The first game of the [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] era got the Blue Devils off on the right foot on Friday, defeating Elon 26-3 for an opening win.
Diaz previously served as the Penn State defensive coordinator, and his team showed their prowess on that side of the ball early and often. The Duke defensive line ended opening night with eight sacks, including three in the Phoenix’s first two drives, and 16 tackles for loss.
The Blue Devils even blocked a punt on special teams, albeit after a botched snap from their opponents. Elon’s offense gained 29 total yards of offense on its first 19 plays, and the Blue Devils only gave up 140 yards for the night.
While Duke’s defense pitched a near-perfect game, the offense looked a little more mercurial.
In his first game with the program, quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] came out firing with five completions in his first six passes, marching the Blue Devils into the red zone with ease. All of the offseason conversations about how offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer wanted to play up-tempo, aggressive football seemed prescient.
However, Duke had to settle for a field goal, and the offense stalled a little from there. Murphy and his teammates kept trying to connect downfield and kept coming up empty, and he completed just four of his next nine passes.
Elon had a field-goal attempt to tie the game in the closing minutes of the first half, but the 49-yard effort came up short and bounced off the crossbar. Two plays later, Murphy found veteran receiver Eli Pancol over the middle of the field for a 55-yard catch-and-run into the red zone. Running back Jaquez Moore got the ball on the ensuing snap, cutting outside the tackle box and into the end zone for the team’s first touchdown.
Despite that opening score, Duke struggled to run the ball for most of the night. Moore and New Mexico State transfer Star Thomas combined for 25 yards on 13 carries over the first two quarters, and the Blue Devils finished with 59 yards on 27 attempts.
That score did somewhat remove the lid from the Blue Devils offense, however, and Murphy and Brewer didn’t look back from there. After a field goal on the first drive of the second half stretched the lead to 13, Murphy and his wideouts finally synced up downfield when he found [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] for a 48-yard gain down to the 1-yard line.
Maalik Murphy🎯🎯pic.twitter.com/EShg08OauD
— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 31, 2024
The long connection emphasized a dominant night for Moore, who could become Duke’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Jamison Crowder in 2014. That third-quarter highlight put him over 100 yards for the night, and he finished with 112 yards on seven receptions.
Murphy got his first touchdown pass in a Duke uniform on the next play, a bootleg pass to tight end Jeremiah Hasley that made it a 19-0 game.
The redshirt sophomore threw another touchdown in the final five minutes, a short dart to Pancol. He finished his first Blue Devils game with a career-high 291 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception after completing 26 of his 40 passes.
Duke now has a week to prepare before its second game of the season, a Friday road trip to Northwestern.