WINSTON-SALEM - As head coach Ted Roof stood outside the visitors' locker room waiting to address reporters following his team's heartbreaking last-second loss Saturday, his twin sons each clutched on to one of his legs.
Every ounce of Duke's 14-13 loss seemed to sit squarely on the coach's slumped shoulders as Roof pinched his eyes shut between his thumb and index finger.
Saturday's matchup with Wake Forest was supposed to be Duke's redemption game after an embarrassing 13-0 loss to I-AA Richmond to start the season. But even after dominating the first half and outplaying the Demon Deacons for the vast majority of the game, all the Blue Devils have to show for their efforts is an 0-2 record and questions about what could have been.
In the end, the same mistakes and issues that plagued the team in the Richmond loss-specifically an inability to finish off drives and put points on the scoreboard-were its undoing against Wake Forest.
"There are no magic words that are going to make this hurt go away," Roof said. "The message to the team was that I really appreciated their effort. They played with their hearts today. But we've got to find a way to make one more play."
The Blue Devils had plenty of opportunities to make that one play. Duke's offensive game plan hid its most glaring weakness-an inexperienced offensive line-by consistently rolling quarterback Thaddeus Lewis out of the pocket.
In his first career start, Lewis showed a tremendous amount of poise as he repeatedly guided the offense down the field.
Though the rollout strategy often left Lewis vulnerable to open-field hits, the freshman completed 21-of-32 passes for 305 yards and made up for a weak rushing attack that was only able to muster 62 yards.
Duke, however, stalled on every trip inside the 20-yard line. The Blue Devils managed just three points in five trips to the red zone, as two missed field goals and two fumbles prevented what could easily have been a Duke blowout victory.
The pinnacle of these missed opportunities was the game's final play. After an impressive last-minute drive that was aided by two pass interference calls, Wake Forest's Chip Vaughn blocked Joe Surgan's 28-yard field goal and the Demon Deacons escaped with the victory.
"It's that famous line, 'Always the kicker's fault,'" Surgan said. "It's an unfortunate situation. The offense did a great job, the defense did a great job out there-I've got to do my job."
The game-ender, however, was just the last in a string of red-zone blunders that ultimately cost Duke the victory. The Blue Devils had two costly fumbles in the second quarter, neither of which was even forced by the defense.
Early in the quarter, a 65-yard drive was negated when Lewis pitched the ball behind Re'quan Boyette on an option run. Then, just before halftime, Boyette lost the ball as he tried to dive ahead for the end zone.
As each promising drive came up empty, more pressure was put on the offense to produce something tangible the next drive.
"We can't have negative-yardage plays, and we can't have turnovers in the red zone-that's just two things you can't do," Roof said. "And we've got to make our field goals-we've got to make our chip shots. We had a chip shot to win the game, and we just didn't do it."
Despite the loss, the Blue Devils looked like a completely different team from the opening weekend. The defense set the physical tone for the game, and Lewis emerged as a talented leader of the offense.
Duke finished the game with twice as many first downs and 185 more passing yards than against Richmond-all against a veteran ACC defense.
But as they finish a pair of the most winnable games on their difficult schedule with two losses, the Blue Devils can't feel all that optimistic.
"It's hard to be encouraged right now," Roof said. "But there were some positive things, we made some strides. I think once we are able to separate ourselves from the emotion of this loss, we'll be able see that."
For now, the emotion surrounding the heartbreaking defeat overshadowed any progress. Asked if he could remember a loss that could more easily have been a victory, Roof shook his head and, barely audibly, whispered, "No."
Now, Roof must prevent a lost opportunity from turning into a lost season.
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