Defense wins championships.
It is the mantra that sports figures preach and that sports fans often repeat. For right now, the Blue Devils (0-1) just hope their defense will help them break a nine-game losing streak this Saturday when they travel to Winston Salem, N.C. to face Wake Forest (1-0) at 12 p.m. Saturday.
After limiting Richmond to 225 yards last Saturday, the defense will have to hold firm again this weekend. In week one, Wake's two premier running backs-Micah Andrews and De'Angelo Bryant-combined for 207 yards on just 33 carries, a 6.3 average. Nearly 70 percent of the Demon Deacons' plays in their 20-10 win over Syracuse were on the ground.
Wake's ground game will test Duke's defensive line.
"We're going to prepare to the best of our ability and try our hardest to beat Wake Forest," defensive end Vince Oghobaase said Monday. "We'll have to attack their run game. and we'll go out there and play for success."
Duke will be able to put the majority of its focus on stopping the Demon Deacons' rushing attack due to Wake's inexperience at quarterback.
Riley Skinner, who has taken over since the season-ending injury to starter Ben Mauk against Syracuse, is making his first start as a redshirt freshman for the Demon Deacons. The young gun, however, was able to lead Wake to its win last week after Mauk went down.
"It was just great to see the kids rally around Riley Skinner," Wake head coach Jim Grobe said. "They kind of immediately took that upon themselves. We have to maintain that attitude."
Duke's experience on defense could give Skinner trouble. The Blue Devils are stockpiled with maturity on the defensive side-they have five starting seniors. Although these veterans might help Duke slow down Wake Forest's offensive attack, there is no guarantee that the Blue Devils' offense will put up their first points of the season this Saturday.
Last weekend, the Demon Deacons held Syracuse to just 136 total yards on offense, while Duke mustered only 74 more than that against division I-AA Richmond.
"We're a veteran defense," Demon Deacons' defensive end Bryan Andrews said. "That helps us understand more stuff now. We're no longer freshmen and sophomores. Things don't catch us off guard anymore."
Wake's defense hopes to overwhelm Duke's young and injury-riddled offense.
The Blue Devils will likely take the field without two of their best offensive threats, running backs Justin Boyle and Ronnie Drummer, because of injuries suffered against the Spiders.
Like Wake Forest, Duke also has unanswered questions at the quarterback position. Leading the charge into Winston-Salem will either be last week's starter Marcus Jones or last week's standout Thaddeus Lewis. Head coach Ted Roof has not named a starter yet.
According to Roof's plan, Lewis entered the game against the Spiders in the third series. He stayed in the game for the majority of the snaps and went on to throw for a quarterback efficiency rating of 114.3.
Jones threw just six passes with a rating of 48.7. Roof said Monday the two quarterbacks would be evaluated during the week to determine this weekend's starter.
"I thought both of them did some good things and I thought both of them made some mistakes," Roof said about each player's performance against Richmond. "We've got to correct the mistakes and move on and build on what they did well."
No matter who runs the huddle in Winston-Salem, the Blue Devils will likely have to manufacture a fair amount of points if they wish to pull out the victory. Wake Forest has won the last six meetings between the two teams, averaging 36 points per game and a 17-point margin of victory.
Nevertheless, the defense has committed itself to shutting down Wake Forest, and one of its leaders assures that the Blue Devils are not intimidated.
"The team morale is pretty high," Oghobaase said. "We're going to go in there and prepare to win."
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