Duke football defeated Northwestern 26-20 in double overtime to move onto 2-0 in the season. In the first edition of The Chronicle’s film session, we will take an in-depth look at two of the biggest plays on both sides of the ball.
Below is an abridged written version of the video analysis.
The first play we are analyzing is quarterback Maalik Murphy’s 25-yard touchdown bomb to wide receiver Jordan Moore at the start of overtime. However, to understand why this play worked, we have to return to the game's first quarter, where Murphy threw a 10-yard slant touchdown to receiver Eli Pancol.
On the game's first touchdown, Northwestern lined up in a 4-2 front with five defensive backs in coverage. It ran man-to-man coverage while bringing down a safety to pick up the running back. The Blue Devils ran double slants on the left side, off a play-action which brought forth the linebackers and weak-side safety. With the safety and linebackers coming downhill, Pancol was left with a one-on-one matchup with the cornerback in man coverage. No. 4 got a clean inside release to threaten the defensive back’s leverage, and broke inside to run clear since there was no back help from the safety or linebackers. Although this play opened up the scoring for the Blue Devils, it was even more important later in the game.
When Duke first got the ball in overtime, Northwestern was still in a 4-2-5 and once again ran man coverage, but with one small change. This time, Northwestern expected to see the slant concept it was beaten with earlier in the game, and kept both safeties over the middle of the field to protect against it. In this robber look, the safeties are looking to protect the hashes 10 yards off the ball, right where an impending slant would wind up.
Now, given that they had earlier success on this concept, the Blue Devils predicted that Northwestern would adjust to bring the safeties down; Jordan Moore ran a slant-and-go instead of just a normal slant. As Moore breaks in front of the nickelback and safety, both defensive backs respond by stepping up, expecting to jump a slant. However, as the defensive backs step up to attack the route, Moore plants his foot in the ground and cuts upfield, getting past the safety and last line of defense en-route to a touchdown. Murphy lays the ball in front of Moore, who secured the catch for a clean touchdown.
The second play we will take a look at is on defense, when safety Terry Moore picked off Northwestern quarterback Mike White in the first quarter.
The Blue Devils are playing Cover 2, and the key route that gets picked off is the outside fade. Outside verticals can usually find success against Cover 2, but it requires very precise timing and placement on the throw because of the safety that is lurking on the deep half of the field. For this reason, the throw needs to be within 12-15 yards off the line of scrimmage, so the safety cannot come over the top and intercept the ball.
However, White reads his receiver’s release late, and tries to squeeze the ball in between Moore and cornerback Chandler Rivers much too late, throwing his costly interception 20 yards off the ball. For Rivers, once he sees that the inside receiver to his side breaks out at about five yards, he knows that the only threatening receiver is
Frank Covey IV, the outside receiver running a fade. After Moore makes his first read, he is able to fly to the receiver as White releases the ball and jumps right in front of Covey to get the interception and set the Blue Devils up for their first points of the game.
Duke will take on UConn today at 6 p.m., and will look for the experience of the Moore's on both sides of the ball to stay undefeated.
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