After topping Army in heavy rain and stormy conditions a week ago, points should be easier to come by when Duke travels to Louisville, Ky., this weekend.
And that could spell doom for the Blue Devils.
Duke will face an uphill battle as it looks to secure its first ACC victory Friday when it takes on the seventh-ranked Cardinals. The Blue Devils enter the contest as 35-point underdogs and will face a Louisville team that will take the field for the first time since its 42-36 loss against Clemson.
“This is every bit as good a team as we’ve played since [I’ve] been at Duke if not the best team we’ve played and it’s not just about some of the outstanding stars,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said. “This is a huge and monumental challenge for us to just be able to manage to stay on the field with them.”
To even stay competitive in their first meeting against the Cardinals since 2002, Duke will need to find some way to contain Louisville superstar Lamar Jackson. The quarterback has cemented himself as the favorite for the Heisman Trophy through six games, racking up 28 total touchdowns so far this season.
Although the Blue Devils fared well against a similar challenge defending Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer earlier this season, Jackson is a different animal with his uncanny ability to keep plays alive by evading tacklers. The Boynton Beach, Fla., native’s creativity on the run will make a strong performance from linebackers Ben Humphreys and Joe Giles-Harris key as Duke will need to contain Jackson before he wreaks havoc with his legs.
“He’s at his most dangerous when he’s running around, that’s obvious,” Giles-Harris said. “He leads the nation in rushing touchdowns as a quarterback and he has more carries than most running backs in the country. Right now, you’d rather him beat you through the air than beat you with his feet because he is a phenomenal athlete with his feet.”
Jackson will not be the only game-breaking option the Blue Devils will have to account for on defense.
Cardinal running back Brandon Radcliff ranks second in the nation with 8.4 yards per carry and has fed off the threat of Jackson to burst through open holes in opposing defenses. On the outside, wide receivers James Quick and Jamari Staples make the explosive plays that have plagued Duke’s defense look easy.
To make matters even more difficult, the Blue Devils will have to deal with the hostile road crowd at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium that is expected to be in all black for Friday’s contest. The Cardinals haven’t played at home in nearly a month and are looking to use the game against Duke as an opportunity to reestablish their home dominance.
“It’s great, the night environment, and the crowd, and the excitement for our players,” Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino said at his weekly press conference. “It always gives you a huge advantage to play at home and play under the lights and play with our crowd. So we just have to hopefully come out and have the same type of atmosphere that we had for the Florida State game.”
The great equalizer for the Blue Devils will have to be turnovers.
Duke enters Friday’s game ranked second in the ACC in total turnovers caused with six fumbles and seven interceptions. The Cardinals do not turn the ball over much, but three giveaways proved costly in their loss two weeks ago to Clemson.
No matter how well the Blue Devil defense plays, it will likely give up points. And when it does, the Duke offense will need to take pressure off the unit by moving the ball and controlling time of possession against a defense full of NFL talent.
Against that stacked unit, redshirt freshman quarterback Daniel Jones and company might have to get used to guard Zach Harmon sliding over to center in place of the injured Austin Davis. Davis and running back Jela Duncan left Saturday’s game early with injuries and might not play against Louisville, which has an aggressive defense that will test the Blue Devils’ depth.
The Cardinals boast a defensive front spearheaded by linebackers Keith Kelsey, James Hearns and Devonte Fields, who have 10.5 tackles for loss between them this season. Louisville also has one of the best cornerbacks in the nation in Jaire Alexander, who picked off reigning Heisman Trophy winner DeShaun Watson twice in the Cardinals’ loss at Clemson and returned a punt for a touchdown earlier this season against Florida State.
“With the corners playing press the majority of the time, the receivers will have to get open fast,” Duke sophomore wide receiver T.J. Rahming said. “At receiver, we live for man-to-man, press-to-press techniques and stuff like that, so as a receiving core that opened up our eyes.”
The Blue Devils know a team laden with NFL talent will make big plays, but hope they can make enough exciting ones of their own to show how far they have come since the start of the season.
“The focus in games like this is playing one play at a time,” Cutcliffe said. “When you’re mismatched to a large degree, you have to complete every play, you got to separate any of the thought process from that play and that’s the only way you go about it.”
Hank Tucker and Amrith Ramkumar contributed reporting.
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