FB: Duke 27, Georgia Tech 31

[Papa John]

To say our remaining games will be dogfights is perhaps a bit optimistic. Before today, our previous 5 ACC games were blowout losses. This looked like our best chance for a league win. With the loss, my realistic goal moves from "stay in contention for a bowl bid" to "hope we can win a game in the ACC."

I respectfully disagree... I say that the ACC is a mass of grey because the conference generally sucks at football this season. Our remaining conference games, with the exception of Wake, will all be 'winnable' dogfights because none of the remaining opponents have distinguished themselves as being particularly good at winning on the football field thus far this season. We could win any of the remaining games on our schedule (with the exception of Wake)... we could also lose any [or all] of them.

[Dr. Maturin]

I respectfully disagree... I say that the ACC is a mass of grey because the conference generally sucks at football this season. Our remaining conference games, with the exception of Wake, will all be 'winnable' dogfights because none of the remaining opponents have distinguished themselves as being particularly good at winning on the football field thus far this season. We could win any of the remaining games on our schedule (with the exception of Wake)... we could also lose any [or all] of them.

I agree that we "could" win any of them. But that does not mean that mean they are anything like a toss up. We will be underdogs in all 6. In my opinion going 0-6 is more likely than going 3-3.

[uh_no]

Official attendance was 11,849 but the crowd looked smaller.

while of course it was nowhere near that 12k number, there were a significant number of people bunched in the seats under the tower. A moral attendance victory, if you will.

[arnie]

I agree that we "could" win any of them. But that does not mean that mean they are anything like a toss up. We will be underdogs in all 6. In my opinion going 0-6 is more likely than going 3-3.

UVA opened as 11 pt favorite this Saturday. Think most of the remaining lines will be double digit unless we actually win an ACC game.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

The team inherently deserves support. That's not debatable in my mind.

I agree, which is why I was in Wallace Wade Stadium yesterday and will be there on November 6.

Here, here! Be there!

The covered seats in sections 26 and 27, where we pay over $400 each for season tickets to not sit in the rain or direct September sun, there were more folks around us than there have been earlier in the season. I think many folks from the uncovered seats had moved up/over to be under cover.

[75Crazie]

We could win any of the remaining games on our schedule (with the exception of Wake)... we could also lose any [or all] of them.

I would have to add Pitt to the exception list. Not that they are as impressive a team as Wake ... I just don't think we have a prayer of defending their pass attack.

[Papa John]

I would have to add Pitt to the exception list. Not that they are as impressive a team as Wake ... I just don't think we have a prayer of defending their pass attack.

The same Pitt team that lost at home to Western Michigan? As I said in a previous post, with the exception of Wake, I don't think anyone left on our schedule has done anything of note that should have our guys quaking in their boots/cleats. The ACC is a muddled mess of football mediocrity this season.

[uh_no]

The same Pitt team that lost at home to Western Michigan? As I said in a previous post, with the exception of Wake, I don't think anyone left on our schedule has done anything of note that should have our guys quaking in their boots/cleats. The ACC is a muddled mess of football mediocrity this season.

It's a good line-up to allow us to go undefeated the rest of way, moral or otherwise.

[Acymetric]

The same Pitt team that lost at home to Western Michigan? As I said in a previous post, with the exception of Wake, I don't think anyone left on our schedule has done anything of note that should have our guys quaking in their boots/cleats. The ACC is a muddled mess of football mediocrity this season.

And yet we are very clearly at the bottom.

[dm9e24]

The same Pitt team that lost at home to Western Michigan? As I said in a previous post, with the exception of Wake, I don't think anyone left on our schedule has done anything of note that should have our guys quaking in their boots/cleats. The ACC is a muddled mess of football mediocrity this season.

...and scored 52 points on Georgia Tech. We did lose to UNC Charlotte. Not sure how they stack up against Western Michigan. Carolina, who I would guess would be considered in the muddled mess, beat us by 3 touchdowns.

[TheDevilMadeMeDoIt]

And yet we are very clearly at the bottom.

Maybe it’s just my rose colored glasses, but haven’t we improved in each game this year? Last week folks predicted we would get clobbered because GaT beat down the cheats. We won every statistic except the most important. I get it. But with a little more improvement we can win this game.

[arnie]

...and scored 52 points on Georgia Tech. We did lose to UNC Charlotte. Not sure how they stack up against Western Michigan. Carolina, who I would guess would be considered in the muddled mess, beat us by 3 touchdowns.

We have the talent to be mediocre in the ACC. That’s not the problem.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Maybe it’s just my rose colored glasses, but haven’t we improved in each game this year?

The Carolina game says "no". And if there was any improvement in the GT game, it wasn't enough to win with.

[AGDukesky]

The Carolina game says "no". And if there was any improvement in the GT game, it wasn't enough to win with.

Yeah, although I will say the defense performed better than I expected - of course the offense was only worse in the second half of the Northwestern game…

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Maybe it’s just my rose colored glasses, but haven’t we improved in each game this year? Last week folks predicted we would get clobbered because GaT beat down the cheats. We won every statistic except the most important. I get it. But with a little more improvement we can win this game.

We improved against GT compared to the play against the cheats, but our performance against the cheats was a huge step back from the previous two weeks. I'd say in the 4 games since the first game, Duke is 2-2 on the improve versus last game metric.

[Papa John]

We have the talent to be mediocre in the ACC. That’s not the problem.

Precisely... And the ACC as a whole this season is tremendously mediocre...

Look, I haven't suggested we'd 'go undefeated' against the rest of our schedule (as it seems someone suggests below). I've merely pointed out that it certainly ain't a murderers row, so we can win any of the remaining games [again, with the exception, IMO, of Wake]. As I've also stated, we can certainly lose all of them. Yes, Charlotte is a really bad loss... As is Western Michigan (again, at home)—the point being that Pitt is certainly just as capable of a really bad loss as our guys are. Most of the remaining schedule will play out as a series of dogfights because the teams in the conference this season are largely dog***t—they've been inconsistent and unimpressive thus far, and I don't see that changing too much, given that everyone's basically halfway through this year's campaign...

[Acymetric]

Precisely... And the ACC as a whole this season is tremendously mediocre...

Look, I haven't suggested we'd 'go undefeated' against the rest of our schedule (as it seems someone suggests below). I've merely pointed out that it certainly ain't a murderers row, so we can win any of the remaining games [again, with the exception, IMO, of Wake]. As I've also stated, we can certainly lose all of them. Yes, Charlotte is a really bad loss... As is Western Michigan (again, at home)—the point being that Pitt is certainly just as capable of a really bad loss as our guys are. Most of the remaining schedule will play out as a series of dogfights because the teams in the conference this season are largely dog***t—they've been inconsistent and unimpressive thus far, and I don't see that changing too much, given that everyone's basically halfway through this year's campaign...

Here are the rankings from Football Outsiders, (https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaa/fplus/2021) for our opponents this season, and Western Michigan because people keep bringing that up. Just to add a little context here in terms of where we stand relative to our opponents.

Team	Defense	Offense	Overall
Pittsburgh	27	22	19
North Carolina	67	10	31
Wake Forest	61	24	36
Miami	34	46	42
Virginia Tech	36	55	43
Virginia	92	18	54
Louisville	86	27	57
Georgia Tech	59	64	66
Western Michigan	90	51	79
Northwestern	46	102	85
Duke	80	85	86
Charlotte	126	67	108
Kansas	123	105	124

[budwom]

^ good list. It shows the nature of the challenge for our next six games.