“We were never at a level that we had reached in practice and training camp. This was not reflective of our football team,” head coach David Cutcliffe said a year ago after his team fell to Richmond in its first game of the 2009 season.
This year, he might phrase it differently. After his team’s victory over Elon, Cutcliffe would likely replace the word never with sometimes, having seen his team play against the Phoenix at a level it had reached in practice.
But although Duke’s offense played well for the most part, its defense showed only flashes of its full potential—and an inconsistency that kept Elon in the game.
“There were certain things that people really can’t see that we know were mistakes,” quarterback Sean Renfree said. “[In] many circumstances we beat ourselves.”
The defense’s switch to a new defensive scheme, coupled with the loss of several key players, meant that there was plenty of unfamiliarity on the field. That allowed Elon to gain 406 yards, including 281 in the air from star quarterback Scott Riddle as the Duke secondary struggled to stay on its feet in coverage against the Phoenix receivers. The defense also allowed a disappointing six-yard-per-carry average to Elon’s running backs.
But the unit did pick off two passes, sack Riddle twice, make two tackles for losses and force a fumble, though they didn’t recover it.
Despite the defense’s takeaways, the secondary struggled to keep up with Elon. Recently-converted cornerback Johnny Williams started the game by getting beat by Elon receiver Sean Jeffcoat, falling down once in coverage to give up a big play, and committing a blatant pass interference penalty on a long pass attempt. Williams recovered later in the game, however, with a key pass breakup in the end zone.
Similarly, on Elon’s second drive, safety Matt Daniels read a screen play perfectly and got into the backfield to make a stop, but missed the open-field tackle and allowed a six-yard gain. He then proceeded to make a superb pass breakup over the middle on the following play.
The defense’s biggest weakness as a whole, though, was allowing the big play.
“We didn’t tackle very well at times,” Cutcliffe said.
As a result, despite gaining 150 less yards than Duke, Elon still managed to make more big plays, with 11 gains of more than 15 yards as compared to Duke’s 10, and seven plays of over 20 yards to Duke’s six.
“There wasn’t a ton of jubilation in our locker room afterwards,” Cutcliffe said, noting that his players understand that they need to execute better once the conference season begins.
If Duke wants to avoid disappointment like it experienced against Richmond last year, it has some work to do on the defensive end.
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