Film room: Duke football will need to set the edge against Syracuse

Duke will travel to Upstate New York to face off against Syracuse this Saturday. With the Blue Devils looking to avenge last season's devastating 49-6 loss to the Orange, the Blue Zone has you covered with some film study:

Following their fourth defeat in as many weeks, the Blue Devils will travel to the Carrier Dome for a battle with Syracuse this Saturday. The Orange (1-2, 1-2 ACC) are looking to build off an impressive first win against Georgia Tech in which their defense forced four interceptions, while Duke hopes to turn a matchup with its weakest opponent yet into the team’s first victory. But if Duke hopes to finally enter the win column this weekend, they have plenty of cleaning up to do, particularly when it comes to their rushing defense.

This past Saturday, Virginia Tech running back Khalil Herbert became the latest beneficiary of a Duke defense that is yielding a league-worst 193.5 YPG on the ground. The graduate transfer from Kansas had a career day, tallying 208 yards on 20 carries and finding paydirt twice on a pair of long fourth-quarter runs. Opposing quarterback Braxton Burmeister never reached double-digit completions, but he never had to: the Hokies still scored 38 points behind a fearsome 324 yards rushing as a team. After yet another defensive collapse, it is officially time to wonder, what is going on with Duke’s struggles against the run?

One aspect in which Herbert excelled this weekend was his ability to bounce to the outside for long runs. The Blue Devils have struggled to keep opposing running backs between the tackles all season, and the reasons for their struggles are quite evident on tape. One of the most important concepts for any defense is what coaches call “setting the edge,” and it is one that the Duke defensive line has struggled mightily to employ thus far. Let’s take a look at this tactic in action with Nick Bosa, one of the best in the business.

Setting the edge, put simply, means that the defensive line provides no avenue for the running back to cut outside and into space. It is the job of the interior tackles to plug the inside gaps – known as the A and B gaps – while the “force players,” or edge rushers, have the all-important task of containing and forcing the running back to attack the heart of the defense. Watch how Bosa gains leverage here, not allowing the offensive lineman to seal him inside. When the running back sees no gap up front, he cuts outside and straight into the waiting arms of Bosa for a loss.

On film, Duke does a perfectly fine job closing holes up front, but it has most definitely struggled to gain leverage on the edge. This past weekend, the Hokies repeatedly ran into pressure at the line before bouncing outside for positive yardage. On this long touchdown run by Khalil Herbert, watch how the defensive line quickly closes any hole on the inside: Herbert has no choice but to change course, cutting to his left, where he finds a remarkable amount of open field to work with. This is all made possible by the left tackle, who effectively seals off defensive end Chris Rumph and creates a huge hole on the outside. Once Herbert breaks into the secondary, the rest of this scoring play is textbook. 

When Duke takes the field in the Carrier Dome this Saturday, the success of the team will hinge upon that of the defense. But even with an injury-riddled secondary, the story will be all about whether the Blue Devils can successfully stop the run and force junior quarterback Tommy DeVito to do most of the work himself. Should head coach David Cutcliffe and his men arrive ready to do so, they could certainly return home with their first win of the season.

 

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