Duke football gets a weekend off in Week 7, and according to head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag], the Blue Devils could really use the time away.
Diaz and his team took a 14-10 lead against Georgia Tech after three quarters on Saturday, but after not allowing a touchdown in the fourth quarter in September, the Yellow Jackets scored two over the final 15 minutes to win by 10 points.
After the game, the first-year Blue Devils coach talked about how some of his players weren’t fully healthy and how some injuries impacted his team’s depth.
“We had a lot of guys not 100% playing today, and what they had, they gave,” Diaz said.
Linebacker Tre Freeman, who led the Blue Devils with 11 total tackles, served as a notable example. If Duke football fans want an explanation for why the defense finally looked mortal in the fourth quarter, Diaz said the team literally did not have the depth to bring Freeman off the field.
“There were some guys we didn’t have a substitute for,” Diaz said. “When you look at defensive players and they start playing over 60 snaps, let alone getting into the seventies, there’s going to be a diminishing return.”
To complicate those issues even further, Georgia Tech held the ball for more than 39 minutes, dominating the time of possession thanks to long drives and consistent offensive production. After a grueling game, many members of the Duke locker room are surely embracing the idea of a recovery week.
“It’s a bye week coming at a good time for us,” Diaz concluded. “We’ll need it, we’ll need to regroup, to rest, to get our bodies back, it’s important to get our minds back for the second half of the season.”