As the second quarter wound down in Duke’s loss to No. 6 Stanford, it appeared the Blue Devils had all the momentum following a defensive touchdown and successful onside kick.
Just minutes later, though, the Cardinal had stolen it back, and Duke’s inability to regain it was the likely turning point in the game.
With his team trailing 10-0 and just over two minutes left in the half, senior defensive back Lee Butler intercepted Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck’s pass off a deflection by Johnny Williams. Butler reeled in the tipped pass at Duke’s 24-yard line and took off down the right sideline, leaping into the endzone from the 5-yard line to evade Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor.
“Right before going out we said defense was going to have to do something big and score points,” senior safety Matt Daniels said. “Lee came up big on third down…. That was a huge momentum swing for us.”
The crowd in Wallace Wade erupted following the interception return, which closed the gap to just a field goal. Preseason All-ACC kicker Will Snyderwine had already missed two field goals earlier in the contest, and had Snyderwine kicked with the consistency he did last season, the Blue Devils would have been leading the No. 6 team in the country with under three minutes to go in the first half.
“We know there was a point where we should have been up,” wideout Conner Vernon said. “It was definitely a motivational factor. We knew we were in it.”
Following the game-changing turnover, head coach David Cutcliffe took a gamble, and his team rewarded him by performing to perfection. A flag was thrown for a personal foul against the Cardinal after Butler’s touchdown, allowing Snyderwine to kick off from the Duke 45-yard line. Snyderwine successfully executed an onside kick, which surprised the return team and was recovered by safety Walt Canty.
“I told Ron before we even got situated that we were going to onside kick it as soon as I heard what the foul was,” Cutcliffe said.
Duke fans’ cheers were loudest they have been in years. The Blue Devils had seized all of the momentum in the contest.
“It was a great atmosphere and a great moment in the ball game,” Cutcliffe said. “I knew we were going to get the ball first in the second half. I thought we’d score, but we didn’t get it done.”
Trailing by a field goal, Duke’s offense took over at the Stanford 39-yard line with 2:12 left in the half. On first down, receiver Brandon Braxton appeared to have space on a wide receiver screen, but quarterback Sean Renfree failed to get him the ball. Instead linebacker Chase Thomas got to Renfree and recorded the sack.
With the Blue Devils facing second-and-long, Stanford brought pressure again. A pass rusher came untouched up the middle and Renfree was forced to throw a pass at the feet of his running back. On third down, Thomas blitzed from the right side to beat Perry Simmons and Renfree was sacked again. Facing 4th-and-25, Cutcliffe had no choice but to punt.
“That’s where we gave up a sack and shot ourselves in the foot,” Cutcliffe said when asked what went wrong on that series. “I had already told them we would have gone for it. We needed to go in and have the opportunity to score again.”
On fourth down, Alex King shanked a punt that traveled just 13 yards. After the sacks and the short punt, Luck would take over at his own 41-yard line—the previous Duke possession started at the Cardinal 40-yard line. Luck went 4-for-4 spanning 59 yards in just 43 seconds. Chris Owusu caught a screen pass at the 10-yard line and evaded a diving Walt Canty to find the endzone, extending the lead to 17-7 and deflating the Blue Devils’ morale.
“That was really big,” Daniels said. “We just had the swing of momentum come our way knowing that we were going to have the ball after the half and come back and be able to put up 14 points without them touching the ball. That’s huge, but we were unable to stop them.”
Duke entered field goal range on its subsequent possession, but with Snyderwine injured on the onside kick, walk-on kicker Jeffrey Ijjas failed to convert a 49-yard field goal attempt. The Blue Devils also failed to put points on the board in the third quarter, which ultimately cost them the opportunity to stay competitive late in the game.
“One of the most difficult things to do in sports is to regain momentum when things don’t go your way,” Cutcliffe said. “We didn’t do that.”
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