jimsumner
11-22-2016, 02:50 PM
Nobody is hiding from Saturday's dismal performance against Pitt.
"You can't argue tape," Casey Blaser said. "They just ended up beating us. Obviously, we didn't prepare the right way and it showed."
Ben Humphreys says it's easier to recover from a blow-out loss than a close loss.
"It's probably easier to hit reset after one like that than losing by three. There's wasn't one thing that went right Saturday, besides Bryon Fields' pick six. We got outplayed in all three phases of the game.
It happens. We've had a long year and lots of stuff went wrong. You have to hit reset, pick yourself up and get after it. . . . Pitt won a lot of 50-50 plays. It just wasn't our day."
David Cutcliffe said he had a long Saturday night and Sunday afternoon trying to "get through the why" but is always ready to hit reset by Sunday afternoon.
"I understand what they're saying. There's sometimes more of a hangover when you fight your rear end off and think about the hundred things, the one play out of hundred may have cost you the game."
Everyone is aware that a win over Miami likely puts Duke in a bowl game.
.
"It's a one-game season now," Humphreys said. "We have to win the game on defense. Their quarterback [Brad Kaaya] is really good. We have to stop him."
The running game? Daniel Jones, "You have to give credit to Pitt and what they did. But one game doesn't discourage our running game. We know we can run the ball. We have all season. It's just a
matter of getting back to what's worked before and making sure we do it again."
Cutcliffe noted that falling behind quickly hurt Duke's running game. "When you fall behind quickly and the way they align, they're basically saying you're not going to run it if we've go the
lead. . . . With 11 snaps, we go from 28-14 to 42-14. There went a lot of the run game. Now, do we need to run it better? Absolutely. From the first quarter on. . . . You've got to reassemble the
offensive line a bit, get the running backs healthier a bit."
Cutcliffe said the offensive line had a sense of urgency in practice since the Pitt game. Christian Harris had a "tweak' in practice today but Sterling Korona had a good practice and seems likely
to get the starting nod at left tackle in place of injured Gabe Brandner.
Both Brandner and Korona are redshirt juniors and the latter does have some experience. So, this isn't another of those freshman-replacing-senior-scenarios that we've seen all too often.
David Cutcliffe discussed Duke's place-kicking situation. "There's no particular problem. To solve it, you go back to practice. We're doing a lot more what I call pressure-kicking situations in practice.
If you respond there, you hope it carries over to the field. If it doesn't, then you start looking at your depth. That's just the bottom line. It's not good. It's not good at all and we have to address it."
Could Will Kline or Danny Stirt get shots at place-kicks? "Possibly. . . . If they were already kicking better, then they'd be out there."
Cutcliffe added that there wasn't much schematically to do. It's a personnel issue.
Thomas Sirk? He felt "robbed of two complete seasons" and wanted to contribute to the program.
Cutcliffe emphasized that Daniel Jones would be the returning starter and Sirk knows there's no guarantee he'll see the field next season.
Sirk is still getting well. Will not play this spring and too early to think about moving Sirk to another position. But his return is a positive. Great intangibles.
"You can't argue tape," Casey Blaser said. "They just ended up beating us. Obviously, we didn't prepare the right way and it showed."
Ben Humphreys says it's easier to recover from a blow-out loss than a close loss.
"It's probably easier to hit reset after one like that than losing by three. There's wasn't one thing that went right Saturday, besides Bryon Fields' pick six. We got outplayed in all three phases of the game.
It happens. We've had a long year and lots of stuff went wrong. You have to hit reset, pick yourself up and get after it. . . . Pitt won a lot of 50-50 plays. It just wasn't our day."
David Cutcliffe said he had a long Saturday night and Sunday afternoon trying to "get through the why" but is always ready to hit reset by Sunday afternoon.
"I understand what they're saying. There's sometimes more of a hangover when you fight your rear end off and think about the hundred things, the one play out of hundred may have cost you the game."
Everyone is aware that a win over Miami likely puts Duke in a bowl game.
.
"It's a one-game season now," Humphreys said. "We have to win the game on defense. Their quarterback [Brad Kaaya] is really good. We have to stop him."
The running game? Daniel Jones, "You have to give credit to Pitt and what they did. But one game doesn't discourage our running game. We know we can run the ball. We have all season. It's just a
matter of getting back to what's worked before and making sure we do it again."
Cutcliffe noted that falling behind quickly hurt Duke's running game. "When you fall behind quickly and the way they align, they're basically saying you're not going to run it if we've go the
lead. . . . With 11 snaps, we go from 28-14 to 42-14. There went a lot of the run game. Now, do we need to run it better? Absolutely. From the first quarter on. . . . You've got to reassemble the
offensive line a bit, get the running backs healthier a bit."
Cutcliffe said the offensive line had a sense of urgency in practice since the Pitt game. Christian Harris had a "tweak' in practice today but Sterling Korona had a good practice and seems likely
to get the starting nod at left tackle in place of injured Gabe Brandner.
Both Brandner and Korona are redshirt juniors and the latter does have some experience. So, this isn't another of those freshman-replacing-senior-scenarios that we've seen all too often.
David Cutcliffe discussed Duke's place-kicking situation. "There's no particular problem. To solve it, you go back to practice. We're doing a lot more what I call pressure-kicking situations in practice.
If you respond there, you hope it carries over to the field. If it doesn't, then you start looking at your depth. That's just the bottom line. It's not good. It's not good at all and we have to address it."
Could Will Kline or Danny Stirt get shots at place-kicks? "Possibly. . . . If they were already kicking better, then they'd be out there."
Cutcliffe added that there wasn't much schematically to do. It's a personnel issue.
Thomas Sirk? He felt "robbed of two complete seasons" and wanted to contribute to the program.
Cutcliffe emphasized that Daniel Jones would be the returning starter and Sirk knows there's no guarantee he'll see the field next season.
Sirk is still getting well. Will not play this spring and too early to think about moving Sirk to another position. But his return is a positive. Great intangibles.