After the first 30 minutes of the 2007 season, the Blue Devils were up 14-11 and looked as if they might come away with their first victory in 21 games. But four plays into the second half, those dreams were put to rest by the left arm of Huskies quarterback Tyler Lorenzen.
Lorenzen threw two touchdowns in the third quarter to shift a 14-11 Duke halftime lead to a 25-14 deficit that the Blue Devils would never overcome. Three late fourth-quarter touchdowns by Connecticut (1-0) swelled the final score to 45-14, leaving Duke (0-1) winless in their fifth straight opener.
"We did so much, and we should have won the game, to be honest," Duke cornerback Leon Wright said. "The defense wore down, the offense was frustrated, we couldn't get a good rhythm going. It hurts."
Saturday's game at Wallace Wade Stadium began well for the Blue Devils, as the offense quickly took the ball to the end zone on a six-play, 80-yard drive keyed by a 53-yard reception by wide receiver Eron Riley. Riley's catch on the first play of the game took Duke from its own 20-yard line to the Connecticut 32, setting up a six-yard touchdown pass to fullback Brandon King five plays later.
A 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by cornerback Jabari Marshall at the 10:42 mark in the second quarter gave Duke a 14-8 lead, which would shrink to three by the end of the period.
On defense, the Blue Devils held the Huskies to just three field goals through the first half, halting three UConn red-zone drives at the 13, 10 and one yardlines, respectively.
Despite their strong start, the Blue Devils were unable to stop the Huskies in the second half. Lorenzen hit receiver D.J. Hernandez for a 57-yard touchdown pass 1:51 into the third quarter, giving Connecticut a 18-14 lead. The Huskies then reeled off 27 unanswered second-half points and held the Blue Devils to a measly 54 yards of total offense for the remainder of the game.
"Tale of two halves," Duke head coach Ted Roof said. "We fought through some adversity in the first half [and] had the lead coming out of the first half.... At times, we didn't execute. Coupled with playing on a short field on both sides of the ball, that's a recipe for a disastrous half of football."
Even though the Connecticut offense tends to rely on the running game, Duke struggled to contain the Huskies' aerial attack. Lorenzen threw for 298 yards and two touchdowns-more than the Blue Devils' total yardage for the game (167). And even when Lorenzen didn't make plays with his arm, he found a way to gain yardage on the ground. The junior quarterback easily out-rushed the Blue Devils by himself, gaining 89 yards on 19 carries in comparison to Duke's 24 rushing yards.
"The quarterback was better than we expected, and they had better receivers," Wright said. "We kind of underestimated them a little bit, but we played well enough to win the game. We just had little mental errors that cost us."
With an offense that struggled to move the ball effectively on the ground, Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis was forced to throw the ball with little success. Lewis, who was 14-of-28 with a touchdown and three interceptions, repeatedly found himself in long yardage and difficult third down situations.
"The game plan was to spread them out and run the ball, and if they cheat, throw the narrow routes," Lewis said. "They kind of dropped back into coverage and everything was covered when it was a throwing situation, so you have to throw the ball. So that probably made it harder to throw."
When asked about what he told his team after the game, Roof declined to comment, But Wright, who has not experienced a win in his career at Duke, suggested that following a loss like Saturday's, there wasn't much left for his head coach to say.
"It's tough to come talk to your team after a loss like that," Wright said. "You can't say the same thing you said last year, because it didn't work. He really didn't have that much to say."
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