Wake-up call

Despite scoring 23 unanswered points to overcome a 17-0 first-half deficit, Duke fell to Wake Forest for the 12th straight time.

The Blue Devils (3-4, 1-2 in the ACC) dominated the second half, controlling possession for more than 23 minutes and outgaining the Demon Deacons by more than 150 yards, but a slow start and a huge fourth-quarter pass doomed them to yet another frustrating loss, 24-23.

Although Duke took a six-point lead with 7:14 remaining, Wake Forest (5-2, 4-1) score the game-winning touchdown on a 66-yard pass to wide-open receiver Chris Givens.

Givens, who leads the ACC in receiving yards and finished with 147 on the day, managed to find a hole in the coverage and escape several defenders on his way down the sideline. While that was a major mistake, the Blue Devils had already made their critical miscues.

“The bottom line is that we couldn’t as a team overcome the poor job I did in the first half,” head coach David Cutcliffe said. “In all of the areas that a head coach is responsible, we were more than poor…. We didn’t have any rhythm offensively or defensively, and I’m responsible for every bit of that.”

On offense, quarterback Sean Renfree avoided risks in the first half, finishing 16-of-19 for 92 yards but only earned six first downs in the first half. Until the final drive of the second quarter—Duke’s first scoring drive of the day—Renfree was 12-of-12 for only 40 yards.

“It was their coverage, what they were planning,” wide receiver Conner Vernon, who finished with a season-low 59 yards, said. “I’m sure they saw on film us getting behind a lot of secondaries, so that was definitely in their game plan…. We had to take what they were giving us early.”

Following its go-ahead touchdown, Duke held the Demon Deacons to another three-and-out, forcing two incompletions and swallowing up running back Brandon Pendergrass at the line of scrimmage.

With momentum and a three-point lead on their side, the Blue Devils took over at their own 36-yard line with 10:29 left on the clock and a chance to put the game out of reach. After Renfree completed his longest pass of the day—a 26-yarder to Donovan Varner—to convert a third-and-long, Desmond Scott turned the corner for a 19-yard rush down to the Wake Forest five-yard line.

On first-and-goal, backup quarterback Anthony Boone, who had led Duke to touchdowns on both of its previous red-zone possessions, entered the game for Renfree.

“When I go in there, the offensive linemen have been executing their jobs, so it has become effective,” Boone said. “You can be predictable all you want, but [they’ve] got to stop it…. When it comes down to crunch time, [Wake] is a good defense.”

The Demon Deacons finally managed to stop Boone on offense—stuffing two running plays and forcing an incomplete pass to running back Patrick Kurunwune—to set up a chip shot field goal for Will Snyderwine.

“We had played such great defense, to that point, that it was a no-brainer,” Cutcliffe said of his decision to kick the field goal on fourth-and-short. “If it was a game where we had struggled to keep them from going up and down the field, I probably would’ve gone for it.”

After Givens’ long touchdown catch, the Blue Devils had several chances to retake the lead, but the offense could not make big plays when it mattered most.

“It just comes down to finishing,” Vernon said. “We had three chances to take back the lead, and we couldn’t do it.”

With just five games left in the season, Duke has its work cut out for it if it hopes to make a bowl game.

“It’s pretty frustrating because… we definitely won the second half but didn’t end up winning the game,” Vernon said. “We have to learn how to play for four quarters and not just two.”