RALEIGH - For all the shanked punts, overthrown receivers and poor snaps in Saturday's 27-24 N.C. State victory in Carter-Finley Stadium, there was one target neither team could miss-its own feet.
It was ugly.
Two blocked punts, a 40-yard oversnap by the Wolfpack, a blocked field goal, fumbles and blown assignments; in short, everything a coach never wants to see out of his football team. And this game had them all.
But for all the errors and miscues, Duke was just one hobbled step from turning an ugly victory into its biggest win since 1994. And N.C. State was just one step away from adding to the traveling freak show that has been its season so far.
"Those games like that, we just have to get up out of them with a 'W'," N.C. State linebacker Clayton White said. "Some people say it was an ugly 'W', but now that I think about it there ain't no such thing as an ugly 'W' as long as you get it."
For Duke, the thoughts were of the game that almost was.
"I thought we played about as good as we could have played today," coach Fred Goldsmith said. "We just have to play four quarters.... We've been playing good lately; this could've been a great victory."
Despite the loss, there were plenty of bright spots for Duke. The defense gave up just 18 net rushing yards, Wolfpack quarterback Jamie Barnette rarely threw without pressure and Duke's special teams made big plays to keep N.C. State on its heels. But mistakes on the bookends of a 17-3 Blue Devil run in the third quarter rendered Duke's efforts too little and too late.
Offensively, the problems came quickly. After a pair of misfires from starting quarterback Spencer Romine, offensive coordinator Les Koenning decided to
And it worked-once. After a sack of Romine, Goldsmith caught the N.C. State defense off guard as Scottie Montgomery scampered for the first down. But two plays later Goldsmith went to the well again, fooling no one in the stadium as Duane Epperson was nailed for a loss on the third down.
"They were teeing off coming after it," Goldsmith said of the play after the game.
Yet the play found its way into the Duke offense twice more in the first half, resulting in one fumble and one failed third down conversion inside N.C. State territory. Added to a flurry of questionable play calls and a blocked field goal, the early offensive woes would come back to plague the Blue Devils.
Then came the third quarter. Trailing 17-7, and after a change in quarterbacks from Romine to Bobby Campbell, the Duke offense got simple and effective. Without utilizing the five-wide set once, the offensive line benefited from added blocking help, giving Campbell plenty of time to hit open receivers.
"Our offensive line did a great job," Campbell said. "I've seen a lot of improvement, in the past two weeks especially. They're more confident, and we're more confident in them.... They're doing a great job."
Campbell then went to work on an interior linebacking core that still hasn't recovered from the graduation of Morocco Brown. Combined with the effective rushing attack of Hill and Letavious Wilks, Duke kept the 'Pack on the defensive the whole second half.
"We had been moving the ball basically the whole second half," Campbell said. "We had a lot of confidence. All the plays we were calling seemed to be working. We were chipping away at them; we definitely had plenty of confidence that we could drive down the field. We had plenty of time."
As Duke engineered a 17-3 run during the third quarter to pull within three points, it looked like the Blue Devils were 15 minutes away from an ACC winning streak.
Duke couldn't capitalize in the fourth quarter, though. On its first drive of the quarter, Campbell marched the team to the 39, seemingly within range of Lenhardt. But it was the punter, Brian Morton, who took the field on fourth down.
"We were against the wind, so that was playing on me a little bit," Lenhardt said "I was hitting them from 55 and in on that end in the pre-game with a little breeze in my face.... That would have been about a 57-yarder, but we decided to punt and get closer. It just didn't work out."
Neither did Duke's only other drive of the quarter. Again, the play-calling became predictable as Goldsmith called the same play on consecutive fourth downs, watching as Campbell's pass after a rollout left was deflected and fell harmlessly to the ground.
"The call was made, and it's something the kids thought we were pretty confident we were going to get," Goldsmith said. "Getting us that first down would not have guaranteed a win by any means."
With their bowl hopes almost entirely erased, the Blue Devils can take heart that they were not only a single step away from victory but are now a single step away from being a serious contender.
"We know we can play with anybody now; we're just real disappointed we lost this one today," Darius Clark said. "We know we should've won. But we've got to regroup next week and get after Clemson.... That's how the ball bounces sometimes."
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