College Football News Preview 2020: Duke Blue Devils Keys To The Season
Biggest Key To The Duke Blue Devils Offense
The turnovers have to stop. The Blue Devils were 3-1 and playing well with a blowout win over Virginia Tech. Six turnovers against Pitt later, and things started to change.
At 4-2 – beating Georgia Tech with no giveaways after the Pitt debacle – everything appeared to be fine, and then the Duke offense decided it was time to start giving the ball away as much as humanly possible.
16 turnovers in five games, and five losses later, the season was over.
On the year, Duke turned it over once in the four wins over FBS teams, and 25 times in the seven losses – with two or more in five of them.
The giveaways were a big problem in the collapse, and …
Biggest Key To The Duke Blue Devils Defense
The run defense has to be a whole lot stronger. It wasn’t bad over the first part of the season – Alabama only ran for 145 yards and was held in check on the ground, and no one came up with more than 175 yards in the first seven games – and then the wheels came off.
While the offensive side was turning it over in bunches, the defense was being run over for 200 yards or more in four straight games – all losses – right after giving up five touchdown runs in the loss to Virginia.
North Carolina, Syracuse and Wake Forest weren’t exactly Wisconsin when it came to consistently running, and they combined for over 800 yards on the ground.
Key Duke Blue Devils Player To A Successful Season
PK Charlie Ham, RFr.
More dynamic receivers have to emerge, a few more defensive stars have to rise up, and a quarterback – likely Chase Brice – has to rock, but the biggest key might be finding a steady kicker.
AJ Reed had an all-star season – hitting 15-of-18 field goal tries – but he transferred to Arkansas. Only two Blue Devil games were decided by three points of fewer – losing both – but a steady kicker needs to show up for a team that’s likely going to be in for far more close battles.
Key Game To The Duke Blue Devils Season
at Pitt, Sept 26
Duke was able to pull off a wild 51-48 win over Pitt on the road early on November of 2014. Since then, it’s been five straight losses for the Blue Devils to make it nine defeats in ten games going back to 1969.
This year it’s the ACC opener for both teams. If all goes according to plan, Duke should be 3-0 against a relatively easy slate. Beating Pitt would be a big, big deal in the Coastal race, but a loss will make it a bit of an uphill climb to assume six wins with a sneaky-tough ACC slate ahead.
– Duke Blue Devils Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2019 Duke Fun Stats
– Duke 1st Quarter Scoring: 47 – Duke 2nd Quarter Scoring: 116
– Fumbles: Duke 23 (lost 14) – Opponents 15 (lost 8)
– 4th Down Conversions: Duke 20-of-33 (61%) – Opponents 11-of-21 (52%)