cut muscular guy. A beat writer for the local paper (Boone had moved on to the Mariners by then) told me soon after that the guys in the locker room nicknamed him "Juice." Never publicly, but there were lots of jokes about needles and ... how to put this ... pectoral growth aberrations. He'd hit something like 21 HRs the previous year; in 2001 he hit 37.

[IsInTheDetails]

A few observations from the Elon game. . .

+ One thing that stuck out to me in watching the Elon game was Boone's arm. Is it just me, or does it look like his passes - particularly his passes downfield - have a bit more zip on them this year? He had some rifle shots, including the shorter of the two TDs hauled in by Crowder.

+ In the past, though this started to change last season, I feel like we used the screen pass in lieu of a reliable running attack, as it was the only way we could get chunks of yards in early downs. As last season progressed and in the Elon game, we certainly had a potent running game, and it felt like we used the screen more as a way to tighten up the defense secondary and open up those downfield opportunities. If defenses have to respect our running game up the middle (hello, Shaun Wilson, by the way) *and* our screen game *and* Boone's downfield targets, I like our chances. The offense looks potent.

+ Like others on the board, I was a bit worried about our defense coming out of the Elon game. While we dominated on the scoreboard and gave up a touchdown only late in the game, it felt like we were giving up chunks of yards pretty easily. As I thought about it more, though, it seems like we were playing a rather soft, vanilla defense. Perhaps others have more of an eye for defensive schemes than I do, but I seem to recall our secondary playing fairly deep and our linebackers holding stationary pre-snap. Perhaps we just put out a base, vanilla defense and held more scheme variety back for later, tougher games? Too soon to worry?

Great start to the season. Let's keep it rolling.

[budwom]

Yup, while we might not have shown all we have defensively, it was a bit unnerving watching how easily Elon ran off tackle much of the night.
I expected our defensive line, especially the ends, to perform better than they did.

[Bob Green]

...As I thought about it more, though, it seems like we were playing a rather soft, vanilla defense. Perhaps others have more of an eye for defensive schemes than I do, but I seem to recall our secondary playing fairly deep and our linebackers holding stationary pre-snap. Perhaps we just put out a base, vanilla defense and held more scheme variety back for later, tougher games? Too soon to worry?

Our cornerbacks were playing off Elon's receivers a good 7 or 8 yards so it appears to me we were conceding the short routes to ensure they didn't beat us long. It is definitely too soon to worry.

[PDDuke85]

our cornerbacks were playing off Elon's receivers a good 7 or 8 yards so it appears to me we were conceding the short routes to ensure they didn't beat us long. It is definitely too soon to worry.

Bob, I suspect we saw
vanilla schemes from both sides of the ball. Concur with not losing sleep over the defense after week one.

Here's what impressed me Saturday PM: crowd size and enthusiasm, a marching band with now 5 tuba's, the expectation and delivery of a good team performance, and the palpable reality of WW upgrade. To those with the fortitude to endure the weather, what was life like in the blue seats?

Cheers

[sagegrouse]

Here's what impressed me Saturday PM: crowd size and enthusiasm, a marching band with now 5 tuba's, the expectation and delivery of a good team performance, and the palpable reality of WW upgrade. To those with the fortitude to endure the weather, what was life like in the blue seats?

Cheers

Wow!! Five tubas!! Move over, Ohio State!

[-jk]

Wow!! Five tubas!! Move over, Ohio State!

One of those is my nephew! A double-DUMB-alum! And his father played tuba for Duke as a senior in high school; there were damned few tubaists then. (As I understand it from them, Duke has a small tuba scholarship these days...)

Why does everyone hate a tuba right off?
Saves time.

Tuba Player: Did you hear my last recital?
Roommate: I hope so.

What do you call ten tubas at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start.

-jk

[devildeac]

One of those is my nephew! A double-DUMB-alum! And his father played tuba for Duke as a senior in high school; there were damned few tubaists then. (As I understand it from them, Duke has a small tuba scholarship these days...)

Why does everyone hate a tuba right off?
Saves time.

Tuba Player: Did you hear my last recital?
Roommate: I hope so.

What do you call ten tubas at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start.

-jk

Small tuba scholarship? Does that mean limited number of $$ or money given for playing one of these 250px-Euphonium_Boosey_and_hawkes.jpg?


(sorry, -jk, couldn't resist)

[Newton_14]

Finally got a chance to post some thoughts. First the crowd, it was great. Like Bob or someone else opined, thousands of folks on the concourse all game, and sitting on the east side prior to the sun going down was a non-option. Feel sorry for the souls that chose to sweat that out. I did that in the Bama game and said, never again. Speaking of which, I thought it was easily the biggest crowd since the Bama game. Did not get a chance to sit in them but the blue seats looked great from the other side. They will make the stadium look much better once they are put in every section.

On to the game. I was beyond pleased. First it was a refreshing to watch Duke play Football knowing the other team had no chance in hell of winning, because of where the program is now. It has not been so long ago that we would have been biting our nails early on.

I agree with PA85 that we ran very vanilla stuff on both sides of the ball, yet still dominated. Loved the play of Boone, and loved seeing McCaffrey and Blakeney stepping their games up. McCaffrey looked quite a bit bigger and stronger to me. Blakeney showed great hands on that corner post fade route for the TD. That was a much harder catch than it looked. If Aaron Brett Bret Anthony Boone can work hard to spread the ball around like he did against Elon it will open up the offense a lot. The running backs looked good as well. Another year of 4 strong running backs. Snead and Powell will carry the load but Wilson is a speedy stud, and Ajeigbe impressed me as well. Someone mentioned he did not do much but he had one pretty strong run.

Defense was solid but not spectacular or dominant. The main disappointment was lack of pass rush when not blitzing, and then no forced turnovers, but still they kept Elon at bay limiting them to just 13 points. We miss Kelby but still have a lot of talent there. We will see how good the defense is when it matters and we are using every tool in the tool box. This was not the game for that.

Kick coverage was the only disappointing thing. The kicks were bad (blame it on the day-glo orange shoes/day-glo lime green shoes??) when we were not going for the touchback, and the coverage was pretty weak. (We miss Juwan Thompson maybe?? )

Finally, Mr. Sirk says hello. The mantle has been passed. Connette Package is now the Sirk Package. Thomas looks like Brandon out there except he is stronger, faster, and has a quicker first step. That one run was unbelievable. He got going as quick as lightening, hit the hole then showed great strength slamming into the defenders, and willing his way into the end zone. Also showed a strong arm throwing. Sirk is going to be a stud.

All in all a great night at Wally Wade. Shout out to Native and his fellow students. The student section was slam full an hour before kickoff, and it ended up overflowing. They spilled over into the next section and the steps. Amazing.

On to Troy!!

Go Duke!!

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Finally, Mr. Sirk says hello. The mantle has been passed. Connette Package is now the Sirk Package. Thomas looks like Brandon out there except he is stronger, faster, and has a quicker first step. That one run was unbelievable. He got going as quick as lightening, hit the hole then showed great strength slamming into the defenders, and willing his way into the end zone. Also showed a strong arm throwing. Sirk is going to be a stud.

Go Duke!!

If I may add something of a divergent thought... we now have two QBs who can run and pass. I suspect that the day of knowing whether we run or pass based on the QB is passing out of sight.

One other play from the game.... one of Sirk's passes near the goal line was tipped up. Thomas is so quick he almost made it in time to catch the tipped ball himself. I would love to see that happen... how many times do you see a QB catch his own pass?

The competition between the top two QBs is going to be fierce this year... a good thing for the team. Anthony is very good. Thomas is just winding up. Please forgive me for being redundant, but I must reiterate that Thomas Sirk is going to make history at Duke.

[Acymetric]

If I may add something of a divergent thought... we now have two QBs who can run and pass. I suspect that the day of knowing whether we run or pass based on the QB is passing out of sight.

One other play from the game.... one of Sirk's passes near the goal line was tipped up. Thomas is so quick he almost made it in time to catch the tipped ball himself. I would love to see that happen... how many times do you see a QB catch his own pass?

The competition between the top two QBs is going to be fierce this year... a good thing for the team. Anthony is very good. Thomas is just winding up. Please forgive me for being redundant, but I must reiterate that Thomas Sirk is going to make history at Duke.

I know Brett Favre did it (his first play from scrimmage I think) but it was for negative yards off an offensive lineman's helmet.