Duke football wins regular-season finale. Takeaways from Blue Devils’ win over Pittsburgh
A strong second half Saturday allowed Duke to complete a stellar home slate and head into bowl season with momentum.
Tied with Pittsburgh at halftime, Duke put together four second-half scoring drives to beat the Panthers, 30-19, at Wallace Wade Stadium.
The win gave the Blue Devils (7-5, 4-4 ACC) a 6-1 record on their home field, including wins in all four of their ACC home games. It’s the first time since 1989 the Blue Devils have gone unbeaten at home in league play and the first time the program has won six home games in a season.
“It’s a great product,” said Duke coach Mike Elko, who has led Duke to 11 wins in 13 home games over the last two seasons. “It’s a great environment. It’s a great atmosphere, and that’s where it’s got to start. If you want to be a great program, you’ve got to win football games at home.”
Pitt (3-9, 2-6 ACC) completed a disappointing season.
Freshman Grayson Loftis, Duke’s third starting quarterback of the season due to injuries to Riley Leonard and Henry Belin IV, threw for 248 yards while completing 20 of 37 passes. Junior wide receiver Jordan Moore caught eight of those passes to gain 106 yards, including a touchdown.
Loftis heats up in second half
As was the case in his three previous starts, Loftis had pedestrian statistics in the first half before finding his groove after halftime.
Part of that, Elko has said, is game plan as the Blue Devils choose to keep it simple for the first-year player until the game’s crucial portions.
Against Pittsburgh, Loftis had only 62 passing yards over the first two quarters as he completed 8 of 15 throws.
That was good enough for Duke to be tied 10-10 with Pitt at the break.
In the third quarter, while leading Duke on two scoring drives, Loftis matched exactly his first-half throwing numbers with eight completed passes on 15 attempts. But he threw for 165 yards.
That included a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jalon Calhoun that put Duke ahead for good at 20-13 with 3:44 left in the third quarter.
Loftis’ most impressive play came on the play prior to that touchdown pass, though.
With Duke facing third-and-7 from its 39, Loftis eluded a Pitt defender and shoveled a short pass to Jordan Waters, who rambled for a 46-yard gain to the Pitt 15.
“A little bit of improv,” Elko said. “It’s a little bit of moxie, a little big of coming into yourself....At that moment, he just found a way to flip it to him right and that’s what really good quarterbacks do.”
Only two of Loftis’ completed passes in the first half gained more than 10 yards. In the second half, his big-play completions gained 31, 46, 15, 32 and 16 yards.
Then, with 4:57 to go and Duke facing third-and-11 while leading 27-19, Loftis fired a 22-yard pass to Jordan Moore for a key first down.
Duke defense regains its bite
The first half of the season, Duke was among the nation’s stingiest in terms of allowing points. After six games, Duke had allowed just 9.8 points per game.
The back half of the season hadn’t been as good, with Florida State scoring 38, North Carolina 47 and Virginia 30 while beating the Blue Devils.
Pitt produced points on consecutive first-half drives, including a 93-yard touchdown drive, to take a 10-3 lead on Saturday. But Duke’s defense tightened up from there, allowing just a field goal over Pitt’s next five possessions. Pitt gained 105 total yards on those five drives.
Third down improvement is a big reason why. After allowing Pitt to convert five of their first seven third downs situations into first downs, Duke stopped the Panthers on the next five.
During that time, Duke’s offense got moving and built a 27-13 fourth-quarter lead.
“We just started actually running the defense the way we’re supposed to,” Elko said. “That’s probably been the thing that’s gotten the most frustrating a little bit over the last couple of weeks. I just think we haven’t been able to be focused enough to execute at the level that you need to be a good defense at times. Early on (against Pitt), that wasn’t happening.”
The Panthers finally scored against with 5:17 to play on Nate Yarnell’s 14-yard touchdown pass with 5:17 to play
The Blue Devils played well up front, recording 10 tackles for losses. That included four sacks.
RJ Oben, a senior defensive end, collected 2.5 tackles for losses (1.5 sacks)
Pitt finished with 47 rushing yards on 32 attempts, a measly 1.3 yards per carry.
“It feels great that we were able to execute, that we’re able to bring that and be the most physical team,” Oben said. “We try to do that every week, especially the d line. Bring that physicality, bring that toughness to the field and to the defense and I think we did that today.”
Special teams help Duke
In addition to Todd Pelino kicking three field goals, Duke’s special teams tipped the field in the Blue Devils favor by forcing Pitt to regularly start in bad field position.
The Panthers’ average starting position for their 10 drives was their own 19.
Duke punter Porter Wilson averaged 49.7 yards on his three punts, dropping two inside the Pitt 20. Duke’s kickoff coverage team limited to Panthers to 10 yards per return on four attempts.
This story was originally published November 25, 2023 at 12:27 PM.