FB: Duke 23, Florida State 16

Any great defensive coach understands offense. So Manny understands what is happening. But at 6-1 it is not time to be firing folks or blowing up the staff. You do that when you’re 1-6. Plus Manny has proven Duke can win in the ACC with defense. All the nervous nellies need to relax and enjoy the season. Also FSU probably has the most talent we will see on the defensive line this year.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
I was flipping back and forth between Duke and the Yankees. Offense was ugly, defense was great. A win is a win. Incredible job by Manny. And there are more winnable games ahead of us.

I was trying to follow on the chat while I watched the Yankees and it was really scary. I am fine with criticism, being nervous, etc. The offense seemed pretty questionable. But the negativity, particularly by one person, is off the charts. It is really embarrassing. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we lost.
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Can we trade Clay Holmes to Cleveland for the rest of the series?
 
Duke’s offense did not move the ball well — but ate clock and had zero turnovers. I don’t recall any sacks.

FSU’s offense moved the ball well at times — but had three (should be four) turnovers and could not keep a safe pocket for their QB.

I’m not thrilled with our offense, but I get most FSU fans would switch right now.
 
OldPhiKap said:
I tend to agree. Once we got the lead, we ran conservative offense to eat clock and ran aggressive defense to thwart FSU’s second and third string QBs. Losing Nicky Dalmolin before the game was also limiting on the offense.

Not saying that I love the OC calls, but running Star Thomas paid off late. As Cut used to say, you gotta keep calling the run because sometimes it doesn’t work until it does. We also called at least two trick plays, one worked and one the halfback wisely declined the pass opportunity.

If we play that fake punt better, and don’t give up the TD on the kickoff, we dominate. Put another way, the only phase of the game that really dissapointed me was the special teams.
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I love your positive take, OPK, but IMO if Duke's defense doesn't force that fourth quarter fumble -- FSU's fourth turnover -- we'd likely be having a different conversation now.
 
TheDevilMadeMeDoIt said:
Any great defensive coach understands offense. So Manny understands what is happening. But at 6-1 it is not time to be firing folks or blowing up the staff. You do that when you’re 1-6. Plus Manny has proven Duke can win in the ACC with defense. All the nervous nellies need to relax and enjoy the season. Also FSU probably has the most talent we will see on the defensive line this year.
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I mostly agree. But with the offensive "punch" that is Duke, I thought the bye week was the time to re-think the offense. Either change QB, change OC, or whatever Manny thinks will work. But if he thinks no changes are necessary at this time, I guess I'm on board... especially since Duke is 6-1 and bowl eligible.... BEFORE Thanksgiving... as the announcers mentioned.
 
rifraf said:
Our defense is very good, I’m impressed with how quickly Diaz was able to build his defense. I know we had good defensive foundation thanks to Midnight Mike but still, he’s done a great job here.

But as good as the defensive is our offense is that bad. The negativity is deserved. This isn’t a situation where it looks like we have pieces and they just need to click, or that we’ve had bad luck, it’s just bad and not showing any growth. We have a couple good players, but Thomas is really the only one in a position to exert his will and he can’t do it alone, and he can’t do it all game.
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Unnecessarily negative, IMHO, where the H got lost in the UNC celebration. FSU scored NINE points on offense; we had the lead, and we could afford to be conservative. I also thought, once again, we were the stronger team in the 4th Q.

My only question is, since we had some success mid-game with the two QB razzle-dazzle, why did it not reappear?
 
gep said:
I mostly agree. But with the offensive "punch" that is Duke, I thought the bye week was the time to re-think the offense. Either change QB, change OC, or whatever Manny thinks will work. But if he thinks no changes are necessary at this time, I guess I'm on board... especially since Duke is 6-1 and bowl eligible.... BEFORE Thanksgiving... as the announcers mentioned.
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If we changed QB, we are likely talking about a 42-16 Duke win.
 
sagegrouse said:
Unnecessarily negative, IMHO, where the H got lost in the UNC celebration. FSU scored NINE points on offense; we had the lead, and we could afford to be conservative. I also thought, once again, we were the stronger team in the 4th Q.

My only question is, since we had some success mid-game with the two QB razzle-dazzle, why did it not reappear?
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Someone else must have called that play when the OC was on bathroom break.
 
Stray Gator said:
I love your positive take, OPK, but IMO if Duke's defense doesn't force that fourth quarter fumble -- FSU's fourth turnover -- we'd likely be having a different conversation now.
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Perhaps. I think we missed having a top TE (Nicky Dalmonin) to open up the middle of the field. And I don’t complain about refs generally, so I’ll say that they were allowing very physical coverage on our WRs. FSU’s corners played really effectively today given the way the refs let them play (And that holding call on our 26-yard play late that would have iced the game was absurd).

There is certainly lots of room for improvement. Maalik is inconsistent and does not really seem to go through progressions. But he is a sophomore and getting starting time now.

The O line did not open up running lanes until late (more sealing the ends) but they protected the pass well.

Star Thomas is a stud, but he needs help.

We have a lot of room for improvement, but a conservative approach once we were up 17-3 was not bad play calling IMO. But of course you are right that it’s easier for me to be magnanimous when it worked.
 
OldPhiKap said:
...

We have a lot of room for improvement, but a conservative approach once we were up 17-3 was not bad play calling IMO. But of course you are right that it’s easier for me to be magnanimous when it worked.
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Yes... but that 17-3 advantage was still in the first half. If this was with 4 minutes left in the game, I might agree.
 
gep said:
Yes... but that 17-3 advantage was still in the first half. If this was with 4 minutes left in the game, I might agree.
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True, and I respect/hear what you, Stray and others are saying.

But Manny apparently trusts our D. The D did not give up a TD and only gave up three FGs.

But to end on common ground — all phases of the game need to improve when we start the playoff bowls.
 
OldPhiKap said:
True, and I respect/hear what you, Stray and others are saying.

But Manny apparently trusts our D. The D did not give up a TD and only gave up three FGs.

But to end on common ground — all phases of the game need to improve when we start the playoff bowls.
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Yes... Manny does trust Duke's D... that's for sure. And the D came through big-time. Kudos...
 
SkyBrickey said:
Great win. Defensive line was awesome. But our offensive schemes and play calling are just odd. I've been watching football for 50 years and I've never seen so many 2nd and 9s and 2nd and 8s in my life.
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Our OL is much better than I expected but not good enough to make holes for Thomas against a more talented FSU. MM has a big arm that was useless against a remarkably skilled FSU secondary. We needed a QB who could run. Not putting Berlin in was inexcusable. But great defensive effort.
 
OldPhiKap said:
Perhaps. I think we missed having a top TE (Nicky Dalmonin) to open up the middle of the field. And I don’t complain about refs generally, so I’ll say that they were allowing very physical coverage on our WRs. FSU’s corners played really effectively today given the way the refs let them play (And that holding call on out 26-yard play late that would have iced the game was absurd).

There is certainly lots of room for improvement. Maalik is inconsistent and does not really seem to go through progressions. But he is a sophomore and getting starting time now.

The O line did not open up running lanes until late (more sealing the ends) but they protected the pass well.

Star Thomas is a stud, but he needs help.

We have a lot of room for improvement, but a conservative approach once we were up 17-3 was not bad play calling IMO. But of course you are right that it’s easier for me to be magnanimous when it worked.
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Having seen both of these teams play multiple games, I thought going into the game that this would be one of those contests in which the team that made the fewest mistakes would win, because neither team has shown a potent offense. As it happened, Duke got the benefit of three first-half turnovers from FSU that resulted directly in 17 points. Apart from that largesse, Duke's offense was only able to produce 3 points, thanks to a big play by Star Thomas. Meanwhile, Duke benefitted further from other FSU mistakes -- including four offsides penalties and three dropped passes in the first half.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm thrilled beyond words that Duke won, and I believe Duke absolutely deserved to win because the Blue Devil defense was the dominant force in the game. The Blue Devil in me is enormously proud, and the Gator in me is grinning broadly tonight. But I feel obliged to acknowledge that we were very fortunate to be the beneficiaries of some uncharacteristic errors by an opponent that has traditionally dominated us.
 
RoseBowl1942 said:
The calls were not that bad. Basically Manny said we’re not going to give up a TD, so don’t do anything stupid on offense and we will win. It was situational calls
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Our offensive play calling all season has defaulted to run the ball up the middle on first down for 1-2 yards. I've never seen anything like it. It's bizarre. Wish someone kept stats on this.

We are so much more successful on offense when we get creative with our play calls and spread out the defense.

Ok I'll stop now. GREAT WIN!!!
 
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