“We weren’t as consistent [today]-thank goodness Ross was”. Sirk finally found a few success through the air on Duke’s third possession of the contest, hitting true freshman T.J. Rahming and redshirt junior Jela Duncan to put the Blue Devils in the red zone.
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Duke could not find any room to run against BC’s number 1 ranked run defense as they only totaled 33 yards on 35 attempts.
The loss of the running game isn’t even the biggest problem. The Blue Devils have tallied just one offensive touchdown in the second half of their last three games. The Blue Devils last won their first two ACC games in 2012. Duke struggled even more on the ground, picking up just 16 rush yards in the final two quarters. Running the ball is important for the Eagles. Not much separates Duke and Boston College, a couple of teams winning with defense and methodical offenses.
The defense can’t do everything.
Despite a sluggish performance on the gridiron from the offense, the special teams units rose to the occasion and picked up the slack. Boston College Eagles recorded 109.8 passing yards and 231.0 rushing yards while allowed 72.0 passing yards and 46.0 russhing yards with turnover differential of -0.5.
It was a successful homecoming game for Duke (4-1, 2-0 ACC) despite a lackluster second-half offense for the second week in a row. The Blue Devils are 3-1 with a win over a talented Georgia Tech squad in their last game.
Duke is 9-3-1 ATS in its last 13 games at home. Sirk’s completion percentage drops from 63 percent to 54.3 percent. However, they are 3-1 SU this season.
Duke is 18-7 SU in its last 25 games. Duke wasn’t able to cash in, but the games lone turnover gave the Duke defense an opportunity to rest up for what would be a tiring second half. Without those, though, do either of the last two games turn out differently?
Boston College’s Troy Flutie threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Thadd Smith with 28 seconds left in the third quarter. Alston said that the rain in forecast is causing little concern for the field given that the Blue Devils’ new field has the capacity to drain 8 to 10 inches per hour. That was something noticeably lacking in other games, particularly against Northwestern. So far in this season Boston College Eagles has 22.7 scored compared to Duke Blue Devils’s 14.3. Moving on to the Boston College defense, there are certain areas where it measures up well against the Blue Devils.
“Both quarterbacks competed and tried to play, ” Boston College coach Steve Addazio said. “We should have scored”. The offense moved the ball, reasonably, well early, but couldn’t muster anything in the second half for the third consecutive week. I thought we were going to punch it in. That’s something we have to continue to get better at.
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“We know as a team that it’s going to take all three phases to win games against tough opponents in the ACC”, quarterback Thomas Sirk said. “We have to finish those drives”. They had a great defensive stop down on the goal line (Duke came away with no points after first-and-goal from the 1-yard line). It was also the correct call to go for it in that position.
