Duke 49, N.C. State 28, 0:43 left in the fourth quarter: Leon Wright picks off a Russell Wilson pass, to add insult to injury. A familiar scene for Wright.
Thad's kneeling and the only question left in the game is whether Cutcliffe gets a Gatorade shower. We're done here-- about to head down to the post-game press conferences. We expect a somber one on the Wolfpack side; not so much on the Duke side. A historic win for David Cutcliffe and Duke Football.
Duke 49, N.C. State 28, 3:07 left in the fourth quarter: Duke punts it with 3:10 left,the ball hits Owen Spencer, and Adam Banks recovers for a touchdown!
The second time that's happened in this game, and the final nail on the coffin for N.C. State. Unbelievable.
Duke 42, N.C. State 28, 4:36 left in the fourth quarter: The Blue Devils have the ball at the Wolfpack 49, and it's 1st and 10 after a seven-yard Lewis keeper. The fans are filing out of Carter-Finley in droves.
Duke hasn't won a game in Raleigh since 1984. Looks like that may change here.
Duke 42, N.C. State 28, 6:05 left in the fourth quarter: Okpokowuruk with another huge play: a fourth-down stop on Toney Baker. Duke has the ball at its 41-yard line. Run, clock, run.
Duke 42, N.C. State 28, 8:31 left in the fourth quarter: Okpokowuruk just had a big sack on Wilson, and a Vinnie Rey tackle on the next play set up a Wolfpack punt.
Lewis has thrown for more yards--459-- in this game than in any he's ever played. Right now, he's on pace to set the Duke record.
Duke 42, N.C. State 28, 11:02 left in the fourth quarter: Three plays, 11 yards, and a great five-yard pass from Lewis to Vernon later, and Duke has a 14 point lead. That's Thad's fifth touchdown of the game, a career high.
It's really hard to express how big the fumble recovery by Foster was. It may turn out to be the defining moment of the game-- ironic, considering the overall offensive tone of the contest.
Duke 35, N.C. State 28, 12:30 left in the fourth quarter: Woooow... big sequence of events there.
A Duke drive, with a 43 yard pass to Johnny Williams, was stopped at the 38 after Lewis was rocked on the blind side. Luckily for the Blue Devils, Thad held on to the ball and Duke was forced to punt.
On the punt, the ball seemed to hit the Wolfpack returner in the back. It bounced off, was recovered by Tony Foster, and after a review, it's Duke ball at the 11.
Duke 35, N.C. State 28, end of the third quarter: Big stop by Ayanga Okpokowuruk to stop a surging Wolfpack offense at midfield. The Blue Devils have the ball at the 11 for the first time so far in the game with the lead.
It looked like Duke had stopped N.C. State at their own 17-yard line after a Vincent Rey sack and Chris Rwabukamba third-down pass breakup. But, a roughing the passer penalty (where punter Jeff Ruiz looked like a member of Manchester United selling a penalty) kept the Wolfpack drive alive. Luckily for the Blue Devils, the controversial penalty ultimately didn't matter.
Duke 35, N.C. State 28, 3:41 left in the third quarter: Touchdown Duke! Lewis, who has 404 yards passing so far, tossed an four-yard pass to Austin Kelly, culminating a 10-play, 72 yard drive.
Lewis is benefiting from excellent play from his receivers. Donovan Varner (154 yards receiving) looked fantastic, hauling in two catches that were over 17 yards. Conner Varner was no slouch, either-- a 22 yard reception, where he showed off his strength and broke a big tackle, put the Blue Devils in position to score.
Duke 28, N.C. State 28, 8:05 left in the third quarter: T.J. Graham just made sure that Duke will not get to bask in the glory of a second half lead for very long. He took the Wolfpack kickoff return 93 yards to the house. He absolutely owned the Blue Devil defense, burning down the left side of the field with ease.
Hey, at least the defense is getting a lot of time to rest. That's good, right?
Duke 28, N.C. State 21, 8:17 left in the third quarter: Quick question: What's the best way to overcome really bad field position?
How bout a 48 yard pass?
Looking like a young John Elway, Thaddeus Lewis, who already has 321 yards passing, drove the Blue Devils 97 yards down the field in under four minutes, culminating in a six-yard touchdown pass to tight end Danny Parker. Along the way, he found Varner for a 48 yard strike down the middle, and Conner Vernon for two big passes in the red zone.
Duke 21, N.C. State 21, 12:40 left in the third quarter: Oh, ho, we've got a defensive standoff here!
On the first offensive drive of the second half, the Wolfpack were stopped by a tenacious Duke defense and were forced to punt.
Lee Butler missed a great chance at pick when Wilson airmailed his receiver with 13:30 left in the third quarter. Alas, he dropped the pass thrown right at him. N.C. State punted a couple of plays later, and the Blue Devils are not exactly left with outstanding field position-- they're at the 3-yard line.
Who knew the shootout would turn into a battle for field position?
Duke 21, N.C. State 21, HALFTIME: A few stats on the scoring orgy that was the first half:
Thaddeus Lewis, 22-28, 233 yards and two touchdowns.
Russell Wilson, 12-16, 151 yards and one touchdown.
Toney Baker, four rushes for 55 yards and one touchdown.
Re'quan Boyette, six rushes for 24 yards and one touchdown.
Duke 21, N.C. State 21, HALFTIME: And that's the first quarter. 42 total points. A solid hour and a half of very little defense and a whole lotta offense.
The Wolfpack looked like they were going to get into field goal territory with a minute left-- a 21-yard scramble by Wilson had Duke worried. But a big sack by Jeremy Ringfield, the first of his career, kept the game tied up.
Duke 21, N.C. State 21, 1:51 left in the second quarter: Methinks I spoke too soon. N.C. State was just forced to punt after a nice Duke defensive stop. Wait, what's this? A punter on the field? What's a punter?
Duke has the ball at the 40.
Duke 21, N.C. State 21, 3:28 left in the second quarter: Big, big play for the N.C. State defense: Boyette, running from the Wolfpack 13 yard line, hit a hole in the middle of the field, then fumbled the ball. It's the first turnover of the game, and a huge momentum changer.
Duke was forced to go for it on fourth-down for the first time in the game at the Wolfpack 40-yard line. Lewis ran a quarterback sneak, benefited from a generous spot, and the drive stayed alive. All signs pointed for another Blue Devil touchdown-- it was not to be.
The skies are overcast and the crowd is getting loud. It's going to be difficult for Duke to recover from the turnover.
Duke 21, N.C. State 21, 8:22 left in the second quarter: I may have to start blogging after every two touchdowns. My fingers really can't take much more work. Yes, N.C. State has scored again.
Nothing new on this Wolfpack drive: The same combination of pinpoint passing from Wilson, coupled with occasional first-down runs from Baker. A 7-yard run from Baker gave them the touchdown.
Will the game come down to a missed extra point? A fluke penalty? It's not like a defensive stop will make the difference. With defenses like these, how'll either team not score a touchdown on every drive, in this contest that's starting to resemble a backyard two-hand touch game?
Duke 21, N.C. State 14, 11:45 left in the second quarter: Another Duke score. This one came on a 7-yard toss to Boyette from Lewis, who benefited from great blocking, giving him all the time in the world to make the throw. That pass just gave Thad the record for Duke career touchdown passes. And, it was Boyette's first touchdown of the season.
Two highlights from the drive were a 16-yard pass to Conner Vernon, where Vernon somehow beat the Wolfpack defender, extending his body like Lynn Swann, and a 35-yard bullet to Donovan Varner right in the middle of the N.C. State secondary that put the Blue Devils at the 10-yard line.
The Wolfpack's Terrell Manning was responsible for the first real knockdown of any pass in the game. Not that it mattered, though.
Some interesting stats from the first quarter: the two quarterbacks were 20-24 for a combined 223 yards and two touchdowns. Who knew we'd be seeing Brady vs. Manning today?
Duke 14, N.C. State 14, 0:14 left in the first quarter: Duke's been doing a heckuva job holding on to its leads so far in the contest. Yeah, just kidding. A 63-yard pass from Russell Wilson to Owen Spencer just tied the game up. We're seeing some really spectacular stuff from both team's secondaries today (sarcasm font is on).
Duke 14, N.C. State 7, 0:30 left in the first quarter: Our first Desmond Scott sighting of the game was a good one-- Scott ran for seven yards, then caught a seven yard pass from Lewis on the next play. Duke fans hope to see more good play from him today.
A nice third-down run from Lewis at midfield kept the Duke drive alive, and a very, very nice 24 yard play-action pass on the next play to Brett Huffman (which fooled most of us in the press box) put the Blue Devils at the 18.
A few plays later, including another pass to today's favorite target Huffman, and Lewis took a quarterback draw for a two-yard touchdown run.
On another note, wide receiver Johnny Williams was taken out of the game during the drive with an injury. Losing him is not good news for an already undermanned receiving corps.
An interesting stat from my fellow writer Ben Cohen: Duke is 4-4 on third down conversions today. Season average? 31%. Tough to say whether the Blue Devils can keep that up.
Duke 7, N.C. State 7, 6:15 left in the first quarter: Well, it's not going to be that easy for Duke. On a three minute, 21 second drive, Russell Wilson didn't have an incomplete pass until the Wolfpack were at the 35. Once in Duke's territory, their rushing game took over-- Toney Baker had two rushes for eight and 15 yards, and Wilson ran right around the Duke d-line for a 10 yard touchdown run.
This should be a high scoring affair.
On another note, Lewis's pass a few minutes ago tied the school record for most touchdown passes at 55. Find out this, and other tidbits, on The Chronicle's live Twitter feed: @chroniclesports.
Duke 7, N.C. State 0, 9:42 left in the first quarter: Conner Vernon returned the opening kickoff to the 25. Lewis hit two quick passes, the first to Austin Kelly for a first down, and he didn't let up after that. Utilizing quick passes, screen plays, and the occasional long pass (a 20-yard crossing pattern to Kelly), the Blue Devils marched down the field with an efficiency not seen that often this year. Lewis didn't leave the shotgun for the first seven plays, and Duke didn't run a play from behind center until the Blue Devils were at the N.C. State 10.
A Re'quan Boyette run put Duke at the 1, and it took Duke three plays to finally score, on a two-yard pass to tight end Brett Huffman.
11 plays, covering 70 yards, in 5 minutes and 15 seconds on the drive. Will Snyderwine's kick was good.
A very promising start for Duke.
PREGAME: There's a great sea of red in the stands of Carter-Finley, with a smattering of blue in the lower concourse. The band's out on the field for the pregame festivities, and clear blue skies set the scene for a great day of football. It's a typical Carolina October day-- 77 degrees.
Linebacker Abraham Kromah is a scratch for today's game. Other than that, no injuries of note today for the Blue Devils.
The team's are on the field-- the Wolfpack ran out in a frenzy of pyrotechnics.
You can watch the game on ESPNU.
PREGAME: Good afternoon, and welcome to The Chronicle Sports Blog! We're coming at you live today from Raleigh, NC, as the Wolfpack (3-2, 0-1 in the ACC) play Duke, currently 2-3 and 0-1 in conference play.
Duke's coming off a loss last week against Virginia Tech, in a game where the Blue Devils were only behind one touchdown to the No. 5 ranked team in the country going into the fourth quarter. Duke fell apart from there, though, losing 34-26, despite a valiant effort from quarterback Thaddeus Lewis, who threw for 359 yards and two touchdowns.
No quarterback controversy here for the Blue Devils today: Lewis will certainly be playing the majority of snaps today.
N.C. State is coming off a 30-24 loss to Wake Forest last week. The Wolfpack's offense looked anemic against the Demon Deacons in the game; they'll try to fix that today.
If you are of the compulsive gambler mold, take note that N.C. State is favored by 15 and 1/2 today.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.