MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.—Duke entered its regular season finale fighting for a bowl bid and hoping for its first road win against Miami since the Hurricanes joined the ACC in 2004.
The Blue Devils will instead begin their offseason wondering what happened in two blowout losses that ended their season.
Duke’s four-year bowl streak came to an end after the Blue Devils fell to Miami 40-21 Saturday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium. Duke needed a win to potentially qualify for the postseason with five wins and showed that urgency in the first half, scoring 14 points on its initial two drives to take a four-point lead.
But the Blue Devils came out of the locker room as a completely different team in the second half, allowing 24 unanswered points.
“The game was painful in a lot of ways,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said. “We just couldn’t convert and keep drives alive. And our defense struggled as it stayed on the field. Miami is a very talented team.”
After recording 159 yards on its two touchdown drives, the Blue Devil offense posted 148 total yards on its next eight possessions. Quarterback Daniel Jones completed 34-of-50 passes for 316 yards and three touchdowns, but the redshirt freshman was under duress all game and rarely had time to look down field.
Duke’s inability to run the ball did not help. The Blue Devils (4-8, 1-7 in the ACC) registered 72 yards on 18 rushes in the first half, but compiled just seven rushing yards in the second half.
As the offense stumbled, Duke’s defense failed to defend Miami’s athletes on the outside and surrendered several explosive plays.
The Blue Devil front could not generate any pressure on quarterback Brad Kaaya—who became Miami’s all-time passing leader with 396 yards and four touchdowns—and the Hurricane rushing attack tallied 119 yards.
“The nemesis has been the big plays on defense,” Cutcliffe said. “[The Hurricanes] attacked us well…. When those plays come in chunks, it’s very difficult to limit points.”
Duke initially held firm in the first half, scoring on its first two drives to take a 14-10 lead despite allowing Miami to also score on its first two possessions.
Jones led the Blue Devil charge early on, capping off the drvies with touchdown passes to wide receivers Jonathan Lloyd and Aaron Young. Offensive coordinator Zac Roper’s unit relied on screen passes to open up the field and took advantage of a Miami secondary that initially played conservatively in coverage.
Duke’s defense also kept the Hurricanes (8-4, 5-3) out of the end zone on four of their first five possessions.
But toward the end of the first half, Miami began to shut down the Blue Devil screen game and dialed up pressure on Jones, a pattern that continued into the third quarter.
“[Miami] brought a good defensive front against us,” redshirt junior center Austin Davis said. “When it came to every pass down, they were blitzing all over the place and they did a really good job disguising it.”
Kaaya took advantage of Miami’s defensive stops when he found tight end David Njoku down the sideline for a 76-yard touchdown. Njoku ran by Duke defensive backs Deondre Singleton and Mark Gilbert on a go-route before stiff-arming Alonzo Saxton II on his way to the end zone.
The Blue Devils had an opportunity to quickly respond down 23-14 as Jones briefly found a rhythm and led the offense to the Hurricane 22 yard-line. But Duke’s season-long struggles in the kicking game continued when freshman kicker A.J. Reed missed a 39-yard field goal.
Reed finished the season 3-of-10 on field goals, with Miami’s Michael Badgley—who went 4-of-4 on field goal attempts—making more kicks Saturday than the Blue Devils made all season.
The Hurricanes then blew the game open with more chunk plays. Kaaya found wide receiver Stacy Coley for 33 yards before connecting with Braxton Berrios for another 38 yards. Miami then capped off the drive with a three-yard pass to Coley to make it 30-14.
“After we [went] down and missed the field goal, our team went flat. That was the most difficult point of the game emotionally,” Cutcliffe said. “We weren’t the same team.”
As Duke’s offense continued to falter, the Hurricanes extended their lead with a 43-yard field goal and a 58-yard touchdown pass to Njoku down the left sideline.
After upsetting then-No. 15 North Carolina Nov. 10, the Blue Devils were outscored 96-35 at Pittsburgh and Miami. Now, they will say goodbye to a senior class that accumulated 31 wins in four years.
“It’s been a very tough year,” Cutcliffe said. “We’ve got to evaluate where we are…. We’ll have a banquet to celebrate our seniors. We will then move forward and everything will be about 2017.”
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