Mistakes cost Duke in loss at Northwestern

Mistakes at key times doomed Duke to its second loss of the season on Saturday, and the Northwestern Wildcats pulled out a 24-13 victory over the Blue Devils. The loss drops Duke to 1-2 on the season, and with a tough schedule ahead, the team faces a tough road to bowl eligibility.

For the second straight week, Duke struggled to move the ball on the ground, picking up only 117 rushing yards. Redshirt freshman quarterback Daniel Jones completed 27 of 48 passes for 279 yards, but threw an interception and lost a fumble deep in Northwestern territory to kill promising drives.

“We have shown flashes, which is not what you want in game three, of at times being a really good football team,” coach David Cutcliffe said. “There’s a lot of parts, and we have to find and fix those parts.”

The score was 7-7 at the half, but Jones’ inefficient performance, combined with the lack of a running game and a multiple score deficit, meant Duke’s only score of the second half came on a meaningless touchdown with less than two minutes remaining. Meanwhile, the Wildcats pulled away with 17 consecutive second-half points thanks to big plays from sophomore quarterback Clayton Thorson.

While the Blue Devils’ secondary, led by star senior DeVon Edwards and his 12 tackles, held the quarterback to an unimpressive 18 completions on 39 attempts to go along with two interceptions, Thorson hit on a 44-yard touchdown pass to junior receiver Solomon Vault to put Northwestern ahead 14-7 late in the third quarter and iced the game with a 58-yard touchdown to Austin Carr that put the hosts up 24-7 with less than five minutes left.

“It was a good pass and catch, and we just got to do a better job competing,” Edwards said. “We had some young guys that got mixed up a little bit, so that hurt us on that last touchdown.”

In a welcome turnaround after Wake Forest gashed Duke’s defense for 239 rushing yards last week, the Blue Devils held Northwestern to only 86 yards on the ground, despite the Wildcats gaining 77 rushing yards in first quarter.

Despite an early injury to Dominic McDonald, Duke’s pass rush was effective all game, applying pressure on Thorson from both sides of the line, earning five sacks and forcing several throwaways.

When the sophomore had time, however, he was able to pick apart the Duke secondary in the middle of the field, with all three touchdown passes coming on deep routes near the right hash marks. Carr was the leading Northwestern receiver, hauling in six catches for 133 yards along with the game-sealing touchdown.

“They did some max protection stuff. They did a good job of trying to keep people in there,” Cutcliffe said. “Guys down the middle of the field, we can’t have happen. It’s harder than ever to be physical at safety on middle-of-the-field throws.”

Jones took a step back after last week’s encouraging performance against Wake Forest where he threw for 332 yards and averaged 6.9 yards per attempt. Against a Wildcats secondary missing its top corner in Matthews Harris, Jones was only good for just over 5.8 yards per attempt. Meanwhile, despite only completing 18 passes, Thorson finished with 320 passing yards, a new career high.

The rushing statistics look no better, as the Blue Devils needed 34 attempts to gain their 117 yards, earning 3.4 yards per attempt.

“It’s about executing every play, every drive,” Jones said. “We made some plays here and there, but overall we didn’t make enough plays.”

Duke has now dropped back-to-back games against weak competition, as only a week ago this Northwestern team scored only seven points against FCS opponent Illinois State in a 9-7 loss.

With two early season losses, the Blue Devils can ill afford a similar slip up this season if they hope to reach the six wins they’ll need to make a bowl game. With games at No. 18 Notre Dame and No. 10 Louisville looming, Duke will need to make some serious adjustments.

“It’s not what we want,” Jones said. “Now it’s about getting in and improving and making sure we’re as prepared as possible for next week, learning from the things that didn’t go so well tonight.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 1:14 AM with the headline "Mistakes cost Duke in loss at Northwestern."