Let's Go Duke! Wow. Top 5 atmosphere in my 35+ years at the Wade, and top 5 home win too.
The Good:
- "The road to easy street runs through the sewer" - David Feeley. That's three fourth quarter comeback wins. Those wins are built in the offseason. I love the culture that Feeley has brought to this program.
- We found a running game! I thought we had almost no chance of outrushing them, win or lose. We did on all fronts. Rushing yards: 185-156. Yards per carry: 4.5 to 3.9. Star Thomas outrushed their future pro 166-103. Manny said UNC surprised us with the way the defended early, and we made halftime adjustments to our blocking scheme. I'm not sure what changed, but we started blocking the hell out of them. And our backs ran harder as the game went on.
- Star Thomas warrants his own bullet point. In a game that was crying out for inspiration on offense, he delivered. That sideline TD dash changed the game. We need to use him more in the passing game going forward.
- Defense delivered when we needed them. There was no margin for error once it was 20-0, and they came through. Hampton had to earn his yards. Then the pass rush won the game in the 4th quarter. Loved seeing Jaylen Stinson get the key pressure and Tre Freeman get the pick. Two program guys who have stayed the course for us.
The Bad:
- Special teams. Yikes. Mistakes happen. But this was a poorly coached unit last night. The long UNC punt return and the blocked punt fiasco just cannot happen.
- Maalik had by far his worst game. His accuracy was off all night. Thankfully, he avoided any turnovers.
- I did not find myself overly impressed with the ACC officials. UNC DBs were holding our receivers on every single pass play. I mean every single one. They quite literally could have been called for holding/DPI 25 times. Thankfully, the refs helped us out with that double penalty to UNC after we turned it over on downs.
The statistical:
- We're 5-0 for the first time since 1994
- This was the biggest comeback in series history and second biggest in Duke history. #1 was a 21-0 deficit against GT in 1954.
- We're now 2-0 all time against that lot in September.