FB: Duke 55, Central 0

[OldPhiKap]

55-0. We have comes.long way.

Next game much tougher.

[duke79]

55-0. We have comes.long way.

Next game much tougher.

Yea, hard to tell how good this Duke team will be this season. Easy wins over two not-very-good teams (but a good way to start the season). I'll be more of a believer if we beat Northwestern next week. Let's hope for a big crowd.

[subzero02]

92-7... we must be close to first in the nation in scoring margin. +85

[neuro]

Georgia Tech has impressive numbers after two weeks, if we are simply looking at margin of victory. :)

[uh_no]

only thing we didn't do super well was go up the middle.

but it also looked like central was jamming the middle...which made sense when we killed them on the sidelines

they have some QUICK players....like when barnes got caught on what i thought was a sure TD.

[subzero02]

Georgia Tech has impressive numbers after two weeks, if we are simply looking at margin of victory. :)

We'll just have to put a stop that on the 26th... it's time for Rocky IV( my first and favorite Rocky movie)

[devildeac]

I'm impressed that NCCU made a 127 point turn-around in a week :o .

[Henderson]

I was impressed with Sirk's arm strength and accuracy, both of which showed better yesterday than I expected. He was hitting his receivers deep and in stride. If our receivers can beat one-on-one coverage vertically (and Sirk can hit them), it'll be tough for teams to stuff the box like NCCU did. And that'll be important, because there are teams on the schedule that are big enough inside to stuff the run and fast enough to stop Sirk and the RBs from running around the end like they did so effectively yesterday.

But for all the talk of offensive efficiency, how about the defense giving up 7 points in 2 games? Last year that number after two games -- against comparable competition in Elon and Troy -- was 30. BTW, our point total to date (92) compares favorably to last year's first two games as well (86). So this team is performing better on those two metrics (points for and against) than last year's squad, fwiw given the small sample and different opponents.

[davekay1971]

I was impressed with Sirk's arm strength and accuracy, both of which showed better yesterday than I expected. He was hitting his receivers deep and in stride. If our receivers can beat one-on-one coverage vertically (and Sirk can hit them), it'll be tough for teams to stuff the box like NCCU did. And that'll be important, because there are teams on the schedule that are big enough inside to stuff the run and fast enough to stop Sirk and the RBs from running around the end like they did so effectively yesterday.

But for all the talk of offensive efficiency, how about the defense giving up 7 points in 2 games? Last year that number after two games -- against comparable competition in Elon and Troy -- was 30. BTW, our point total to date (92) compares favorably to last year's first two games as well (86). So this team is performing better on those two metrics (points for and against) than last year's squad, fwiw given the small sample and different opponents.

The defense has been very, very good against the early competition. IIRC, NCCU had about 100 yards total through the first 3 quarters. Cut has focused on building the defense around speed. As college offenses have moved more toward spread formations, that makes a lot of sense. Until we run into an opponent who can just overpower us at the line of scrimmage, his tactic is likely to keep paying off dividends.

[Sixthman]

Talk about coming a long way -- the Duke band even looked and sounded competitive last night. Any time in the last thirty years you would have expected Central to own half time the way Duke owned the game yesterday. I still give Central the halftime band win, but DUMB showed up -- I'd call it Central 31 Duke 21.

[Faison1]

Are there any photos of WW from last night?

I thought for sure the Charlotte Observer would post something, as WW was in their byline...but sadly, no.

[uh_no]

Talk about coming a long way -- the Duke band even looked and sounded competitive last night. Any time in the last thirty years you would have expected Central to own half time the way Duke owned the game yesterday. I still give Central the halftime band win, but DUMB showed up -- I'd call it Central 31 Duke 21.

the show was incredibly visually appealing. I was on the visitor's side so couldn't hear....but they sounded great when playing from the stands

[uh_no]

Are there any photos of WW from last night?

I thought for sure the Charlotte Observer would post something, as WW was in their byline...but sadly, no.

http://www.goduke.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?PALBID=1595962&DB_OEM_ID=4200

goduke has photos of almost every game up.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Are there any photos of WW from last night?

I thought for sure the Charlotte Observer would post something, as WW was in their byline...but sadly, no.

Try these:
Durham Herald.... http://www.heraldsun.com/news/rockin-wade-reborn-wallace-wade-stadium-excites-sro-crowd/article_3f2b4c7a-59a2-11e5-b06a-138e02ea83bc.html

Raleigh News & Observer...... http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/duke/duke-now/article35085909.html

[Olympic Fan]

I thought we made major improvement in two areas from our opener:

-- After the Tulane game, there were a lot of complaints about our lack of success with the deep pass. Sirk and his receivers answered that against Central -- there was a 44-yard bomb to Johnel Barnes in the second quarter (great job by Barnes, winning the 50-50 ball) and a 43-yard TD bomb to Mac McCaffrey, who bet the NCCU secondary, in the third. You could also count the 24-yard TD pass to Shaq Powell on a beautiful rainbow throw from Sirk. The other long pass plays -- 89 yards to Shaun Wilson, 59 yards to T.J. Rahming and 37 yards to Ryan Smith were all shorter throws that the receivers turned into big players with yards after the catch.

-- After the Tulane game, Duke was last in the ACC with penalties -- with eight flags for 78 yards. Last night, Duke got just three penalties -- one motion penalty by the offensive line and both an offensive and defensive pass interference call. That's more like it -- for the last two years, Duke has been one of the ACC's least penalized teams.

There was not a heck of a lot more to improve. Sirk remained amazingly accurate (he still had two bad throws that Cut said were due to moisture on his hands ... a problem that he said needed to be fixed). The defense remained dominant. And the special teams remained superb -- especially the coverage teams that got a major test against a NCCU team that is excellent in the return game.

BTW, Sirk has now attempted 76 passes in his career without an interception. That breaks the Duke record of 69 straight set by Thad Lewis in 2006. He has been lucky -- Tulane dropped a sure interception and NCCU had a interception erased by a defensive offsides penalty (on the other hand, Sirk said afterwards that he saw the flag, knew what it was for and that allowed him to gamble on the throw that was picked off). It's also worth noting that he had 401 yards in total offensive against NCCU -- in less than three quarters of action. In six quarters in two games, he's compiled 758 yards total offense.

Obviously, the competition steps up this week when 2-0 Northwestern visits Wade Stadium ... with Georgia Tech coming to town the week after that. The Devils appear to be in good shape heading into that testing two-week run. I'll be most interested to see how the two lines do against a team that dominated powerful Stanford up front on both sides of the ball.

[OldPhiKap]

Looks like we are opening as a slight favorite (1.5) but would not be surprised to see thT move to pick-'em or even flip. Should be a tight game. Looks like NU is ranked #23 in the AP poll.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Looks like we are opening as a slight favorite (1.5) but would not be surprised to see thT move to pick-'em or even flip. Should be a tight game. Looks like NU is ranked #23 in the AP poll.
The weather forecast for next Saturday should appeal to the fair weather fans. I think the home team will be able to take advantage of generally good game day conditions. Since humidity will rein, maybe the Wildcats will tire early.

We know that the bookies haven't caught on that Duke does, in fact, play football. Their loss, our gain!

[budwom]

NW credited their conditioning with playing a key role in their win over Stanford, so I'm not sure that's going to be a huge advantage...but perhaps some of our depth will be?

[Henderson]

We know that the bookies haven't caught on that Duke does, in fact, play football. Their loss, our gain!

Very literally in some cases. Duke is 2-0 ATS, and it hasn't been close. We were favored by about 10 against Tulane (depending on when you bet) and won by 30. We were favored by 41 against NCCU (again, depending on when you bet) and won by 55. Those are double touchdown margins ATS. It's no record, but it ain't scrapple either. And some folks love scrapple.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

NW credited their conditioning with playing a key role in their win over Stanford, so I'm not sure that's going to be a huge advantage...but perhaps some of our depth will be?
Whatever the Wildcats do to prepare, I expect that Coach Cutcliffe has a parry or two ready. The first two games revealed mostly general developmental status for Duke.... vanilla plays as some like to say. I've been thinking that there's still quite a bit untouched in Coach's playbook.

[Isaac Sours]

Those are double touchdown margins ATS. It's no record, but it ain't scrapple either. And some folks love scrapple.

I absolutely LOVE scrapple. And duke football.

[fuse]

Couldn't make it in person yesterday- we looked pretty darn good on ESPN3.

Minor quibble with Wilson's 89 yard touch down. I could not quite tell, it looked like he caught the ball at either the 4 or 6 yard line, not the 11 yard line.

Give him the yards he earned- I could have sworn it was a 96 yard play.

Northwestern first, and I think the next two weeks will be telling about what kind of season to expect.

[Bob Green]

Minor quibble with Wilson's 89 yard touch down. I could not quite tell, it looked like he caught the ball at either the 4 or 6 yard line, not the 11 yard line.

The line of scrimmage was the 11 yard line. Where Wilson caught the ball is irrelevant (statistically speaking). It was an 89 yard touchdown reception.

[subzero02]

Very literally in some cases. Duke is 2-0 ATS, and it hasn't been close. We were favored by about 10 against Tulane (depending on when you bet) and won by 30. We were favored by 41 against NCCU (again, depending on when you bet) and won by 55. Those are double touchdown margins ATS. It's no record, but it ain't scrapple either. And some folks love scrapple.

We might have opened as 10 point favorites versus Tulane but the spread at kickoff moved significantly in the green wave's favor. The closing line was 5.5 according to vegasinsider.com


http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-football/teams/team-page.cfm/team/duke

[duke blue brewcrew]

I live in Atlanta, but was in NC for a family birthday this weekend. I was able to steal my nephew away and make it to the game - WE HAD A GREAT TIME! The stadium looks outstanding, and even the temporary media areas looked like they had been put together reasonably well. The new video board is MASSIVE! We were sitting in the end-zone looking directly at it, and it was tempting to watch the game on that massive screen, rather than live on the field.

For the most part, the team looked sharp all the way around. Duke did what they were supposed to do against an inferior opponent. As other posters have said, we'll know more after next week when higher caliber bullets are flying. Duke might not be ranked, but I think it's a nice tip of the cap that the Blue Devils are favored at home against a ranked opponent. Let the countdown to Saturday begin!

Speaking of Saturday, does anyone know if Jela will be ready for that game? There have been reports circulated that Jela is ahead of the game in his recovery. If that's true, there was no need to rush him back against NCCU. However, if healthy, Jela would be a huge asset to have at Duke's disposal this coming weekend.

[Bob Green]

Speaking of Saturday, does anyone know if Jela will be ready for that game?

Coach Cutcliffe stated yesterday that Joe Agiegbe is ahead of Jela Duncan. No specific timeline for either player's return was provided.

[Henderson]

We might have opened as 10 point favorites versus Tulane but the spread at kickoff moved significantly in the green wave's favor. The closing line was 5.5 according to vegasinsider.com


http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-football/teams/team-page.cfm/team/duke

Wow, that's some serious late money coming in. It opened at -10.5 at my local sports book. I bet them at -9.5 a week before the game and thought I caught a bargain. Then I watched the number sink slowly. The last I saw was the night before, and it was -8.5. If the line closed at -5.5 some whale(s) lost a big chunk of change with their late bets when Duke won by 30.

[duke blue brewcrew]

Coach Cutcliffe stated yesterday that Joe Agiegbe is ahead of Jela Duncan. No specific timeline for either player's return was provided.

Gotcha, thanks as always Bob.

[jimsumner]

I would be very (pleasantly) surprised to see Duncan back before October, perhaps Army, perhaps VT.

[moonpie23]

oh....forgot to mention that my son and i ran into super-star nolan smith in front of cameron.....just walking around. he was ridiculously nice and accessible. posed for a pic with sam and just chatted about rehabbing his knee.....saw him later on the field, just walking around...

[NYBri]

oh....forgot to mention that my son and i ran into super-star nolan smith in front of cameron.....just walking around. he was ridiculously nice and accessible. posed for a pic with sam and just chatted about rehabbing his knee.....saw him later on the field, just walking around...

Well, I'm not too jealous.