FOUR games left, how will Duke Football respond to heartbreak?

[duke09hms]

Duke football gets jobbed by the refs on the last play of the game, gifting Miami the winning TD. That said, we NEVER should have been in that situation, and we seem to have a bad habit of failing to get up for big home games. UNC last year, Miami this year. We are a MUCH better team than Miami but played down to their level until the very end, and so we get this ridiculous outcome.

How will our team respond to this gut-wrenching loss*??

I can see it going two extreme ways. Hard to see a middle ground with something like this.

1. The loss focuses the team, galvanizing us to play sharp the rest of the season and give max effort. We run through UNC and the rest of the winnable schedule (Pitt, UVA, Wake) and we make it to the ACC CG at 10-2.

2. We never recover mentally, get blown out by UNC's high-powered offense, and our sputtering offense can't produce anything against their now-solid defense. Finish the season at 8-4 at best.

[eddiehaskell]

I'd be saying we play like it's life or death because we never want to potentially put a game in the hands of the refs. I'd also say we stay sharp and never celebrate a win until the clock's at all zeros. We didn't play our best, but this is a 8-1 football team - the nation knows it. Play like it.

[freshmanjs]

Duke football gets jobbed by the refs on the last play of the game, gifting Miami the winning TD. That said, we NEVER should have been in that situation, and we seem to have a bad habit of failing to get up for big home games. UNC last year, Miami this year. We are a MUCH better team than Miami but played down to their level until the very end, and so we get this ridiculous outcome.

How will our team respond to this gut-wrenching loss*??

I can see it going two extreme ways. Hard to see a middle ground with something like this.

1. The loss focuses the team, galvanizing us to play sharp the rest of the season and give max effort. We run through UNC and the rest of the winnable schedule (Pitt, UVA, Wake) and we make it to the ACC CG at 10-2.

2. We never recover mentally, get blown out by UNC's high-powered offense, and our sputtering offense can't produce anything against their now-solid defense. Finish the season at 8-4 at best.

Interesting that you think anything is possible except a 9-3 record.

Obviously i'm hoping for #1. However, we just lost in the worst way a team can possibly lose. There is a reason the Stanford Cal clip has been shown repeatedly for over 30 years. This season will be remembered for many, many years for having the worst loss in program history (and one of the worst losses in the history of college football). I suspect it will be nearly impossible for the team to recover emotionally. It's very hard against UNC coming off the last 2 games. I think this game was the season definer. Hope I'm wrong.

[Saratoga2]

Interesting that you think anything is possible except a 9-3 record.

Obviously i'm hoping for #1. However, we just lost in the worst way a team can possibly lose. There is a reason the Stanford Cal clip has been shown repeatedly for over 30 years. This season will be remembered for many, many years for having the worst loss in program history (and one of the worst losses in the history of college football). I suspect it will be nearly impossible for the team to recover emotionally. It's very hard against UNC coming off the last 2 games. I think this game was the season definer. Hope I'm wrong.

Seems to me the loss was not as much due to the inability of the special teams or the refs but instead not choosing a safer option on the last play. Bitter loss but they played well enough to win and can be proud of that.

[OldPhiKap]

Let's be ready to play and beat Carolina, then worry about the rest.

[left_hook_lacey]

Duke football gets jobbed by the refs on the last play of the game, gifting Miami the winning TD.

To be fair, we had a little help from the refs getting down the field on that last scoring drive. If the lateral hadn't worked, Miami would be having this discussion on their board.

I guess we both got "jobbed", we just got jobbed last, and in the most embarrassing way possible.

[duke09hms]

Interesting that you think anything is possible except a 9-3 record.

Obviously i'm hoping for #1. However, we just lost in the worst way a team can possibly lose. There is a reason the Stanford Cal clip has been shown repeatedly for over 30 years. This season will be remembered for many, many years for having the worst loss in program history (and one of the worst losses in the history of college football). I suspect it will be nearly impossible for the team to recover emotionally. It's very hard against UNC coming off the last 2 games. I think this game was the season definer. Hope I'm wrong.

Haha yeah I guess I do only exclude 9-3. Original intention was to show we either finish 10-2 or 6-6 but couldn't bring myself to consider losing to UVA or Wake. Though that could very well happen. Hard to see a middle ground. Probably 10-2 or 7-5 (beating Wake) are the likely options. Maybe we can win a bowl game now!

Cut's Ole Miss lost 4 straight after their 7OT loss and he said this was worse than that.

[devildeac]

To be fair, we had a little help from the refs getting down the field on that last scoring drive. If the lateral hadn't worked, Miami would be having this discussion on their board.

I guess we both got "jobbed", we just got jobbed last, and in the most embarrassing way possible.

I dunno. I wasn't there and didn't see much of the game but there were a lot of comments in a couple different chat rooms about Miami's repeated holding and pushing of our receivers and a "finally" earlier in the game by some chatters when a PI was called on them. They are one of the most penalized teams in FBS (~72 yds/game and ranking ~109th for most penalized teams this year, IIRC from a graphic last PM during the game).

[left_hook_lacey]

I dunno. I wasn't there and didn't see much of the game but there were a lot of comments in a couple different chat rooms about Miami's repeated holding and pushing of our receivers and a "finally" earlier in the game by some chatters when a PI was called on them. They are one of the most penalized teams in FBS (~72 yds/game and ranking ~109th for most penalized teams this year, IIRC from a graphic last PM during the game).

This checks out seeing that they were called for almost 200 yards worth of penalties last night. Maybe their strategy is, "F*** the law, they can't arrest us all!" My apologies to Bubba Sparks.


It kind of reminds me of some of the more physical defenses that have won superbowls in the past. I always thought some of the corners and safetys on Seahawks and Patriots(of 2000's) defenses got a away with way too much pushing and shoving of the receivers. But they did it so much and so often, it eventually became their identity and they got away with more than most teams because it was "who they were". The refs eventually get a normalization of deviation compared to other defenses.