It was, in the words of one member of the press, “the ineptitude bowl.”
Doomed by seven turnovers, Duke fell to Miami 28-13 Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium. The Blue Devils (1-5, 0-3 in the ACC) kept up with the Hurricanes until their final turnover—a Brandon Connette fumbled snap with about four minutes left—gave Miami (4-2, 2-1) the ball back for good.
“No prophetic statement here at all,” head coach David Cutcliffe said. “The bottom line is you will never win a game doing what we did today, and that’s giving the ball away.”
Quarterback Sean Renfree continued his struggles, completing just 18 of 38 passes, while throwing five interceptions and losing a fumble. It was his third week in a row with multiple picks, bringing his total to an NCAA-leading 14.
“He has to fight through it. He’s got to find a way out of this,” Cutcliffe said. “We can’t compete with this going on. It just takes your chance to win away from you.”
Duke’s offensive woes were highlighted from the outset. Starting on the Miami eight-yard line after recovering a fumble by the Hurricanes’ Graig Cooper on the opening kickoff, the Blue Devils failed to punch it in for the touchdown and settled for a field goal.
After a defense-oriented first quarter in which both teams combined for just eight first downs and five punts, the next period saw the Hurricane offense begin to heat up. On the first play of the second quarter, Jacory Harris connected with Leonard Hankerson for a 14-yard score. For the rest of the period, Duke could only advance as far as the Miami 32-yard line—and that drive ended when Renfree was picked off by Vaughn Telemaque.
“We’re mostly beating ourselves in a lot of areas,” Renfree said. ”They’ve got a good secondary, they do. They had some good pressure at times, but like I said, it’s just all self-inflicted wounds. It’s nothing they’re doing to beat us, really.”
The Hurricanes quickly capitalized on Renfree’s fumble. Harris capped a 30-second, 46-yard drive with a 13-yard scramble into the end zone.
After the half, Renfree’s day got even worse, when he launched a pass into the waiting arms of Micanor Regis. The 305-lb defensive tackle rumbled 22 yards to the end zone, giving Miami a 21-3 lead.
On Duke’s next drive, Jay Hollingsworth stopped the Hurricanes’ momentum by rushing for 49 yards on the 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. The three-pronged rushing attack of Hollingsworth, Josh Snead and Desmond Scott combined for a season-high five-and-a-half yards per carry against a Hurricane front four who average 280 pounds a piece.
“They’re all athletes,” Hollingsworth said. “You know they’re gonna be big, they’re gonna be fast, they’re gonna be strong.”
However, the Miami offense quickly regained the momentum with their own rushing attack, riding Damien Berry on a 10-play, 78-yard drive. Berry rushed for 111 of Miami’s 224 combined rushing yards after Randy Shannon made a mid-game switch to a ground-dominated attack. The change came after Harris went 9-of-24 for just 135 yards in the first half, including floating some balls that could very easily have been Duke interceptions.
“If you don’t hit the ball enough, it isn’t coming out,” Cutcliffe said. “In the secondary, I thought there were two or three times I thought we had chances to go get the ball.”
Despite the inability to force turnovers, the Blue Devils did see significant improvement in the secondary Saturday. Harris’s troubles were often related to tight coverage, and Duke was not nearly as susceptible to giving up deep passing plays as it had been in weeks past.
“I think we improved dramatically over the last two weeks,” safety Matt Daniels said. “The defense has definitely made strides to get better but we have to continue to keep getting better.”
After playing spottily through the first three quarters, Connette got the go-ahead from Cutcliffe to run the offense for good in the fourth period. The true freshman proved effective in his short stint under center, helping the Blue Devils mount a brief comeback by driving Duke deep into Miami territory. Will Snyderwine’s 43-yard field goal kept the Blue Devils within two scores with just over six minutes left. The kicker’s perfectly-executed onside kick, recoverd on the 47-yard line, gave the Blue Devils a chance to get even closer. But the team’s seventh turnover ended any comeback hopes.
“We never really got a rhythm going,” Connette said. “We need to get better at keeping the ball on our side every single play. If we did a better job with that, there could have been a different outcome in the game.”
At the end of the day, Duke was stuck kicking itself after yet another self-inflicted loss. And at the halfway point in the season, the team hopes that answers will begin to come quickly down the home stretch.
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