Durham, NC – The Duke Blue Devils recorded eight sacks, and its first team defense held the FCS Elon Phoenix to merely 86 total yards and no points. Duke’s second team defense allowed 54 yards and a field goal in the final two minutes of play. Until then, the Blue Devil defense dominated under New HC Manny Diaz to win, 26-3. The new HC served as former Defensive Coordinator at Penn State the last two seasons.
Offensively, the Blue Devils struggled behind their vaunted, Texas transfer Maalik Murphy at quarterback. He missed many open targets and threw one interception despite completing 26 of 40 for 291 yards and two TDs. Many passes sailed over or past open targets. To Elon’s credit, their defense hit hard and kept the Blue Devil offense in check for most to the game.
Blue Devils score first, but start slowly
Murphy’s first drive as a starting college QB began from the 25. It resulted in a 32-yard FG by Tom Pelino, his first of two this evening. Pressure against Elon came early and often from Duke’s defensive front. Multiple sacks of Phoenix QB Matthew Downing came from their entire front seven, but DE Vincent Anthony downed him for key losses twice. They held Downing to 11 completions for only 72 yards. The entire unit reordered 16 tackles for losses while holding the Phoenix to 30 rushing yards. Guest Game Analyst Joe Massimilla and I noted the Phoenix averaged 1.7 yards per play before the second teams scrimmaged at the end.
Elon punter Jeff Yurk punted magnificently to keep the Blue Devils out of better-than-expected position. On seven kicks, he averaged 51.9 yards. Three fell inside the 20, and he boomed one for 60 yards. Midway through the second period, Joe stated, “This doesn’t seem like a 3-0 game. Duke should be winning by much more.” Despite their backs to the wall and no offense generated to overcome the Duke D, they allowed yards but no Blue Devils’ TDs. Combined with Murphy’s errant passes, they held Duke to 59 rushing yards.
Devils’ details
In the second quarter, it even looked like the Blue Devils caught a break on a bad snap to Yurk. They took over at the Elon 45. However, stingy Elon held. They took the ball back over on downs at their own 28. The Phoenix offense failed to deliver, however, as PK Jack Berkowitz’s 49-yard FG attempt bounced back off the crossbar. With 1:44 left in the first half, the Elon scoring failure seemed to spark a flame under the Blue Devil offense. Murphy finally connected on a long pass play for 55 yards to Eli Pancol to the EU seven. From there, Jacquez Moore swept around the left end for a score to put Duke up, 10-0 at the half.
To begin the second half, the home team started the second half same as the first. Pelino converted from 42 for three more and a 13-0 lead. After exchanging three punts, and Elon losing four yards on consecutive drives, the Blue Devils took over at their 49. A 47-yard pass from Murphy to Jordan Moore put the Devils on the Elon one. There, he connected with TE Jeremiah Hasley for the score. A two-point conversion pass failed.
Fight to the finish
Behind 19-0, Elon lost four yards once again before punting. Defensively, they still held Duke in check. They forced a turnover on downs and DB Caleb Curtain picked a Murphy pass at the Duke 45. Of course, the Blue Devil defense allowed the Phoenix to go nowhere and forced a turnover on downs as well. They took over from their 37. They drove to the EU seven where Murphy connected with Eli Pancol for the score to make it, 26-0. Thereafter, clean uniforms came in to play and with fourteen seconds left, Elon avoided the shutout, 26-3.
Nobody asked, but…
I’m not a coach but a great fan, and student, of college football. Joe and I had ongoing conversations about what we saw. Granted, Elon football at the FCS level does not have the funds to compete with Group of Four teams regularly. Talent recruited is not equal. However, as a coaching staff, you need to give your players tools to challenge as best they can. The Phoenix defense stepped up to the challenge in our view. Offensively, the play calling was unimaginative. Basic running plays and short passes – sometimes successful if thrown quickly. QB Downing was constantly under pressure. Sometimes staying on the ground seemed more effective, but eventually fizzled. They never used the runs to set up passes.
Maybe I oversimplify things. It just seemed no strategy came to light to use “play-action.” I would think that some of these plays would already be in a team’s portfolio. Fake the hand-off, make the line hesitate, relieve the pressure and find open receivers. Nothing like that ever happened. There seemed to be a solution, but there was not strategy for this situation at all. I couldn’t understand that.
Extra points
Duke travels to play Northwestern (1-0) at their temporary home stadium somewhere near Evanston, Illinois next Saturday. Last season, Duke whipped them, 38-14. Elon (0-1) returns to Durham on the road to face the North Carolina Central Eagles at nearby O’Kelly Riddick Stadium. Yesterday’s attendance, our first game ever at Wallace Wade Stadium on the Duke campus, totaled 18,466. We will return there again to see Duke play Florida State on October 18. However, we see the Blue Devils play again before that on September 21. They make an unusual Power Four visit to Murfreesboro against Middle Tennessee State where we have a season ticket package. Speaking of which, that is where we head next. MTSU opens there Saturday against Tennessee Tech.
Luck with Blue Devils
First, our trek to Durham met with clouds, rain and thunder. When I met GGA Joe Massimilla at his home, he spouted, “Where’d this coming from?” It hadn’t had rain in the area in weeks. The showers arrived unexpectedly. Nothing reported on our cell phones prior. On our way over to Wallace Wade together, the rain subsided. On the beautiful Duke campus, we found to our astonishment, actual “free” general parking. We took the shuttle bus from there closer to the stadium. We had yet to come upon the greatest “luck” of all.
We had to ask directions to find the main ticket office. Joe hadn’t been to a game there in 20 years when his kids were in grade school. Much had been changed and upgraded. Joe was even shocked to find that paper tickets were no longer available. I was shocked at that. One reason I decided not to buy in advance for this one was to avoid those overpriced fees. I was even ready to pay cash, but I never found out if that was an option.
Thanks Josh!
As we joined a very short line for tickets, Joe and I were approached by a Blue Devils fan who asked if we needed tickets. In this day of advanced technology wiping out paper tickets, I never experienced being approach by someone with tickets available. It turned out that Josh Toman had several tickets he couldn’t use because some friends and family members weren’t available because they attended a high school game. He asked for no money and was happy if someone would use them. I’ve had that happen a few times. I’ve felt the same way – somebody can use these. I hate to see extras go to waste. I provided him my email, and Joe and I had two tickets thanks to Josh for this game.
Of course, he made sure we were rooting for his Blue Devils. Of course, I turned my Wake Forest hat on backwards and smiled, “Sure.” I didn’t explain that I wore that this evening in case it rained. My “collegefootballfan.com” hat has been battered through the last five-six years and it’s time to be replaced. I have to update the “130” count any way. Also, my WFU buddy Bug had recently told me, referring to his Deacs, “Nobody hates us!” Probably because of all those lean years of Wake Forest football. This evening, I figured the WFU hat wouldn’t offend the denizens of Wallace Wade Stadium.
Go Duke Blue Devils, this evening
Funny thing, my cell battery was low, so I told Joe let’s just go right in. We toured around a little and headed into the stadium to check our seats. We entered our gate and kept going down and down to the tenth row – on the 50-yard-line! I fumbled around with my light jacket in case of rain and transferred camera, pencils, notepad and phone etc. between it and all my pockets for recording this adventure. As doing that at my new-found seat, I heard someone behind me at field level yell, “Steve!” Who the heck from Duke here knew me? There, walking behind the bench was Josh. At first, I didn’t recognize him. He had this big smile on his face and we exchanged waves. As you can see from the photos here, we had great seats! Unbelievable.
You never know who you’ll meet at these games. Like Josh, we’ve met so many other great people randomly at college games over the years. It’s what really makes this adventure going to all these games for so many years an incredible journey! It’s really been worth all the time, money and effort spent to do this. Enjoy these tales in my book, Fifty years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly! Warning: It’s mostly about the Good and the Fun.