For many young quarterbacks, there comes a turning point in their careers when they must pick themselves up and begin making the adjustments necessary to become a successful signal-caller.
For Duke quarterback Daniel Jones, that time may have arrived.
Following a woeful, five-interception performance at home against Virginia last week, Jones leads the Blue Devils back into action Saturday against Army at 3:30 p.m. at Wallace Wade Stadium. Jones was coming off a masterful 290-yard, three-touchdown performance in Duke’s upset of Notre Dame, but a series of poor decisions against the Cavaliers quickly turned the homecoming contest into a rude awakening.
“You certainly want to move forward and keep improving, but there’s so many learning opportunities in that game that you can’t just forget it,” Jones said. “We’ve analyzed the tape and I specifically have a lot to learn from it…. At the end of the day, that’s an execution thing in our passing game and timing and stuff like that. As a quarterback, that falls a lot on me.”
Jones will need to be particularly careful against a stingy Black Knight defense that has allowed just 16.0 points per game and has already picked off opposing quarterbacks six times through four contests.
Three of those six picks have come from the linebacker position, meaning Jones will need to exercise caution even on short routes and check-downs. Army (3-1) was idle last week after suffering its first loss of the season, so its defense will be well-rested and have had plenty of time to analyze the tape of the Blue Devils’ latest defeat.
Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said he saw his young quarterback trying to do too much at several different junctures against the Cavaliers.
With passing conditions likely to be inhibited Saturday due to the effects of Hurricane Matthew, it becomes even more important for Jones to take care of the ball and not try to force the issue.
“I told him during the game, ‘Quit trying to make plays and just execute the play.’ There’s a big difference between the two,” Cutcliffe said. “He’s holding the ball a little bit longer. It means he’s looking at this throw that’s intermediate rather than laying it off [to a checkdown]. It means scramble instead of throwing it away or running for four yards, or, ‘I’m going to make a play downfield for 25 yards.’ We don’t need that.”
On the other side of the ball, the Blue Devils (2-3) have quite a task in preparing for the Black Knights’ triple-option offense, which has amassed 374.8 yards per game on the ground—a figure that leads the country by a significant margin. Army has not been held to fewer than 325 rushing yards in any game this season, prompting Cutcliffe to praise the squad as “a team that’s running it up and down the field on everyone.”
Sophomore running back Andy Davidson leads the way for the Black Knights with six scores on the ground, but they are remarkably balanced, with six players compiling at least 100 rushing yards so far this season. Junior Ahmad Bradshaw runs the offense from the quarterback position, and will be looking to lead Army toward redemption after a 44-3 thrashing by Duke last season in West Point, N.Y.
But the Blue Devils are well aware that last season’s game—one in which they forced seven fumbles—far from guarantees the same results this time around.
“We’re going to come at them with different wrinkles and they’re going to be ready for them. It’s a different team than they were last year—they’re more experienced and looking at the film, they’re a lot better,” sophomore linebacker Ben Humphreys said. “Just a year more experienced. The offensive line looks bigger, faster, stronger. You can definitely tell a difference between one year and the next.”
One other major difference is that Duke will not have All-American strike safety Jeremy Cash, whose athleticism and instincts near the line of scrimmage were vital in stopping the triple-option. But that has not lowered the confidence of the Blue Devils, who have received plenty of contributions from a young defensive front this season and are tied for fourth nationally with 4.0 sacks per game.
Duke has had success in recent years against other teams that also employ an option-based attack, which Humphreys attributed to the Blue Devil coaching staff and their defensive strategies.
“That’s a lot in part because [defensive coordinator Jim] Knowles is the king of the triple option. I’ll say that every year if I have to,” Humphreys said. “He is so smart in what he does in preparing for the triple option. His schemes are unlike anyone else’s and we’ll attack it from different ways. That’s something that other people don’t do. We attack the triple-option.”
Hank Tucker and Mitchell Gladstone contributed reporting.
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