Sunday, November 17, 2013

Report Card @ Duke

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, yesterday's performance up in Durham proved me wrong. This is definitely the low point of the Golden era to date. I will dare say, yesterday's performance, to me, rivals that of the 48-0 OB finale in 2007 vs Virginia (by the way, our opponent this week in the Home finale at Noon on ESPNU). Like last week, we score first on Matty's FG, then we stop Duke on the next drive and force a punt, and after Stacy takes a punt back to the house to make it 10-0, we had a real chance to bust this game wide open on Stacy's PR, however, give Duke credit, they responded with the first of 4 Brandon Connette Rushing TD to make it 10-7.

Next drive, Stephen drives us down the field and we finish with 7 on that drive on the TD pass to Herbie. Its 17-7 at that point and I thought to myself, ok, now we're going to blow this sucker wide open. 

However, the mistakes started to come in the 2nd quarter. The pick by Stephen on the tipped ball that was intended for Herbie there, started to turn the game in their favor because 6 plays later, they make us pay for that mistake with the Powell TD, and instead of possibly 24-7 us, its 17-14 us (14 point swing, and mo was on their side at that point). We did stem the tide a bit with Matty's second FG of the day to make it 20-14. Next drive, Duke would get the lead, 21-20, on a 10 play drive, in which they converted on three 3rd downs, all of them short yardage situations, capping with Connette's 2nd of 4 TDs on the day rushing. You can tell that that TD that gave Duke the lead really took the wind out of our sails there because they got the ball first to start the 2nd half and the D really started to fall apart from there. 

Yesterday, like the three weeks, was a very poor excuse of a defense. What I saw again from Mark D'Onofrio's scheme was utterly embarrassing and completely inexcusable. 543 yards allowed (291 yards allowed in the 2nd half, same as last week vs VT. Boone goes 20-27 in the 2nd half for 183 yards, same amount of yards Thomas had against us last week) Of those 543 yards allowed, 358 of those were on the ground and 185 by both Boone and Connette combined passing. We didn't win the TO battle again yesterday (-1) and when you don't win the Turnover Battle, you're not going to win many games. However, yesterday was no excuse not to beat a team you should beat in your sleep 9 out of 10 times. This loss is squarely on the Defense. Duke started their drives from their own 31 on Average, and we started our drives from our own 18 on average. Not going to win many games that way when you have poor field position to start with. 

We had no Three and Outs, which is good, however, we had three 4 and outs, and the fourth was one where we went for it and lost the ball on downs. We did force Duke to have three 3 and outs. The Time of Possession wasn't that big a deal in this game, however, what really showed the ineptness of our defense under D'Onofrio was the fact that in spite of not allowing Duke to convert on 3rd down in the 2nd half (0-6), they were 5-13 overall, on 4th down, we couldn't stop them in those two big spots. On the other hand in those same situations, we were 5-15 in those spots and just 1-7 in the 2nd half. 

I'm going to give the report card and its going again be very simple. 

Offense: C+
Defense: F
Special Teams: C

I don't know where we are right now, but once again, we've gagged away a shot to go to Charlotte to face FSU. Make no mistake, and if you believe Joe Zagaski this morning when he said that Golden will make major changes in the off-season, I tend to believe it. Heads are going to roll from this fiasco in Durham yesterday, that's for damn sure. If we have some pride left, I'd better see it vs UVa on Saturday in the home finale. That team has beaten us three straight years and we need to get back on track very quickly up at home on Saturday at Noon on ESPNU.

Tip of the cap to David Cutcliffe. What an amazing job he's done to turn that program around in Durham. If they get to Charlotte, FSU will have all it could handle from them. Yes, FSU will still win that game, but if they think they're going to steamroll the Blue Devils in Charlotte, they have another thing coming. That's all for this week.