WINSTON-SALEM -- The Blue Devils only needed to kick the ball 28 yards to seal their first ACC win since the 2004 campaign.
But the ball traveled seven before a thunderous block sent the Wake Forest (2-0) faithful into an uproar and sealed Saturday's 14-13 loss in Winston-Salem.
In a game in which Duke (0-2) squandered numerous offensive opportunities that could have opened up a big lead for the Blue Devils, the final result came down to a last-second field goal from sophomore kicker Joe Surgan.
"The snap was great, the hold was great and it felt good," Surgan said. "One moment it was in, the next moment I heard it bounce off of someone. The rest was history from there."
After leading for almost the entire game, Duke allowed Wake Forest to drive 75 yards in just over two minutes. With 1:28 remaining, Wake Forest running back Micah Andrews punched it in from two yards out to put the Demon Deacons ahead, 14-13.
True freshman quarterback Thaddeus Lewis, who made his first career start Saturday, led the Blue Devils down the field with the help of two Demon Deacon pass interference penalties. Lewis' 21-yard completion to wideout Jomar Wright with 13 seconds to play gave Duke the ball on Wake Forest's nine-yard line.
After Duke centered the ball and called its final timeout, Surgan--who had already missed a 27-yarder in the first half--came out to attempt to give the Blue Devils the win. His blocked kick was just one of many missed scoring opportunities for Duke.
"This is definitely a game that we felt we should have won," Wright said. "We didn't take advantage of every opportunity, but we took advantage of enough to have a chance to win it at the end."
Duke started the game strong, dominating the Demon Deacons in almost every aspect. After forcing a punt on Wake's opening drive, the Blue Devils went deep on their first play from scrimmage. Lewis rolled to his right and found a wide open Wright behind the defense, but the ball bounced off Wright's hands and fell to the ground.
"Coach told us it was going to be wide open," Wright said. "He said to just run the play like he had told us to run it all week. I turned my hips around, and I just didn't extend my arms enough."
Duke still managed to move down the field on its first drive, which culminated in Surgan's missed 27-yard attempt. Two fumbles-including one from running back Re'quan Boyette as he tried to jump over the pile and into the endzone from two yards out-plagued the Blue Devils' red-zone offense. The team managed just three points on five trips inside the Demon Deacons' 20-yard line.
"We just have to execute and we have to capitalize on the big plays," Lewis said. "When we do that, I guess we'll come out victorious, but we came out just short. Wake outplayed us, and that's it."
Duke scored its lone touchdown after running a similar rollout play as its first from scrimmage, resulting in a 47-yard toss from Lewis to Wright with about five minutes left in the second quarter. At halftime, the Blue Devils led 10-0 and had accumulated nearly triple Wake's offensive output-234 yards to 82.
The second half was a different story as the Demon Deacons racked up 210 yards to Duke's 71. Wake Forest scored its first points on a Riley Skinner five-yard touchdown pass to tight end John Tereshinski midway through the third quarter, making the score 10-7. The 73-yard drive highlighted the halftime adjustments that helped the Demon Deacons get back into the game.
"We had a hell of a defensive game in the first half," defensive lineman Vince Oghobaase said. "In the second half, we kind of let up a bit.... We didn't cover the screen game good enough, and we have to work on that. They killed us with their screens."
Duke scored one more field goal-a 39-yarder in the third quarter-before Wake's game-winning touchdown.
Despite the loss, the Blue Devils looked like a different team than the one that lost 13-0 a week ago.
Lewis' 305 passing yards-the most by a Duke quarterback in his first career start since Dave Brown's 444 in 1989-accounted for the majority of the Blue Devils' 367 total yards. Although the team rallied around the young leader, its effort was not enough to secure Duke's first win of the season.
"We just came out with some intensity," Lewis said. "We only have each other and that's all we have to play football.... We played together as a team, and we brought the fight out of us. We never quit."
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