With Miami looming, Duke football faces questions at quarterback

As Duke marched into victory formation to seal its seventh win of the year and secure a winning season for the first time since 1994, its starting quarterback stood watching from the sidelines.

Completing 10 of his first 11 passes—including a 75-yard bomb to Jamison Crowder—redshirt junior Anthony Boone appeared to have shaken off his 7-for-25, four-interception performance against Virginia Tech in which he failed to complete a pass in the second half. But Boone's decision-making faltered once again Saturday against N.C. State, completing just two of his final 12 passes and throwing two of his three interceptions in that span.

"Just a few mental errors here and there—that's all that you can say," Boone said. "You can't ride the emotion of the game. You just have to try and stay even and fight for 60 minutes."

Lost in the Blue Devils' 38-20 victory against N.C. State at Wallace Wade Stadium was the fact that the team's once-prolific offense is now struggling. Thanks to the play of redshirt freshman safety DeVon Edwards, Duke's defense and special teams accounted for 21 of the team's points against the Wolfpack—the offense managed just 17.

After setting the program's single-season scoring record last year, offense was never expected to be this team's weakness. Coming into the season, all of the Blue Devils' question marks were on the defensive side of the ball, and the unit's stellar play has put all of those questions to rest in the past month.

"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."

Early in the second quarter, Duke had taken the ball over with a short field after its defense forced a turnover on downs, giving the Blue Devils great field position at the N.C. State 26-yard line. Boone and the Duke offense were able to move the ball just eight yards, setting up a Ross Martin field goal to put the Blue Devils ahead 10-0 with 8:14 remaining in the half.

Following that score, Duke's next five possessions resulted in two punts, two interceptions and a kneel down to end the first half.

Even after Boone threw four picks against Virginia Tech, head coach David Cutcliffe stuck with his starting quarterback. But when he tossed three more interceptions against N.C. State, Cutcliffe pulled the plug and went with backup Brandon Connette, who had been relegated to spot duty since Boone's return from a broken collarbone.

Connette coughed up the football at the end of a 20-yard run on his first series under center and Duke failed to score on its next two offensive drives. After allowing N.C. State to take a 20-17 lead, the Blue Devil offense finally woke up as Connette led the team on an eight-play, 79-yard drive capped off by a 5-yard Connette run to give Duke back the lead for good.

He finished the day 7-of-13 for 59 yards and carried the ball eight times for a team-high 40 yards.

"Throughout the entire game, things just weren't going our way," Connette said. "It seemed like they weren't going our way the whole game, and we knew how powerful and explosive our offense is. We knew at some point that something had to give, and we were able to get in a groove, get in a rhythm on that last drive and just march it down."

Duke will need to put some points on the board if it hopes to contend with No. 24 Miami Saturday on Senior Day. But after reviewing tape of the Blue Devils' matchup with N.C. State Sunday, Cutcliffe said his team's quarterback future remains unclear.

"It's going to take both of those guys for us to win, so you'll see both of them," Cutcliffe said. "We haven't made any kind of decision or are overly concerned about the start and whatever, but we do believe right now that... we're going to have to be looking at both of them to get us back where we need to be."