Damaged pride? Duke says that’s not the case heading into UNC game
In the wake of a poor performance, when it’s easy for a locker room to become inhabited with players pointing fingers at each other, one important Duke football voice insisted that wouldn’t happen.
“I don’t think it damaged anybody’s pride on our team,” Duke quarterback Quentin Harris said last Saturday, following Virginia’s 48-14 shellacking of his Blue Devils. “I think we’re a very together unit, which is a great thing to have as a team. I know we’ll take this and learn in stride and go have a great week and go and get ready for next week against UNC.”
It sounded good in theory, but could Duke easily brush aside such a non-competitive game against an ACC opponent and find its way again quickly enough to play well at rival North Carolina just a week later?
The answer won’t be fully known until the Blue Devils and Tar Heels take the field at Kenan Stadium for their game at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Duke (4-3, 2-2) could have owned a share of the ACC Coastal Division lead for this game had it played well and won at Virginia. Instead, the Cavaliers (5-2, 3-1 ACC) hold the division lead over Pittsburgh (5-2, 2-1), with Duke, UNC (3-4, 2-2) and Virginia Tech (5-2, 2-2) clustered just behind them.
The Blue Devils know they have to block better against UNC than they did in the Virginia loss. One player, it seemed, missed a block here and there throughout the game that short-circuited the offense. Duke coach David Cutcliffe said the team’s interior blocking was acceptable but the perimeter blocking — outside the tackle box and downfield — was a big problem.
“We got absolutely nothing out of it, and we blocked very poorly in that regard,” Cutcliffe said. “We have to be consistent from sideline to sideline.”
Duke had scored 30 or more points in five consecutive games entering last Saturday’s game but failed to run a play in Virginia territory in the first half.
“These types of games happen in football,” Harris said after the game. “For whatever reason, we didn’t play our best today, and they capitalized on that and played a really complete game. You’ve got to lick your wounds and get back to work.”
Sticking with that Harris mantra, the Blue Devils did their best to put that loss behind them and work to improve in preparing for UNC.
“I wouldn’t say forget about it, but let’s learn from our mistakes and get better,” Duke redshirt freshman left tackle Casey Holman said. “We have a big rivalry this week, and we want to get after those guys.”
There’s a fine line between dwelling too long on a loss, allowing it to impact your practice work negatively, and taking needed lessons that allow for improvement. Duke is trying to navigate that and beat the Tar Heels to stay in contention for the Coastal Division.
“I thought they did a good job of moving forward,” Cutcliffe said, “and certainly knowing that you’re getting ready to play a rival and another conference game, you don’t have the luxury to let it linger.”
The biggest problem in Duke’s losses has been ball security. Duke turned the ball over five times in losing at Virginia. It had six turnovers in a 33-30 home loss to Pittsburgh on Oct. 5.
Those mistakes not only prevent the Blue Devils’ offense from scoring, but also they put Duke’s talented defense in short-field situations where success is nearly impossible to obtain.
“We didn’t execute things the way that we needed to in order to be successful,” Harris said during a news conference on Tuesday. “I think that starts with me. In terms of turnovers, some of them were definitely on me. So want to clean that up. It’s really about refocusing, attention to detail and just really locking in on the game plan and making sure that we are mentally focused and ready for each play to avoid some of those mental errors, confusion and the turnovers.”
Unlike Pitt and Virginia, which have now defeated Duke each of the past five seasons, UNC hasn’t defeated Duke since 2015. The Blue Devils have won three in a row and five of the past seven in the series.
So Duke will walk on to the field with confidence, knowing it has regularly had success against the Tar Heels. Duke has posted wins at Kenan Stadium in 2013 and 2017.
The Virginia loss wasn’t fun, but Duke can reverse the mood with better play at UNC.
“Our mind-set is we have to be forward thinking, optimistic, just focused on improving,” Duke defensive back Michael Carter said during a news conference on Tuesday. “Sunday when we came out to practice that’s what we did, we really focused on improving, fixing those mistakes and changing our mind-set to UNC and really focusing on them.”
Duke at UNC
When: 4 p.m., Saturday
Where: Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill
Watch: Fox Sports Carolinas
Listen: WTKK-106.1 Raleigh; WCHL-97.9, WCHL-1360 Chapel Hill; WBT-99.3, WBT-1110 Charlotte
This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 3:18 PM.