Everything was going so well for Duke.
Its captains entered an electric atmosphere at Wallace Wade Stadium, won the coin toss and elected to defer and put its defense—which entered the game ranked 11th in points per game allowed at 18.1 per contest—on the field to start the 67th annual clash for the Victory Bell.
The Blue Devils' most consistent unit responded by promptly forcing a quick three-and-out and yielding just two yards to North Carolina and quarterback Marquise Williams, who had racked up more than 3,000 total yards and 28 touchdowns before Thursday.
The Tar Heels then punted to senior Jamison Crowder, who broke open Duke's Nov. 8 win at Syracuse with an electrifying fourth-quarter punt return and ranked second in the ACC in yards-per-return entering his final Tobacco Road showdown.
The Monroe, N.C., native nearly started the Blue Devils' biggest game of the season the same way, making multiple shifty moves on a 30-yard return to set Duke up at the North Carolina 46-yard line.
Junior running back Shaquille Powell then ran it up the gut on the Blue Devils' first offensive play, easily picking up eight yards.
It looked like Duke would be able to easily generate enough of a push with its strong offensive line—which allowed just four sacks and 23 tackles for loss in its first nine games—to consistently gash a leaky Tar Heel defense that hadn't held a team to less than 27 points yet this season, allowed 41.2 points per game and surrendered 228.2 rushing yards per contest.
After Crowder lost two yards on second down, redshirt senior quarterback Anthony Boone found a wide open Max McCaffrey on third-and-four. The Blue Devils' trusty slot receiver then barreled his way to the North Carolina 24-yard line.
Just as it did last week against Virginia Tech when it jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead, Duke looked poised to get off to another strong start.
And surely a team that only committed six turnovers in its first nine games of the season wouldn't squander an early opportunity again by shooting itself in the foot, right?
Wrong.
The Blue Devils proved they hadn't completely bounced back from last week's demoralizing 17-16 loss at the hands of the Hokies after a three-yard Powell run set up second-and-seven.
Duke's backup quarterback, Thomas Sirk, normally relied upon in short-yardage and goal-line situations because of his powerful running style, entered the game.
Although it was an unusual move, the Blue Devils and head coach David Cutcliffe insisted it was a calculated one designed to take advantage of North Carolina's struggles against the run.
But it didn't pay off, as Sirk—who had not yet lost a fumble this year—coughed it up after being hit hard by defensive tackle Justin Thomason.
What happened next was predictable.
Just as the Hokies did last week, Williams and the Tar Heels pounced on Duke's giveaway, marching 78 yards in 12 plays on 3:44 and scoring on a three-yard pass from Williams to Quinshad Davis.
On the ensuing Blue Devil drive, Boone faced first-and-20 from his own 11-yard line before he was flushed out of the pocket under heavy duress—another parallel between Thursday's first half and the second half of the Virginia Tech game—hit by defensive tackle Nazair Jones and also lost the football.
Free safety Tim Scott then scooped up the ball and waltzed into the end zone.
In 45 seconds, North Carolina scored 14 points off two Duke turnovers and reinforced the message the Blue Devils had received in their Sept. 27 22-10 loss at Miami and last week against Virginia Tech.
Duke is not talented enough yet to turn the ball over and still expect to win.
Led by Cutcliffe, who mentioned this mantra when discussing his quarterback Boone throughout the preseason, the Blue Devils seemed to understand the value of holding on to the ball for the majority of the season.
Duke committed just six turnovers in its first 37 quarters of play this season.
In its next four? Four giveaways.
And as the turnovers came, the other dominoes fell swiftly.
The Blue Devils—who showed enough resilience to put together a 75-yard scoring drive—fell apart once again after getting behind the eight-ball following turnovers, committing multiple penalties and making the mistakes that were absent from their 18 wins the past two season.
Boone started looking for the big play instead of taking what the defense was giving him, multiple times missing wide open receivers in the flat to throw into heavy traffic downfield. The Weddington, N.C., native was intercepted for the third consecutive game.
Cutcliffe and offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery abandoned the conventional running game, giving Duke's quartet of reliable running backs just 13 carries on the evening after falling behind early.
The Blue Devil defense also lost its discipline and tried to stem the tide of big North Carolina plays by bringing pressure and forcing turnovers, which led to the three Williams fumbles that kept Duke within 21 points at halftime but also left plenty of green grass for Ryan Switzer and T.J. Logan on Tar Heel screen passes.
The Blue Devils did not at all resemble the team that held opposing passing attacks to just five touchdowns in nine games as the Duke secondary became more concerned with trying to make game-changing plays than maintaining proper technique and looking for the ball
All three phases of the game suffered—even Will Monday had a 13-yard punt after entering the game with a season average of 44.1 yards-per-boot—as the Blue Devils were put in a position they have rarely faced the past two seasons.
The results weren't pretty.
North Carolina cruised to a 38-7 lead and eventually a 45-20 win to make sure Duke got the message loud and clear in its first Thursday night primetime game since 1994: being loose with the ball makes the Blue Devils just another average team.
And like any other average team, Duke couldn't reverse momentum against a hungrier squad seeking bowl eligibility and the coveted Victory Bell.
To forget about the alarming results of their past two games, the Blue Devils know what they have to do to record Duke's first back-to-back seasons with nine or more wins.
"If you don't like what you're getting, then change what you're doing," Cutcliffe said to close out his press conference.
Blue Devil fans better hope Duke can change what it's doing and stop coughing up the ball. If it doesn't, the results of the final two games will also be predictable.
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