Heartbroken and angry: Duke football roiling after letting Notre Dame off the hook
Mike Elko and his staff have pushed Duke football far beyond simply being happy about being competitive in a big arena.
The failures that led to Saturday night’s 21-14 loss to No. 11 Notre Dame, in which the Irish erased a Blue Devils lead with 31 seconds to play to survive their upset bid, will stick in their psyche until it’s time to prepare for another game.
“Heartbreaking,” Elko, Duke’s second-year coach, said.
No. 17 Duke (4-1) did not play well against the talented and motivated Irish. The Blue Devils played ineffective offense early, and had special teams breakdowns throughout.
Still, their defense had one last chance to make that a winning effort.
With less than a minute to play, Notre Dame faced fourth and 16 from the Duke 47. It was exactly where the Blue Devils wanted the Irish — trailing 14-13, out of field goal range and facing fourth and forever.
But it wasn’t quite forever. Facing a three-man rush, quarterback Sam Hartman dropped back to pass and saw no one open against the remaining eight Duke defenders. But those receivers ran so far down field that no defenders were close enough to keep Hartman from scrambling 17 yards for a first down.
“When you drop eight like that, you build a five underneath wall at the sticks,” Elko said. “I have a hard time believing a kid can scramble for 16 yards. I’ve just got to go back and look and see what went wrong.”
After Hartman spiked the ball to stop the clock, Audric Estime ran up the middle for the game-winning 30-yard touchdown on the next play.
Just like that, a second upset win over a ranked team this month, something that was so close minutes earlier, was gone.
The Duke students that packed their seating section had been poised to storm the field, just as they did when the Blue Devils knocked off then-No. 9 Clemson, 28-7, on Sept. 4.
Instead, those anxious fans watched as Duke quarterback Riley Leonard suffered a right leg injury when he was sacked on what turned out to be the Blue Devils’ final desperate play. Leonard left the field using crutches, not bearing weight on his right leg.
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Elko said it was too soon to assess the severity of Leonard’s injury. Duke’s chances of continuing to play like one of the ACC’s top teams without Leonard, its heart-and-soul, dual-threat quarterback, would be low.
That will be a subject for another day.
The Blue Devils were still coming to grips with letting Notre Dame off the hook by allowing the Irish to gain 17 and 30 yards on those two late plays to reverse the outcome.
“We rushed three down and dropped eight,” Duke all-ACC defensive tackle DeWayne Carter said of Hartman’s scramble. “At the end of the day, it’s our job up front to contain the quarterback and we failed to do so.”
That Duke played Notre Dame to the end is really no surprise. Its five losses since Elko took over prior to last season have come by a combined 23 points. The Blue Devils’ largest margin of defeat while going 9-4 last season was eight points.
So even when Duke missed two field goals and its punt return unit allowed Notre Dame to gain 34 yards on a fake punt that set up their only touchdown of the first half, the Blue Devils hung tough.
Down 13-0, Leonard and the offense started moving the ball on the ground despite playing without injured all-ACC tackle Graham Barton.
When Leonard fired a 3-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Moore with 9:17 to play, the Blue Devils were up 14-13.
Notre Dame started what turned out to be its game-winning drive at the Irish 5, only to be pushed back to its 3 by a penalty. Duke’s defense had played so well in limiting Notre Dame to just one touchdown at that point, a win appeared close.
Instead, it was heartbreak. Duke has progressed so far since losing 13 consecutive ACC games during 2020 and 2021 that even a performance like this left the team angry.
“We’re not looking for positive reinforcement,” Elko said. “We’re looking to win football games. That’s what we’re here for. This team believes in who they are. They believe in what they’re capable of. There wasn’t one kid in that locker room that thought we were gonna go on this stage not be able to compete with Notre Dame.”
The Blue Devils have designs on winning an ACC championship. That’s still possible even after Saturday’s gut-punch of a loss.
“It hurts for these kids,” Elko said. “They put a lot into this. Hopefully, they’ll take from this what they’re capable of and the confidence to go on the rest of the way and continue to battle this thing. We’ve got a really good football team.”
After an open week, the Blue Devils return to play on Oct. 14 against struggling N.C. State. Games at Florida State and Louisville, which are both currently undefeated, follow. Another road game, at undefeated North Carolina, looms on Nov. 11.
Duke has plenty to clean up from its performance against Notre Dame if it wants to win those games. But the Blue Devils are determined to do so.
This story was originally published October 1, 2023 at 6:30 AM.