FB: Duke v. Wake Forest Pre-Game and In-Game Thread

[grossbus]

We keep making killer mistakes.

[dukelifer]

Wake is a six point favorite:

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

The over/under is 52. I'll take the over.

You got it.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

This is going to be a really interesting season. The offense looks dangerous. So does the defense, only not in a good way. There could be a lot of basketball type final scores.

I'm actually impressed by the offense's resiliency because I was certainly feeling pretty frustrated that we were down 14 despite looking nearly unstoppable on offense. The turnovers were just terrible, absolute gifts.

I think we look like the better team so far, but we have to cut down on the mistakes.

[SharkD]

Anyone know of a place in D.C./Arlington to watch the game? My hotel doesn't have DC20, and Penatgon City Champps Praxtisally turned up their noses when I asked if the game was on one of their screens.

Thanks.

[DevilHorns]

We keep making killer mistakes.

But somehow we are still in it. We should be up by 1-2 touchdowns if the receivers did not flick up the ball on the two miscatches and if our punter didn't freeze.

If we hold the mistakes this half, I feel good about our chances.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

We need to get back to being a little more aggressive on offense. Too many of those short 5 yard hitches which Wake is defending pretty well at this point. I can't recall seeing a ball thrown more than 10 yards downfield this half, except on a throwaway. We had some nice downfield success in the first half. I also can't remember if Desmond Scott has gotten any carries this half. A couple of other guys have been in there, but I don't recall hearing Scott's name. He was doing a nice job in the first half, too. I don't know why we started calling 5-yard hitches on 75% of our downs.

[Duvall]

We need to get back to being a little more aggressive on offense. Too many of those short 5 yard hitches which Wake is defending pretty well at this point. I can't recall seeing a ball thrown more than 10 yards downfield this half, except on a throwaway. We had some nice downfield success in the first half. I also can't remember if Desmond Scott has gotten any carries this half. A couple of other guys have been in there, but I don't recall hearing Scott's name. He was doing a nice job in the first half, too. I don't know why we started calling 5-yard hitches on 75% of our downs.

Pressure. A lot of those 5-yard passes were dumpoffs.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

Pressure. A lot of those 5-yard passes were dumpoffs.

Obviously, there were some checkdowns, but I'm just talking about the large number of plays that were clearly designed to be short throws. Wakes safeties have been cheating up and cutting those off all half.

[cbnaylor]

Is it just me or is Wake getting away with a lot of holding!

[cspan37421]

And aggressive on defense. We had just pulled to within 7 on a FG (I would have gone for it on 4th and 1 inside the 20!) and we forced wake into a 3rd and 4. Our defense played 10 yards off their receivers! Why did they not line up closer to them? Receivers ran 5 yards, got the pass, tackle ensued, first down. We are playing almost like a prevent defense, and we're down. They're getting short passes and 6 yard runs all day long.

If Wake can hang 48+ on us, what on earth is going to happen when we have to face Alabama, VT, Miami? Scoreboard is going to need more digits. Maybe they can borrow the one from Cameron.

[BlueintheFace]

Worst Defense in Football. It is really really hard to support this team sometimes

[grossbus]

Our PAT defense is good. Rest of it is suspect next week could be major ugly.

[loran16]

I've been saying this is in chat, but this bears repeating:

The Offense is great. But it has to be incredible for us to have a chance at 6 wins this year. The Defense is terrible...we are EXACTLY looking like NC State did last year.

Remember? They had a pretty decent to good passing offense, but couldnt stop anyone worth a damn. So's our Defense. They won 4 games, mainly by outscoring the opponents.

And that's what we got to do. ESPECIALLY IN THE SECOND HALF. Last week, the offense went dead in the 3rd quarter, allowing Elon to make it close.

This week, the 3rd quarter was HORRIBLE. The D actually did its job somewhat...Duke had 3 ENTIRE OFFENSIVE POSSESSIONS without Wake scoring a point. Duke got 1 first down and punted all 3 times. The next 2 possessions (one in the 4th quarter) the team only got Field goals.

This can't continue. The offense, it's sad to say, needs to click on all cylinders on EVERY POSSESSION for Duke to win the ballgame. I'd like to say that Renfree should have some time to rest, but he doesn't. The offense has no time to mess around (well they should during the Bama game). If the 2nd half, comes around and the offense fails even for a few possessions, it doesn't matter how well the O has been playing, it's not gonna be enough.

[cspan37421]

I also wonder what happened on that TD that broke the 35-35 tie. Someone missed an assignment, big consequences. At that point, the game started to look like a mismatch. We could not stop #25 (well, once - on 2nd down and 4, to make it the 3rd and 4 I wrote about above).

Hate to see Coach Cut looking like Wade Phillips out there. We've got to put the D back in Duke!

[Mabdul Doobakus]

And aggressive on defense. We had just pulled to within 7 on a FG (I would have gone for it on 4th and 1 inside the 20!) and we forced wake into a 3rd and 4. Our defense played 10 yards off their receivers! Why did they not line up closer to them? Receivers ran 5 yards, got the pass, tackle ensued, first down. We are playing almost like a prevent defense, and we're down. They're getting short passes and 6 yard runs all day long.

If Wake can hang 48+ on us, what on earth is going to happen when we have to face Alabama, VT, Miami? Scoreboard is going to need more digits. Maybe they can borrow the one from Cameron.

Yeah, I agree with this. I was saying go for it inside the 20. You should be able to pick up 1 yard since it hasn't been much of a problem all day. It's a risk because you're probably done if you don't pick it up. But I think overall it increases your chance of getting a W, and that's the whole point after all.

And the D was way too soft on that last drive, letting Wake pick up chunks of yards on the ground and eat up clock. You gotta apply some pressure and make Wake take some chances. They may beat you long, but they might not. And even if they do, at least they haven't bled 5 minutes off the clock. They just took what we were giving them, which was way too much.

Hey, look, touchdown.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

On a somewhat related note, I hope the ACC doesn't get completely embarrassed this week.

Georgia Tech has already lost to Kansas, who lost to North Dakota State last week.

Virginia Tech is losing to James Madison in the 4th quarter.

It would be nice to see Miami or FSU get a win.

[dukelifer]

I've been saying this is in chat, but this bears repeating:

The Offense is great. But it has to be incredible for us to have a chance at 6 wins this year. The Defense is terrible...we are EXACTLY looking like NC State did last year.

Remember? They had a pretty decent to good passing offense, but couldnt stop anyone worth a damn. So's our Defense. They won 4 games, mainly by outscoring the opponents.

And that's what we got to do. ESPECIALLY IN THE SECOND HALF. Last week, the offense went dead in the 3rd quarter, allowing Elon to make it close.

This week, the 3rd quarter was HORRIBLE. The D actually did its job somewhat...Duke had 3 ENTIRE OFFENSIVE POSSESSIONS without Wake scoring a point. Duke got 1 first down and punted all 3 times. The next 2 possessions (one in the 4th quarter) the team only got Field goals.

This can't continue. The offense, it's sad to say, needs to click on all cylinders on EVERY POSSESSION for Duke to win the ballgame. I'd like to say that Renfree should have some time to rest, but he doesn't. The offense has no time to mess around (well they should during the Bama game). If the 2nd half, comes around and the offense fails even for a few possessions, it doesn't matter how well the O has been playing, it's not gonna be enough.

The O did contribute to the loss- a few big miscues - the bumbled punt and some drop/tips that got intercepted hurt a lot. But you are right- the D is just not good enough. They will be manhandled next week. This Duke team is exciting to watch- but if you cannot make key stops you will not win. Most teams in the ACC have O's as good or better than Wake and many have much better D- so it could be a tough year unless the D learns very fast to correct some things.