I think the Northwestern game will be revelatory. It's not a vintage NW team by any means, but they're always competently coached, and a decent showing against them would indicate we can be competitive with some of our ACC opponents.
I suspect we'll be modest underdogs unless NW lays an egg vs Indiana St. today.
Enjoyed being back at an outdoor Duke sporting event. I was a little relieved that the crowd wasn’t larger, because it was obvious that while face masks might have been required to enter, wearing them once in the stands was more of a suggestion. Though my section felt quite safe, crowd shots don’t lie. Honestly, I don’t know how you practically enforce wearing them at Wallace Wade? The issue will be more important, indoors at Cameron.
“I love it. Coach, when we came here, we had a three-hour meeting about the core values. If you really represent the core values, it means diving on the floor, sacrificing your body for your teammates, no matter how much you’re up by or how much you’re down by, always playing hard.” -- Zion
It was nice to get back to the Wade after not being able to attend last year. The student section was as full and lively as I've seen in years. Hopefully some of them will come back next week.
As for Duke, there were some positives. Gunnar looks more composed in the pocket than our previous two QBs. Through his first two games, he's completed 71% of his passes and has not thrown an interception. He will face a much sterner test against Northwestern. As for the rest of the team, the special teams were tidy and the skill players looked pretty good on both sides of the ball.
As for the negatives, you have to start with the line play. The offensive line blocked really well for Durant in game 1, but just couldn't get anything going against A&T. That is concerning. However, as much as the O-line struggled, the D-line was much worse. The defensive front recorded no sacks, forced no turnovers, had only 3 tackles for loss, and allowed over 200 yards rushing. The gameplan was quite vanilla, and it didn't seem like we did a ton of blitzing. Still, the fact that we couldn't generate any pass rush with our DL is very troubling. This unit is going to have to grow up quickly for Duke to have any chance of competing against ACC competition.
^ giving up 9/10 third down conversions in the first half was not a good look. We did better in the second half, of course.
Jim Knowles' defenses sometimes gave up big plays, but they were quite good at creating havoc plays - sacks/TFL/QB pressures/INTs/pass breakups. Over the last couple of years, it seems we've relied on our front 4 to pressure the QB. I don't think that is going to work this year. It's hard to come up with a defensive game plan when you're getting beaten up at the line.
Back to the positives for a moment: Jordan Moore is a genuinely exciting prospect. I want to see him getting at least 5 touches every game, and more once he gets a better understanding of the playbook.