Duke football fans likely wanted a more comfortable fourth quarter and margin of victory, but head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and his team took care of business for a third consecutive week in a 26-21 victory over the Connecticut Huskies on Saturday.
The Blue Devils offense took advantage of a vulnerable Connecticut secondary from the opening play. The Huskies entered Week 3 allowing 8.6 yards per attempt through the air, and Duke quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] found star wideout Jordan Moore for a 45-yard gain on his first attempt to show that the Blue Devils had every intention of attacking downfield.
Duke marched 92 yards in nine plays on that opening possession, and Murphy found Moore again in the end zone for the first touchdown of the game.
The former Texas Longhorn found Eli Pancol for another score midway through the second quarter, a 36-yard teardrop that put the Blue Devils ahead 17-0. After Murphy completed 17 of his final 23 passes against Northwestern to end Week 2, he completed 14 of his 20 first-half attempts against the Huskies for 152 yards and two touchdowns.
Connecticut did eventually get on the board with a fluky pick-six against Murphy, a deflection that landed perfectly in the hands of defensive lineman Langston Hardy, but it seemed like an unfortunate break in the midst of a blowout at the time.
However, the Duke offense stalled to start the second half. Murphy whiffed on a deep ball to Moore, and the Blue Devils punted on the first two drives after the break.
Connecticut quarterback Nick Evers capitalized on the opportunity, leading two touchdown drives to pull his team ahead 21-17. Evers, who started his career with the Oklahoma Sooners and Wisconsin Badgers completed his first five second-half passes for 76 yards and ran for 29 more between the two scoring possessions.
In 10 minutes and 29 seconds of game time, Duke’s 17-point lead completely evaporated.
The defense did its job again the rest of the way, however. UConn’s offense only gained 20 yards on the three drives after they took the lead, only converting a single first down.
The biggest play came after Duke kicked a field goal to move within a point. The pass rush forced a weak deep ball from Evers on third down, and safety Terry Moore perfectly undercut the pass for his second interception of the season.
On the ensuing drive after Moore’s turnover, Murphy summoned his best throw of the season when he perfectly placed a back-shoulder ball to Que’Sean Brown for the go-ahead touchdown.
The 20-yard dart gave Murphy his third touchdown pass of the night, and the Blue Devils passer ended the night with 267 passing yards, but Brown was the real story of the night. The redshirt freshman caught a team-leading 11 passes for 87 yards, most critically on a third-down conversion in the final minutes to help ice the game.
The Huskies didn’t score in the final quarter, missing a 48-yard field goal attempt to pull within two in the final six minutes and never getting the ball back.
The Blue Devils move to 3-0 under Diaz, the second time in school history that a Duke coach won his first three games with the program. Murphy and the team will travel to Middle Tennessee for its final game before conference play next Saturday.