Duke opens its season with four straight wins, gets a primetime ACC matchup at Wallace Wade Stadium, and then loses without much of a fight.
Sound like a familiar story?
The Blue Devils' first five games of 2018 have been nearly a carbon copy of their start to 2017, but if Duke wants to avoid another killer six-game losing streak, a win Saturday afternoon would do the trick.
The Blue Devils, following a walloping at the hands of Virginia Tech and an open date, will head back on the road as they visit Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium for a 12:20 p.m. kickoff in Atlanta. Although Duke's last trip to the Peach State ended in defeat, the Blue Devils' recent history with the Yellow Jackets has been pretty good—they've won three of the last four meetings in the series, breaking a run of 10 straight Georgia Tech victories from 2004-13.
And while a win against these Yellow Jackets helped Duke (4-1, 0-1 in the ACC) eke its way into the postseason a year ago, the Blue Devils sure hope they won't get anywhere near that scenario again.
"If you suffer a loss late that's pivotal to your season, I think it becomes very difficult to pick a team back up and refocus them. Do it a little earlier in the season, I think the loss sometimes fuels you," head coach David Cutcliffe said on Wednesday's ACC teleconference. "It feels like forever since we've played. Our players, I think, are anxious to get back playing, but certainly this [game] is a huge challenge."
The difficulty ratcheted up even a bit more Thursday afternoon when it was announced that linebacker Koby Quansah broke his left foot during Wednesday's practice and had to undergo surgery, meaning the junior will be out indefinitely. Quansah, despite not being a regular starter in Duke's 4-2-5 defense, has racked up 29 total tackles, including two for a loss, in the Blue Devils' last three games against triple-option teams.
It's another ailment for a defensive unit that hasn't had all of its pieces at any point this season. Tuesday, Cutcliffe called this season "the toughest year I’ve had as a head coach as far as the number of injuries."
Nonetheless, Duke will march onward thanks to leaders like linebackers Joe Giles-Harris and Ben Humphreys on that side of the ball.
"A bye week is always great—you get healthy, and we needed that," Humphreys said. "It enables us against an option team to switch our mindset and we had a little bit more time to do that.... We took advantage of it well as a team."
The Blue Devils are still looking for a full reemergence of the Daniel Jones from the season's first six quarters. Even with a meager second-half effort at Northwestern, Jones still piled up nearly 400 yards through the air, four passing touchdowns, a nearly 75 percent completion rate and no interceptions in his first two games.
Jones managed a 123.7 passer rating against the Hokies, but didn't find any real consistency in his return to the field. At Georgia Tech (3-3, 1-2), a strong outing from Jones could very easily lead to some crooked numbers on the scoreboard—the Yellow Jackets have surrendered 49 points in two of their three losses.
"Throughout last week...I think we've responded and we're attacking this challenge," Jones said. "All these [ACC] teams are so evenly matched and it comes down to making plays on that day."
When these teams met 11 months ago, it was Duke's ground game that carried a big-time load. The Blue Devils rushed for 319 yards, capped by Jones' 32-yard touchdown scamper to settle the final 43-20 ledger. The same day, running back Brittain Brown carried the ball 14 times for 116 yards—a mark surpassed only in his games against N.C. Central the last two seasons.
Brown will feature again versus a Georgia Tech rushing defense that has allowed 143 yards per game and 10 scores, along with stablemate Deon Jackson. In theory, an effective run game should set up Jones for some of the explosive play-action calls that gave Duke's offense a major lift during the first two games.
Regardless of who does the work on offense, the Blue Devils will need plenty of points to come home with a win and stay in the hunt for a Coastal Division crown.
"You've got to produce explosive plays this day and time to get your points per game up. We didn't do that against Virginia Tech," Cutcliffe said. "Close calls are not what we're hunting. We've got to execute better."
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Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."