Even the fury of the skies couldn’t slow down Duke’s defense on Saturday afternoon as the Blue Devils (4-0) persevered past a lengthy weather delay to take down Middle Tennessee (1-3) 45-17 on the road.
The Duke defense punished the Blue Raiders over and over in the first two quarters. Excluding a 66-yard rushing touchdown from MTSU’s Jaiden Credle (partially assisted by an accidental block by a referee) on the first drive, the Blue Devils held their opponents to 101 yards before halftime.
MTSU quarterback Nicholas Vattiato threw for 456 yards and three touchdowns against Western Kentucky last week, but he finished the first 30 minutes on Saturday with nine completions for 58 yards. If you include Duke’s four first-half sacks, the Blue Raiders averaged 1.6 yards per dropback in the first two quarters.
Despite those struggles through the air, Middle Tennessee’s first-quarter fumbles did more damage than anything else. The Blue Raiders coughed up the ball three times before the break, each time within 25 yards of their own end zone. Linebacker Alex Howard nearly scooped one of them up for a defensive touchdown but ended up falling on the ball at the 1-yard line. Duke’s offense finished off all three drives with a touchdown.
Defensive end Wesley Williams forced that fumble near the end zone, part of a statement performance from the junior. In addition to the turnover, he racked up two sacks for the game, giving him 2.5 on the season. As a whole, Duke finished with six sacks and 12 tackles for loss.
The story coming into the game actually revolved around Middle Tennessee’s defense, or more accurately, how poor it had been through three games. The Blue Raiders averaged more than 380 yards allowed through the air before Saturday, the worst mark in the FBS, and Duke quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] immediately went to work capitalizing on that vulnerable secondary. He threw a 71-yard touchdown to Nicky Dalmolin on the second offensive play of the game, his first of three scores.
Dalmolin, who’d previously never finished with more than 40 yards in a single game, surpassed 100 yards and caught a second touchdown before the end of the first half against MTSU. The two early scores helped build a 35-10 lead at the midway point, and the game felt over before Middle Tennessee even made it back to the locker room.
A lengthy weather delay kept the Blue Devils off the field for more than 100 minutes near the end of the third quarter, but even that couldn’t change MTSU’s destiny. After a sleepy final few minutes, the Blue Devils walked away with a 28-point victory.
Murphy finished the game with 14 completions on 21 attempts, throwing for 216 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. Star Thomas put together his second straight 100-yard game on the ground, this time with 111 yards on 17 attempts along with his first two scores of the year.
The Blue Devils now return to Durham, where they’ll host the North Carolina Tar Heels next week. With UNC allowing 70 points in an upset to James Madison on Saturday, a 5-0 start and a rivalry win seem to be within Duke’s grasp.