Edwards scores 3 touchdowns as Duke football defeats N.C. State

It wasn't pretty, but Duke has now secured for a winning season for the first time in 19 years.

The Blue Devils outlasted crosstown foe N.C. State 38-20 Saturday in front of a crowd of more than 32,000 fans at Wallace Wade Stadium, winning a seventh game for the first time since the 1994 season.

Redshirt freshman safety DeVon Edwards stole the show for Duke, which struggled on offense but benefitted from his three-touchdown performance on the evening—taking a kickoff return and two interceptions to the house to seal the victory.

"DeVon Edwards pretty much took over the game," junior wide receiver Jamison Crowder said. "DeVon is somebody that we've just been waiting for, and he came out there and showed it.... It was crazy."

Edwards' 100-yard kickoff return gave Duke (7-2, 3-2 in the ACC) a 17-13 lead after allowing N.C. State (3-6, 0-6) to score 13 unanswered points and take back the momentum. After the Wolfpack took back the lead on an 80-yard pass from Brandon Mitchell to Quintin Payton, backup quarterback Brandon Connette led a touchdown drive and swung the momentum back in the Blue Devils' favor.

N.C. State got the ball back with less than four minutes to play and had a chance to score and win the game. Then Edwards took over.

Two plays. Two different quarterbacks. Two interceptions. Two touchdowns.

Mitchell was flushed out of the pocket and Edwards elevated to knock down his pass, reel it in and scamper 25 yards for a touchdown to give Duke a 31-20 lead with 3:31 to play.

"I was trying to catch it, but when I hit it up in the air I thought I was going to get hit and I was surprised," Edwards said. "Once I knew that I got the ball, Coach was talking about 'Defense needs to win this game.' So I had to do what I had to do to get some points on the board."

Ten seconds later, Edwards struck again when he picked off Wolfpack quarterback Pete Thomas and ran it back 45 yards for another score. Edwards became just the second player in NCAA history to return interceptions for touchdowns on back-to-back plays—the first was cornerback Leon Wright, who played at Duke and was an assistant coach for the Blue Devils before taking a job at LSU last summer.

The Blue Devils scored 28 second-half points, but just seven of them came on offense.

"You know the saying—defense wins championships," Crowder said. "This whole season, the defense has pretty much been carrying the load. Offensively we still have some things we want to get tuned up. But hats off to the defense, they've been winning ballgames for us."

Duke's offense did have a hot start to the game, with redshirt junior quarterback Anthony Boone completing 10 of his first 11 passes, including a 75-yard hookup with junior wide receiver Jamison Crowder. Boone scampered into the end zone from four yards out on the next play to give the Blue Devils a 7-0 lead.

But Boone's success would not last long. He completed just two of his next 12 passes and threw two of his three interceptions on the evening. Boone was replaced by Connette midway through the third quarter and would not return to the game. Connette got off to a slow start, but he ultimately competed 7-of-13 passes in relief.

"That's kind of what happens when you don't produce," Boone said. "You have to put someone in to mix it up and get things going, and he did a great job."

The Blue Devils turned the ball over four times on the evening, but the Wolfpack scored just three points off those turnovers thanks to defensive stands in the red zone.

After emerging from the locker room trailing by 10 points, N.C. State quickly set the tone in the second half. After Niklas Sade hit a 29-yard field goal to get the Wolfpack on the scoreboard, N.C. State's defense forced Duke to punt and Rashard Smith returned it 73 yards for a score to tie the game. Sade's second field goal of the night gave the Wolfpack their first lead of the game before Edwards took the ensuing kickoff to the house.

Saturday's victory was just the Blue Devils' second win in November during head coach David Cutcliffe's six-year tenure in Durham. Duke will return to action next week, seeking its sixth consecutive victory when it hosts No. 11 Miami on Senior Day.

"The atmosphere was really meaningful to our success. Don't think for a second it didn't ignite the fire," Cutcliffe said. "Everybody wants a playoff, and we're in it right now. The chips are down for everything. It's fun to watch."