Near the end of the first quarter of Duke football’s 23-16 win against Florida State, it looked like the Blue Devils’ offensive struggles would define Friday night’s affair and the team would fall to 0-23 against their ACC rivals. Duke’s offense seemed completely unable to move the ball down the field, as both the passing and running games proved wholly ineffective against the stout Seminole defense.
But then, up 3-0, Florida State quarterback Brock Glenn dropped back to pass and zeroed in on freshman receiver Jalen Brown on a corner route. Blue Devil corner Chandler Rivers read the play perfectly, breaking towards the football with perfect timing, snagging the pigskin out of the air and returning the pick for a 36-yard touchdown.
Rivers’ pick-six kickstarted a historically unprecedented stretch for head coach Manny Diaz’s defense. On the next two defensive plays, graduate linebacker Ozzie Nicholas stripped and then intercepted Glenn to give the Blue Devils the ball twice more deep in Seminole territory. After finally mustering some offensive production by scoring a touchdown and field goal off the turnovers, Duke suddenly led 17-3.
“The game was won by our defense creating turnovers in the first half,” Diaz said. “The three turnovers on the three straight possessions allowed us to take control of the game. So even though we didn’t capitalize on the turnovers with all the points we wish we would have, we were still able to get a double-digit lead, and then once we had the lead, we never relinquished it.”
The Blue Devil’s back-to-back-to-back turnovers exemplify everything that head coach Manny Diaz’s defense is about. Throughout his coaching career, Diaz has always aimed to create aggressive, mistake-inducing defenses which make opposing quarterbacks miserable. While Duke’s defense has undoubtedly been the strength of the team thus far this season, Friday’s performance was its best of the year, illuminating the potential dominance of the unit in the future of Diaz’s tenure in Durham.
Conversely, the Blue Devils’ offense did not live up to the defense’s performance; Jonathan Brewer’s unit amassed a measly 180 yards of offense, nearly a fourth of which came on one 44-yard Star Thomas run alone, and the offense’s only touchdown occurred after Glenn’s aforementioned fumble gave the Blue Devils a short field.
Quarterback Maalik Murphy had his worst game in Duke blue. The Inglewood, Calif., native completed just 50% of his passes, amounting to 70 total passing yards on 24 attempts, his lowest yardage total of the season by more than 130 yards. Facing a strong Florida State defense full of former four and five star recruits, Murphy was routinely unable to connect with his receivers, many of which struggled to get separation against the Seminole secondary.
Murphy deserves credit for not turning the ball over. In a defensive slugfest like Friday’s affair, carelessness with the football often amounts to giving away the game; Glenn could learn from Murphy in that respect. His three first-half turnovers turned the tide of the affair and even resulted in a temporary benching between the second and third quarters. However, while the redshirt freshman’s inexperience certainly played a role in those mistakes, the Blue Devil defense deserves the lion’s share of the credit.
“I thought our front, the way we were relentless getting after the quarterback, was just the telling difference in the game,” Diaz said. “It just looked like [Glenn] never had a chance to set up, and never had a chance to make a throw. There was always [somebody] he was running around.”
Time and time again Friday night, Duke’s defense was called upon to make stops and force mistakes, stepping up to the challenge every single time. After the Seminoles returned the opening second-half kickoff for their only touchdown on the night, seizing momentum and reducing the Blue Devils’ lead to four, Diaz’s unit held its nerve, and Florida State never reached the end zone again.
When Glenn and his receivers finally seemed to be connecting, embarking on a sustained drive midway through the fourth quarter, senior defensive tackle Christian Rorie forced a fumble on Seminole running back Kam Davis, which Duke promptly recovered. Then, after the Blue Devil offense failed to seal the game, giving the Seminoles the ball back with less than three minutes remaining and a chance to tie, Diaz’s crew once again made big time plays, forcing Florida State into a hopeless fourth-and-24 in which it failed to gain a single yard.
Even on the plays that didn’t result in a turnover or one of Duke’s 11 tackles for loss, the Blue Devil front rampaged Florida State’s offensive, terrorizing Glenn all night long. Duke frequently forced Glenn out of rhythm and into a flurry of errant passes, bursting into the backfield on nearly every other play. Whether it was graduate student Kendy Charles, redshirt sophomore Wesley Williams or junior Vincent Anthony Jr., every member of the Blue Devils’ defensive line played their part in securing a Duke victory.
After the game, Diaz explained that the locker room wasn’t necessarily ecstatic, even after becoming bowl eligible following the program’s first ever win against the Seminoles.
“I really think [our players] expected to win,” Diaz said. “There [weren’t] lots of surprised faces when we looked at the locker room. The idea of having never beaten Florida State, what that shows is that people try to pin stuff on you… even though you weren’t here when any of that stuff happened. And that just shows there are so many ways we can tell ourselves stories that limit what we think we can accomplish. Our guys, they don’t believe any of that stuff.”
A few years ago, the thought of a routine Duke football win against Florida State would have been unthinkable. While skeptics may point to the Seminoles' abysmal start to the season for the lack of surprise after a historic win, the Blue Devils’ reaction to the victory exemplifies how much the program has grown and how much Duke players, fans and coaches believe can be accomplished.
If Diaz’s defense can become one of the ACC’s best in just his first year in charge, if the Blue Devils can defeat an ACC opponent with less than 200 yards of total offense, why should fans limit their imaginations about what the team can accomplish? Duke football is no longer an afterthought or a footnote in the university’s athletic department. And with such an aggressive, havoc-inducing defense, other teams may take notice.
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Rodrigo Amare is a Trinity sophomore and assistant Blue Zone editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.